Thursday, January 7, 2010

Around India, China and the Holy Land in Five Days

It is amazing that we are already finishing up our first week back from winter break!

It has been a busy week in Room 503, what with all the traveling we've been doing...Quasi-traveling, that is: in the form of reading, research and re-telling.

The sixth grade students were split into three assignment groups on Monday. Each group was responsible for learning about one particular ancient culture. Group 1 learned about India, while Group 2 explored China, and Group 3 delved into the world of the Hebrews and Judaism.

Students worked individually on Monday and Tuesday reading their text book and answering the section questions and creating a vocabulary list. On Wednesday, they each met with their Assignment Group to answer and discuss questions pertaining to the particular culture they had been reading about. Next, they split into pairs and decided what area of the culture they would explore more fully. Each student in the pair spent Wednesday evening researching the particular area they chose and came back to school today (Thursday) to report their findings to the group.

After sharing their individual information, each group worked together to decide how they were going to present all that they had learned to the other two groups. Their guidelines were that they needed to incorporate performance, a visual aspect, and a written piece of work. Students began working on their presentations in class and were asked to finish them up tonight at home. Tomorrow they will have time to rehearse their presentation before sharing with their other classmates before the day's end.

The students did a terrific job working individually, in pairs and threes, as well as in their small groups. There has been an excitement in the air - whether it is because it is our first week back, or they really are enjoying this assignment or a combination of both, I am not sure. But it's really great to see most all of them excited about the process.

This week was also a week of new beginnings and opening our minds up to looking at "old" things in new ways. On Wednesday, the students looked at - and felt - marshmellows in a whole new way. After having the opportunity to explore a marshmellow through touch, the students were encouraged to draw pictures of how a marshmellow feels. We are very used to drawing what things look like, or even how we feel emotionally, but to draw how something tactily feels is new territory.

Some of the students enjoyed the experience. Others said it was very challenging. The exercise was presented in order to give students the opportunity to explore their sense of touch and to be able to communicate it. Through discussion, the students used words such as "fluffy," "squishy," "spongy." Descriptions like, "It felt like a cloud looks," or "It feels like a baby's bottom," came up. But how does one draw those descriptions? Those adjectives? How do you describe a tactile experience? This is a bit of a precursor to richer writing.

As we are moving into the world of ancient Greece next week, we began touching on the unit by beginning mask work in Drama, and exploring root words in Language Arts. Though we will spend most of our time exploring Greece in Social Studies, we will be reading Greek mythology in Language Arts and learning about the origins of theatre in ancient Greece in Drama.

I will continue to keep you "posted" on Thursdays.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cheers,
Ms. Nicky Pitman