with Kim Rodgers Theodora and Justinian
with Leigh Ann Yoder The Goldilocks Principle Venus is too hot! Mars is too cold! Earth is just right! In class the students were introduced to the atmospheric differences between the three "sister" planets in a graphic and hands-on way. We began by discussing the greenhouse effect which is the effect of the atmosphere to trap heat. We also discussed the trace gases in our atmosphere known as the greenhouse gases, and how they function much like the glass plates found on a greenhouse used for growing plants. We used a table to show the percentages of the main atmospheric elements on all three planets. Students then modeled this data using jelly beans. Modeling allowed them to think about a concept that could not be observed directly. After completing the models, we needed to address the effect of atmospheric pressure on our three planets. Earth's atmospheric pressure is 1/90th that of Venus and 100 times that of Mars. Again, by modeling with our jelly beans, students were easily able to understand the concept and its effects. We discussed that many scientists believe that the composition of our atmosphere is due to the presence of life, and that life creates a dynamic balance. If life were to disappear would our planet come to resemble Mars or Venus?
We finished by creating another table to compare the temperature on the planets if we eliminated the greenhouse gases, and their actual temperatures. Using this table again reinforced the importance of these trace elements in our atmosphere. with Michelle Cameron Setting Sail Today’s word collection – house words – gave us some great words, including a number of door knobs. Who’d have thought? After hearing a couple of new or continued stories today – and it’s always great to start off with your young writers’ work – we moved on to the project that will take the next couple of weeks. It’s a project we at The Writers Circle call “Setting Sail” – setting off on a journey. This particular project is a good one for kids who are still easing their way into the fundamentals of writing, as it contains a number of shorter writing projects rather than a long, concentrated chunk of time – and also incorporates a number of craft activities to help the kids learn. The first thing everyone had to do was decide on a destination and why they wanted to go there. The choices could be anywhere on the planet or beyond or anywhere imaginary. The one restriction I placed was that it could not be Hogwarts or the product of any other author’s mind – it had to come from their own. The destinations chosen were as diverse as the kids – beaches, Graceland, and ancient Egypt, to name a few.
For Next Week... Over the next week, I’d like them to fully describe these characters. Each one should include:
Next week we’ll continue our journeys. As we’re coming up to Halloween, this week’s word collection should be spooky words. They were already talking about which ones they wanted to use on their way out to lunch! with Jayne Besjak Peter Rabbit Found Innocent of All Charges!Our class met in the courtroom this week to conduct the trial of McGregor vs. Peter Rabbit. The prosecution and defense teams were briefed on standards for direct and cross examination questioning (see below) and used the first few minutes of class to organize their witness lists and questions in preparation for trial. We heard well formulated opening statements from both the prosecution and defense. Each team provided sound theories and narratives to support their side, and gave overviews of witness testimony that would be presented. As we move forward in the class, we will practice how to deliver dynamic opening statements that connect with the audience to most effectively make our case. Teams then launched into the direct and cross examination phase of the trial. Students learned that there are rules for questioning witnesses, and that these are part of what is termed the "Rules of Evidence and Procedure". The purpose of direct examination is to allow the witness to narrate a story, taking care to ask for specific information relevant to your case. Attorneys may not ask leading questions (ones in which the attorney supplies information with the intent of getting a 'yes' or 'no' answer). Direct questions are generally open-ended and usually begin with such words as how, when, where, why, explain. On cross examination an attorney may ask leading questions, but can only ask questions about information brought out in direct examination, or relating to the credibility of the witness. As we found out at our trial, attorneys should also be careful not to ask questions if they aren't confident what the witnesses answer will be! We introduced several types of objections such as leading question and irrelevant evidence. Objections are violations of the rules of evidence and are made directly to the judge who can either sustain or override the objection. We will build more on our understanding of objections and when to use them at our next class meeting. Everyone in class did a great job preparing for and participating in this introductory mock trial. We stopped frequently during direct and cross examination to discuss the wording and content of their questions. I was very pleased that once things got rolling, most students jumped at the opportunity to formulate questions and ask the witnesses! Overall, I felt that both sides did a reasonably good job of thinking through their case. However, much more detail could have gone into preparing for and questioning the witnesses, which would have strengthened their arguments considerably. Of course lawyers spend many years training for the day when they will try a case in a courtroom, whereas students had only a few short hours! With each mock trial, students will learn better how to prepare their case, thoroughly question and cross examine witnesses, and anticipate what the the other side might be plotting. This was a fantastic start! After listening carefully to each side, our jury for the day returned a verdict of not guilty for both criminal trespass and robbery charges. Although the prosecution team felt disappointment with the verdict, it provided a valuable opportunity for all students to see that in a trial you never know what the outcome will be until the jury speaks! The defendant is presumed innocent and the burden of proof is on the prosecution. It is not enough to "feel strongly" that the defendant committed a crime - you must prove it during the trial with a sound argument, convincing opening/closing statements, and thorough questioning of witnesses. Keep in mind that the jury does not know what you know or how you have connected the dots, so you must show them during trial. HomeworkThere is NO CLASS next week (10/13)! We will meet back in the classroom on October 20th.
