Thursday, April 14, 2011

3rd Grade - Occlude was the word of the day. Occlude means to obstruct or block. Bill Gates was the pilgrim of the day. Mr. Gates was often bored in school. When he got bored, he would daydream and when he daydreamed, he would rock. His parents realized he was bored with school and sent him to a private school where his love affair with the computer began. And as the saying goes..."the rest is history." The trip to Crystal Pond Woods for these students had them working on Evaluative thinking again. This time they had to develop criteria and evaluate potato chips. Paleontologists were the focus of the Discovery lesson. Students spent time researching well known bone hunters. 5th Grade - The word of the day was Parapet. A parapet is a low wall or railing and sounds like Pair of Pets. Anton Leeuwenhoek was the pilgrim of the day. Mr. Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch storekeeper who didn't want to keep a store. He enjoyed making lenses in order to study everything he could. People thought he was crazy, but his lenses led to the development of the microscope. Unfortunately, he didn't share his lenses with anyone and it would be another hundred years before the first really useful microscope was created. The affective lesson had students discussing why the word "because" is so important. The SOS lesson had students searching the 4th clue provided by the CSI team to find their lost family. Once state testing is complete, students should be able to find their lost families. Students ended the day by completing an experiment that helped them gain an understanding of Tectonic plates.