The Otters wrapped up their biography study unit with an informal presentation this past Friday, May 26. They had spent the past month researching, taking notes, outlining, and then writing their reports on influential people in history. The only stipulation they were given was that they had to write their biography on a woman and/or a black person. The students worked hard on using independent work skills like taking notes, using checklists, and finding the meaning of words they didn't know. At the end of each "independent work period," the Otters sat together and shared interesting facts and any new words they learned. Teachers wrote some of the more intriguing words on colorful post-its and turned them into a "Word Quilt" (pictured below).
On Friday, Otters shared information from their reports with teachers, therapists and classmates, which gave students the opportunity to practice both presentation skills and active listening skills. Copies of their reports are currently on display on the classroom "Brag Board." (pictured below) The Otters will have a chance to do one more long paper this year for Social Studies, on a topic of their choice from the American History unit. We anticipate they will be even more independent in their research and writing, and more confident as presenters. Today, the Otters visited the Queens Museum in order to see the NYC Panorama exhibit. This exhibit is the world's largest scale model of all five boroughs of New York City, with each inch of the model representing one hundred feet of the actual city. The Panorama is an important part of Wonderstruck, their read aloud book. At the end of Wonderstruck, the main characters, Ben and Rose visit the Queens Museum, and Rose divulges that she used to work there, building the models and updating the Panorama as needed. Furthermore, over the years, she hid mementos of her deceased son Danny's life in the model buildings where memorable events occurred for him. For example, she hid a "lucky" penny that he had found as a boy in Central Park there in the model version. Throughout the book, Ben has been on a quest to find his father, who turns out to have been Danny. The mementos hidden in the Panorama give him comforting glimpses of his father's life. The Otters prepared for the trip by coming up with their own lists of important places and the mementos they would hide therein. Once at the Queens Museum, they were given permission to explore as they pleased, to see how many of these places they could find. Students searched for their neighborhoods and homes, Gillen Brewer, Central Park, Yankee Stadium, and many other landmarks. They commented on the World Trade Center's twin towers, which have not been removed from the Panorama. Many were fascinated by the model airplane that arrived and departed from LaGuardia airport. Some students discovered bridges and highways that they have traveled. They were each able to find exciting and meaningful places, and get a better sense of the scale and scope of our city. All in all, it was a fun trip that will hopefully make a lasting memory for many. The Otters are developing their reading and writing skills along with their knowledge of history during an interdisciplinary unit on Harriet Tubman. They are studying her life and contributions to our country by reading biographies of her in two separate reading groups. One group is reading I Am Harriet Tubman, a detailed account of her life that includes illustrations, a timeline, a glossary, sidebars with related facts and other non-fiction text features. The other group is reading a story-like narrative called Go Free or Die: A Story About Harriet Tubman. This biography uses facts about her life along with some creative license on specific conversations she might have had in order to give the reader a more vivid representation of her life experiences. Students are also using other sources to enrich their understanding. For example, one group is listening to excerpts from audio tracks for a driving tour called "Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway." These tracks accompany visuals of significant places in the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman's life, and therefore provide rich details on what Harriet Tubman might have seen and experienced. Both groups are writing outlines and summaries of each chapter as they read.
Once the Harriet Tubman books are finished, the Otters will be applying their understanding of biographies and summarization to write their own report on a historically significant person of their choice. The students will be guided to choose an African American or a woman to study in honor of Black History Month and Women's History Month. We look to sharing their work with you soon after the break. The Otter class got a taste of sweet success this Valentine's day. Each year at Gillen Brewer, the oldest class runs a one-day school store as the culminating project for their economics unit. This year, it was the Otters' turn to apply economics concepts and skills such as "demand," "raw materials," "mass production" and "marketing" to the exciting task of planning and running a Valentine's Day Store. They selected products based on what they felt would be in demand among the GBS students and staff, they created posters and employed word-of-mouth marketing, they borrowed capital from Linda, and they manufactured delicious chocolate-dipped pretzels. The Otters also enjoyed learning about Henry Ford's invention of the assembly line and seeing famous spoofs by Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times" and "I Love Lucy" chocolate factory scene. They then used assembly line production techniques to put together over 150 Valentine's cards, featuring wonderful (and hilarious) sentiments written by them. In math, they worked to figure out costs and set sale prices, and practiced cashiering. Finally the day of the store arrived. The students took shifts in pairs and the store was busy from opening to closing. In the end, they calculated their profit: $240! After two weeks of research and discussion, the Otters decided to split the proceeds equally between ASPCA and Doctors Without Borders. Congratulations to the Otters on a job well done. On Wednesday, January 19th, The Otters, the Clouds, and the Battleships all went to the Peoples Improv Theater, also known as the PIT. The PIT is an award-winning training center and comedy theater owned by one of our GBS families. The students were ushered into a small theater and greeted by three actors, who introduced them to the concept of improvisation through a few short improvised scenes and a movie. The students then broke up into three groups by class and were off to learning the art of improv. The Otters started in the green room, where they learned about the importance of eye contact and accepting mistakes through improv games like "Zip Zap Zop" and "Get the Ice Cream Like a....". The students especially enjoyed "Get the Ice Cream Like a...." because they got to pretend to be various types of characters, human and non-human, picking up ice cream from a table. In the next room, the Otters played the games Sound and Motion Telephone and One Word Story. They completed their training in the main theater, where they worked on creativity and quick thinking through games like Kitty Cat Career and Poetry and a Pose. The field trip ended with them eating their lunch in the PIT café. This unique field trip was a fun, exciting learning experience for all!
