This week, the Fourth and Fifth Grade went to Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center to attend one of the museum’s science labs.
The main focus of the trip was science, but to prepare, the students spent time in Social Studies class taking a long look at Native American culture and history by studying, analyzing, and sketching various artifacts — everything from masks to tools.
The students did their best to look at each artifact through the lenses of the sevens aspects of culture: Language, Customs & Traditions, Government, Social Organization, Religion, Arts & Literature, and Economic Systems. Students were presented with four different artifacts and had to do their best, in groups, to determine what function each item served in different Native cultures.
Later on, at the Anchorage Museum, students were met by museum representatives who walked the kids through the ways in which researchers use sound to track how ecosystems change over time.
Meanwhile, In Third Grade…
This week, third graders got a more visual look at the value of doing multiple drafts. Students looked at identifying problems and issues with current versions, and then changing and improving them with later versions.
The illustrations below, each created by the Third Grade class, helped students grasp the gradual progression and improvements that were possible over time with slow, diligent patience.
Students were again asked to create complete ‘flash draft’ stories in less than fifteen or twenty minutes. These flash drafts contained a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. Once these were complete, students studied their drafts and discussed them, focusing on the structure, order of events and details to improve them.
Once they’d discussed each other’s stories, the students put their newfound drafting skills to the test when they worked to craft second drafts of the stories they’d created previously with their flash drafts.
Just For Fun
