Nico: We are working on landforms and landscapes in Science. All of us are super excited that we are working on landforms. We worked in groups to make landscapes. We all made landforms like canyons,volcanic mountains,mountains,sand dunes,and rivers out of paper.
Mrs. Greazel: Once our landscapes were created, we labeled each landform. I took pictures of the kids outside on the playground and then the kids put pictures of themselves in the landscapes zip- lining, climbing mountains and rock formations, hanging from cliffs and even bungee jumping!
We didn't stop there! We incorporated our study of prepositions into speech bubbles that explained what the kids were doing. Anzhelo exclaimed, "I'm back flipping above the cliff!" Maeve proclaimed, "I'm zip-lining through the canyon!"
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| Be careful, Connor, Anzhelo, and Owen! |
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| Check out Maeve, Katie, Natalia & Mia zip-lining through the canyon, while Diana is scaling the side of the canyon. |
The kids then looked at their picture and wrote about the small moment they were experiencing in the landscape. Owen's story about hanging on the side of the cliff is a definite cliff hanger (pun intended)! We focused on the small details that we would experience through our senses (wind hitting our face, hands burning from gripping the side of the cliff or rock formation, heart racing). We also attempted to add juicy 4th grade words and dialogue to help our readers connect to our experience.
Faiz summed it up when he said, "We just did Science, grammar, and writing all at the same time!"
It was so exciting to see the kids synthesize all they have been learning into this fun, creative project that captured their imaginations. They were so engrossed in the writing of these stories that they didn't want to stop. When I announced it was time for recess, the class exclaimed "Awww, do we have to stop writing?" That made my day!
On Friday, we shared our stories with a partner and worked on giving each other specific, helpful, respectful, and encouraging feedback to help improve each other's stories.
Nico: We are super happy that we are working on these. Our class is sailing through a lot this year about landforms.
