I can describe this week with one single word, wow! It started off with our Monday morning meeting. We had bagpipers, drummers, and Irish dancers help us celebrate St. Patrick's day. Then, we began our fifth Unit of Inquiry, How We Express Ourselves. The week ended with our second round of student-led conferences. It was so amazing to see how the Explorers have grown as thinkers, communicators, and risk-takers.
The students also were formulating our new Central Idea based on the provocations and activities.
Our Explorers showed so much action this week. During the Monday Morning Meeting, one of our Explorers presented about his home country, Jordan. We heard him speak in his mother tongue, and we were all very excited to learn about his flag. Other students brought in a camera from long ago, and different Laura Ingalls Wilder book. We also were able to Skype with Elizabeth from Arizona. She is Mr. Jeffery's cousin. She taught us about the various landforms in Arizona, and how Ohio and Arizona are alike and different. Although, she did tell us that they would be swimming next moth, and their daily temperatures were in the 70's.
The Explorers have really enjoyed The Little House in the Big Woods. We even had some Explorers who took action by bringing in dresses from the past. One dress was like a dress that they would have worn on the prairie, and the other two dresses were fancy dresses from long ago. Another Explorer showed action by bringing in a doll that children, like Laura, may have played with long ago. The students were also asked to reflect about the past, present, and future. They drew pictures of what they thought they would look like when they are 100 years old, and examine how things have changed from the past, and how they thought those things may look in the future.
The Explorers were so engaged in our Unit of Inquiry, Where We Are In Place and Time. They researched landforms, took a neighborhood walk, and created toys that children may have played with in the past, and made landforms out of playdough. During our neighborhood walk; many students noted that we have a landform close to our school. Lake Erie. The students also compared maps to satellite images. In Mandarin, the students learned how to say and write mountain, hill, river, North, South, East, and West.
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AuthorsMrs. Fairman Archives
March 2015
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