The Talent Show and Ronald McDonald House

The talent show was today!!
We raised over $100 for OM!!
It was fun to watch all the acts even though we ran late.  I am excited to see the results of the competition and find out who won.


We went and toured the Ronald McDonald House.  It was amazing to see how the house had an impact on so many lives.  I was surprised at how many major companies had played a part in making the RMcDH possible.

Action Progress

H.E.L.P.-
We have made some progress on our H.E.L.P.  Everybody in the class drew a picture to go on the t-shirts for the H.E.L.P. members.  I shows a picture of a fist with an "x" on it and says "no bullying" on top.  We also collected the essays people who wanted to be members of the help club wrote.  THe only ones came from Mrs. Clayton's class because she made them do it.  We are picking the best ones and interviewing each student.


Time Management/Sleep-
We finished our tips pages and selected only the ones that were acceptable.  We will create a book of them all soon.


Talent Show- 
The big day is tomorrow :) !!  We are working out all the kinks and details today.  Yesterday we made two big posters to hang up.  Today I worked on a list of the contestants.  We decided to make it like the Oscars/Grammies so we are dressing up fancy for tomorrow.  My time to shine will be announcing two contestants with Kelly.  I am excited.

Mrs. Gunter's Class

We have been to Mrs. Gunter's class two times now.  The first time we went to do our activities. I was with a girl named Jessica.  I think she has autism.  She really enjoyed painting the crabs.  I was surprised at how she seemed just like a normal preschooler.  The only difference was that she had autism symptoms such as not making eye contact and not talking a lot.


The second day we did more activities that they do everyday in there classroom.  I played with Jessica again and we did puzzles for most of the time.  There was one of an airplane that was really hard for her and probably would have even been a little challenging for me.  Then for the last few minutes we went over to the home/kitchen area.  I was surprised when Jessica was even saying the names of the food she was stirring up.  Then more people came to play with Jessica so I saw another girl named Victoria playing alone.  She and I played kitchen for a while then watched books on the internet together.  It feels really good to know that we are helping these kids.       

Exhibition Reflection

Our Exhibition is coming along.  We have completed most of our actions.  We went to the challenger league games and supported the players.  I think the team members really enjoyed the support we gave them.  We also talked to Mrs.Gunter and her class.  We will go to her room on Wednesday and do activities with the class about ocean animals. 


We also held our talent show auditions.  We found out who the top 15 were and announced them over the intercom this afternoon!  I hope this will raise money for OM.  We still need $5, 000. 


We are really at a press for time and I am getting worried that we will not finish it all, but but I bet we will.


Completing our actions is the funnest part of exhibition so far.  It feels good to help other people through what you believe in.  

River Oaks Exhibition

Today we watched the video that River Oaks made for their exhibition.  We saw that they had two groups doing cancer.  We had the idea that we could collaborate with River Oaks so we could get more donations.  I wonder why the schools have never collaborated before.  There two cancer projects were on brain tumors and lung cancer.  From this video we also learned about a website called Zooburst where you create online popup books.  I learned a lot about how exhibition looks as a final product as well.  I am glad we watched the video.  

Passionate People

The topic that I am most passionate about was the Ronald McDonald house.  Other people in our class were passionate about it too.  These people were Miyanna, Sophie, Kat, and Kelly.  I think it is interesting that all the people passionate about this subject were girls.   It will be fun to work with them to help out the Ronald McDonald House.  

Mentor Meeting

Today we met with our mentors.  We split into groups based on what we were passionate about.  In my group it was my job to tell the mentors when the dates were, but Tommy mostly remembered that.  I just chimed in on everyone’s topics.  I think the meeting went well.  They seemed to like the idea that we were doing exhibition as a class instead of as groups.  They thought it was a great idea.

My Passions Reflection

The topic we are doing that I am most passionate about is the Ronald McDonald House.  Ronald McDonald house is a home for families of patients at MD Anderson.  For this topic we are helping set up and clean up for a dinner there hosted by South West Airlines.  I am most passionate about this topic because I think it is important to help others who are going through a hard time in their life and need support.  I think this fits into the descriptor about what it means to be human because one of the recurring topics we heard about when we read our current events was helping others.


