Everything you need to know about teaching 5th grade categorized and organized by topic for easy reference.
Project Based Learning (PBL) is becoming an increasingly popular teaching method in the classroom these days - and for good reason! Not only are there many benefits of project based learning, but it can also create an engaging learning environment.
{Download FREEBIE pack here.} Economics is my absolute FAVORITE social studies unit to teach. There are so many hands-on activities to do with students and they are so eager to earn and spend money! One of my favorite activities is to end with our "Madden's Marketplace." This is a chance for students to put into action all of the things they have learned about being producers and consumers. To begin with, I send home a letter asking students to create paper goods. Why paper? It's something all of my students have at home (or I can easily give them). I want my marketplace to be fair for all students. I'm sure I could let them have the freedom to create any product, using any materials and I would get some amazing masterpieces. I would also get some elaborate (and expensive) items. That's not what I want. I encourage parents to spend NO money on this and for it to be STUDENT CREATED. I really want them to take the initiative. Here are some samples of paper products my students created to sell this year - everything from rockets to bookmarks to lanterns to hats. I incorporate the making of goods into my students' homework schedule, encouraging them to create two products per night. Before the due date, we work on creating "shops" in class. We create our "shop" by gluing two file folders together. The picture below is using legal-sized file folders, but that just happens to be what we had available. Shop Parts: Signs: Initially, we create the signs for our shops, color the awnings to make them eye-catching. Open/Closed: Next, we create open/closed signs that sit atop our shop so we can easily flip the sign to show the status of our shops. Slogan: We then come up with a catchy slogan. We talk about slogan's we know from commercials. Why did those stick in our heads? We learn to use a play on words, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc. to make our slogans catchy so consumers will remember them. Product Description: Students each write a product description detailing WHAT their product is and HOW it works or can be used. We talk about the importance of letting consumers know exactly what they are getting. Commercial Script: Finally, students write commercials to "sell" their products to their classmates. We use hooks to get their attention, repetitions of our catchy slogans, and persuasion. Other Components: We also glue on the Consumer Comments, Price, and Interest Inventories, but we leave all of those blank initially. On the day of the marketplace, students set up their shops and lay their products out on display. Then, they have a chance to walk around the classroom and "window shop." They are encouraged to take a good look at all of their options, reading the product descriptions and examining the merchandise. After students have had a good look at all of their choices, I give them stickers (I would recommend 3-4). They walk around and place their stickers on the "Interest Inventory" of the products that interest them the most. The results of the interest inventory are used by the shop owners to determine if they have a high demand or low demand for their products. Knowing the demand helps them determine a price for their product. High demand = higher price. Low demand = lower price. The only rule is that all prices have to be in whole dollars. Once prices are set, then students are ready to go shopping! There are many different ways to let students shop. Some years, if I've done economy-based management system, my students will use "money" they've earned to shop. This year, I just gave them all $12 to shop with. I'm always torn about letting my students split into groups to run their shops (half shop while half work) - it always seems that students don't get to shop at all of the stores in that scenario. To solve that problem, I let all of my students shop at the same time. To do this students create "tokens" to leave at their shop. They create the same number as products they have to sell. For example, if Katie has 10 kites to sell, she creates and leaves 10 tokens with her name or shop name on them. Once each shop has tokens, students are ready to shop. Since there are no workers at the shops to collect money, I give my students "consumer spending logs" with pictures of dollars on them. Since I gave my students 12 dollars to spend, their consumer spending logs had 12 one dollar pictures. As students go around to the shops, they color in the dollars they've spent and pick up tokens (NOT products) that they will trade in for their purchases once the shops close. Once all of the tokens are gone, that shop is "closed." Once a student has colored in all of the dollars on his/her spending log, they are done shopping. It really works out quite well. Once students have traded all of their tokens in for their goods, they are given paper for providing feedback to the shops. They slip these into the "consumer comments" pockets on the storefronts. They love reading the feedback from their customers! <3 After wrapping up our shops, students are often left with some extra products. Instead of having them take their own products back home, I let them put another economics concept into practice - BARTERING! They have a blast working out "fair swaps" for their products and really working to get the other things they may have wanted but didn't have the money to purchase...and of course, they do all of this while proudly wearing some of their favorite purchases. :) All in all, it is a fun day of learning. Students take their roles as both producers and consumers seriously and come away with a real sense of accomplishment! If you would like to download this packet of FREE resources to hold your own Economics shop, you can do so HERE. Enjoy!
Find out how to use these free grammar posters in your classroom. From parts of speech, to comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs!
