Friday 29 May 2015

Friday News

Wow! Just think only 4 more Fridays until the school year is done. Where did the past 8 months go? It's hard to believe the year is almost over. This, like any school year has been a tremendous learning experience. Each day has been a new adventure and also exciting to watch student progress as the year went along. As we get closer to the end of the year I am starting to reflect on the year and all of the cool events and projects we did as a class.

The one project that I am particularly proud of is the I Survived assignment that we just completed as a class. If your unfamiliar with the book series "I Survived" by Lauren Tarshis then I suggest you pick up one of her 11 books and give them a read as they are fantastic. The series looks at some tragic events around the world such as the Japanese Tsunami of 2011 or Gettysburg, the Nazi Invasion, and September 11th. Tarshis, creates a fictional character during the time period and event and then lets the reader learn about these events through the eyes of this character.

With the project we did in our class, we used these books to guide us in our non-fiction writing unit. The students read the books with partners, then they researched the actual events, and then wrote about the topic in the forms of a Google Slides presentation which they of course presented to the class. When they looked at the topics I asked them to look at things with an open mind. They where asked to also think about the events and think of actions they could take to avoid making some of the same mistakes. I have to say I was absolutely blown away by what they came up with. Their presentations where amazing and the research they conducted was fantastic. So many of them really thought their issues out really took an objective point of view to their topic and theme. It was truly hard to believe they students are just in grade 3 and 4. Even our principal thought the same thing as she sat in on many of the presentations. Below are just some of the pictures from some of the presentations.




As you look back on this last Friday of May what sort of things are you proud of that your class has accomplished.

1 comment:

  1. What a great post! I think it's so important that kids have a solid understanding of these tragedies, and then the political and economic consequences that followed. Fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing!

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