Above: the main body under construction.
It took a village... thank you to all who helped!
Students created a gingerbread Stony Point dragon. Their first clue to the morning's activity was the daily schedule--the activity was written in international Morse code. Enterprising students decoded it to read: "Gingerbread." Excitement! While the kids were in gym, Ms. Fan (who volunteered to come in and help, yay!) and I brainstormed on ways to create a gingerbread dragon. I had already prepared the dough and icing. We agreed on a plan, organized it, and launched. Ms. Fan sketched template models and the kids were then assigned parts. The building began! Above: the main body under construction. Scales being created. After 2 collapses, we shored it up and added the final touches--the dragon came to life!
It took a village... thank you to all who helped!
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Ms. Fan talked with me about sketchnoting, and we discussed how the students might try it. First efforts are below! It was structured like this: students were given several websites to use in their research on the earth-moon-sun systems, then shown an example of sketchnoting, and launched to research and sketchnote in their own manner. Afterwards, we discussed pros and cons of the experience, and I decided to make some tweaks. The next time, I began by sharing my lesson plan with the students (I had written it in sketchnote form--see below). Then I shared sketchnoting videos from Michael Rohde at rohdesign.com. Afterwards, the students and I discussed how combining text features, words, and pictures in our note-taking might help our thinking. Then, they made a second attempt in math. In the second sketchnoting session, students used their math journals to sketchnote on rounding. This was a review session, and they were shown a brief (3-minute) video on rounding twice, and encouraged to sketchnote their thinking on rounding as the video played. Overall results were stronger for most students, demonstrating a sound grasp of the general concept and individual applications. One journal entry is featured below. In late October and early November, we began collecting weather data at recess. Students used the school's weather box instruments (barometer, thermometer, anemometer, hygrometer), our rain gauge and wind vane, and our own visual observations to collect daily information. Next step: creating a data table of results from recording temperatures. Then students each created a line graph showing how our recess temperatures changed over time. One of these graphs is featured at the top of this post. Every student remembered the coldest day, as we were outside on a field trip that day!
"Why couldn't it have been 70 degrees then?" one student asked. Underlying lesson: we can't control the weather; we can control how we prepare for it. |
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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 |