Teacher Journals

Glenede Albertine
School: Petersham Center School

SCIENCE:

We began with just the question on the bulletin board. The school year began with an (all school) community meeting. There was a large sign in front of the school, The Spirit of Inquiry. Also, all the students signed a banner, Committed to Excellence.

The grade 3-4 multiage combined for the first day of inquiry, "How do we know it's autumn?" With 27 students, we formed groups of three by giving each student the name of an animal. They had to find the other two members of their group with the same animal by not talking, not making any noise, and not showing their animal's name card. We began after each student settled with the members of their group by asking about observations of changes since school got out in June. We began at our school garden which the students had planted in June. Using the garden as a focus point, we plan to continue observations throughout the fall as the garden proceeds through the stages of seed production and death. Then, we spent about 30 minutes walking through the field paths and making observations. Back in the classrooms, the students worked in their individual groups and made lists of their observations. For homework that night, students recorded similar observations of changes at their homes.

After making long lists on the board of the students' observations, each student drew pictures which were added to the bulletin board. Questions, reflecting the students observations, were printed out and added to the bulletin board. The following list reflects those questions. Why do people pick apples now? Whay are birds flying south? Why does school start now? Why do caterpillars build webs? Why is the grass in the field changing to a purplish color? Why is the garden dying? Why are seeds and leaves falling? Why is it cooler in the evening and the morning? Why do farmers cut the hay? How come ice cream places close down? Why are ferns turning brown? What other plants are the monarch caterpillars eating in the garden? What insects eat the leaves of the milkweed? Why is the sunset earlier? Why can birds eat poisonous berries? What was the baby snake doing? Why do sunflowers lose petals and leaves? What do milkweed pods look and feel like now? Where do you find mushrooms? Were there cherry tomatoes in June? Where are the butterflies? Why do the nuts on the plant with the pretty flowers only come now? What insects do you hear? Are the insects flying around now the same as the ones in June? How many berries do you see?

We continued our observations the next day by taking a closer look at trees. The students drew a picture of a tree and then wrote about What is a Tree? by making a story, a description, or a poem. Later, in groups students working in groups picked a tree on the play ground and completed a specific questions about the bark, leaves, size, shape, color,etc. The students made leaf and bark rubbings of their tree. Students used leaf samples to determine deciduous and coniferous trees. As Autumn continues, students will return to their tree to observe changes.

Where do forests come from? How do most forests grow? Do most forests grow in similar ways? Does it take a long time for a forest to develop? Students continue observations by studying forest succession using the story, How the Forest Grew. Students learn about forest succession and then find signs of it in our schoolyard, neighborhood, and town. The historical connection comes in with a visit to Old Historic Deerfield. Careful observation of the wood used in building reveals the size and availability of trees during the various time periods.

Why do plants need to move its seeds? How does a taller plant succeed in an area? What happens to a species that requires light when it produces too much shade for its seedlings? How does a tre grow? One sign of fall is that so many plants are at the seed production stage of their life cycles. Students begin searching and collecting different seeds. First, seeds may be categorized by the shape and general appearance. Some seeds have hard shells while others have juicy fruit surrounding them. Next, the seeds are categorized by the means of dispersal.

How are living things, plants and animals, adapted to environmental changes? Where do green plants grow? What is the "right" environment? Why do plants need to move seeds? (seed dispersal - diversity, categories) What is a pine tree? (observation, description, identification of seed, leaves, bark) How does a tree grow? (cell division - tips, roots, cambium) Look at tree cookies.

What makes planet Earth so unique for living things? In our exploration of the uniquenes of planet Earth, we continue to look at its changes and its diversity. We walk the schoolyard and collect various seeds (autumn is a great time for this activity); and then we categorize the seeds depending upon their means of dispersal. Why do seeds ned to disperse? What effect does dispersal have on the diversity of an area? What effect does seed dispersal have on forest succession.

LITERATURE:

Arthur, For the Very First Time by Patricia MacLachlan

How the Forest Grew by William Jaspersohn

Long ago, Native Americans used their stories to explain the changes and diversity of Earth. Share stories such as The Earth on Turtles Back, Manabozho and the Maple Trees, The Grizzly Bear Who Climbed Too High, and How the Turtle Flew South For The Winter (Caduto)

Macmillan basal reader, Sketches, Level 4 - How the Forest Grew Where do forests come from? Do most forests grow in similar ways? Does it take a long time for a forest to develop? We learned about forest succession and how it relates to Petersham's history of land use. A great extension would be a trip to the Diorama at Fisher Museum at Harvard Forest.

Science For Kids; 39 Easy Geography Activities by Robert W. Wood

SOCIAL STUDIES:

With regard to mapping, a student asks, "Why do we need to learn about what the land is like or how hight above sea level it is?" We start by making our own maps of the school room, the school grounds, the center of town, and what we may know form our home to our school. Concrete models, such as blocks of wood, work well in transitioning to building models. A map is a model.

We look at topographical maps and historical maps of Petersham. We learn about benchmarks and contour lines while we locate our homes and observe where we each live in relation to each other, hills, and water. Thus, we begin our investigation of how land affects the way we live.

