This is my first year in fifth grade, and I've been warned by many that Module 2 in the Expeditionary Learning curriculum is a snooze.
Having not taught it yet myself, I wanted to be proactive in starting off with a positive attitude. So far, the students are loving learning about the biodiversity of the rainforest, and so am I! I've put in a lot of work in planning for Module 2 by making changes and adding supplemental resources, but it has paid off so far. You can find my supplemental comprehension quizzes here.
We had a Celebration of Learning Fiesta when we finished Module 1. After a few flex days we built in for supplemental instruction, our fifth-grade team began Module 2.
We kicked off the module with some classroom decor, and we watched the Our Planet Jungle Documentary on Netflix. I've embedded the video at the bottom of this post. We watched this and read the first 8 pages of The Most Beautiful Roof in the World lieu of discovering the topic. This documentary was so engaging and really got the kids excited about learning more about the intriguing rainforest. We are still in Unit 1, and they continue to reference clips from the documentary!
I've never made a balloon arch before, but it was so easy! It's been about three weeks, and it still looks great! Click here for a link to the arch on Amazon! I had plenty of extra balloons available to hang in other places in the classroom.