For homework, students should carefully read the Radio News Flash provided in class. It contains the summary of our next case against Jack (of beanstalk fame). Please also read the entire story of Jack and the Beanstalk, as we will be bringing the case to a Grand Jury in our next class. Have a wonderful holiday weekend! with Leigh Ann Yoder The Magnetic Sun This week we had the privilege of meeting Ranger Bob. Bob is not an actual ranger, but he has quite an interesting background and now refers to himself as an Amateur Astronomer. Actually, he explained to all of us how we could also become Amateur Astronomers! As the students arrived, Ranger Bob had set up his specialized hydrogen-alpha telescope to safely observe the Sun, and we were easily able to view sun flares. It was exciting! Although our view was different, we were generally able to see prominences in the same 3 and 9 o'clock positions as illustrated below. This photo was taken on Sunday using space instruments. In the classroom Ranger Bob had prepared an engaging and educational presentation for the class (and the teachers!). After introducing himself and his background he then launched into solar "anatomy and physiology" with impactful NASA images. He asked the class to share what the Sun provides us, and they quickly came up with heat, light, electricity/power. We jumped into an activity with each student receiving a laminated card. Based on their image (a plant, an animal, power plant, Sun, etc.) they had to assemble themselves in an "energy web" like a food-web. The exercise illustrated the Sun's central role in ALL energy exchange/existence. Back to more imagery with great photos that illustrated other benefits we receive from the Sun, until we got to the electromagnetic spectrum and the different views of the Sun that scientists observe and measure. He even explained to us how infrared light was discovered. Ranger Bob also included information on meteors, comets, sublimation, the magnetosphere, and more. There was so much to learn this week, that I could never recap it all. I highly encourage you to speak with your students asking them to highlight their favorites. The last phenomena and images Ranger Bob shared were of aurorae and eclipses. The next total solar eclipse in North America will be in August of 2017. This will most likely be the last one in my lifetime that I would have have the ability to see. Families interested might consider a somewhat extended field trip to South Carolina to view this spectacular event! Ranger Bob provided links for the students to further explore these topics and more. I encourage them to use their extra time over the next two weeks to do so.
