Fifth Grade AIM
Today in AIM
Welcome to AIM 2018-19! It was so nice to catch up with our fifth graders and get the year started! This year we will manage our classroom through a new MORE economy system. This will be the system that we rely on to ensure that our classroom runs efficiently and smoothly. Each student picked a job from a list that I had customized specifically for our needs and received their first monthly paycheck. For fifth and sixth grade (starting next month) their salaries will be based on their regular classroom grades. I think this will be a valuable connection to their classroom work (sometimes fifth and sixth graders become unmotivated to keep their grades up). They will all get a base salary but will receive the "extra pay" based on those grades. Today we reviewed how to log their paycheck into their bank account balance sheet. Next they each determined their weekly fixed expenses (rent and utilities), and variable expenses (amenities such as large pillows, gel pens etc.,). We reviewed how to pay their bills via writing a check and subtract that bill from their checking balance. I also taught them how to figure out their extra bonus (some salaries come with a commission bonus of 10%) At the end of each month whatever is left over in their bank account can be used to shop in our MORE store.
With some of our remaining time we started a lesson on leadership. We explored the character traits of a good leader and picked one to sketch. They jumped right in and started working on a cardboard automata which is a playful way to explore simple machine elements such as cams, levers, and linkages, while creating a mechanical sculpture. This structure will represent their view of leadership in an abstract way!
With our last 30 minutes we started discussing math concepts that they really want to learn about. I challenged them to think about a math topic that they want to learn more about, learn about it and come back to AIM to teach the rest of us. They seemed really excited about that. A great start to our new year!