1st Spanish Unit

The first unit in Spanish Class (World Language) was Customs and Traditions. For this unit, we had 3 main activities. The first activity was making a poster about a tradition or custom in our family. I chose to write about the traditions and customs of my birthday. Here were the steps to making this poster

1.  We wrote in our notebooks (not complete sentences) about things I do on my birthday, when my birthday is, who celebrates my birthday with me, etc. Taking Notes 
2. Then, we typed up our notes on a google document, this time putting our notes into full sentences with the help of our Spanish teacher.  Completing Sentences  
3. Next, we shared our document to our Spanish teacher and she edited our work. When she was finished, we fixed our errors. Teacher Editing  
4. Then, once we fixed our errors, we shared our second draft to our Spanish teacher again, getting feedback on our work, and if necessary, our teacher edited again.  Feedback from Teacher/ Edit 
5. Then, we were assigned partners and we shared our final draft to them, and they did the final editing, while we edited theirs.  Student Edit
6. On the final day, we added images to make our poster lively, entertaining and creative. When we finished, we printed our posters.  Adding Images/ Printing
7. Then, for homework, we practiced our poster by memorizing our poster the best we could for presentation day. Memorizing Poster
8.  Then, after a few days of practice at home, we presented our poster to the class without looking at the poster! Presenting to the Class 
9. After the presentation, we were graded on a rubric and for homework we had to get it signed. Graded and Signed  

  I really enjoyed this unit and to be honest, I was kind of nervous before my presentation (step 8). 

2nd Unit of Inquiry Reflection: Conflicts and Resolutions

  The second unit of the year for the 5th graders was Conflict and Resolutions. It ties in with our Sharing the Planet theme as we also did Governance and Citizenship. I really enjoyed this unit, because we had a lot of Independence AND Cooperation.

    In this unit, we learned about the importance of resolving conflicts in a manner of communication, not war. We also learned that there can be different ways of resolving conflict and not just one way. Some of the activities for this unit was;

• Reading Butter Battle Book by: Dr. Suess  and discussing about different reasons people have conflict
• We watched a video that I suggested called I Just Sued the School System  and talked about different ways that conflict can be started and ended.
• We read a book called Sorry by: Trudy Ludwig  and talked with each other about different perspectives in conflicts and who thinks what.

   Another part of this unit was learning about peace and what it can mean and how we can show, tell and explain peace. It was a fun unit, but it was kind of short. Some of the activities in this part of the unit:

• Brainstormed in our UOI notebooks about when we hear the word peace, what does it remind you of or where can peace be found.
• We printed out pages of a book called Peace and each of the students illustrated the book by drawing pictures and then we presented our story in order to the class so we could put our pages on a bulletin board.

 I think that some of the attitudes and attributes in this part of the unit, and the beginning of the unit are: Inquirer, Independence, Cooperation, Curiosity, Communicator and Reflective. In all:                           I loved this unit!!