Month: December 2019

Unit #2 Our Human Creations, Timeline Project

Hello Everyone!

In connection with our unit concept of CHANGE, we are creating timelines to better understand how technology has changed over time due to constant human innovation.

Students are working with a partner, and they have chosen a topic to focus on. It is important that we understand we are looking for human innovations in our timelines. For example, if you are looking at communication as a topic, then we are looking at the history of innovations, technologies, and tools that have been used for communication.

There is an example of a timeline hanging in the classroom on the topic of TRANSPORTATION. Please use this as a model to better understand how to create a timeline.

Here are the instructions and criteria list for the project, which we already talked about in class:

  1. Choose a topic. Brainstorm the related words to your project topic, so you can better find information online and in books.
  2. Use the books provided in the classroom (there are lots, and some are even on timelines!) to find information before you use the internet. If your topic isn’t covered by the books, you can go ahead and use the internet.
  3. When using a book, use the non-fiction features we discussed, such as the table of contents, index, key words, headings, and captions, to find information more quickly.
  4. When using the internet, make sure to use some of the key words you brainstormed. If you are looking for communication tools, for example, you may want to try “history communication tools humans.” Ask for help if you need it!!
  5. We won’t do a bibliography, but you need to take notes and record your sources in your journal.
  6. Write down key ideas in your own words, as you will better remember what you learned. Don’t just copy.
  7. Check sources for quality as we have discussed in class. Is it too old? Is the website from a business and has lots of ads? Who wrote the website? What is the ending of the web address (use .edu, .org, .gov for example)?
  8. Do research independently, then come together with your partner to exchange notes and to discuss. Decide on 20 dates in time you would like to represent on your timeline.
  9. Ms. D will give you 4 sheets of 8.5″ x 14″ legal paper. Each partner will take two, as well as 10 of the dates. Create your half of the timeline. We will connect all four sheets together to make one large timeline at the end.
  10. Timeline can go horizontal or vertical. You can decide how the line will be drawn on the paper.
  11. You need an illustration for each date.
  12. You need a 1-2 sentence description for each date. Descriptions can be typed and glued on the timeline, or handwritten in pencil, then done in fine liner so we can see them. Writing needs to be large enough to fill the space and be visible to others when it is hung up for display.
  13. We will hang our results up for everyone to enjoy!

I CAN statements from the curriculum content and competencies that you will find on your assessment rubric:

I can find information for my timeline from a variety of sources and document my research in notes, recording key ideas and sources.

I can choose specific dates for my timeline and write descriptions of 1-2 sentences that show an understanding of how my specific technology or human innovation area has changed over time.

I can communicate using clear writing and edit for conventions of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

I can use illustrations to communicate further information about each of the dates I chose on the timeline.

I can demonstrate an understanding and appreciate of evidence by looking through a variety of sources as I research.

I can sequence events on my timeline appropriately to show the positive and negative aspects of change in human innovations over time.

I can show knowledge of different types of machines and technology that have been created by humans to serve a specific purpose.

Questions? Ask Ms. D!

 

New Unit Dec./Jan. and Year-Long Curriculum Information

 

Hello Everyone,

As communicated in the parent orientation and via the blog earlier this fall, we are continuing with our conceptual-based units throughout the year.

These units integrate all subjects and connect directly to the B.C. curriculum, whether through the big ideas, content, or curricular competency skill areas. The units also integrate curriculum from both the grade 4 and 5 years.

Given MACC students are with me for two years, I have created a program that runs over two years and does not repeat in terms of content. We do repeatedly practice skill areas, as they need practice for longer than just one year. Some skill areas they practice all the way through high school, too!

Our schedule for the year goes like this:

Term 1:  
Unit 1 — Concept SYSTEMS, unit integrated around health and human body

Term 2:  
Unit 2 — Concept CHANGE/CREATIVITY, unit integrated around technology/maker things
Unit 3 — Concept EXPLORATION, unit integrated around people/animal migration

Term 3:
Unit 4 — Concept STRUCTURE/ORDER, unit integrated around resources and needs/wants
Unit 5 — Concept CONNECTION/PATTERNS, unit integrated around space, stories, myths
Unit 6 — Independent Project (process happens throughout term 2 and 3, with presentation in June for the public)

For Term 2, here is our unit we began two and a half weeks ago! 
See my Twitter feed for pictures of work we have already done so far!

Unit #2:  Our Human Creations, December – Mid-January

CONCEPT:  Change and Creativity

Unit Focus Statement: We use creativity and knowledge together to make innovations that change our world.

An Inquiry Into:

  • Our learning and use of creative thinking (from the core competencies)
  • Change and the design process
  • Tools we can use to change the depth of our reading and writing
  • Scientific forces and mathematical thinking behind our creations
  • How innovations make change
  • Using technology to learn or to create change
  • Change in our lives, perspectives, thinking, and abilities
  • How we can share our creative thinking with one another and the community

Some of the Specific Topics Covered In:

Science: Simple machines, Work, Center of Gravity, Technology, Early Indigenous Tools, Deciding which machine has had the greatest benefit/use, making catapults, creating hydraulic devices, Rube Goldberg devices
Socials:  Technology and Society — Positive and Negative Impacts, History of Technology, Timelines, Critical Thinking About Our Technology Use, Creation of a Timeline, Debate on Impact of Video Game Use on Children
Math:  Deeper Conversations around multiplication and division, Use of scientific formulas from physics around work and rate/distance/time, Basic Variables/Algebra, Area/Perimeter, Tiny House Creation, Math Used in Creating Buildings/Skyscrapers through the book “You Do the Math: Skyscrapers”
Language Arts: Creative Writing, Careful editing, use of non-fiction features in books to do research, organizing notes for research, using key words for internet searches, reading of City of Ember through the use of Reading Power.
Applied Design: Design Process steps used in the creation of catapults, “Perfect Square” structures, as well as discussions around how creative thinking can be learned. Creativity research study observing how younger children work with marble roller coaster creation.
French: Use of French-games.net to do a variety of vocabulary-building, independently-paced lessons. Students will do practice and assessments in class on vocabulary lists and phrases built from these activities.
Arts:  Maker Projects, Musical Performance, Spindle Whorls and Coast Salish Art Forms, Not a Box Activity, Creative-Thinking Challenges, and continued talk about elements and principles of art. 
Physical Education and Health: Movement activities focused around the quality of movement, dance moves, where we can find aerobic activities that get our heart pumping, and the creative choreography of our own dances to music. Also, brainstorming together creative options for cooperative play on the playground.

More updates to come as specific projects are introduced! Please ask if you have questions!

Ms. D