Georgia Hall
In the beginning of the year, we start with our fierce wonderings. Students brainstorm all of the wild and curious wonderings that they have. From there, we pull out common themes and interests which form our year-long project curriculum. If you click on most project titles, you can access detailed project plans along with project scope & sequence.
For this introductory project, the focus was on discussing, exploring, and designing a classroom culture conducive to our wants and needs. Students explored children literature, character analysis, classroom community activities, and discussions to help us brainstorm culture traits. Students then produced a classroom culture birdhouse that symbolizes their traits and characteristics that they contribute and value in their classroom community.
This project's essential question asked students to discover, What can change in a liftime? Students studied this through the lens of San Diego's history, which included native San Diegans, historical events and time periods, as well as historical landmarks of our city. Students then created a San Diego Timeline game that incorporated important events and dates- for kids and adults to play to learn about our fascinating history.
More to come once we develop our Spring project!
Our class had been reading about a fictional character, Judy Moody, who gets interested in helping save the rain forest. Students wondered and began to ask how they could do her part-- like Judy-- to give back to our environment. They asked if we could adopt an environment like Judy, and after discussion we decided on an ocean since we live so close to the Pacific Coast.
Students studied the coast: energy, life, animals, and landforms. We then adopted a local beach, conducted bach clean ups, took photogrphs at local marine museums and tide pools, and spoke with experts.
Students took their most impactful photo, recreated it through sculpting it with reclaimed trash from our clean ups, and reflected on their journey in learning about the significance in coastal conservation. We then complied student work into a book. Photographs, sculptures, and books were sold and proceeds went to a local coastal conservation organization that students had adopted.
Books are sold online, and you can access them here (link available in March 2014)!
