Thursday, March 31, 2011

3rd Grade - The word of the day was Osicitant. Osicitant means inattentive. Albert Einstein was the pilgrim of the day. Mr. Einstein's teachers thought him to be dull because he disliked school. He though learning should be about fantasy which meant he wanted to be looking for things he didn't know instead of memorizing facts. The warm-up activity of the day was 20 Questions. It took several attempts and hints, but these students finally determined the identity of the object. Their trip to Crystal Pond Woods had students solving problems using a Problem-Solving Matrix. The discovery lesson had us once again learning about the power of ice through a video on icebergs. 5th Grade - The word of the day was Retrieve. Retrieve means to recover; to find and bring back; to get back and sounds like Retriever. The pilgrim of the day was Elijah McCoy. Mr. McCoy worked hard to become a fully qualified engineer. Unfortunately, due to his skin color, the only job he was able to get was as an oilman and fireman for the railroad. While working for the railroad, Mr. McCoy developed an oil can with a tube that would allow machines to be oiled without stopping them. This is how we got the term "the real McCoy." Our warm-up activity was Stories with Holes. This activity is similar to 20 Questions, except instead of looking at an object, students are given a short problem and have to decipher the situation. These students were able to figure out the problem with only a few questions. The affective lesson had students focusing on things that are important to them and why. The afternoon was spent researching the information for the SOS project clue #2 and exploring the circulatory system.