I am also passionate about the OM project.  I do OM and I like it a lot.  OM is all about creative problem solving and having fun.  For this topic we are doing a talent show.  I want to help with the advertising for this event.  I decided to help with the posters and fliers because I think that I am very creative.  This talent/skill will help me because I can think of lots of ideas and execute them well.  I also want to help with advertising because I am always proud when I see my work hanging in the halls.  I hope my work will inform people about the talent show so they are encouraged to come.  I think this task has to do with the descriptor an inquiry into the nature of the self  because I think I am creative.  

Progress Reflection

Today in exhibition we worked for a long time and made a great deal of progress.  We decided that our topic would be helping others and that we would do many small projects instead of one big project.  We figured out a way that we could do a project for bullying and raising money for OM.  For OM we are going to have a talent show where we will have judges and students can show their skills.  I think I will be a judge.  I decided not to audition because I don't think there is one skill that I focus on.  I like to try a little bit of every skill.  Since I have tried a number of skills I will know a little bit about many of the acts we will see.  For bullying we are going to start a bully patrol.  Each table group discussed different aspects of the bully patrol.  My table got the idea to do a help box where there would be forms that you could fill out if you were bullied and we would give advice.  I think this is a good idea because some people are too scared to tell someone, but writing it down is easier. 

What Are Your Passions

For HW we had to think of the topics/issues that really interest you.  Mine were raising money for OM, bully's and how to stop them, and being yourself even if it isn't "cool."  Then we made a list of all of the topics and circled ones that we as fifth graders think we can tackle.  Then we realized we only had two weeks to finish this and narrowed it down more by talking in table groups.  Our table mainly talked about ADD and informing people that it is not necessarily a bad thing, and raising money for OM along with how it connects to having fun and promoting creative thinking. Next we made a list of all of our topics/issues which were: bullying, being fit, time management, sleep, ADD, Ronald McDonald House, OM, and disabled kids.  We decided that instead of narrowing it down to one we could do all of them for about two days each.  We have started to make a plan and schedule. 

The Sixth Descriptor

- what it means to be human


For this descriptor everybody picked a current event.  Mine was about hearing loss.  I picked it because I thought it was our human nature to want to stay safe and healthy.  The next day everyone presented what they chose and why.  We wrote a reflection here is mine:
Katherine's thoughts on the Meals on Wheels article was that people care about other learners.  I think that our class gravitated to stories about people helping others that are less fortunate.

The Fifth Descriptor

- rights and responsibilities


For this descriptor we made a t-chart.  Then we put our top two choices from each category on a sticky pad.  I chose the right to express yourself and the right to have fun as well as the responsibility of following the rules and laws and serving the community.  I feel that these are important rights and responsibilities.

The Fourth Descriptor

- human relations including friends, family, communities, and cultures


For this descriptor we kind of split the descriptor in half and did two activities.  First we did our artifact bags for culture where we found 5-7 thing from our culture and brought them in a decorated bag.  For friends, family, and community we created a product.  I did a glog (see right).  I defined what each was to me and added pictures as examples.

The Third Descriptor

-personal, physical, mental, spiritual, and social health


We split up into groups and did a web for each health.  My group was social health.  We came up with what we thought it was and then found some issues to go along with it.  I thought that social heath was having cooperative relationships with others.  I also thought that you could have social health by finding connections with other people and using those connections to create friendships.  One issue my group thought of was bullying.

The Second Descriptor

- Beliefs and Values
We started off by defining what a value is.  I think this was one of Mrs.Hicks many good ideas because I think knowing the definition made it much easier to find my true values.


Then we worked as a group to define each value on a list we got.  I really understood what values truly meant, this activity prepared us for the hard part.


