Math Lesson 5

We wrapped up our rain forest unit in math class today! We practiced utilizing social bookmarking sites, like delicious, to gain information. Students read articles that I bookmarked, or selected for them because they related to rain forest deforestation. We gathered data about how many acres are destroyed each day, and then converted to other units of time (month, year...). Feel free to ask your students about rates! They are pros! :-)

Since our unit is now complete, the Unit Rubric is posted on our Blackboard site. This will give you an idea of how students will be assessed for the week-long unit.

Thanks for reading :-)

Grading Rubric

I have posted the grading rubric on Blackboard so please look it over and let me know if you have any questions about expectations for this paper. Please keep in mind that this research paper is counting as the final assessment for the rainforest unit, so students will be using comprehensive knowledge from this unit to complete the their paper.

Math Lesson 4

Today we talked about precipitation in math. Students watched a short video clip (check out our Blackboard page!) about rainfall in the rain forest. Next, they paged through almanacs to gather information about monthly precipitation totals in a particular rain forest and in Pennsylvania. This helps give a better idea of how much rain really falls in tropical regions! Students made graphs to represent the rainfall for the months. Together, our class calculated the mean or average rainfall for each month in a rainforest and in Pennsylvania. Students should be able to explain to their grown-ups why knowing each month's precipitation is sometimes better than knowing the average. Check out the class blog to see students' great ideas! We projected them on the smartboard in class and we were able to highlight some of the important parts of a graph.

Keep in contact :-)

Social Studies Lesson # 5

For the last lesson, I will be introducing students to their final project for the unit. They each will be assigned to write an individual research paper on a specific tribe of indigenous people from the rainforest. The paper will require them to incorporate knowledge from the previous lessons on this unit. It will focus on such aspects as the culture, population, history,leisure activities, etc.of the tribe of choice. The research paper will be completed in small stages. Each stage will be turned in and graded. This grade will contribute to the overall grade of the paper. This paper will be counting as the final assessment for this unit. I will be posting a grading rubric soon so you can better understand the expectations for the paper. Also, I will be handing out the guideline and outline of the paper for students to follow. We will review these and I will answer any questions they have about the project. These are posted on Blackboard so feel free to look over them to familiarize yourself with the paper. The majority of the writing and researching process will be taking place in school. I have scheduled time each week to utilize the computer lab.
After reviewing all of this information with them I will explain how to log onto the class wiki so they can download Stage One worksheet. I will be making a tutorial to walk them through the process of retrieving the worksheet. We will be working through the wiki during this entire process to try to reduce paper in order to save trees. These last few lessons we have focused on the environment so this is one way we determined as a class to help green the planet.The students will then complete the worksheet and send it to me via email. I will review their topic choices and approve one through email. If, they do not complete the assignment during our computer lab time they will be expected to finish it for homework.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions. This is a large assignment so I will constantly be updating you with new information as it becomes available. Thanks for your support!

Social Studies Lesson # 4

I will review deforestation with students by showing a short clip about the effects of deforestation. We will discuss their responses from the movie. Next we will discuss ways to help reduce deforestation. We will make a list on the board as a class. If students get stuck I have a suggested website that gives lots of suggestions on how to be green. We will then discuss an important way of helping to stop deforestation by spreading the word and speaking out. I will emphasize the importance of the power of knowledge and sharing it with others. Students will then act as advocates and create a poster to help spread the word about stopping deforestation. Students must demonstrate their knowledge of deforestation and its effects especially on indigenous people in the poster.I will show students examples and give them some suggestions on what to display on their poster. Also, on the back of the poster they will include a description of the poster explaining the reasoning behind it. This poster will be given a grade based on creativity, neatness, and knowledge of deforestation along with its devastating effects.
I will be creating a secure class wiki about the rainforest. I will post the students posters and descriptions on there. We will also be doing another project in the future and that will be posted as well. The main objective of posting it on the wiki is to inform others and raise awareness about deforestation.
If you have any concerns feel free to contact me. Once I make the wiki I will post a link so you can view our rainforest wiki.

Fifth English Lesson

During the fifth and final English lesson about the rainforest, the class will be taking the unit test. This test includes everything that was covered from lessons 1-4 (types of rainforests, layers of rainforest, characteristics, mutualistic relationships and deforestation). Students will have as much time as they need to finish the test. We will also be completing our KWL chart. Now that the unit is over, we can fill in the final column with what we learned. The last fun activity we will be doing is using the Student Response Clickers one last time. There are poems written about rainforest animals and we will read these as a class and each student can vote with the answer they feel is correct.
I hope your child enjoyed learning about the rainforest!!!

Fourth English Lesson

During our fourth English lesson, we will be discussing the impacts of deforestation and what a mutualistic relationship is. We will explore examples of mutualistic relationships and complete a worksheet. For homework, the students are to post one way deforestation impacts the rainforest on our class wikispace. To prepare for our test tomorrow, the students will work with a partner or in a small group and play memory with the vocabulary cards they have been creating throughout our previous lessons. This will help students study for the test and allow them a time to ask me any questions or clear up any confusions they may have. Also, the wikispace is a great place to study from considering it contains the main information from some lessons. Feel free to email me if your child has any questions while studying tonight!!!