The Mystery Box

Today, I was mean to my kids.  I taped a 10 foot by 8 foot square off on the carpet before they came to school and then I said nothing.  Just watched them as they drew their own conclusions as to why this mysterious box was taped.  I had not thought much of the placement of my box, just needed one, and so it was by chance it was by our fabulously exciting crayfish.  The kids latched onto this coincidence as if it was the missing piece to the puzzle.  "It is to keep us away from the crayfish," offered one.  "Or for us to know where to stand?"  Or my favorite, "We are going to have a crayfish race!"  This one took on a life of its own as the kids then discussed how that would be possible since our crayfish can only be out of water for about a minute.  Some offered solutions and others shot it down, but all through the day, the mystery deepened.  During literacy, when I introduced our new author study project, we happened to sit in part of the box.  "It is for us to sit in!" the kids exclaimed.  I shook my head and smiled.  I finally told the kids that maybe I did it just to drive them crazy, one student told me I wouldn't be that mean.

Finally, at the end of the day after I had been asked more than thirty times what the box was for, the big reveal came.  P.E. was done, the students were fidgety and I waited for absolute silence.  Then the Native American simulation script started and the lightbulbs went off.  "It is for the settlers, it is for the settlers," was the excited murmur running around the room.  Mystery solved...

Incredible what some masking tape on the floor can do for an otherwise fidgety Monday morning.

When Students Decide

Spicy popcorn, wigwams, tipis, corn bread, blueberry muffins, bow and arrow, Aztelan homes, sugared apricots, and many other things were all the results of the students taking control of the Native American research and project.  To say I am impressed doesn’t even cover the level of genuine excitement I have about what the students mastered today.

Coupled with these wonderful projects were the presentations that began today.  Students all have to present their research in some shape to their classmates, plus be able to answer questions and engage an audience.  We discussed what the difference is between listening and active listening and stopped when the students felt the audience was becoming unengaged.

From the moment we started this project, I knew this was a different way of learning and one that would either be wondrous or disastrous.  I should have trusted the students completely because they have once again blown me away with their commitment to their projects and their hard work.  This is definitely a form of project we will try again.  And don’t worry; pictures are coming soon!

Letting Students Rule

Social studies was getting stagnant with packetwork meant to establish background knowledge for a Native American simulation. So work before the fun; going against my philosophy. The students kept asking amazing questions to which I replied that maybe later we would study that.

So I decided to do a circle discussion of social studies and the kids asked me if they could please research something of their choice about Native Americans. Sure. They even had ideas for how they would present the info: posters, models, skits, glogsters, research papers - boundless creativity.

So today my room was filled with noise, kids partnering up, books being shared, questions being thrown out and discarded, research being questioned. In short; it was beautiful.