5th Grade: To Boldly Go...

The encounter of civilizations is our driving theme in 5th grade this year. To start generating a list of the attributes of civilizations and also to explore what kinds of consequences arise out of two civilizations encountering each other, we read the book Encounter by Jane Yolen:

Next, to extrapolate this concept of an encounter and put our own current civilization into the story, students created comics that imagined the first contact between modern humans and an "alien civilization." Yes, they have been a lot of fun, but creating them also forced us to reflect on the basic attributes of civilizations (i.e. government, economy, currency, clothing, language, number system, holidays, norms, etc.).

Then we read the story of a boy who was so fed up with his own civilization, who felt so left out and unrecognized, that he literally invented his own from the ground up. Meet Weslandia:

With Weslandia as our inspiration, we've now begun the gradual process of designing our own civilizations. We are starting with Math, or course! OK, it wouldn't have been everyone's choice, but you have to start somewhere. So far, we've studied the number systems of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. We'll also study some more modern systems, like binary, before we start creating our own number systems.

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4th Grade Update: The "Wright" Stuff

Other grade levels are enjoying novels as a supplement to their units this year, but 4th grade is the only group using a novel as the primary launch pad for all their explorations. The novel is The Wright Three by Blue Balliet. Here's a book talk/preview:

To set a foundation for reading, we first built up some background knowledge on architecture in general, including some basic concepts and a scavenger hunt of some famous buildings. This included a DI-like design challenge where the students had to create skyscrapers out of very limited materials (tape and two types of paper) in a very limited time. They did quite well!

Since the book centers around the Robie House, a work by Frank Lloyd Wright, we then did some background research on Wright, and each week we are building on that knowledge.

Another huge connection from the novel are pentominoes, a set geometrical and mathematical tools with all kinds of uses. We started with 2-D pentominoes and worked our visual-spatial skills with a number of challenges.

One student designed "Texonimo" in honor of the Lone Star state.

 We've since pulled out some 3-D pentominoes and that opens up a whole new set of challenges!

At the same time, the book itself has made us intrigued with The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. None of us understand the connection yet, but it keeps popping up in the story. This trailer of the old black and white movie sure got our attention, too!

Our most recent challenge that demanded creativity, innovation, cooperation and organization was another design challenge using LEGO bricks. In our "Think Like an Architect" challenge, students were presented with a client (a family of 4) with specific needs in a home. They then had to design the home to meet those needs. We had some wildly innovative samples!

Soon we'll delve into the more technical and mathematical aspects of architecture, but this was a way to understand the creative problem solving with which an architect approaches his or her work.

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