Andrew Jackson's Face...

...is soon to be leaving our 20 dollar bills ... this was cause for cheers and celebration in my classroom earlier this school year. Prior to the announcement that Harriet Tubman, a minority AND a woman - GO AMERICA! was going to be replacing Old Hickory, we had studied the Trail of Tears.

As you know, the Trail of Tears marks one of the most controversial actions during Andrew Jackson's presidency - and an unfortunate study during any Native American Cultural unit. 

Blending both reading and social studies, I do a sequence activity summarizing the dreaded Western march of the Cherokee Indians. 

Together, we do a close reading of an article on the Trail of Tears, sharing our thinking in the margins and circling key sequencing words In the beginning, next, finally. 

Using this information, we number the the travel sequences (6) and students work in pairs to summarize each event on a slip of square paper. Students than recreate the journey on a map and place the sequenced events on it, in the order that they occurred. 

Students gain a lot of insight during this activity and come away from the experience with a lot of knowledge and empathy for the Cherokee people. 

Jimmy Cracked Corn

During our Early Settlements unit, the kids found all the different jobs that children had to do fascinating. Early on, students comments center around the children being over worked ..."treated like slaves, being worked too hard by their parents, the Cinderella story," etc ... However, as we dive deeper in to our study, I am always happy to discover the change in my student's understanding what up, Synthesizing!! :P

One important lesson that really helps drive this understanding home is a reading inference lesson on Sarah Morten's Day. I am sure many of your are familiar with this book, being a teacher favorite around Thanksgiving. 

I start the lesson by reading the story as a good old fashioned read aloud. By this time, students have a pretty good understanding of Jamestown and Plymouth so they can make some good connections to the text. 

I then work through the inference sheet I have created modeling my thinking with the first text inference, the second two they complete by sharing their thinking with their partner and than writing down, the last two should be accomplished individually, however, you may need to model more if this is a new skill. 

At the end, students have an opportunity to share their reflection on what life was like for children during early settlements. After diving deeper into the text's meaning, students can form a more accurate assessment of childhood. 

Student Observations: 

• They probably had to work harder because if they didn't their family might struggle for food during the winter. 
• Everyone had to help out to help the family survive - pull their own weight.
• They were very respectful of adults and their parents.
• They enjoyed games like we do.
• Parents had to be strict because life was harder and they were focused on survival.
• Parents loved their children and children loved their parents, just like today.

As a fun sponge activity, we also practiced grinding corn. I had the students fill out a planning sheet before our activity which can be found at my TPT store. They REALLY enjoyed this activity. 

Materials Needed: 

Planning/Reflection sheet for each group

24 medium sized rocks 

One 10lb bag of squirrel corn (whole cob) 

Container to carry corn and corn meal 

Students had a great time pounding corn - many of them were surprised at how long it took to get down to corn meal. They also discovered many different methods that helped the process, such as grinding the kernels with the rock instead of slamming the rock down, keeping the kernels together to crush instead of spreading them out, etc. 

Overall, I think this activity, along with the inference lesson, really helped the kids recognized the importance of children's work in early settlements and the manual labor it took. 

Aztec vs. Spanish Points of View

In reading, we have been focusing heavily on Point of View (first person, second person, third person-objective, limited, omniscient). I am always trying to integrate social studies into every subject and this particular standard blends perfectly! 

ELA: RL. 5.6 Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

Social Studies (MI): 5: 4.1 Describes the convergence of Europeans and American Indians in the Americas after 1492 from the perspective of each group. 

After learning about the reading skill through our reading program, we read two different accounts on the early interactions of Cortez and the Aztec empire. Using the pronouns, students identified whether the accounts were first, second, third (objective, limited, omniscient). 

If you are interested in trying this activity out with your kiddos, pick it up FOR FREE HERE!

We than did a CLOSE reading on an article that shared the misconceptions and cultural differences between the two groups. Students shared their thinking notes that they had jotted down with their table groups. 

