Egypt Hands On Project

Working in pairs, students researched one of the following three topics and created a poster. Materials were provided, but students were free to bring in their own supplies. The poster included a lot of images and facts about their topic. This project was tailored to meet the needs of all learners and they were in groups and supported each other as they worked through the assignment.

Pyramids

• Why were the pyramids important/How pyramids were built /types of pyramids/features of the pyramid (inside and out)/What was inside the pyramid/pyramids around the world.

Mummies

• Religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians/Gods and Goddesses/How mummies were made/embalming process/The decorative coffins of Egyptian mummies /Famous Egyptian mummies/Mummies around the world

Legacies of Ancient Egypt

• famous inventions and achievements
• knowledge and learning

Here is the link to the project rubric

Neighborhood Map-Out of Eden

The grade 6 students are working on a project this semester called Out of Eden Learn. This was created by project zero at Harvard University following the footsteps of Paul Salopeck. Every 100 miles, Paul stops and records a narrative and takes a picture of the sky, ground, and the sound at that location. As part of the project the students go through six footsteps.At this point they are on footstep two, and the following is an explaination for the acitivity they currently worked on.
The aim of this activity is to have students think about where they live and to know more of their neighborhood.
They sketched a map of their neighborhood or local area, as they see it. They drew this map on paper and took photographs it to upload to the site. Some also used an oline drawing program to create their maps.
The then, wrote a story about their map some of whom described a typical day in their life around their neighborhood, a memorable moment they have had in their home, or a story they have heard from someone else.

Here are some examples of their work along with their story.

~Miyu~

1. I live in Injambakkam on about half year. My house is next to the Futa’s house. And near the VGP and sea.
2. Near the my house, bloom the pink’s flower.
3. This place is construction.

     E.  There are palm trees in a someone’s house.

Hi, my name is Yoobin and I am 13 years old. I have lived in Chennai for a bit more than two years but I still don’t know my neighborhood really well.. To me who lived in South Korea for 11 years, India was quite new to me. Everything was new, such as loads, buildings, and people. When I first moved to India, I never even knew where I would live or where my school would be located. But as time went on and on, two years just flew by quickly.
There are many buildings in my neighborhood. There are huge hotels and apartments around my apartments. One of the hotels in my town is ‘OOOOO Palace’. Sometimes, my mom and I go to the bakery there and buy some macarons for a snack. There is a ‘Subway’ though I never went inside. Sometimes I go to the apartment near my house where my friend lives. Over time, my neighborhood has changed a bit. I feel like the pigeons that disrupt my sleep every morning have increased, but the homeless dogs around my apartment have decreased. I will always remember the smell of my neighborhood which is pleasant all the time.

Infographic

"A picture is worth a thousand words" refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information,data or knowledge to present elaborate information quickly and clearly.

The students researched and found information on various aspects of Mesopotamia and created an infographic. They worked in small groups and here are some examples of their work.

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/3823221-religion-yumisigne-amalija

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/3823198-government-miyu-alice-l#.VNRBslmqlqU.gmail

Clay Activity

Sumerians are believed to have the oldest written langauge where the writing is mainly in pictographs. The earliest forms of Mesopotamian script dates back as early as 8000 BCE where cuneiform tablets were used for some kind of record keeping.
The Mesopotamian boys started as young as 12 when they became scribes. They were trained to write cuneiform and record many of the languages spoken in Mesopotamia. The students watched a video on how to write on the tablets. While the ancient Mesopotamians used a stylus to scribe, our students used clay and a chopstick to inscribe their wiritng on the tablets.

Lascaux Cave Art

Lascaux is famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings which is estimated to be about 20,000 years old found in South Eastern France. he caves were discovered by  teenagers who stumbled upon the ruins.
The paintings are mainly pictures of animals and symbols, and possibly one human figure.
The students were invloved in this hands on project where they did cave art after taking a virtual tour around the caves.
As they did the tour, they noted down the characteristics of the caves and used them to create their piece of art work. They worked in partners and used butcher paper with color pastels (keeing in mind the only colors used during that time period were red, black, orange, and brown).
This project was targeted for all learners and they enjoyed working on it.

Early Humans Mini -project

Students choose the three advancements of early humans that they felt had the most impact on mankind. They researched and then created an A4 sized poster including three images and three descriptions of why this advancement was important. The students had a choice to either present it through techonolgy or on a poster. Here is an example along with a decsription of the project and the rubric.