Landform Projects 2014

In geography, we recently finished our unit on landforms.  Last week, the students completed their in-class landform project.  I paired the children up, assigned each pair a landform to research, and then they had to construct the landform in class and give a 2-minute presentation on it.  The students researched information for homework, using THIS HANDOUT.  The project was graded using THIS GRADE SHEET. 

 

This year, I decided to have the students build their landforms inside pizza boxes.  Last year, we used cookie sheets.  While the cookie sheets worked okay, the pizza boxes allowed more depth and could easily be moved around.  A local pizzeria near our school generously donated the boxes for us to use. 

 

Construction time:



Okay, so I know that the grade sheet says, "A paragraph should be written in cursive with the following included..." but we typed the information instead using the iPads.  Then, we just printed the documents from the iPads.

Presentation time:

Peninsula (Baja Peninsula, to be exact)

 

Archipelago

Delta

Strait

Plateau

My friends from New Mexico corrected me--"Mesa."

No matter the name, they did a fantastic job!

Isthmus

Glacier

This creative duo decided that their glacier should move!  Of course, right?  They cut a line in the pizza box and built their glacier around a popsicle stick.  They somehow used wax paper and Mod Podge as well.  When they pulled on the popsicle stick beneath the box, the glacier moved slightly.  So cool!

I was so impressed with this year's landform projects!

 

P.S.  On the lid of the box, the students were required to have a picture of their assigned landform and a map--showing where their "famous" landform example is located.

 

 

Week 6 (September 23-27)

I wish you could be a fly on the wall when we start our day.  We begin with worship, prayer, and Bible class, and it is such a sweet time.  This week was especially powerful.  We had great conversations and touching worship times.  These kids are hungry for the Lord and His word.  I have a pretty attentive class, but when Bible starts, they are tuned in like you wouldn't believe!  I love it!

I introduced the class to one of my favorite Christian groups, Shane and Shane.  We've sung a few of their songs but on Tuesday, I decided to have the students listen instead of sing along.  I shared this song with them and told them to listen carefully to the lyrics.  I gave the background of the song (it was written by one of the Shanes after his dad passed away suddenly) and shared that a man named John Piper would be speaking towards the end of the song.  I chuckled when a child asked, "Is John Piper the drummer in this video?"  Cute.  

No matter what your thoughts are about John Piper, this song is quite powerful.  We were able to discuss the song after we listened, and I was amazed at the spiritual maturity of some of these kids.  We closed with prayer, and I was fighting back tears.  Oh, I love having the privilege of talking about (and to) the Lord with my students.  

This song was a great segue into our study on Joseph.  We will focus on him for the next couple of weeks.

 

I had the chance to read one of my favorite books to the students this week: The Turtle Saver by Mississippi author, Laurie Parker.  This is a great book that comes full circle; the ending always leaves kids jaw-dropped.  It's a very touching story.  I'd recommend it for children, ages 8-12. 

Speaking of books, the students presented their September book reports on Friday.  I assign monthly book reports that are due at the end of each month, but the students do not always present them in class.  I assigned a Cereal Box Book Report that you can read more about IN THIS POST.  Here are the fronts and backs of some of the boxes/reports:

One little girl decided to promote her cereal with an adorable "commercial."  She got the audience engaged with her commercial and then went on to tell about the actual book she read:

That's some expensive cereal, but it was a cute intro!

 

The students also presented their landform projects this week and we learned so much from each group!

I showed the students several different apps this week.  Here they are during indoor recess, playing one of my favorites--Stack the States:

We ended the week with a fun problem-solving activity that I call "Save Dave."  I tried it for the first time last year and you can read about the details IN THIS POST.  I used a different type of Gummy Worm this year, which was smaller.  If I could do it over, I'd stick with the larger ones that I used last year because they were more challenging for the students.  Click Here to access the flowchart/activity sheet I created.  It's the same one as last year, but the formatting was off in the one I shared from Google Drive.  I saved the document in Dropbox, and it's a little better but not exactly the right size.  For me, the document is just a front and back page. 

 

Here are some photos from Friday (all but one group were able to save Dave).  Afterwards, we enjoyed eating some Gummy Worms and Gummy Lifesavers.

"Save Dave!" Group Activity

This year, I want to focus on developing the 4 C's in my students: Critical Thinking (Problem-Solving), Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity.  Today's group activity correlated with all 4 C's and the students had a lot of fun! 

