Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Letting Them Choose

'Tis the end of the school year is upon us in 5th grade. I'm not usually a countdowner (unless we are referring to the wedding.. in THAT case, we have 44 days!) but I can sense the end is near....

We just wrapped our How Does Exericse Affect Learning PBL project (details to come!) and I wanted to hold onto that student engagement and choice-driven environment that had flourished during the week of our PBL project. 

A fellow 5th grade teacher and I collaborated and created a (in my opinion) totally awesome choice menu for the rest of the year. The menu items feature some writing, some reading, some social studies, fluency, poetry, and even opportunities to be creative.

Monkeyin' Around Visual Aid
As a requirement for class, students must complete seven out of the nine choices. Some of the choices require students to publish through their blog or in their writer's notebook. I have a checklist to manage as students complete various tasks. Students who go above and beyond and complete all nine will be rewarded with ice cream sundaes. 
 
I mean, c'mon? Who doesn't love an ice cream sundae?

Here are a few of the options:

A few more choices available to students:

Another one of the options involves making a visual aid to represent their favorite book from this year. I had a young man do this project at home the night I introduced the choice menu! 

Fine by me!

How is the rest of your year shaping up? Share with me your "end of the year" activities!

You can access an editable version of the choice menu through Google Docs ------------> HERE.

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