In Wood's book, several activities help to understand different types of maps ( topographical, road, political, land use). I particularly like the model build ing and charting activities that helped with the understanding of contour lines (Chapters 9 and 11)

In order to study the diversity of the six geographic regions of the United States, we need to take a wide angle view of the United States with its varied land. We look at how humans use and adapt to the land and climate. We use maps as mod,els for land regions, geographic regions, and the 50 states.

Glenede Albertine
School: Petersham Center School

SCIENCE:

The first step may take longer for younger students. With Inquiry, it is important to slow down. It may take several tries outside, before proceeding to the blackboard. Rather than saying, the Sun has set in the west; we say the sun "appears" to set in the west.

The fourth graders tried the board on the second day. The arc was called a rainbow, a bridge, part of a circle, etc. We talked about what people long ago had thought. We talked about how the Sun would get back to the east each morning. The students quickly connected the arc to a complete circle.

Students rapidly moved to the concept of the earth moving around the Sun, instead of the sun moving around the Earth much faster than I had anticipated. We then used the overhead projector as our light source. Although students had stated that the Earth travels around the Sun, they quickly stated that it didn't go around the Sun in a day. We then used the overhead to show with our heads how the Earth spins around once a day. Slowly turning, we felt the arc of the light as we turned from the left side of our body to the center to the right and felt the light move in the arc from east to west. The students enjoyed the wave and saying, "HELLO, SUN!" with exaggeration. The school wrote a little Sun song to the tune of "Three Blind Mice". The signing for time is similar to Hello, Sun! MATH:

Fourth grade students will need a review of curves and circles. In Addison Wesley, the challenge activity, "Going in circles," (11-8) on page 312B should be used. This is a good spot to touch upon telling time with the idea of clockwise.

LITERATURE:

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Glenede Albertine
School: Petersham Center School

SCIENCE:

How does light travel? Where can light travel? How do we see the Moon? What is the speed of light? How fast does light travel? Along with the shadow investigations, students enjoy using small mirrors to experiment with light traveling in straight lines, the bounce of light that creates angles. By fourth grade, we use the word opaque. This may be a good spot to look (or rather listen) to sound. How are sounds alike? What makes your vocal cords vibrate? Can you speak while holding your breath or breathing in? How are sounds different? How does sound travel? How are sound and light similar? How are sound and light different?

MATH:

Fourth graders will need to work with the idea of parallel and perpendicular lines and the idea of angles. If these concepts are briefly introduced at this time, there will be a more meaningful understanding when the students cover them later in the school year in a math lesson (Remember when we...). In this activity, prior knowledge is not assumed and the concept is being applied in a direct experience.

LITERATURE:

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Glenede Albertine
School: Petersham Center School

SCIENCE:

In the classroom, students can use toothpicks or skewers stuck into square inch pieces of styrofoam from meat trays taped on small sheets of oaktag. A Tensor lamp provides a good direct light source to manipulate. Students should be encouraged to make journal entries that record not only their observations and descriptions, but also drawings. These can be referred to in later activities and can also provide a means of assessment. In light of Ed Reform, we have also to consider alternative forms of assessment. Referring back, comparing data, and recalling predictions all appear to be good opportunities to assess students' progress. Add to this the shadow measurements taken outdoors each hour throughout the day. The shortest shadow is at midday, not Noon. By taking a reading at Noon, the students will make interesting observations over time. The graphing of the length of day, the shadow measurements, and the temperature measurements start to provide the data for making our conclusions. Special times are, of course, the equinoxes and solstices. We like to use those names. I even have a special shirt I wear to celebrate those days. A connection to life sciences would be observation of the behavioral adaptations of animals preparing for winter such as birds migrating and squirrels gathering food supplies.

MATH:

LITERATURE:

Native American Tale "How Turtle Flew South for the Winter" (Caduto)
The Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson

SOCIAL STUDIES:

How does climate affect our lives? How does climate affect the way land is used? (climate maps)

Glenede Albertine
School: Petersham Center School

Students reminded not to look directly at the overhead light. The paper circle helps to keep the light more directed.

Why is Antarctica so cold? How are penguins adapted (structure and behavior) to Antarctica? Why do they live there?

We first experimented with the figurine attached with funtack to the globe to show how we travel from daylight to night as the Earth spins. Then we placed figurines at different spots on the Earth, and determined what time of day or night it was at those locations. We did this by positioning our figurine in the location for about midday. Then we made our prediction, we went to the computer to The World Right Now, a live camera. We then could prove our prediction was correct by what we saw on the live camera at those locations. We did not put a lot of emphasis on the shadows, because the figurines were large which made the shadows misleading.

Lyddie by K. Patterson

Science for Kids; 39 Easy Geography Activities by Robert W. Wood

Somewhere in the World Right Now by

In Wood's book, there are activities on calcuating your longitude, lines of latitude, finding the North Star, and finding your latitude from the North Star.

While reading Somewhere in the World Right Now, students worked in groups and located the different places on the globe and discussed the time. Althought this was time consuming and difficult, the students needed this activity to see places on the globe do not all have sunlight at the same time. Also, we found it necessary to make the distinction between continent, country, and state.

