California State Standards ask us to compare and contrast how land is used in Urban, Suburban, and Rural environments. After a quick introduction to the basic concepts, we set out to use our Project Student space well by filling the whole room with photographs that exemplified this. Of course it was entirely up to the kids to sort and categorize each picture. Project Studio is very hands on!
Many of the pictures were purposefully tricky, exhibiting characteristics from more then one land use and requiring the kids to look closely for details. We then asked the question: Is Los Angeles considered Urban or Suburban? Maybe even a little Rural? Lets hope that next time our Second Graders are gazing out the car window, as they often do, they have a little more to think about ...
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What does problem solving look like? This picture may capture it pretty well!
Fourth Graders recently came to Project Studio for a culmination to their lessons abut Native American tribes from different regions of California. Students were met with artifact stations from each of the tribes they studied. Each station had artifacts from either the Yorok, MIwok, Chumash, Maidu or Mojave tribes. Determining which station was associated with which tribe was entirely up to the kids. It was a challenging but fun activity that required the kids to use their prior knowledge, attention to details, and to work cooperatively. The students were then asked to design their own tool for one of the tribes using mostly natural materials. Students need to site, with evidence, why the tribe would need the tool and how they would be able to make it with the available resources of the region. Next week fourth graders will be back for the first of an ongoing series of lessons that will focus on the characteristics of effective collaboration. We will continue to pull the content from the social studies curriculum but put the emphasis on the collaboration. It is our goal that while our students master the content, they also learn the skills necessary to excel while creating projects in small groups. |
"Project Studio is a virtual playground where students engage in divergent thinking exercises using a variety of educational modalities to arrive at an elevated result."
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February 2015
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