See Think Wonder

Connect- Just like with earth day and sending a message to students that earth day should be every day, I pulled this picture from a book called A Dream of Freedom just recently for them to think about prejudice, even though Martin Luther King's birthday has passed The students in the photo were being escorted into a high school in Little Rock once schools were desegregated.  First I put the picture on the data camera had them fill out one column at a time.  Some of their responses in the "think" section were pretty deep like, "I think soldiers are following them because they have dark skin."  And some were able to infer this was taken in the past based on the women's clothing, which led them to wonder "why did people dress so weird in the past?"  After I showed them the caption and we discussed the event, I asked them if they think prejudice only happens when people have different skin colors.  Most thought yes.   We then looked at the word "prejudice" written on the board and thought about what small word sounds like "prejudice"? (judge). Next, we brainstormed all the ways people judge (appearance, houses we live in, cars we drive, money we have, etc).
Extend- After an hour of discussion (very few were off task!  It was lovely! Almost every single student shared a time when they felt like someone judged them. ), one student piped up and said "Mrs. Smith, I wish everyone just always the followed the Golden Rule.  Then the world would be nice all the time.  Treat others the way you want to be treated!"
Challenge-Just like with  any of these thinking routines, I expect them to go WAY deeper than they do. I forget that they're only 6.  I have to remember that if I'm exposing them these thinking strategies now, they'll surely have it down next year.  The more you exercise, the stronger you'll be!

Color Symbol Image

Connect- I read  a story called Mardy Murie Did, written by Grandmother of Conservation.  Mardy Murie was an environmental activist who always knew she loved the earth and wanted to protect all that live on it.  This is only the 2nd time students have used this thinking routine but most really connected with the story so I feel like they did well.

Extend- Because they have such an interest in nature and animals, and the author made so many references to animals, they felt empowered to create a symbol that would strike a cord with anyone who read their response. The overall theme of "One person CAN make a difference " kept showing up in all the students thinking throughout this unit.

Challenge-  I tried to push them to create a color that wasn't so obvious like green or blue.  Only a few were really thinking and were creative.  One student chose "red" because he wants to spread the word and warn others about the dangers involving earth destrucion.

Headlines

What I did-  I just finished teaching the students about earth conservation for earth day.  Some of the topics included natural resources, reduce, reuse, recycle, greenhouse effect, carbon footprints, and organic farming.

After all topics were covered, I asked students to create a headline about earth day so I could see their thinking about such big issues.  

Connect-  By using this thinking routine I was really able to see how seriously they took the topic of earth conservation.  Most students took from the unit that one person can make a difference, even if they start small.

Extend-We have taken an oath to never forget about doing our part to conserve our mother earth, every day!  Not just on earth day. (We'll go the rest of the year w/o turning on the lights in the classroom. Some even said they will encoourage their 2nd grade teacher to do the same next year.  Just think...if all teachers in all grades, in the whole school didn't turn on their lights!)

Challenge- Not all students were able to see the importance and I think it has a lot to do with habit and what they already have been exposed to. 

See Think Wonder Ants

Connect-This was an intro to our ant study (animals and their needs).  I wanted to catch a glimpse of any ant schema they may have had.

What I Did- They spotted the ant farms and were dying to know why we had them.  I finally broke them into 2 groups and them them observe the farms.  I gave them about 20 minutes but told them to pay close attention to and to think about what they see, what they think is happening, and what they wonder. 

Add caption

Extend- We used many of the questions developed here in our Ant Inquiry study .  They were able to really look back at our pyramid and see just how much they learned after our study.

Challenge-I wish I would have chosen to use pictures instead of the ant farm.  The questions were too specific to what the ants were doing inside the farm instead of ants in general.



Ant Inquiry Study

http://msfrachetti.wikispaces.com/1st+gr.+projects+by+year

Connect-
Part of our science cirriculum in 1st grade is the study of ants (animals and their needs).  This lesson also tied into non-fiction reading and writitng.  Stduents created questions and then they researched answers to their questions through non-fiction books and searching the internet. They created a podcast/power point to present their learnings.

What I did- Students developed questions they had about ants based on a picture I showed them of an ant colony.  I gave them no information about the picture.  We then sorted the questions and together developed catagories.  They were then put into groups according which category was most intetesting to them. Within their groups, they first created a poster by painting "What They Think They Know" about ants.  They included their questions on their posters with notecards.  For the next month, students worked in their groups to research answers to their questions through the use of non-fiction books and internet. We scheduled many days to work in the library where Ms. Frachetti taught them how to use LION .  Toward the end of the study and after questions had been answered, Frachetti taught them how to cut and paste pictures that illustrated the answers to their questions.  Groups then painted new posters to illustrated "What They Know Now" about their topic.  Lastly, they recorded their voices with Ms. Frachetti for our podcast. Frachatti was a HUGE help in the creation of the final project.

Extend- Through this process, the students really learned so much about non-fiction book features which was extremely helpful when it came time to write our own non-fiction stories.  They also learned how to ask thoughtful questions that can really lend themselves to thoughtful research (questions NOT like "Do ants have butt cheeks?"....that really was a question).

Challenge- This was a VERY challenging process for all of us.  Because 1st graders are still beginning readers, it was quite difficult for many to read and research the information from the books.  I asked for many parent volunteers.  I found that having each student choose ONE question to own was very helpful as well.