Dragons, Cherubim and Pangaea - Oh, My!

Room 503 seems to always be buzzing and bustling with activity and today was no exception.

We began our morning with drama, where the students were introduced to a very stock improv game called "Party Quirks" (you may have seen this performed on Whose Line is it Anyway?). The game begins with a "host" who steps out of the room, so that they don't hear what happens next.

Next, four other "guests" are chosen, and, by way of audience participation, each are given a "quirk" or persona of some kind to act out. The rule of thumb is that as each "guest" enters the "party" they must commit to acting out this quirk - being very clear in their actions, expressions, vocalizations and words - without completely giving it away to the host/hostess (who must guess what each guest's quirk is).

Once the quirks are established, the "guests" are asked to stand outside an imaginary front door, and the "host" is brought back into the room and onto the stage. The host then proceeds to "set up" the party - pantomiming where the tables are, what foods are where, etc. When the doorbell rings, he/she answers it, inviting the first guest in, who immediately begins displaying his/her quirk.

Sometimes the host is able to guess what the quirk is right away, other times it takes having all the guests at the party to interact with one another and help give other clues. This is great game because it encourages commitment to character, vocalization, physicalization and focuses on communication - in a really fun way!

The Sixth Graders did a terrific job, overall, acting out "quirks" like having a fear of paintings, being obsessed with cookies, being attracted to shiny objects, etc.

The Language Arts homework from last night entailed doing a bit of research on dragons and cherubims, as they are included in our current read, A Wind in the Door. We began discussion about it this morning, but were short on time, so we will be delving into these subjects further throughout the next week or two.

This afternoon our class was privileged to have a special science lesson with Dr. D (a.k.a. Dana Desonie, a.k.a. Reed's mom). Dr. D's lesson today was on Pangaea (the supercontinent that we has learned about last quarter), and she was able to explain to the students the history of its discovery, the theories behind it, as well as show us the evidence that substantiates its past existence.

Dr. D began by writing the following statement on the white board: The present is the key to the past. She then asked the students what they thought this meant, and then she was able to help the students understand how it does or does not relate to Pangaea.

Using overheads to help the students see how Pangaea was certainly a possible, plausible and probable reality, Dr. D had the students follow along in pairs and trios to (literally) piece together the continents into one Super Continent (each group was given paper continents and had to mark the continents with glaciers, rocks, mountains and fossils to see how/where the continents might fit together).

Our guest gave us some great background information on Alfred Wegner, the father of the continental drift theory (and Pangaea), and brought us up to date with an introduction to plate tectonics.

Having Dr. D as a guest was terrific in several ways: 1) Because of her knowledge of Pangaea and its history she was able to give the students valuable information, and go into a far deeper explanation than my own surface know-how; 2) It's so great to mix things up a bit for the students and give them the opportunity to learn from someone new (they hear only mine and Mrs. Veenstra's voice all day); 3) Whenever I have the opportunity to sit in and observe someone else teach, it allows me to reflect on my own teaching and it allows me a new perspective in experiencing how the students in Room 503 learn (and teach one another).

And that deserves a really big, OH MY!

Cheers,
Ms. Pitman