Friday, April 1, 2011

4th Grade - The word of the day was Wean. Wean means to withdraw from any type of habit and sounds like Teen. Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan were the pilgrims of the day. When an illness robbed Helen Keller of her vision and hearing at the age of two, Helen Keller felt trapped and became very angry. When Anne Sullivan entered her world, Miss Sullivan taught Helen to see, hear and speak using what available senses she had. Helen then wanted to explore everything. She became an author and activist in teaching people how to interact with the disabled. Stories with Holes was the warm-up activity. Students quickly solved two Stories with Holes problems. Continuing the idea of caring for the disabiled, our affective lesson had us watching Leo the Late Bloomer. We then discussed various disabilities and how people whether disabled or not should be treated. Our exploration lesson had us learning more about the circulatory system and discussing what could happen if there was a problem. Students spent the rest of the afternoon researching information to help them find clues to where their family may be stranded.

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.