As a final note I would like to say that the class was exemplary. Each student was respectful, engaged and represented Mosaic in a positive way. Both Jayne and I were proud! Remember we do not have class next Monday, October 13th. HomeworkMandatory: ECA - Chapter 4 Lending Library Book Optional: ACG - Chap 7 & 8 NB - pg. 42, 43, 44, 48, 53 with Kim Rodgers Istanbul? No, Constantinople!We started off reading our summaries from last week. I have to say I really enjoy hearing what they remember, as they each seem to highlight one aspect of what we studied the week before. By the time they have all shared we have a thorough synopsis! I pulled out the illuminated letters they had started last week and we talked about how they should have lots of bold color using the colored pencils. They used fancy gold, silver, and copper pens to go over the glue outline. I forgot to take photos of them, so if you would like to send me a photo of your child’s letter I’ll add it to this post on the website. They looked very nice! While they were working on finishing their letters I read to them about the Byzantine Empire. We talked about the city of Constantinople and how crowded and busy it was. At this point children were attending school while the city bustled with sites and smells of a flourishing metropolis! We focused on Justinian, the just emperor and learned how he began life as a peasant in a family of farmers. He longed to learn and taught himself how to read so he could study law, music, poetry, and religious studies. He begged his parents to allow him to travel to Constantinople to learn more. They consented and he became a learned man before joining the army where he proved his bravery and leadership. When the emperor died, Justinian was named the ruler of the Byzantine Empire. He was very interested in claiming the land that used to belong to Rome. He succeeded in capturing a lot of it, and brought it to a place of power that was more than Rome had ever seen. He also wanted to make Constantinople the greatest city in the world, by having beautiful places to live and stunning places of worship. One building in particular stands out above all the rest as it’s the first time in history we see this type of architecture...a dome built on a square base...the Hagia Sophia. There was one problem. All of the different countries in his empire had their own laws, which made it very difficult to govern. Under his leadership Justinian unified the laws so the whole empire knew what laws to follow. Ask your kids if they can remember some of the laws we read together. Some of them seemed a little absurd! When we finished our discussion we watched a video about the architecture of Hagia Sophia and pulled out the Legos. Using what we learned in the video along with pictures and drawings, the students tried to re-create the main dome. Part of my purpose in this exercise was for the students to realize how difficult this task was. Some students decided to work together, while others worked on their own. If they would like to try to build one at home to bring in for our next class, please encourage them to do so. Just a reminder...there is no class next week as it’s Columbus Day. I will see you the following week. As usual there is a notebooking page, along with a map and directions. There are special activities the students can do with the map if they so choose that includes some of the famous buildings. On the notebooking page is a place to draw a picture. The directions say to draw a picture of Constantinople, but the students can draw anything about what we learned. Supplies Needed for Next ClassFor our next class please bring in a rinsed out gallon jug as we will need them to form the base of the mosaics we will be working on. I’ll provide all the other supplies. Enjoy your week off and I’ll see you on the 20th! with Michelle Cameron Character, Part Two - Plus Dialogue The action words everyone brought in were excellent. I asked the kids to either jump or do cartwheels at lunch. Did anyone? This week we started off by reading the stories that they began in class last week. A number of them were inspired by movies or books – particularly Frozen and Harry Potter. While I’d prefer they came up with original stories, I never tell them that – and hope you don’t, either. In fact, I always liken derivative work to artists who set up easels in museums, learning from the great masters. And I always remind myself that my early inspiration was highly derivative as well. So if that’s where their imaginations go, ask them where they’ve contributed their own bent to the story. It’s always interesting to see how they put their own stamp on retread stories. Today we started by reading “Mister Lucky Straw,” a story from a collection of Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories. The children recognized that the story hinged on Mister Lucky Straw’s generosity and kindness – and that if he were mean or stingy, the story would have fallen apart. Then we began to create a play. Each student picked a specific character puppet. Each of the puppets has a unique personality which can be perceived by their appearance. We named each one and ascribed personal attributes to them: The challenge – and a hard one for many of the kids – was to not only stay in character, but to be responsible for only their character. In fact, it was so hard for them that at one point I had them trade characters, to give them a chance to be responsible for a different character. Here is the play we wrote (with thanks to Kim for scribing for us). Scene One: The Preschool Classroom
Scene Two: The Playground
Scene Three: End of the Day Missy (in squeaky voice): Goodbye! Duncan: See ya, dudes. Lila (insincerely): See you tomorrow, Missy. Missy: Okay! Charlie: Do we have any homework? Allie (talks on the phone as she walks out the door). Billy: Homework? We’re in preschool. Are you an idiot? Duncan: Chill out, dudes! The End We then read the play in parts and gave ourselves a well-deserved round of applause.
This week’s word collection should be house words. Many of the writers have left us with cliff hangers on their stories. Please have them continue writing. When we come back from the Columbus Day break, we’re going to Set Sail on imaginary voyages. If anyone has a box big enough for the kids to sit in one at a time, can you bring it in? If we have more than one, that would be ideal. See you all in two weeks! with Leigh Ann Yoder Brace for Impact!First, a great big THANK YOU! to the students for coming prepared to class each week. Everyone seems to be completing the weekly assignments and returning their library books. It is encouraging to hear the students comment on their weekly library books with one another, and there is always a race to grab the most desired books. We began class with a very brief discussion of Mercury. We narrowed our focus to the large number of craters present on Mercury, and introduced the week's activity. As a class we performed an Impact Crater Experiment. We tested three different sized meteors (rocks), each dropped from four different heights onto our 'Mercury Like' surface. We added dry powder paint so we could more easily identify the ray lengths produced from the impacts. After collecting data, we calculated averages and made these conclusions: 1. Crater width is only dependent on the size/weight and orientation of the meteor when it impacts the surface. Height of the drop does not increase the crater width. 2. Crater depth is dependent on meteor size/weight and height of the drop. A larger size and higher drop both produce a larger crater depth. 3. Ray lengths are affected by both meteor size/weight and height of drop. Again, larger size and higher drop produce larger rays. Many of our rays could not be measured since they were way beyond our container. From our simple experiment we were able to better imagine an actual meteor hitting a planet and the impact it would have.
