~Junior Architects~

     I really love this unit.  It encompasses so much math that we have building upon throughout the first part of the year.  The original lesson can be found on the Illuminations site through NCTM.
     We have spent the week learning about the metric system through our study of multiplying by 10s etc.  So today we moved into the standard measurement of inches and feet.  The students in this project are to design a clubhouse to certain specifications.  The original lesson has them create a 3-D model of their clubhouse, but we will not be hitting those concepts until later- so possibly we will do that part during that time.
     Each child received a sheet of graph paper with the instructions to create a design to scale of a clubhouse that is not more than 48 feet in perimeter or 150 square feet.  We created a class chart of what common symbols we might find in our designs and spent a great deal discussing and measuring objects around the room so we understood scale relationship.  For their project one square on the paper (1/2 in graph) was equal to 1 foot. This proved to be the biggest challenge as they often found they did not have enough room to walk around all the furnishings they threw inside.
    I did get some fantastic designs, like Gryfindor common room, a pet spa, some sort of Boy's Only house, all in all some really great ideas and designs!

Tomorrow we will be doing some problem solving regarding how much paint we will need to paint our clubhouse and where is the best place to buy this paint.  

See, you can bridge creativity and learning!!! 

Second round of Socratic Seminar

After our successful and passionate discussion about the branches of government (who knew?!), we tried out another seminar.  The reason why these can be so powerful is that there is no right or wrong answer! What it does do is to let the children have some time to think and reflect about what they are saying- and sometimes even get a little change of heart.  That's just what happened in this seminar.
    For this seminar we posted four provocation statements around the room.  I left them up for the week prior so the children had some time to think about them and reflect on which spoke to them.
They were:
Everyone's opinion counts.
The government is not responsible for everyone.
It's okay for some people to be very rich-they must have worked very hard.
The ones who make the rules are the most important people.

Funnily enough there were 30 children who felt that the most true statement was "Everyone's opinion counts." and only two that felt "The government is not responsible for everyone."  So instead of starting with why you chose such and such.  I simply started with one that was not chosen and asked them why no one chose that- is it not also true?  That was it folks- the rest was a 30 minutes (no kidding) discussion as to what is true and why they felt that way.  I had a few change their minds at the end and we did some reflecting later about how what we believe influences the way we view the role of government.  Ahhh-mazing!!!!

A Socratic Seminar x 2

     You know those moments when you think later- "dang why didn't I grab my camera?!" Yep- it was one of those days.  We have been studying the branches of government so we had a little Socratic seminar to discuss our opinions on the branches of government.  What I love about the Socratic method is that there is no right answer- the children all get really involved and take on their own learning.
     After watching and discussing our videos shared in the last post- I broke them into groups to research each branch of government and highlight five important facts of each branch.  We then gathered in a giant circle and I threw out the question, "Which branch of government is the most important?"  Wow, that sparked some serious discussion!!! It was awesome and I can guarantee that they all gained a deeper learning into what they branches of government were about and the true meaning of checks and balances.  
    If you haven't tried this method yet, I highly suggest it. It gets children talking and justifying their thinking with reason and evidence.  We have used it in the content area as well as in literature discussion groups.  You can find more information about it on Read Write Think.

Building Knowledge of Democracy

The first step to understanding our government was to help them understand the power of checks and balances.  I showed them a prezi (one of my favorite presentation tools) that took them through the branches.  You can view it here.

Then flocabulary as a great little rap that definitely got them going- to this day some of the sing the parts to help them remember the different aspects of each branch.

Overall they are getting more and more invested in learning about their government.  Maybe, hopefully I am helping create a generation of informed voters who really understand how our system works. 

How We Organize Ourselves

We've begun yet another unit of inquiry for our IB studies.  This is another social studies based unit- we are exploring through investigating government systems.  We launched the unit by having the kids think about what it means to be a global citizen verses a citizen of the United States. Our ultimate goal is for the kids to realize that we are not the only type of government that is in the world- many countries  are ran in different ways good or bad.  Despite our differences in government, our country also has to work others on global matters.
Now how do we make this accessible and relevant to children who are 9 & 10 years old?

Now, as you can see they don't have a lot of background knowledge- especially when it comes to a global citizen.  So we have a lot of work to do!! 

December Currently