Thursday, June 23, 2011

June 13-17

Classes completed their look at Ancient Africa  
(post-Egyptian New Kingdom), subsequently moving back to the Americas  
to study the civilizations of Monte Alban and Teotihuacan, both  
located in what is today southern Mexico.

The 4th graders copied a chart with columns for both of these  
civilizations. The chart was completed for the Monte Alban boxes, but  
the teacher left it to them to complete the corresponding sections for  
Teotihuacan.

Students also had to imagine they were transported to one of the two  
civilizations and conjure up a "day in the life," mixing facts from  
the book with their own ideas of what they might do on any given day.

The concept of Critical Thinking was also introduced, students copying  
in their notebooks a blank chart including the "Three Thinkers" (Naive  
Nancy, Selfish Sam, and Fair-Minded Fran). The teacher went through  
the five minute movie clip, pausing to solicit information to fill in  
the chart on the whiteboard (and in each student notebook). The notion  
that "we all have all three types of thinkers inside of us" was  
stressed.

Students then tackled a Homework based on the Three Thinkers in which  
they had to write about a situation in which they had been like Sam or  
Nancy, and how they could have been more like Fran.

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