Next, they worked on creating three different points of view from either an Aztec or a Spaniard. I required them to write a minimum of two sentences per point of view. Since fifth grade really only needs to know first and third person, I added a bonus where they could practice second person and third person limited - some did! 

Finally, they added their sentences to our class chart depending on who's POV they chose. 

 First Person POV - Spaniards

 Third Person limited POV - Spaniard

 Third Person Omniscient POV - Aztec and Spaniard perspective

In the end, it was really good for them to actually write in the different points of view and it really helped them be able to articulate "How a narrators point of view change how events are described." If you are interested in trying this activity out with your kiddos, pick it up FOR FREE HERE!

Sequence and the Slave Trade

In reading, our text structure focus skill has been sequencing, so I blended this with our study of the African Slave Trade. I introduced the lesson by presenting the students with 5 picture cards illustrating events pertaining to the slave trade available HERE on my TPT. I asked them to place these events, starting in West Africa, in the order they thought each happened.

 After that, I gave each pair three, more challenging, pictures to put in their line up. This activity is available HERE on my TPT. 

 We than discussed that what we just did was called "Sequencing" and that when we read text, authors give us clue words to help us see the sequence of events. These we posted on our chart. Then we CLOSE read our texts looking for these key words and close reading to find out the different stages of the Slave Trade. You can find the text I used HERE. Note: I did not use the whole chapter, just sections 8.3, 8.5, and 8.7 to sequence the three major stages. After identifying the stages, we then underlined the key ideas for each stage making sure we get the main idea out along with important key details. We then took notes utilizing the I DO, WE DO, YOU DO** instructional format on our sequence thinking maps about the main idea of each stage. 
**I DO, YOU DO, WE DO method: I model how to take notes and summarize the first stage, they take notes and summarize the second stage with a partner, and finally they take notes and summarize the third stage independently. 

 

Using our notes, I wrote a summary of the first stage (getting captured and traveling to the coast) as a model, then they wrote a paragraph summary of the second stage (traveling across the Atlantic in the "Middle Passage") with their partner, and finally, they wrote the last paragraph summary of the third stage (being sold to colonial plantation owners) on their own. Students took some time to illustrate each stage as well. 

The kids did a great job of being respectful and thoughtful of this very sensitive subject and their learning showed through on their summaries. How do you teach this subject? Do you have any unique ways of helping students understand the Slave Trade, I would love to hear them! 

Akwaaba se West Africa!

(Twi Language) 

Welcome to WEST AFRICA! 

Recently, we traveled back to the continent of Africa to experience what life was like in 15th century West Africa. Like many of the Native American Tribes, Africa was a mixture of many different cultures and civilizations, some massive and incredibly powerful (like the Inca and Aztec) and many smaller villages and tribes. 

To discover this, we close read our text looking for the text feature of description. 

After identifying what life was like, we took notes inside our African outline and then participated in some traditional crafts that celebrate West African culture. We also listened to traditional music and played some fun games including Mancala and Queah. 

West African Necklaces 

Do any of you do anything unique to help students understand life in 15th century West Africa? 

Columbian Exchange

After our unit on Early Explorers, I introduce the Columbian Exchange with a short film addressing the different causes and effects of it. We discuss which thinking map we would utilize for taking notes on Cause and Effect and then I set a purpose for them and have them take notes of causes and effects during the film.                                                                              We also identified KEY words for cause and effect that can help us identify them in texts. Using two different crayons, we underlined the causes and the effects of the Columbian Exchange in a short non-fiction passage.  

LOOK at the text FOCUS going on here! *Teacher Heart Happy*

We then read the text features closely, with the purpose of identifying which products were traded where, either on purpose or accidently. Students worked with a partner to create a T-chart of old and new world products. 
Using our notes, we map these products and their routes on large world maps. 

Working with their partner, each student writes a short paragraph about either the effects the exchange had on the old or new world and add them to their maps. 

Later during the week, we act out my Columbian Exchange simulation which you can check out HERE.