It´s my 5th logic task. The ss have to know 5 tenses: present simple, present continuous, present perfect, past simple and future simple. It´s good to have some fun before or in the Summer Holiday. Hope you like it. Hugs, Zsuzsapszi. If you don’t know how to solve this kind of game, you can look at the Einstein riddle on the net or have a look at my 33rd logic game, called Best friends where I wrote down the solution step by step. - ESL worksheets
Life would be better if I could actually spend the money I print for my classroom. Click HERE to view my classroom economy set. Welcome to Classroom Economy 101: Your classroom economy may not run exactly as mine does, but that's okay. Take the parts you like and what will work best for your students. I am going to answer a couple of questions I received about the way classroom economy runs in my class. First and foremost ... BE ORGANIZED. I have a binder with all of my classroom economy materials. At the beginning of the year, before school even starts, I have everything copied and ready to go. Visualize how you want this to look in your classroom. How do you run your classroom economy? The beginning. At the beginning of the year students apply for the job of their choosing. They are given an application that requires them to select their top three jobs and why they would be a good fit. Once hired, students are given a folder with all the necessary materials needed to complete their job. The fun beings. Make sure ALL students are trained and know exactly what their job is asking of them. A few expenses. Keep ALL the money is not something your students should be saying. Students will need to spend $500 monthly on rent for their desk. This is paid to the banker. Students also may get into trouble with the police officer and fined for not completing homework, misbehaving, etc. (this is not something I let the police officer control. I let the police officers know when someone needs a fine ticket written.) I have money left over, let's go to Target. You want to teach your students about being responsible with money. Once students have paid their rent, the rest is theirs to keep. I hold monthly auctions for students to spend their money. Auction. DO NOT buy things to auction off in your classroom. Ask parent volunteers to bring in small dollar items. You can also auction classroom coupons (sit in teacher's desk, lunch with teacher, etc) Here is where most of my students go wrong. The first auction they GO crazy, and I let them. They end up spending ALL of their money and when it comes time for next month's rent, they can't afford it. What a great life lesson! If a student cannot afford rent, he/she does not participate in the auction the upcoming month. He/she also has a negative checking balance. Savers. I admire these kids. Maybe one day I will be able to save my money instead of spending it all at Target. So Sally has decided to not participate in ONE auction and she has tons of money saved up. At the end of the year, I award the kids who have saved money with certificates and food (normally a sonic drink because it's super close to school and what kid doesn't feel cool walking around with a ROUTE 44 cherry limeade.) However, you can choose to celebrate these kids with whatever your heart desires. You may want to throw a "Saver's party." Day to Day. Every day students complete their job. Once a month, we take about 30 to 45 minutes to get everyone paid and rent paid. This is a BIG day for your bankers. You may want to do the first couple of months together, one step at a time. If a student needs to withdraw or deposit money into their bank, this can only be done after they complete morning work or at the end of the day. Model how to fill in the bank log, the rent log, deposit/withdrawal forms, etc. Have a central location in your room where these items are located, so students know where to get extra forms. How often are kids paid? Once a month. The banker writes the paycheck and pays each kid in their group. Do you give extra money to kids? YES, I'm like Oprah. Just kidding, kind of. Whenever I see a student going above and beyond, BAM - here's $100. It's like the classroom management gold mine. Students also can earn extra money by making good grades. Do you have jobs for all your students? Yes, everyone needs a chance to earn money. If they are not completing their job we may need to have a conference and discuss what is happening, and possibly change jobs. What do your students spend money on? Auction items - read above. I also have super sweet kids. If they see someone struggling in the classroom, they give other kids money to help them out. This is also a teaching point. They need to learn in life that when they loan money they may not always get it back. Most of the time they aren't wanting it back, but just in case. How many copies of each type of money would you suggest printing? You can always make more copies. You are going to need to keep your banker full of money. The banker needs enough money to pay 4 to 5 kids each month. I also keep a classroom bank opened with extra money. I realize this may not answer ALL your questions. If you have a specific question, ask below in the comments! :)
About six years ago (has it really been that long?!) when I was starting my first year of teaching, I was so anxious trying to figure out beginning of the year activities, classroom management, and learning a new curriculum. A friend of mine introduced me to the idea of having a classroom economy system and I'm so glad I took her advice. Since then, my classroom economy system has evolved. A classroom economy system is where students are "paid" for performing regular classroom jobs (door holder, paper passer, etc.). Students keep track of their money by using a checkbook and they withdraw money from our classroom bank. Money can also be spent at our monthly classroom store. I really feel that having an economy system promotes a sense of community, teaches kids to be more responsible, and they learn money management along with many other important life skills. In this post, I am going to share with you how I run classroom jobs, bank, and store with my students. I will also be sharing with you some printables that I use, which you will be able to download for free. Setting up Jobs the First Week of School Before jumping right into my class jobs and economy system, I begin by introducing the jobs to my students over the first couple weeks of school. Each day I select students to volunteer to complete the jobs. This allows the students to practice performing the jobs, which allows all of my jobs to run seamlessly throughout the remainder of the year. After about 2-3 weeks (by this time the kids are really pumped up and are asking me daily, "When will we get to apply for jobs?"), the class helps determine how much each job is worth. By now, they know how each job operates, so they are able to come up with a weekly payment for the jobs. Each job is paid differently depending on the level of difficulty. The kids take a vote