Today we became both historians and scientists in Room 402!.JPG)
This morning, we had a visitor, Leah, from the New York Historical Society. Leah discussed the importance of studying history - and using maps and artifacts to do so. We first looked at a map of NYC as it is today. We noticed a Map Key/Legend, a Compass Rose, a Title, and a Date from when it was published. We saw lots of things we knew from our own lives. We inferred from the pictures that the colors on the map represented different things as well - the green was the parks and the blue was the water.
Then each table received a map of NYC from a different time period. We studied the differences between the maps and learned a lot about how NYC has changed. We even learned that Wall Street got its name from a very real wall that used to stand right where the street now is. It was built to keep the Dutch protected against others. We also learned that there used to be water where Water Street now is. Lots of other changes were noticed - we certainly have a lot more roads, bridges, and buildings than we used to. Throughout the year we'll be studying this a ton - but today was a great introduction with Leah!Then, this afternoon we became scientists! We have begun our study of Balance and Motion. (If you click that link, there is a ton of information from our FOSS curriculum website. It has at-home activities, a unit overview, and much more!) We began today with balance.
First, we charted what we thought of when we heard the word "Balance". We said that we thought of see-saws, of tight-rope walking, of things not falling down, and of yoga. Then we were each given a paper cut-out of a crayfish. We tried to balance the crayfish on just one finger. Even after 10 minutes of trying, we weren't too successful. We then each received 2 clothes pins. After another 10 minutes, some of us had balanced our crayfish on one finger! Those skilled balancers showed us all how to use the clothes pins to make it balance. It was really cool!
We then charted some information we learned. We have three words now defined our our Balance and Motion chart: Balance, Balance Point, and Counterweight. As a class we tried to come up with a definition for each word. We may not be 100% happy with our definitions of these three words yet, but we feel closer than when we started. We will continue our explorations with balance for the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
