Small groups of students explored this question last week. We used our findings from our sun-shadow observations and background knowledge from our research to infer the causes of day and night. Students used globes and flashlights to build models of their ideas. After students developed their inference, they were challenged to find out which direction the earth rotates (east to west or west to east?). Each team of scientists created a video to show their findings. Our class will visit the computer lab this week, and everyone will have a chance to view and comment on each team's video. By seeing other groups explain their findings, I hope all students will gain new perspectives and understandings on this scientific concept. And..it was just fun to watch our kids ham it up in front of our video cameras! Each team's video is posted below - enjoy!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Poetry Author's Circles
As we finished up our writing unit on poetry, we got together in Author's Circles to give each other feedback on our writing. We asked ourselves the following questions as we shared our poetry with each other:
- What do I like about this poem?
- What do I think this poem is saying?
- Are there any parts that confused me?
- Are there any poetry tools that could make the message clearer?
I was so impressed with our kids as they gave each other important and critical feedback. They took their role as revisers very seriously. I caught some of their conversations on tape - click on the videos below to see the incredible dialogue our students were engaged in.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Social Studies Chapter 8 Studycast
Click here to listen to the studycast for Chapter 8. You can also download the studycast to your computer by right clicking on the link and choosing "save target as." If you have any questions about the material, just leave me a comment below and I'll get back to you soon. Thanks for listening!
