Art Room Adventures Fifth Grade Shout Out

Step into our art room where creativity flourishes, and 80s music reigns supreme—at least when our fifth graders are around. You'll hear firsthand how respect and trust transform a classroom into a place where children are seen and heard, and their artistic talents are nurtured and celebrated. Plus, we can't help but marvel at their maturity and insightful inquiries during a visit from a middle school representative, a glimpse into their readiness for the challenges ahead. Join us for a heartfelt celebration of the potential that buzzes within the walls of a fifth-grade classroom—a space where every day promises new surprises and achievements.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Good morning gender adventurers. In this episode I'm going to be doing a shout out to my school's fifth graders. Now I'm going to tell you a lot of teachers struggle with fifth graders because it's that last year of elementary school and they do tend to get an attitude. They know that they are the oldest kids in the school, the biggest kids in the school, and they tend to think that they can push at times to get their way. But really they are absolutely fantastic. If you work with them, you give them set rules and a set routine and you honor the fact that they are soon to be teenagers and you allow them to have power of choice and you really listen to their ideas and their input, fifth graders will absolutely respect you. They are amazing to work with.

Speaker 1: 1:15

I have fifth grade first thing in the morning. That is the best time, in my opinion, to work with fifth grade. I adore having them first thing in the morning. They're still waking up, which is delightful. Um, they don't get the energy to sass until later in the day. Um, they're so eager to help with projects. They're eager to help with younger students. They're eager to do hands-on things.

Speaker 1: 1:47

My fifth graders adore doing different projects in the art room that require more detail and effort. I have some truly amazing artists in here. I cannot believe some of the work that they produce, and I also find it fascinating that, even though they're fifth graders, I can set out what we call busy boxes at my school. So basically Legos, K'nex, Domino's, and they have an absolute blast. Y'all. They adore playing with busy boxes. They don't get the chance to do that very often in my classroom it's very rare, but, man, when I allow them to, they get so excited and they really enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 2:34

I also allow my fifth graders to pick their own seats. Most of my classes I do not allow that. I seat them, but my fifth graders I let them seat themselves, and so for them. I seat them, but my fifth graders I let them seat themselves, and so for them. Our class is really truly an escape from the regular school day. It is a safe space to be in. They get to sit at a table with the friends that they choose. Once I've given them their instructions, they get to talk to their friends while they're working. We throw on different music lists. A lot of them, surprisingly, really love 80s music. We play a lot of 80s music when I have fifth grade in here. There's one class in particular that really loves Michael Jackson. We listen to a lot of Michael Jackson when they're here and I let them have some choice in that as well. They give me requests for different music and I play that music and so they adore being in here.

Speaker 1: 3:29

I do not have behavior issues with fifth grade because they know when they come in here that they are going to be respected, that they're going to be treated on a more level playing field, that their thoughts, their ideas, their questions matter. They know that they're going to get to sit with friends. They're going to get to do some chatting. Obviously it needs to be a quieter chatting because if they chat like level playground it gets loud in here. But I don't normally have that problem with fifth grade. They're very respectful of keeping their voices lower. They don't get up and walk around my room without asking. They raise their hands. I mean it's amazing to me how well that they can do, and I say that because I've had some years where fifth grade has been difficult and this year's fifth fifth graders I've been an absolute delight, just an absolute delight.

Speaker 1: 4:29

Now. This morning we had a visitor from their middle school come and talk to them about how middle school is going to work, how their schedule is going to work. We had all the fifth grade classes y'allall in the gym, together sitting on the floor and they were so quiet you could have heard a pin drop Like they showed that representative from the middle school absolute respect and when the representative was done speaking about how middle school works and their schedules and everything, they were so respectful. When they went to ask their questions, they had their hands raised. They waited their turn. When they went to ask their questions, they had their hands raised, they waited their turn and they had extremely good questions. It wasn't just nonsense questions. It wasn't them trying to share random, non-important to the subject stories. They asked really good questions.

Speaker 1: 5:20

I love the fact that the one asked about if middle school has field trips and the representative admitted that they really haven't had field trips for the last 15 years.

Speaker 1: 5:28

But our middle school is moving to a new way of doing things where they want the middle schoolers to have more hands-on experiences. And so the representative told the student you know, you guys are coming into middle school at a good time because you're going to be able to go on field trips and do more hands-on things, and I think that is excellent. I think that is absolutely amazing. I'm so excited for my fifth graders that they are going to get to experience a different kind of middle school than I had when I was in middle school. I think it's just great. So I just wanted to take an episode, take a few minutes to give that shout-out to my fifth graders. I am going to miss them next year. I have gotten to work with them for three years now inside my school building and they have just been so wonderful. That's all I have for this episode, friends. See you on the wild side.