Week 20- Leaders and Digestion

I can't believe I forgot to post on the blog last week! Oh no! I guess I was so excited about going to the concert that I never even thought about it. I had tons to do before heading to Atlanta last weekend.

Janna Korak, a former MES student, came to talk to the 5th graders about becoming a leader. We love when former students come back to talk to us and share the life lessons they have learned.

This week the Kindergarten students were preparing to share their leadership notebooks with their parents during student lead conference.

The 5th graders met them in the lunchroom and the K students practiced sharing their notebooks. 

It was great getting to watch them build relationships and also we had several siblings share notebooks. My 5th graders were so tickled to get to make connections with the younger students. 

We have been learning about the digestive system so this week we did a few hands on labs. One was called esophastraws. We used straws (esophagus) and seeds (food) to show how food moves through the esophagus. 

We also did an activity where we chewed crackers for one minute and wrote words that described the taste and feel of the cracker at 15 second increments. 

I also wanted to share the fact that most of the pictures on the blog this week were taken by the photography committee in my classroom. We have been having Wednesday Morning Meetings all year and my students made a wish box. They put ideas and suggestions in the box for us to review on Wednesday. When students make a suggestion I have them share their vision with the class and we create committees. We have our committee meetings on Thursday morning. 

One suggestion was the photography committee. They use the iPad minis to take pictures of things going on so I will have pictures to post on the blog. I'm so excited to see what all my committees develop. We have several committees- Random Acts of Kindness, Classroom Council, Activities, Science, Photography... I know I'm leaving some off the list but these are the ones I can think of right now. 

I'm so proud of the leadership skills my students have developed. If you plant the seed they will take your idea and do it 10 times better than you ever imagined. Each of them takes ownership of our classroom and we are always working to improve. 

STUDENTS: Share something your committee is working on. Make sure to tell us which committee you are a part of. Not on a committee? Share your favorite digestive system activity so far. Why was it your favorite?