Fourth Grades, Primary Documents and Making Thinking Visible

Fourth grade students are supposed to be exploring primary documents so I designed an activity where they examined portraits of figures from their current topic, the American Revolution.  These portraits were painted while the people were alive, George Washington and King George III.

I modeled the activity with a portait of Paul Revere, using a poster we received years ago from a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Picturing America.  I covered up the title of the painting and we used a Making Thinking Visible technique, “See, Think Wonder” to explore the portrait.  After we went through the activity I revealed the title so they would know who we were looking at.

In small groups they all looked at one portrait first (George Washington) and did the See, Think, Wonder technique.  We then moved onto the second portrait (King George III) and repeated the thinking routine. They were all offering up who they thought the men were and then I revealed the names.  They enjoyed examining the portraits and all wanted to share their ideas.  It was hard to draw it to a conclusion!

First Grade-How We Express Ourselves-The Big Orange Splot

First grade classes’ current transdisciplinary theme is “How We Express Ourselves” and they are inquiring into the variety of ways people express themselves.  We’ve read two books about how people express their ideas and feelings through art, The Big Orange Splot Daniel Manus Pinkwater and Sky Color, Peter H. Reynolds.  After reading these books the students drew a picture of their dream house, inspired by the quote from the author of The Big Orange Splot, Daniel Manus Pinkwater, “My house is me and I am it.  My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams.”

As the students were drawing their dream house, I spoke with each one to ask them about what they were drawing.  The conversations were all interesting, some surprising and touching.

 

Fifth Grade Research Historical Figures

Our fifth grade students are studying the United States around the turn of the 20th century and are required to know about several historical figures.  I made a list of the names and divided them among the three classes.  Each teacher assigned the students groups (about 4 students in each group) and they pulled a name from a hat.

Research

I had the students use either World Book Online (we have a subscription) or Britannica School Encyclopedia (available online in Georgia through the state). They used their Chromebooks to independently read about their person and take notes, each student required to record about 5-8 facts.  I narrowed their focus on the time period around 1900, as several of the historical figures had long lives with many accomplishments.

Besides including the facts, each group had to cite their resources on the poster. I’m trying to repeat this requirement over and over.

Social Skills-Group Work

Each group then had to decide which facts they would include on their large poster (white butcher paper).   I had a copy of a photo of each figure they could use to draw their person from.  I could tell they need more practice working in groups as a lot of time was spent on deciding who would do what. Or one person was telling everyone what they were going to do–and I had to remind them how to decide as a GROUP who would do what.  After observing for a few minutes I also had to tell them that I should NOT see anyone just sitting there, that the paper was sufficiently large to allow ALL group members to be working at the same time.

Repeat Activity?

I’m not sure I will do this activity again; too much time was spent coloring in dresses, etc.  The third grade classes did a similar activity and they were much more effecient in accomplishing the work in much less time.

Finished Products

It was a struggle to get the students to fill the large piece of paper.  Many of them wanted to draw very small portraits of the people.  They also wrote very small for the most part and it was hard to read.  If I do this again I’ll let them use markers as this might make reading the sentences easier (not as easy to correct mistakes, however) and have a model product for them to view.

Extended Activity-Making Connections

I tried something different this week to follow up on the poster research and poster activity.  I had the students make connections with the accomplishments of the historical figures with the world today (or their life). Using a basic graphic organizer they chose one figure and with a partner read the facts on the poster and then decided how the discoveries/accomplishments of that person impacts our lives today.  We then went back into the library and each group shared.  I think it went very well and hopefully they now have a better understanding of why we study these “old” people!

Third Grade Research, Posters, Native Americans

Our third grade students study Native American groups, Georgia Standards of Excellence-Social Studies: SS3H1 Describe early American Indian cultures and their development in North America.  I wanted the students to practice reading for content, taking notes, working in groups, and citing their sources.

Working individually or in pairs (I did one class one way, the other classes the other) the students used their Chromebooks to access a Livebinder I created to curate some websites.  Since each teacher already had a class Portaportal account I just sent the link to my Livebinder and they added it to their science section…so much easier than having third grade students type in a URL-even an easy one like a Yellkey (which is my favorite URL shortener).

After collecting information about the Arapaho’s lifestyle (shelter, food, where they lived, other interesting facts) the students worked together.  They chose an image to use, how facts would be included and they were required to list the online resources they used.

It took us about three library visits to complete the projects.  They really enjoyed the process. I displayed one class’ posters in the hall outside of the library for about two weeks.  I’m keeping one poster up where I have examples of all the work done by all grade levels. The other classes were given their posters.

Second Grade Assembling Structures-Skeletons

One of second grade’s standards is about assembling and disassembling structures, and reversible and irreversible changes.  All you need for this makerspace activity is a copy of the book, The Bones of Fred McFee by Eve Bunting and a bunch of popsicles sticks.

The Bones of Fred McFee and Skeletal System Non-Fiction Book

I started by reviewing a short non-fiction book about skeletons, noting the features of non-fiction, such as table of contents, labels, diagrams, glossary and index.

I then read The Bones of Fred McFee with the wonderfully rich illustrations by Kurt Cyrus.  Students love this book with its engaging rhyming text and slightly spooky storyline.

Assembling and Disassembling a Structure: The Challenge

Students were then challenged to assemble a skeleton with a pile of popsicle sticks.  I always hear, “I don’t know how to make a skeleton” or “How can we make a skull?”  I put out some encyclopedias or non-fiction books that contain diagrams of skeletons so they would have some idea of what a skeleton looks like.  They always have a good time and assemble very some creative skeletons (despite some occasional early whining).

Team works makes the dream work!

Lastly, the students were instructed to “disassemble” the structure.  Georgia Standards of Excellence-Physical Science  S2P1. b. Construct an explanation for how structures made from small pieces (linking cubes, building blocks) can be disassembled and then rearranged to make new and different structures.