Sunday, October 9, 2022

Week Five Notes

We started the year in our Outdoor Classroom! Here are some week 5 notes:

Monday, Oct 3

    SWI - look at word sum for < history > which is not his + story but histor + y (< histor > is also the base of historical, historian, etc.) and use this as a way to help remember how to spell the schwa

    his·to·ry
    /ˈhist(ə)rē/

    the o is unstressed in < history > but can be heard plainly in other words in that family

    "A schwa is a vowel sound in an unstressed syllable, where a vowel does not make its long or short vowel sound. It usually sounds like the short /u/ sound, but is softer and weaker. The schwa sound is the most common vowel sound."

    Dictionary Skills - look in the dictionary to find other words with a schwa and see how they are spelled

    Field Trip - visit the Public Library to learn about the Dewey Decimal System as well as other ways that books are organized, practice using the card catalogue, do a scavenger hunt, and check out books

    Rhyming Words - read The Animal Picnic by Leslie Perkins at lunch and guess the rhyming words, taste fresh figs (the pigs brought figs)

    Trash Timeline - have students save all of their trash from lunch and use it in a Trash Timeline lesson

    Recess - create games using broken down cardboard boxes (including "Can o'Beans" and "Last to Leave the Cardboard Wins")

    Map Skills - finish up blue MLBs (number pages, add table of contents, decorate front & back covers), discuss the difference between True North and Magnetic North

    watch the first part of How to Use a Compass

    stop video at 3:15

    pass out copies of the map on page 9 of Orienteering (PDF) and have the students find our location and estimate our declination

    watch video to the end

    Legends of the Saints - hear the story of Saint Jerome (feast day Sep 30) from The Giant at the Ford and Other Legends of the Saints by Ursula Synge (the text link is to archive.org where this book is free)


    "Saint Jerome, the Lion and the Donkey," p.37


Tuesday, Oct 4

    Map Skills - assemble portfolio boxes and place completed blue MLBs in them

    pass out copies of topographical map of our area
    USGS 7.5-minute image map for Carbondale, Illinois (PDF)

    the date on this map is July 24, 2015
    (there is a newer map but I find it harder to read)

    note: these maps print quite small so we used our jeweler's loupes

    find Carbondale and the location of my house, look at declination at the bottom of the map and see whether our prediction was correct, discuss contour lines and what they mean

    break into two groups, do two version of a Contour Map lesson, and decide which one we like better


    Hubbard Scientific Contour Model Kit     vs.

    Topographic Mapping Exercise 2: The Concept of Contours
    (print page 4 of PDF)

    note: for both of these you will need a grease pencil

    we liked the free homemade version better because it's easier to draw on a rock than the plastic of the kit version

    follow with worksheet (page 6 of PDF; answer key on page 5 of PDF) and Mariana Trench Topographic Map (PDF)

    Spooky Snack Story - Old Enough for Magic by Anola Pickett

    Board Games - test out new classroom game Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza Halloween Edition

    Read Aloud - read The Alphabet by Reg Down at lunch (chap 19 P, chap 20 Q, chap 21 R, chap 22 S)

    Legends of the Saints - start Saints MLB (a special white MLB which we will work on all throughout the year as Feast Days come up)

    recall capitalization rules for names

    add Saint Hildegard of Bingen (draw a picture of the wire sculpture you made while listening to her music), Saint Michael (we used the Dragon Maze from Nova Natural in lieu of an illustration), and Saint Jerome (draw a picture of the lion's paw with a thorn in it) to MLB

    hear the story of Saint Francis of Assisi (feast day Oct 4) from Saints Among the Animals by Cynthia Zarin, discuss the local animal shelter


    "Saint Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio," p.16


Wednesday, Oct 5


Thursday, Oct 6

    Living History - continue to work on backboards for next Thursday

    Independent Work Time

    1 on 1 Meetings

    Legends of the Saints - add Saint Francis of Assisi to Saints MLB (draw the wolf's dark foreboding cave)

    Leonardo da Vinci - look at some of Leonardo's famous inventions in Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci by Gene Baretta, pass out new Inventors MLBs

    try out two simple inventions made with a piece of string (Zac saw these on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and wanted to try them)

    button spinner - episode 1496 (start at 10:42)

    bubble maker - episode 1507 (start at 1:37)

    the bubble stuff recipe does work better with a bit of glycerin in it

    Art History - begin our new artist study


    Meet Barbara Hepworth
    by Laura Carlin

    look at some examples of her artwork

    "Sculpture with Profiles," 1932

    "Mother and Child," 1934

    "Pelagos," 1946
    ask students, what does this form remind you of? brainstorm ideas, and then look up the meaning of the word 'pelagos'

    "Image II," 1960

    "Parent I," "Parent II," and "Young Girl"
    from "The Family of Man" series, 1970
    tell students the title of the work without showing it to them; given what you know so far about Barbara Hepworth's work, what do you envision? form a picture in your mind and then look at the image

    Read Aloud - read the remainder of The Alphabet by Reg Down

    SSR - read books from the "You Choose" Series by Capstone Press

    Board Games - test out new classroom games Clumsy Thief Jr., Poetry for Neanderthals, and Hand to Hand Wombat


The photos to go with this week are here.

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