El Morro's 5th Grade Presents the 50 States

News release from the Laguna Beach Unified School District:

5th grade students recently presented the nation’s 50 states at the school’s State Fair in the multipurpose room.

Students sang lively state songs to the audience, and after the choral presentation, students and their families viewed the students’ state exhibitions.

Dressed in apparel depicting their state’s interesting attributes, students decorated state tri-folds with brightly colored illustrations of their state’s history, present day and interesting facts. Students shared state food samples and state souvenirs with their classmates and the audience.

The State Fair concludes with the students’ state report, which is a cross curricular social studies and language arts unit on United States history.

Principal Chris Duddy explains, “The students have been working hard learning the 50 United States of America and their capital cities. Each student then focused on one state to write a report of information to share with classmates and parents at the State Fair. This culminating activity is always engaging as the students sing, sample famous foods from the states and view the reports from all 50 states in the multipurpose room.”

In the weeks prior to State Fair, 5th grade students each selected a state and began a research project about their respective state. The research project was an opportunity for students to gather factual evidence from written and online resources by using the steps of the research process:

• Research and locate information using World Book Online and World Book Atlas, and computer resources. Students also wrote a business letter asking for information from the state tourism department of their researched state.

• Evaluate information

• Take notes using a graphic organizer

• Develop an outline

• Synthesize information

• Write report using Google Docs

Grade 5 Department Chairperson Jay Williams remarks, “The State Fair is a great culminating activity that allows everyone the opportunity to share in the excitement of the State Report Projects. The project entails many standard based research and writing skills, which the students incorporate into their work and demonstrate with their successful completion of the project.”