Do You Know Your Rights?

As part of our 5th grade Social Studies curriculum we have to dig into the Bill of Rights and most of the amendments. I'm not sure about you, but as an adult I still have problems completely understanding all that the amendments in tell let alone explaining them on a 5th grade level...and have them comprehend them, remember them, and apply them to past and present events! It's A LOT!

So we spent a week or so going over them, discussing them, and trying to apply them. They were still struggling. So I made this booklet template for them to use. It gives each amendment in "kid" terms. They then must use the final page with examples, they must find the example that matches and glue it under the correct amendment. Finally they got to draw examples of the amendments. This seemed to help a little more. But according to our local county benchmarks my class is still struggling with them, not that I blame them...this is hard stuff!

My next plan of attack is to spend a week on each amendment. This is not going to be my primary lesson plan for the week but instead will be something we talk about every day for about five minutes, maybe give a little worksheet or quiz on each one each week. With luck we will have these suckers memorized, understood, and be able to apply them by the CRCT.

So here are a few pictures of the booklets my kids made. I tweaked a few things and the examples so make it a little more applicable. You can buy the entire booklet in my TpT or Teacher's Notebook store here!

We cut the pages out and made the booklet with construction paper. You could also cut the pages out and glue them into your notebooks to use them along with interactive notes!

Hospital, Transmisssion, Conferences, and Interactive Notes (Part1)

Well this past week and a half has been unbelievable to say the least.

It is so true that when it rains it pours!!! My hubby was out of town from Wednesday to Wednesday so things were already difficult. I had almost made it through the weekend when my mom calls to let me know that she was going to the hospital. WHAT!??!?  Turns out she had had some chest pain the night prior and hadn't felt well all day. Long story short heart conditions run in my family so she went to the hospital to make sure all was well. Fortunately it was, but after they decided to keep her overnight. Therefore I had to take care of my sister and get her situated and then take 1/2 a day on that Monday so I could take care of my mommy.

Then Wednesday as I was on my way to work...my car (well mini van...what we call the Boeing 747, it looks like one and sounds like one taking off) decided it was not going to work. I knew right away it was the transmission. UGH!!! I managed to drive it to the dealership where they confirmed my fear (seeing that the Boeing was worth almost the same price of what it is worth) I could not make a huge decision like that without my husband. Therefore I got a courtesy car (with the help of some co-workers) and headed to the airport to pick up my husband!

There were also a ton of little things that just piled up as well: the buyer on our house backed out after over 2 months under contract, my little girl decided while running on the drive way she would take a chunk of skin off her big toe, I bit into a yummy breaded mushroom only to have it's scorching juices burn my lip to the point of blistering...all of these events don't even MENTION school!!!!! That's a whole other post!

Well I think and hope we made it through the down pour. I now have a new to me SUV! WHOOHOOOO! Conferences are almost over, and I have a three day weekend coming up! YEA!

So a few of you had asked for more pictures of my interactive notes. I finally got around to taking pictures of my notebooks for you all. I won't post them all right now, but will try and post subject by subject. If you are anything like me you want to see other notes to get ideas. Hope you enjoy!

Be prepared for a TON of pictures :)