February Learning Cycle

In February, I focused on incorporating the themes of Black History Month and space exploration and discovery as seamlessly as possible into my curriculum.  This meant incorporating those themes into everything we did.  During ELA we would read stories or listen to videos about important Black historical figures who contributed to space exploration and discovery.  During math, we used space themed manipulatives and made space themed counting crafts. For art we made a rocket ship which the students played with during recreation and leisure time. In science, we learned about different space phenomena.  In social studies, we worked on making a Black History Month themed door about Benjamin Banneker who discovered a calculation to predict the next solar eclipse.  Below are some pictures and descriptions of the different fun projects and activities we did during this learning cycle.

Math:

• Many space themed Boomcards! (see the My Favorite Tech Tools page to learn more about Boomcards)

• Counting with 'planets' (ball pit balls)

• Space themed counting crafts

Science Experiments:

• Making moon craters:

  • We dropped different sized objects into corn starch and then picked them up to see what happens when asteroids hit the moon to create craters. 

• How rockets work: 

  • We used Coca Cola and Mentos to show how when you combine fire (Mentos) with fuel (Coca Cola), the explosive reaction pushes the rocket through the air.

• Eclipses: 

  • We used a flashlight and a paper moon to practice showing how solar and lunar eclipses happen. 

ELA: 

We watched short videos detailing the lives of our weekly historical figure.  Our historical figures were: Benjamin Banneker, Mae Jemison, Guion Bluford, and Katherine Johnson.   Here is an example of our videos and following comprehension questions:

Social Studies:

We participated in the school-wide door decorating competition. The kids made all of the crafts on the door and I helped them include the facts about Benjamin Banneker.  They answered comprehension questions after listening to a video about Benjamin Banneker's life.  This is the result of our week learning about Benjamin Banneker, his life, and his work.

Art and Recreation and Leisure:

Here is a picture of the space ship that my class made! They chose colors using their communication devices and then took turns coloring on the rocket ship.  Then they got the opportunity to play in the rocket ship during their recreation and leisure time.