After many weeks of hard work, the Otters class finally published the first edition of their class newspaper, "The Otter Prophet!" Since October, the Otters have been studying the history of newspapers and the components that make up a typical newspaper. They quickly got to work, choosing topics of interest and deciding how they would gather information. Students conducted interviews, distributed surveys, and searched the internet to gather information. Then, they worked tirelessly constructing lead sentences, writing details, copying quotes, and editing paragraphs. In the end, Mary, their Editor-in-Chief, collected their articles, formatted them into a newspaper template, and added some pictures to make it pop. The students had an official launch celebration on Friday, January 6, where they had the opportunity to answer questions about their articles posed by school administrators, therapists, and peers. Click on the button below to see the newspaper.
On Election Day, the Otters and the Clouds traversed the busy sidewalks in order to experience being first hand reporters of the election. They first traveled to the Yorkville Community School on East 88th Street, where they were shocked to see a line that wrapped around the whole block. After shuffling past the crowded voters, the students broke up into small reporting teams and positioned themselves on various corners near the polling place. Each team was tasked with stopping random adults on the street and asking them "Did you vote?" and "Why did you vote?" They had a clipboard and a voter response sheet for writing answers (see below).
The students found many friendly adults who were willing to stop and talk to them. Most of the adults who were stopped said that they had voted. Many adults responded to "Why did you vote?" with answers like "It's my civic duty," and "I'm exercising a right." One of the adults who stopped was especially excited about the students' efforts because she was a reporter for a news agency looking for stories on the election. All in all, it was a positive learning experience for all the students and a wonderful opportunity to get outside and talk to someone new about their reasons for voting. This Tuesday, the Otters boarded a school bus with only their lunch and an itinerary pamphlet and traveled back in time. They explored Federal Hall, Stone Street, and Fraunces Tavern, all of which were historically significant during the time of the Revolutionary War and formation of the Constitution. They started at Federal Hall, where the tour guide shared artifacts and images of the building in its various roles as the country's first capitol building, custom's house, and treasury. One interesting artifact she showed them was the Bible that George Washington was sworn in on when he was inaugurated in New York. The students were very pleased to leave Federal Hall with 2 Junior Park Ranger Badges each and an activity booklet on Historic Preservation. Next, they took a quick lunch break hosted by Mary's husband at Deutsche Bank's cafeteria. Then, they were off to find Stone Street, one of the oldest streets in New York and the first street paved with cobblestone in the city. At the end of Stone Street stood Fraunces Tavern, another historical landmark known for being General Washington's headquarters during the Revolutionary War and the place where he bid farewell to his officers after the British left New York City. The Otters were fascinated to see the famous Long Room, which has been preserved in its original condition. Throughout the trip, the Otters observed many primary sources (a word that they are learning in social studies) and thought about their significance. Teachers were impressed by how well the students connected what they have learned about New York history and government to the documents, artifacts, buildings, and information they encountered on the trip. It was a lot of fun and they look forward to having more field trip opportunities in the future. *Author's note: Words in BOLD have pictures relating to them below. The Otters had their first Art Farm visit of the year at the end of September. The topic was mammals and Gabby, the Art Farm instructor, had a lot to share. She introduced the students to a rabbit, a guinea pig, and a hamster! All the students had an opportunity to pet the animals and share any previous knowledge or experiences they had with those kinds of animals. The students were excited to discuss similarities and differences between the animals Gabby brought and other rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters they had seen. After interacting with with the live animals, the students used a Venn Diagram to further explore the similarities and differences between the animals and find out what all three had in common. They learned that all mammals have hair or fur, feed their babies with milk, are warm-blooded and are vertebrates. They ended the time by writing in their science journals. It was a fun and exciting science lesson and the class looks forward to our next visit on October 26th. |