Week 4 Lesson Plan

The investigation continues with an expert, iPads, and a field trip to the National Portrait Museum.

Maryland State Curriculum-

• Social Studies-
  Identify concerns in the community, such as safety issues and pollution problems and identify ways to resolve concerns- Panthers work on the a video about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle coincides with this requirement.
 
• Science-
  -Develop reasonable explanations for observations made, investigations completed, and information gained by sharing ideas and listening to others' ideas. Children compared different books that used photography to tell a story. They compared these with some that used illustration and discussed with each other which was more effective for the individual circumstance.
 
• Writing-
  Prepare writing for publication- Using an iPad app, students wrote stories using photographs to illustrate them.
 
• Reading-
  Recognize a similar message in more than one text- The who, what, where, why, and how of a journalism article was discussed after reading a news article. Children then wrote the beginnings of their own article that followed this example.
 
• Math-
  Add no more than 3 whole number addends with no more than 2 digits in each addend and a sum of no more than 100. Children made and played a game using the Rule of Thirds and added their scores to practice addition facts.

Working on making a beanbag game based on the rule of thirds.

Week 4

Monday- Photo Journalism

James Levin, a photo editor for the Diamondback newspaper, came to talk to the children about photo journalism. He began by showing photographs of President Obama and explaining why each image was considered good enough to publish in a newspaper. He told the children that a photographer may take 800 pictures and only 4 might be suitable. He explained three main ideas to keep in mind. An image destined for a news article should show action, completeness and uniqueness. Then he sent the campers out around the CYC to try and capture this type of photograph. Children snapped pictures on the playground and in individual classrooms and then brought them back to the Purple Room to discuss. The children's pictures were displayed with a projector on a big screen and they were asked about how each measured up to the three rules. A lively discussion followed and helped reinforce the lesson. Many thanks to Mr. James for taking time to talk to the class.

 

Wednesday- IPads

Mona Leigh Guha and Beth  Bonsignore, from the College of Information Studies, came to the classroom with several iPads to teach the children how to use an app called StoryKit. StoryKit was developed through their department at UMD. Kids worked in teams to create the beginnings of a story and the only requirement was that they use at least one photograph. Afterwards each team shared their work; some interesting story lines came about. Here is a link to one that was uploaded to share: Team Story. This story used the audio feature, photography of horses from puzzles in the classroom , and drawings done directly on the iPad.

Friday- National Portrait Gallery

The tour at the National Portrait Gallery was tailored to focus on photography. The first portrait photographs the children saw were those of Union generals, particularly General Grant. Next the Panthers were lucky to find an exhibit on daguerreotype photography, an early form of photography processed on metal. There was also a special room dedicated to images of Dr. Martin Luther King that captured everyone's interest. A very large image of King was taken on the Mall and the children recognized the Washington Monument and Capital building. A discussion came up about how Dr. King wanted people to get along. The tour guide, Ms. Kita, showed the children some Native American portraits, since she had heard they had just finished reading the "Indian in the Cupboard". Everyone marveled at the interesting dress of the Chiefs. The last section of the museum the Panthers were lead to, was the hall of the Presidents. Lastly the Panthers saw George Washington and a photograph of Abraham Lincoln with a crack going through it. Afterwards the group headed to a large atrium and had lunch. Lots of fun happened in the atrium as they waited for the bus. Just look at the header picture on this page!