Culminating our Studies of Space

We culminated our studies of space today with some great experiences and activities. First we had some fun recreating the moon phases with Oreo cookies, the students loved that! Especially the eating part! Then we had a visit from our Zeeland (B.O.B built of brains) Robotics Team. They showcased their 2010 robot which they took to competition. We had been studying how engineers and scientists had to design, build, and deploy many different robots for the exploration of space, especially the Lunar Rover and Mars Rover. That led us to finish up our day watching a Discovery for Kids video called Moon Machines, which is all about the challenges of designing and building the first Lunar Rover. Thank you kids for a great unit, and a great day!

Phases of the Moon

The students enjoyed learning about the phases of the moon with this activity.  The large lamp you see in the background acted as the sun.  They had to pretend their head was the Earth, and the moon on their pencils orbited their head.  It is very easy to see the phases of the moon take shape right before your very eyes!

Arsenal of Democracy Time Bike Adventure

Our first Time Bike experience was last Friday.   I always begin the year by reading a book titled "The Time Bike" by Jane Langton .  In the story a boy receives a bike as a gift, and this bike can travel through time. During my first year teaching I found an old bike and refurbished it to be my Time Bike.  Each year I ride it into the classroom dressed in costumes from the past.  The Arsenal of Democracy was a nickname given to Detroit during World War II for all the war supplies that were manufactured there, and it wrapped up our studies of the Midwest Region.  The kids have a lot of fun teasing me about my Time Bike and silly outfits.  It is a tradition I plan to continue for the rest of my career, and if anyone out there has any great costumes, I would love to borrow them! 

Author's Purpose Example

A student explains what he thinks the author's purpose is.  We worked on determining author's purpose for informational text.  Students sometimes struggle to find what the author's narrow purpose is.