Our class has the opportunity to go on a field trip to Ft. Knox Gold Mine to view a local industry related to Alaska's mineral resources. Our trip will be on May 14 from approximately 9 am to 12:45 pm. This is an exciting trip, and we are sure to have fun as we learn. Permission slips are being sent home today, along with additional information about the possibility for parents to chaperone. In order to keep students safe during our trip, I will need to have 3 chaperones accompany the class. Unfortunately, due to safety regulations at the mine, younger siblings cannot come along. Please review all of the information about our trip, sign the permission slip, waiver, and chaperone information (if applicable), and send in the papers with your child.
Curiosity Projects
Time is quickly passing, and I hope that students are enjoying digging into their Curiosity Projects. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the project. This next week is dedicated to continuing to answer the questions the students wrote in their Curiosity Journals, and to think ahead to how the student would like to share his/her information.
Here are some tips as you and your child go about looking for information to answer their focus questions:
- Keep in mind that this entire project is focused on the process of learning and discovery, not the final product.
- Avoid going on an “Easter-egg hunt” for facts. Approach this with an attitude of investigation, wondering and striving to understand. Facts are even more astounding within this context.
- If, along the way, your child learns something interesting that is unrelated to their topic, have them write this down.
- Remember that primary research is powerful. Can you observe what your child is curious about? Can you email or visit and expert in their topic. Are there online videos of experts talking about what they do in this area?
- Use our school/city library and librarians. They are more than willing to help both with finding books or online resources.
- Children can get lost in information from books and websites. You are the bridge between your child and the information they are seeking. They may need need your help to summarize, skim, rephrase and un-pack more complex information.
Homework for next week: Curiosity Projects! Don't forget our project sharing time will be Friday, May 16 from 1:30 - 2:30.
Next week:
In reading, we will dig deep into nonfiction, once again looking at how we can back up our answers with information from the text.
We will be finishing our state VoiceThread projects.
We will also begin to look at writing directions using exact language, and continue to explore rocks and minerals in science.
During math, we will begin to explore measurement conversions and how that is related to multiplication.