I am very proud of my students' behavior and willingness to learn - what an excellent group; a great big thank you to all the parent chaperones who made this trip possible and such a success!
Lots of learning and loads of fun... From the moment we disembarked from the bus, the students, the parents and the teachers were immersed in learning about the environment and the natural wonders of Alabama. The classes pictured are: Lake Living, Herpetology, Something's Fishy, Archery, Birds of a Feather (Bird Olympics) and the Dutch Auction. In addition, we participated in Team Navigation, Out On a Limb ( the forest), Rock Wall and Astronomy. During meals, food waste and the importance of reducing it, was taught through mini - lessons on how we get the food we eat and the cost associated with it. I was delighted that we kept reducing our food waste at each meal! I am very proud of my students' behavior and willingness to learn - what an excellent group; a great big thank you to all the parent chaperones who made this trip possible and such a success!
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For the last few weeks students have completed three personality surveys - leadership, creativity and learning styles. Each provided the students with a greater understanding of themselves and their classmates. In addition, each week there was a team building activity: Cup Challenge, Blindfold Maze Challenge and Sneak a Peak. Students demonstrated they could cooperate and collaborate with their classmates, as well as use critical thinking to solve novel and challenging problems. In the Cup Challenge (first five images), students were tasked with building a tower of cups by working together! Team members could not touch the cups with their hands, or any other part of their bodies (even if a cup tipped over). Each student had to hold on to one of the strings that was attached to the rubber band tool also known as the Half Octopus. The group could only use this rubber band tool to pick up the cups and place them on top of each other (by pulling and releasing the strings on the rubber band to place around the cup). The Blindfold Maze was a trust building activity, as well as an auditory and spatial memory challenge. One person was blindfolded, the other gave verbal directions for the route walked in the area. After the time was up, the blindfolded partners used their memory to retrace the routes trying to end up as close to the starting point as possible (the closer they are to the start point the better). Then the partners reversed roles. In Sneak a Peak , the aim was for each group to try to build an exact copy of a pre-built sculpture. The catch was only one person in each group could look at the model at a time, and only for ten seconds. They then returned to their team and described what they saw.
The first week in Room 109 was interesting and very busy. Students participated in two team building activities: "Magic Carpet" and "Human Knot." The challenge for "Magic Carpet" is for the entire group to remain on the carpet as they flip it completely over to read the "flying instructions" on the bottom. Problem solving, cooperation and communication must happen for the group to complete the challenge. In "Human Knot" everyone crosses their wrists and then grabs one hand of two people across from them in the circle. You might think untangling a necklace chain is difficult, but try untangling fourteen fourth graders:)))! Students went on to complete a "Big Paper" response activity - commenting, questioning and extending each others' thoughts in reference to the Swahili proverb: A boat doesn't go forward if each one is rowing his/her own way. They then worked in small groups to generate class norms which we will vote on next week. What an amazing day - the weather was perfect; the museum was filled with hands - on exhibits just right for curious minds, and the docents were knowledgeable, friendly and positive!
For your convenience a link to Gulf Quest. Yes, what a busy few weeks! We are working diligently to complete our unit on the criminal justice system, but life just keeps getting in the way. We started the unit with our crime scene investigation - The Mystery of the Missing Mice. The crime scene engaged the students and began our journey to learn and understand more about our system of justice. So to gain a true understand, students had to begin at the beginning - Bill of Rights with a modern day twist thrown in - Mars Colony Bill of Rights. The students were asked to imagine that they were members of the first colony on Mars. Their task was to generate a five amendment Mars Colony Bill of Rights based on the original Bill of Rights. After researching online sites on the Bill of Rights ( links on our Moodle class), they worked individually to rank (evaluate) the first ten amendments of the Constitution in descending order of importance from 10 - 1. Once they had their individual rankings, they worked in teams of 3- 4 to generate a team list to present to the class. Each group presented their list and explained their team's decision as they completed the chart.