For HW we had to pick our top five values and write an essay on why you picked them.  I chose reliability, confidence, dedication, integrity, and prudence.  I chose reliability because you need to be able to trust people and the people you truly trust are your real friends.  I picked confidence because you need to believe in yourself if you want to succeed in life.  You also need to have hope.  I chose dedication because you should always try your hardest and never give up.  You should be confident that you will finish things and work hard to get there.  I picked integrity because you need to confess and be honest.  If you show integrity you are also reliable, trustworthy, and dedicated.  I chose prudence because you should think if you will hurt someones feelings with your actions before you actually act.  If you are prudent you will make good choices.


The next day we discovered what the top values of the class were each table got one value and had to write why the class picked it as one of their top values.  My group got hope.  This was a hard one so Reagan and I tried to find what people hoped for.  Then we video taped our thoughts.  Looking back I think that I have pretty good presentation skills although some people are better than me.  At least I wasn't at the bottom.

The First Descriptor-Songs

For HW we had to find a song that we thought had to do with the first descriptor.  My song was Sweet Caroline by Neal Diamond.  Now that I look back I don't think that was the best choice for a song because it is more about relationships than the nature of the self.  I think that I was thinking on a more personal level because it gas my name in it.

The First Descriptor

-an inquiry into the nature of the self

·        Don’t follow popular people- Me

I said this because you shouldn’t lie about who you are just to get friends.  You will get even more friends if you just be yourself.

·        Be true to you- Me
I said this because you shouldn't lie to yourself either.  If your friends are all about pink, but you don't like pink then you can still be friends, but don't force yourself to like it because you think it will make them like you better.

What I Think Exhibition Is

I think exhibition is a 5th grade planner to teach kids to find their beliefs and values.  I feel a little overwhelmed because exhibition is a big project.  I wonder if we will do it as a class, individual, or a small group.  I hope we do it as a class project so we can work together.  Working together will build a strong relation between our classmates so that when we go off to middle school we will have someone that we know.  I think it will be hard to find what I believe in because of peer pressure.  There is so many choices it will be hard to decide.

Reflecting on Dissecting the Theme

          For the descriptor: an inquiry into the nature of the self, I learned how we really build of each other.  We were discussing what the nature of the self meant to us and at the beginning not many hands were up, but towards the end of the discussion everybody had ideas.  Since I learned this I think it would be good for us to do exhibition as a whole class.

          When we were presenting the top values of the class and one group came up with a song I realized that our class really liked singing.  We had come up with songs about the first descriptor, but I just thought it was more fun and didn’t really think about it.  Because I realized this, I think our class’ exhibition project will be something more about people than animals or a problem, like saving electricity.

          For the descriptor about different types of heath I was in a group doing social heath.  I think it was good that instead of just writing down what we thought we talked about what we were writing down.  We came up with some good problems that could be more exhibition topics.  I also learned that one of my top beliefs is that you should express your thoughts and opinions because it will be better for everybody if you do.

          The descriptor about relationships we made a product about friends, family, and communities.  We haven’t presented them yet(if we are), but we did artifact bags for culture.  From the artifact bags I learned about not so much what cultures people had, but explored/learned more about those cultures than I ever have before.  I don’t think the artifact bags will affect our exhibition topic as much as the friends, family, and community projects.

          Rights and responsibilities is a descriptor.  We made a T-Chart for this descriptor.  I learned that a lot of rights that I came up with were in the Constitution, but some of them were not.  There were ones like having fun, expressing yourself, and wearing what you want.  These rights have a lot to do with what I want to be able to do, what I can do, and what I like doing.  By doing this activity I learned that the answer isn’t always in fine print you need to dig deep and come up with more creative things.

           For what it means to be human we all had to find a current event and write why we thought it went with this descriptor.  I learned that I often do way more than expected of me and are over eager.  I need to do the requirements and no more than that.  I learned this because I started out by writing a whole page of summary then I deleted a lot of it so it was only a few sentences.  I would have saved a lot of time by just doing a few sentences to start with and not having to delete it all. 

          I have learned a lot about what exhibition is by dissecting the theme and had fun along the way.  At the start of exhibition I thought our topic could be about saving electricity, but now I realized that exhibition is not all about saving things and that is not where our class is headed and I am fine with that.  I know think we will do something about expressing your true self and being yourself.