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Showing posts from October, 2011

Cell Model Project

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Last week (Friday) we completed our models of our cell. The class was broken into four groups in which two groups made an animal cell and two groups made a plant cell. We spent a week in class putting our models together including researching information to label our cells and building our models. While models are often the end product once they are completed, I felt that when a model is built, it should lead to further understanding. Instead of the group models being the end product, students are using their models to create test questions for the other groups. In other words, the plant cell group is putting together a quiz for the animal cell group and the animal cell group is putting together a quiz for the plant cell group. Those groups will then use the other group's models to help them study for their quiz. To make sure each group can adequately prepare, the models need to be accurate in their detail and information. The most important part of this project is not the resu

Expert Project

Today is our official first day of starting our expert project. Each student has a packet, and in that packet explains their whole project. For your information, here is a copy of the introduction letter. I am also including a copy of the rubric here . Here at the Center for Inquiry, we believe that children should inquire into those things that matter to them. For this project, students will do just that - inquire into something they have always wanted to know more about. This project is more about the actual process of inquiry than having a final project. For instance, I have always wanted to know more about sushi. So I plan on inquiring into this topic from many different perspectives (e.g., history of sushi, different types, how to eat, how to make, sushi etiquette, culture). At the same time, I need to be open to possible directions my inquiry may take me (e.g., mathematics of sushi, science of sushi?). At the conclusion of this project, I need to be able to teach my students wh

Root Word Rap

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Students wanted to share this video / rap. Mrs. Liz introduced us to this rap today as another way of helping us remember prefixes, root words, and suffixes. Enjoy!

Mr. Johnson's Class Blog

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This is a brief video of our class working with our reading buddies. I have never witnessed two groups who work so well together. Those kindergarten buddies truly look up to these 5th graders. Very powerful!