Next up was Types of Trials through History. Again, students used online resources located on our Moodle class to learn about the four major types of trials - ordeal, oath, combat and jury. Each team member became the expert on one type of trial, then shared the knowledge with the other members of the team (Jigsaw) so that all could complete the assigned graphic organizer. I kicked it up a notch on Thursday by modifying the lesson - now students worked as a team to become experts on one type of trial and then share the information with the rest of the class through a skit. After each skit, students were given an opportunity to complete the graphic organizer. The week after testing we will start the mock trial lessons - it will be fun and very informative! "Where are the mice?" was the question asked over and over again as the students entered the room the week of March 7. Yes, we had a crime in our classroom - some person or persons unknown took the mice! They left loads of evidence though, so the students used their observation skills and deductive reasoning, as well as crime scene investigative techniques to "solved" the crime. Of course this was a staged crime - thanks to the fifth graders who helped with this most intriguing and engaging lesson!
Students practiced their persuasive argument skills while learning about the mystery genre,through the completion of a web quest. Their task was to determine the nominee for the "World's Greatest Detective" from a list of ten well known fictional detectives. They worked in teams of three. Each team member was responsible for choosing one detective to research, and then report on to the other members of the team. They read short stories or novellas featuring their chosen detectives and used online resources to uncover the detectives' profiles, which assisted them in providing logical persuasive arguments for their detective being named as the World's Greatest Detective. To organize their arguments students used a graphic organizer -"Persuasion Map". Each team could only nominate one, so the students had to make a very persuasive oral argument to their teammates! Once each team selected a nominee, they generated a persuasive argument for the team's chosen detective using Google Slides. Students viewed each presentation and scaled them from 1 - 5 based on the strength of the argument presented. The presentation with the highest score had their detective named as "The World's Greatest Detective". Students completed the "Team Information" sheet, "Detective Profile" sheet, storyboard for the slide presentation and "Presentation Scaling". In addition students will complete a self reflection sheet answering the questions: What did I learn? How can I use this knowledge in my life? Did our team work well together? What could I do to be a better member of a team in the future? Students were challenged to make the 12 Sonobe units required for the Octahedron or 24 - sided figure. They then had to put together four pyramids using 3 Sonobe units, and finally attach all four pyramids together to make the total figure. Once they completed the figure, it was used to answer questions on the 24 - sided Figure sheet.
Students had to count the faces, edges and vertices. They had to determine concave from convex edges. They had to calculate the surface area of one of the triangular faces using the formula: A = 1/2(bh), then use that information to calculate the total surface area. They had to develop a strategy for being sure they had counted all faces, edges and vertices. Overall, it was a very fun way to teach and review math skills! So, lots has been happening since last I posted! During the first week of February students learned more about chemistry and a great deal about working in groups to accomplish a task. The Mad Scientist Chemistry stations were set up around the room and students were in groups of three or four. The stations were as follows: Station 1 Periodic Table: Use the print periodic tables to help you complete the on-line games. Record your answers in your journal under the heading: Mad Scientist Chemistry Labs Station 1 Date: Links on Moodle http://education.jlab.org/elementcrossword/easy_symbols_01.html http://education.jlab.org/elementwordscramble/question.php?9867574 Station 2 Chromatography Choose either to make a Dragon bookmark or a Rainbow Pie. Follow the directions provided being sure to write your name on your filter or bookmark. Station 3 Super Sleuth Follow the directions on the Mystery Powder sheet. Record your observations in your journal under the heading: Mad Scientist Chemistry Labs Station 3 Date: Station 4 Cool Careers in Green Chemistry After reading about at least three different careers in chemistry from Cool Careers in Green Chemistry, write a friendly letter to the scientist of your choice. Station 5 Chihuly Inspired Macchia Bowls Station 6 Moodle Symbaloo Chemistry Sites Logon to Moodle then explore the chemistry sites linked on the Symbaloo. After exploring at least two sites, add a post on Kidblog about your favorite. Required on the post: 1.Name of site 2.What did you find the most interesting? 3.Was it an easy site to navigate - why? 4.What are three things you learned? 5.How does this new knowledge affect your understanding of the world? It was a very exciting and busy week, but unfortunately I took very few photos:((! Check out the students' blog posts at: Students did an excellent job of sharing their knowledge gained through research about many, varied and unusual topics. In addition, the types of products - dioramas, scavenger hunts, poems, posters, PPTs, games - were diverse and interesting! Students' projects were evaluated through the use of a rubric, scored by a classmate and myself. Students began this process with a Decision - Making Talent (on Moodle) to determine their topics, then used the Project Planner, Timeline and Checklist packet to record dates, research questions, sources and self- reflections. |
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November 2023
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