Maximizing Learning Potential: Wrapping up the Rainforest

Friday, May 15, 2009

Wrapping up the Rainforest

We are finished with our rainforest unit. Haley completed her manatee report yesterday (posted at the bottom of this page). Maddie just took notes on the sloth. I thought it would be too hard for her to organize the information into paragraphs. They both learned a lot about the rainforest. Maddie found The Magic Treehouse: Afternoon in the Amazon. She sat down and read from cover to cover this morning! She usually NEVER reads on her own. Normally, I set the timer for 30 minutes each day and as soon as it goes off, her book goes back on her shelf. Needless to say, they both were very interested in learning all about the unit study!

Haley has found an interest in chess. She and her friend, Zeke, have been teaching each other with a computer program I have. They played their first "real" game last Friday night at chess club. Although Haley won, they both still have a LONG way to go. Unfortunately, I have never played myself so I'm not much help at this point. Haley told Mrs. D (5th-grade JET teacher) that she was learning chess and she was so excited! She said she would make some copies for Haley and Zeke to learn some strategic moves.

The girls have been swimming nearly every day in our pool! The weather has been pretty nice, but the water is still way too cold for me to take a dip! The kids don't mind at all. . .they are just happy to be swimming again:) It was a long winter looking out our windows and seeing the pool all closed up!

Ede, Rachel and I are going to plan a "mystery camp" for the kids this summer. The kids can not wait to begin! I am really excited about all the fun things we have found to do with them, but I just wonder if there will be time. . . . I found some really fun lesson plans that have activities to learn about mysteries in history. We have chosen to learn about the Mary Celeste, Witch Trials, Lost City of Atlantis, and the Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. I also wrote a mystery when I was teaching 5th grade, "The Mystery of the Stolen Laundry." The kids will have to do a few scientific experiments and solve some math problems to eliminate suspects, and, eventually lead to the thief. We are going to read and discuss The Westing Game, a novel written in a style similar to the Clue Game. I think they will have a blast!

1 comment:

RachelMay 15, 2009 at 7:05 PM
We're all looking forward to mystery camp too! Everything we're planning for the summer seems to revolve around mystery camp... "is that after mystery camp?", "how long after mystery camp is that?" etc.
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Is it a Cheetah?

When we think of cheetahs we are likely to think first of their speed. It's flashy. It is impressive. It's unique. If a cheetah is confined to a 10 X 12 foot cage, though it may pace or fling itself against the bars in restless frustration, it won't run 70 mph.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?

If a cheetah has only 20 mph rabbits to chase for food, it won't run 70 mph while hunting.

A school system that defines giftedness (or talent) as behavior, achievement and performance is as compromised in its ability to recognize its highly gifted students and to give them what they need as a zoo would be to recognize and provide for its cheetahs if it looked only for speed.

However, schools are to extraordinarily intelligent children what zoos are to cheetahs. Many schools provide a 10 x 12 foot cage, giving the unusual mind no room to get up to speed. Many highly gifted children sit in the classroom the way big cats sit in their cages, dull-eyed and silent. Some, unable to resist the urge from inside even though they can't exercise it, pace the bars, snarl and lash out at their keepers, or throw themselves against the bars until they do themselves damage.
In some schools brilliant children are asked to do what they were never designed to do while the attributes that are a natural aspect of unusual mental capacity -- intensity, passion, high energy, independence, moral reasoning, curiosity, humor, unusual interests and insistence on truth and accuracy -- are considered problems that need fixing.

Exerpts from Stephanie S. Tolan ©1996

Work Samples

Manatees (unedited)
By Haley
05/14/09

Manatees are very different than other animals. Manatees are aquatic mammals. They are also endangered. Manatees live in warm waters. They are very slow. Manatees are related to elephants. Manatees never hurt any other animal.

Manatees are funny looking creatures. Manatees are a grey- brown color. They are known as sea cows. A baby manatee weighs about 60 pounds. A grown manatee weighs about 1000 pounds. Sharp propellers from motor boats scar the manatees back.

Manatees have to lots of things after they have a baby. A mother manatee always stays near her calf. Manatees always teach there calf which plants are safe to eat. Manatees usally have one baby at a time every three years. The first thing a baby manatee does after it gets born it rises to the surface to breath. Last, a female manatee becomes an adult when it is five.

Manatees were used in lots of different ways. Its skin was burned as fuel. Also its bones where used as medican and jewelry. Its skin was made into shoes. Manatees fed many people.

Manatees are endangered animals. People need to protect them and not hurt them so they don’t dye out!