to determine how much each job should be paid. I love having the kiddos help make the decision about how much each job is worth. This is just another way to help them feel like they are part of a community. Below is a picture of the payroll I use to keep track of how much I will be paying each person for their job. I left the payment part blank so that you can determine how much you want to pay your students. The Application Process Once we have determined the payment for each job, it's time to apply! I walk the students through the application process the first time so they understand my expectations. My students keep their jobs for about one month. About a week before I change jobs, I announce that I am accepting applications. The students know that they can fill out an application in class as a "May Do" activity if their class work is completed. They are also welcome to take the application home or complete it at recess. Job Board I don't have a whole lot of wall space in my classroom, but I wanted a way to display the students' jobs. Since I love polka dots, I created a bulletin board called, "The Job Spot." I cut the circles and made a little pocket to slide each students' picture. How are students paid? When students are hired for a job, they can expect to receive a paycheck from me each once a week. In addition to earning money for their job, students may also receive money for other reasons such as a prize for a class game, a reward for a clean desk, or as an incentive for having positive behavior. I rarely, however, reward students with money for having good behavior. I want my students to know that it is expected of them to follow the rules, so I only give money as a very special treat. The students simply add whatever amount of money they've earned in their checkbook. If they've received money for something other than a class job, I will tell them how much to put into their checkbook. For example, if a student had an exceptionally clean desk after a random desk check, then I will tell that student to add $5.00 to their checkbook. The student will write the date, how much he/she earned, the reason they earned the money, and they will calculate their total. In the beginning of the school year, I show my students several times how to use the checkbook and calculate the total. If you have older students, however, you will probably only have to show them one or two times before they have it down. Losing Money In addition to earning money, students can also lose money for various reasons. Here are some things that they may have to pay for: Traffic Violation (running or talking loudly in the line): $15 Bathroom (within 30 minutes after a recess): $5 Janitorial Fees (messy desk area): $15 Overdue library book (from the school library): $10 Extra copy of a paper or assignment: $10 New whiteboard Marker: $5 Desk Rent: $10 per month The students deduct the money they have spent from the total in their checkbook. Students also receive dollar bills (play money) from the bank, so sometimes they just hand me the cash for the above fees. The Bank Each Friday the students get to visit the bank if they have competed all of their homework for the week. The students withdraw money from their checkbooks and receive cash from the banker. The banker makes note in the checkbook showing how much money was withdrawn. He/she also stamps the word PAID to show that the student has taken money out of the bank. The cash that I use for the bank is photocopied $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills that I found in a math resource book. The students keep their cash in this wallet. They can use their cash to buy items at the monthly classroom store. I purchased these "wallets" at the Dollar Store. The Classroom Store About once a month, the class can use their money to purchase items at my store. At the beginning of the school year, I ask the parents to donate small toys and school supplies for the store. I also find a ton of fun things at the Dollar Store and Target's Dollar Spot. Homework passes also make popular store items. I unfortunately could not find a picture of my store in action, however, I put my store items in containers with different price tags on the front instead of individually pricing each item. That way the kids know that all the items in the $10 basket are ten dollars, for instance. Other Fun Things Sometimes as a special treat, I surprise my kiddos with a gift certificate to the class store. Gift certificates also make excellent class gift ideas when you're on a budget! And of course, at the end of the month, it's always fun to recognize a hard working student with the honor of receiving "Employee of the Month!" The Employee of the Month always receives a bonus paycheck! I stick their picture in the middle frame and hang it up next to our job bulletin board. Download for Free You can download my classroom economy starter kit for free by clicking here. It includes many of the printables you read about in this post along with some others. I would be more than happy to make changes for you to fit your needs. Just email me or leave a comment below! The graphics used for this starter kit are from Ginger Snaps and Fancy Dog Studio. The fonts came from Kevin & Amanda.
Integrating language arts skills into social studies can be tricky. There is already a lot of subject matter to cover without having to teach reading and writing skills as well! If a social studies teacher did not receive much language arts training within his or her certification program, integrating these skills can be even more […]
It's a demonstration notebook type of day in guided reading today. Pics of pages posted to Ss @Seesaw pages to reference in read to self.
Yesterday I posted about how my team makes departmentalizing work in 3rd grade. Today, I'm back with 10 tips that help everything run smoothly. Let's get to it! Tip 1: Label Everything! Printing student names on address labels ahead of time has been my saving grace these past few years. I print an entire sheet
An educational blog
If you've been wondering how you should teach economics to your 5th graders and/or 6th graders, you are in the right place. When I was a student myself, instruction on economic principles was quite limited.
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Everything you need to know about teaching 5th grade categorized and organized by topic for easy reference.
My favorite part about getting ready for back to school is getting all of the bulletin boards set up around my classroom. Here are some of my favorite ideas.
This entire blog is full of my 5th grade teacher advice. I thought you might want to hear from some of the amazing veteran teachers who were eager to share their wisdom with new 5th
Project Based Learning (PBL) is becoming an increasingly popular teaching method in the classroom these days - and for good reason! Not only are there many benefits of project based learning, but it can also create an engaging learning environment.
Everything you need to thrive in grade five!
