2004-05: Air

Theme curriculum for 2004-05 for 3rd-4th graders

The theme this year was AIR. It was broken into different areas of study.

Fall

How the universe was created. Joel Parker, an astronomer came to visit and tell us about how the universe was created. We also read books, read creation myths from around the world, wrote our own creation myths, watched a video with Stephen Hawkins and wrote a class book entitled, “How the Universe Began.”

We studied the creation of stars and particularly the sun. Each child was involved with a group presentation where each group presented some aspect of the sun. These included an enactment of how the sun was created using music and dance, a report on the sun, and a model of the sun and planets. Each child wrote a sun poem and put it on a water coloring they created.

We reviewed how our earth was created. We illustrated the layers of the earth.

We studied how our atmosphere was created, what it is made of, what it does for the earth, and its different layers. We did various experiments to illustrate different properties of air. We visited NCAR to learn about air density and pressure, as well as to learn how weather is studied by scientists.

We talked about the qualities in the air and how different days “feel” different. What qualities does the air have? Clarity, spaciousness, cool, hot, heavy, light, still, chaotic, joyful, dark, quiet. This will be revisited in creative writing as a poetry project, and in movement class in dancing.

We learned about the air cycle and drew illustrations.

Winter

We studied our lungs and the air cycle within our own bodies, what creates healthy lungs and what damages lungs, and the role oxygen plays in our bodies.

We studied weather and each child chose a topic to write a report on. These reports served as a prototype for research papers. The children researched their topics, took notes, wrote topic sentences and supporting paragraphs, edited and rewrote and orally presented their reports. These were also displayed for the school to view. We were visited by a storm truck that goes into tornadoes and hurricanes. We watched a National Geographic Video on cyclones.

We learned about the causes of air pollution. We observed the pollution on different days and from different locations in Boulder. Each child was on a team that created a mural to represent a particular kind of air pollution.

Spring

We studied the history of aviation beginning with birds. What makes it possible for birds to fly? How have birds evolved and changed? How do birds migrate? How were the first planes invented? How have they evolved, along with their uses? We went bird watching and also to see nesting Eagles at the Rocky Mountain Wild Bird Observatory. We watched the documentary “Winged Migrations.” The children made birdhouses in carpentry class.

Outer Space: We learned about the stars, sun, planets and how they all were created. We learned about asteroids, comets and meteors. How did the first explorations of space happen? What is happening in space exploration now? What are scientists finding out about space, planets, stars, and more? Again, Joel Parker came to visit us and tell us about a project that he is involved in that is landing a space ship on a comet. He took us to the C.U. Planetarium and Observatory. The kids created their own spaceships on paper, having to write about and illustrate the ship’s details as well as the ship’s mission. Each child picked individual topics to research and write reports on, going through the whole expository writing process. To culminate our space unit we did a theater/musical performance about outer space. On our camping trip the last week of school we looked through telescopes into the clear high mountain night sky.