 

Originally called "Save Fred," this activity, which I renamed "Save Dave" just because I like the rhyming, came from Mrs. White's 5th grade blog: http://mesmrswhitesclass.blogspot.com/.  She told me I could borrow the idea.  ;) 

 

Basically, you divide the students into groups (I did pairs), give them 4 paperclips, a cup [turned over on the table], a gummy Lifesaver under the cup, and a gummy worm on top of the cup, and then tell them the following story about Dave, the gummy worm:

 

"Poor Dave!  He was sailing along on a boat (the cup) when a strong wind blew it upside-down!  Dave ended up on top of the capsized boat.  Unfortunately for Dave, his life preserver (Lifesaver gummy) is still trapped under the boat.  Your job is to place the life preserver firmly around Dave's body, but you must obey three rules--you may not touch anything with your fingers/hands (you may only use the paperclips); you may not injure Dave in any way (i.e. poke a paperclip through his body!); and Dave may not fall into the sea (onto the table) more than three times.  If he does, Dave drowns."



Before I shared the story, we discussed the fact that we all solve problems every day.  Some problems are big; some are small.  We talked about ways we solve problems and gave examples of problems we've encountered before.  I created a flipchart for this activity and had music playing when I shared Dave's story--wind was howling, etc. and the kids were so engaged!

I distributed a data sheet to each person and they had to take notes as they tried to save Dave.  They also completed a flowchart to show the steps they took in saving him.  CLICK HERE to access the flowchart/data sheet I made for this activity.  (For whatever reason, the formatting is a little off from my original document and this copy isn't showing my flowchart.  Boo.  Sorry about that; you can still copy/paste the words.)

I asked the students to keep tally marks of how many times Dave fell into the sea.  Remember, falling three times meant that he drowned.  Oh, well--I had them keep trying even if he fell 100 times; it didn't matter!

I gave the students 15 minutes to work and it was interesting to see the contraptions they came up with by bending their paperclips.

One student quickly noticed, "The hole in the Lifesaver is smaller than Dave!?"  I just looked at the little boy and said, "Well, that's a problem!  How are you going to solve it?  Discuss it with your partner."

They all discovered that the Lifesaver must be stretched with the paperclips.

In the end, all but two groups were able to Save Dave.  They ended up stretching the Lifesaver gummy too far and it split!

After we discussed the problem-solving methods used and cleaned up, I gave each child a gummy worm and gummy Lifesaver to enjoy.

Marble Maze--A Small Group Challenge

21st century students need to be able to think creatively, problem-solve, and collaborate with their peers.  In addition, 21st century teachers need to be facilitators and not just dispensers of knowledge.

 

Today, my students completed a group challenge called "Marble Maze" and it was a great opportunity for me to assess how well they can create, problem-solve, and collaborate with others. 

 

Basically, for this activity, I divided my students into four groups, distributed materials (yard stick, masking tape, scissors, marble, empty cereal boxes, paper towel rolls, and toilet tissue rolls--next time add index cards), and explained that they were to construct a maze so that the marble drops from a minimum height of 12 inches to the ground/surface in the longest amount of time possible.  The minimum time was 3 seconds.  They had 30 minutes to construct their maze. 



Before allowing them to start building, I gave them 5 minutes to sketch their plan and discuss their ideas.  Then, as the timer began, they immediately (and excitedly!) got to work: 

I gave no other directions and watched them work.  I walked around, took some notes, occasionally asked how they were doing, but mainly just observed.

One group tested out their structure several times but the marble kept falling off the maze at the same spot.  I could tell they were having trouble, so I went over, asked a few questions, and encouraged them to think about what they could do to solve the problem.  It was SO HARD for me not to fix it for them and say, "Here; if you'll just add a piece of cardboard in this spot, it'll create an angle and the marble will stay on track."  I just kept quiet though.  They tried to fix the issue, but the poor marble didn't last two seconds on the maze they created.

Here are the final products:  

Group 1:

 Group 2: (This maze won, by the way, with a travel time of 4 seconds)

 Group 3: (I liked the zigzag!)

 Group 4:

While explaining their objective, I said something like, "And the group whose marble has the longest travel time, will win."  Several spoke up, "Win what??!!"  I paused and a child piped up, "We'll win the satisfaction of a job well-done!"  haha!  Yes!  Encourage intrinsic motivation!