as that's what we're currently studying.
Students worked as teams in choice groups to determine the accuracy of a food advertisement. Students followed a cycle of brainstorming--planning--working--and then reflecting and/or revisiting the project. Extension projects linked with division, as that's what we're currently studying. Investigative question: is there really 6-feet of bubble gum in the roll? Investigative question: do double-stuffed cookies really have double the stuff? Investigative question: is a foot-long sub really 12 inches long? Investigative question: does the burger really have 1/4 pound of meat? Sample student process work below.
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Today in science we went outdoors and used string to build a relative distance scale model of the earth, moon, and sun. This is adapted from an AIMS science lesson "Stringing Out the Spaces." Our sun was a plastic patio tabletop I spray-painted gold. An earth and moon were colored and taped to the ends of two pens. Using yarn and meter sticks, students measured out nine 10-meter lengths of string. A student holding the sun stood in the farthest corner of the soccer field, while the other students spread out from it in 10-meter lengths... until the string reached the earth and moon, being held up in the air by two other students (now up near the edge of the blacktop). As I ran up and down the space-string-line, I heard students saying: "Wow! The earth is THAT far away from the sun?" and "Look, the moon is so close!" Yes, relatively, it is. As we reflected later inside the classroom, they took away the big ideas: space is mostly... space; the sun is really far away; the moon is relatively close; and it's amazing, complicated, and exciting to send people and robots out into space.
To celebrate Ms. Fan's birthday, I baked a red velvet cake in 'tube' shape... and then transformed it into a spaceship, complete with bunnies (from her language arts maker project). How I Did It: I cleaned out three 28-ounce tin cans, oiled them, and put parchment paper circles on the bottom. Then I filled each a little over halfway with the red velvet cake mix, and baked them around 25 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit (until a skewer inserted came out clean). I cut licorice letters, and used other candy and graham crackers to add details. Finally, I used the "Not a Box" bunnies you'll find on the October 9th 2014 post, to link the tube cake with Ms. Fan's project and the students' earlier work. Happy Birthday, Ms. Fan!
Last week, our class took advantage of the warm weather to go outside for a hands-on math lesson. Students learned about time using chalk-drawn clocks, using their limbs and paper strips as clock hands to identify and build different times on the concrete.
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March 2020
AuthorMs. McGill is a public school librarian at Stony Point Elementary. She has previously taught all subjects in 4th & 5th grades, and creative nonfiction at UVa's Young Writers Workshop for nine summers. Categories |