HomeworkMandatory: Read ECA Chapter 2 Lending Library Book Bring in shoebox (I need just a few more) Optional: ACG Chapter 5 & 6 NB pg 22, 23, 24, 28, 31 with Kim Rodgers Christianity in BritainToday was a very different mood than the last two weeks! Instead of war and combat we talked about Christianity coming to Britain via the monks. They arrived in Britain with the goal of spreading their faith throughout this wild land. They also brought with them their ability for reading and writing, which was very rare at that time. Books were scarce due to the fact that it often took months, if not longer, to print out one book! The process to make parchment, ink, and quills took time as well. The monks made a name for themselves as they printed copies of Bibles and other religious books by hand, adding their own artwork surrounding letters on the page called illuminated letters. You might remember these as looking like paintings etched with gold surrounding a letter at the beginning of a page. Illuminated LettersThe students worked on making their own illuminated letters by practicing fancy writing using two or three pencils taped together. Once they had their letters how they wanted, we talked about how they could embellish their letters using drawings inside or surrounding them. We looked at examples of manuscripts on the computer so they could have lots of options. They then transferred their rough drafts onto pieces of cardstock and traced their letters with white glue. The plan is to let the glue dry, go over it with gold pens, and use colored pencils to add color and depth. I’m excited to see how they turn out! I told them if they wanted to make more letters at home they could draw them and trace them with glue as we did in class. They can bring them in next week in order to use the gold pens on them in class. Next week the students can bring in their notebooking pages, their maps, and any letters t!hey created during the week. Have a great week! with Michelle Cameron Creating CharacterToday we talked about our tasting words. Our word collection is growing nicely. Several of the children had completed their stories from last week or had stories to share. Several of the completed stories did a nice job of incorporating the sense details we discussed last week as part of the treasure box. We talked about having great ideas in our heads and the fact that we sometimes don’t get them down on paper. And one of the stories was a perfect segue-way into our discussion about character. We started out by reading a picture book with the deliciously naughty protagonist, Jake, in Simon James’s The Day Jake Vacuumed. As we read, we discussed how the illustrator gave us clues to Jake’s personality, anticipated what might happen next, and what the kids would do if all parental controls were lifted. (Don’t worry – Jake gets his come-uppance at the end!) Then we talked about characters – the fact that they don’t have to be human, that, like Jake, they can do naughty things (but just on paper), and that they are not the same people as the writer. Our writers were given large sheets of paper and, after closing their eyes and picturing a character, were told to begin a drawing. They were then asked the following questions: 1. What’s the character’s name? 2. How old are they? (can be just born, can be a zillion years old…) 3. Do they have brothers and sisters? List them. 4. What color is their hair? (If they don’t have hair, what color is their fur, or scales, or skin?) 5. What color are their eyes? (How many do they have?) 6. Where does the character live? (It could be an imaginary place or planet.) 7. What do they like MOST to eat? 8. What do they HATE to eat? 9. Do they have an enemy? What’s the enemy’s name? 10. Do they have a secret? What is it? 11. What do they WANT? (We talked about what Harry Potter and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz wanted. I explained that every character must want something and that’s where the story usually starts). After completing their drawings and answering the questions, they described their characters, and I was happy to see a nice mix of imaginary, animal, and human characters. We then launched into writing the day’s stories. We wrote until the end of class and I encourage them
all to complete their stories over the course of the week. (And if they did finish, they should write a “Part 2”). We’ll share their stories at the beginning of class next week. This week’s word collection should be action words – verbs, if possible. I can’t wait to hear their stories next Monday! Have a great week, everyone. |
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