Our gifted music teacher once again coached fifth grade students to a stellar performance during the fifth grade play. The music teacher spends the larger part of the music year teaching the students the singing and acting skills needed for this performance. She also carefully guides children in choosing play roles that interest them--there's a place for every child to shine in the play, and that's amazing when you consider that we have 76 fifth graders.
All the school students and staff filled the gym during the day to watch the play, and friends and family members filled the gym during the evening performance. It was great to hear the younger students' giggles as the fifth graders performed and it was similarly wonderful to see fifth grade students' friends and family members gleam with pride in the evening.
The play was a job well done!
Now we're heading into a couple of weeks that will heavily emphasize the multidisciplinary biography project that students are involved in. Students are writing fictional interviews with famous people throughout time as well as creating timelines, posters, and portraits. In the end they'll dress in character to portray 76 different global changemakers in a human timeline. It's a lot of work and in the end, a great history lesson for all that attend the event. Participants meander the timeline asking the students questions and viewing the students' project pieces.
When students arrive today, they'll be tired from giving the play 100% yesterday. We'll have a quiet morning of math, research, and writing. Then in the afternoon, they'll have more time to research, write, and read in the library then work on their posters and timelines in the computer lab. On Thursday we'll return to our rotations with a focus on Symphony Math and other math tech, more research and writing, and an end-year reading assessment. Friday will be more of the same. Next week we'll add more river study to the mix and a traditional field trip to Boston's historic sites. It's a mostly hands-on, experiential, "summer camp" stage of the school year--one that requires lots of energy, and one that is lots of fun too. Onward.