Regions of the United States have growing seasons. How is land use affected by the amount of light received in different locations? Use the Internet to research temperatures in other regions or gather data from other students collecting shadow measurements. How does light affect the land, climate, resources and industries of New England? How is land used? How do people in the New England region survive? Why do so many people live in the New England region? Where is it easier to grow crops? Why did early colonists come to the New World?

A good time to look at the history of transportation (e.g. railroads and tunnels).

Glenede Albertine
School: Petersham Center School

On the first day of the lesson, we limited our discussion to travel. See the social studies notes below. We connected our understanding of the need for different time zones with having read Somewhere in the World Right Now and the activity Latitudes and Attitudes.

We will continue to use the concrete models (globe and light source). Time Zones are difficult to grasp.

Time zones in fourth grade math are in Addison Wesley, Chapter 8. Telling time, AM and PM, the 24 hour clock, reading a calendar, and determining elapsed time are all ways to integrate the math. Skip counting and looking for patterns and the relationships between 12, 24, and 36 all provide great opportunities for integrating math.

Science For Kids; 39 Easy Geography Activities by Robert W. Wood

Since time is a very difficult idea. We discussed time and distance. We talked about old ways of keeping time. Long ago, when people stayed in one area, farmers woke up with the sun and the rooster and went to bed when it was dark. People knew time according to the position of the sun. Why did this need to change? We discussed technology in our changing world.

Since the fourth grade studies regions of the United States, we used the comparison of traveling across the United States. We discussed how it took Lewis and Clark about two years to explore all the way to the West Coast two hundred years ago and how pioneers traveled for six months to get to Oregon and California in Conestoga wagons one hundred fifty years ago. Since they traveled such a short distance each day, the old way of keeping time still worked. How did the invention of the steam engine change how people thought about time and distance? By the end of the nineteenth century, one hundred years ago, people could travel from coast to coast in less than one week. Today, in an airplane, people can travel from coast to coast in a few hours, less than a day.

Time Zones are studied. Therefore, when it became possible because of technology for people to travel over great distances faster and to communicate over distances instantaneously, there was a need for a new way to measure time. About a hundred years ago, standard time zones were established all over the world. How many time zones are there? Why are there 24?

In Wood's book, there are activities on calcuating your longitude, lines of latitude, finding the North Star, and finding your latitude from the North Star.

Measurement with the fist is a great life skill. We left the idea of degrees for another session.

After accomplishing an understanding of time zones, we needed to make the transition to the idea of 360 degrees. Students seemed to understand that 360 was a complete circle (skateboarding term??) The understanding that 360 came from ancient people realizing it took the Earth revolve around the sun was pretty exciting. I walked around the room in a large circle as I posed the question about what kept happening over and over again that took 360? A student clearly realized that the Earth traveled around the sun in about that amount, 365 days. We went on from there.

We spent some time reviewing the concept of the arc from Hello, Sun! While outside we made observations of the sun's shadow. How had the sun's position changed since the early part of September? How had our shadow measurements changed? Shadows were longer because the Sun appears lower in the sky.

We practice measuring with our fists to get about 9 fists in a 90 degree measurement. We used Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground, Chapter 4-12. Calling this a life skill, we continued practicing measuring with our fists both inside and outdoors.

While we were making pictographs in a math lesson, students used a symbol to represent a certain defined number of objects. Half of the symbol would then represent half of that number. Using the concept from the pictograph, we used the picture of a fist to draw part of a circle. We then moved to the question of how many fists in 90 degrees. Then, how many degrees does each fist represent? We then used fists to skip count (by 10s) around 360 degrees. Then with a circle divided into 24 time zones, students used fists to see that each time zone was a fist and a half or 15 degrees.

In order to prove that we were correct, we would have to find a way to measure the changing position of the sun. In other words, the Sun should appear to move a fist and a half or 15 degrees each hour. Using Hello, Sun or shadow measurements taken each hour would be two different ways of doing this. Rather than having students looking directly at the Sun, I would prefer to try it by shadow measurements. By marking the shadow each hour, the students could then measure the change in degrees to see the 15 degree pattern.

In summary, after establishing the idea of the 24 time zones/ 360 degree and the 15 degree movement each hour, we need to reinforce just what is actually moving, the Earth turning on its axis and not the Sun! Now can students start to think of locations in terms of both time zones and longitude lines?

Glenede Albertine
School: Petersham Center School

SCIENCE:

Use diagrams.

The StarLab Planetarium is a great way to build an understandig of the constellations and their positions relative to the seasons of the year and the sun's position. Whoops, it is the Earth's location that changes as it travels on its yearly path as it revolves around the Sun. Certain constellations are visible at certain seasons of the year. The comparison of where the sun appears to be in the sky in the Spring, Fall, Summer, and Winter helps to reinforce shadow observations. I could aso see the StarLab being used for a discovery lesson on sound.

MATH:

In Addison Wesley, grade 4, page 300A-301, there is a good lesson progression on using protractors and understanding degrees and right angles. How do you calculate midday.

LITERATURE:

SOCIAL STUDIES: