Stretch It! Spice It! Age It!

This week during LA Workshop I had the opportunity to work with small groups in writing.  I organized students into groups according to the following goals:

Spice It! - Adding spicy words and interesting details

Stretch It! - Expanding upon ideas and adding more details

Age It! - Adding words and vocabulary to match the style/tone of this particular old world piece

More Explorer Journals

"Today Louis checked our supplies. Luckily they are in ok shape. Baltasar checked our navigation and we are still on course. I miss my family too much. I just want to go back. I will explode if I hear another sailor song. My back is sore from months sleeping in a hammock. I can feel the splinters in my feet from the cracked deck." 
- Manual

"Tonight is particularly dark as the storm rolled in. I couldn't stay on my feet and if we didn't furl the sails, the vessel will capsize. A lot of the crew members were about to fall from the craft, but I am doing my best to help the sailors. Lucky for us, we have good commons sense. I heard thunder, yelling, and more. I felt the wind hitting my face. It stung like needles. " - Diego

 

"Oh no! The fishing has been poor this week, so our rations have been cut in half. We are so hungry. We are severely off course. Our biscuits are rock hard and have weevils crawling in them. I don't want to eat. The crew does not trust the captain. The morale is not good. Tensions are bad." - Eric 

"We have been sailing for the 3 weeks now and I'm getting used to the splashing waves and the sounds of the sea gulls. Sometimes it can be so silent out here, like when we hit the dead calm. But not today! When I woke up everything was soaking wet. I thought the boat was going to capsize. I got scared and I didn't know if everyone was ok. I don't remember a whole lot, but I do remember that it was a very bad storm and everyone was yelling and running around." - Daniela

 "I don't think I can spend a couple more months on this boat, but I know I have to. The thing is the sailors are singing songs called sea shanties, which is really getting annoying. It reeks on this voyage because our crew members haven't bathed for weeks. I am tired of watching cockroach fighting. It was funny and interesting in the beginning. I'm getting so tired of the food. Bleh! I want to go home and eat my delicious food and take a bath." - Eleanor

 "We were not prepared for the storm. We lost our mizzenmast. It fell and Eric, Audrey, and Estelle were trapped underneath. Our ship's surgeon was one that got hit, so we had no other medical expertise to fix everyone up. All I saw was a flash and then boom. Luckily our ship sustained no major damage. I think I'm going to join the rest of the crew. The captain cannot be trusted!" - Richard

 "Our crew is very angry. We tried our best to calm them down, but we failed. Laura is attacked by an angry crew member. My poor sister! But, because she is so strong, she was able to defend herself. The morale is getting lower. None of us are happy or excited anymore. We just wait. The tensions on the boat are really high." - Estelle

"Someone has been stealing from our supplies. I glare angrily at the convicts. The crew does not trust the captain, but we convinced them to trust just a little longer. My back hurts from sleeping in the hammock for so long. I have smelled things I never thought I would smell. It is horrible." - Simon

Explorer Journal Excerpts

This Explorer Simulation not only teaches the kids about life as an explorer in the 1400 and 1500s. It also is the source of some terrific writing by the kids. They have been challenged in keep a journal from the perspective of their various characters. We've been building a vocabulary wall with lots of interesting and explorer-specific vocabulary. Many students have done a terrific job incorporating many of these words into their writing. Please enjoy...

"I have very big fears about this voyage. Here are some of them. One is any of kind of storm, because the boat could capsize. We could get any kind of diseases. For example, scurvy is one. Scurvy is caused by a lack of Vitamin C. If you get scurvy, your teeth will start to fall out and your joints can hurt. It sometimes means death if it gets serious. The only known antidote is fresh citrus, like oranges, lemons, and limes. The trouble is it is hard to keep fresh lemons or oranges on a boat." - Alice Bailey

"My name is David Huntman. I'm 18 years old and I'm a poor hunter. I live with my brothers Rex and Cody, my mother Martha and my dad Allen. I became interested in sailing because I lived next to a shipyard. I will miss my family." - David Huntman

"I was walking on to the boat, as my mother and papa were waving goodbye from the dock. All of a sudden, the captain called "All Aboard!" I heard the sails crack and we left. As tears poured down my face, I could smell the salty air. Suddenly, I couldn't see my parents anymore, so I sat down and hoped that I would someday see them again." - Laura Page

"Growing up, I was tutored by someone named Mrs. Rogers. Boy did I hate being tutored, learning all that stuff about how to do things that bored me to death. I guess it will help me explore. I am sailing for curiosity. I want to know what else is out there in the world. I know that has to be more and I want to be the one to discover it." - Audrey Page

Hoist the Sails & Stow the Anchor

 Check out the awesome team flags, created by the explorers...

EL Toro, sailing for Spain.
Crew: Maysun, Alex R., Micah, Elvis, and Jack

The Lions, sailing for England.
Crew: Victor, Adian, Emma, Lilly, and Alex T. 

Double Fishes, sailing for Portugal.
Crew: Caleb, Henry, Matthew, and Lucas

Valeo, sailing for France.
Crew: Holly, Anna, Emilie, Ben, and Jacob

Chewonki Visit

A huge thank you goes out to the PTA for providing the funds to allow folks from the Chewonki Foundation to visit Skillin School again. Our class really enjoyed a presentation on Biomes of the World. They learned about adaptations that animals have to live in a variety of biomes.  The most exciting part was having visitors from the animal world...

 

 

Sailor School

In order to prepare the sailors for their upcoming journey at sea, students attended Prince Henry's Sailing School, just as young sailors did back in the 1400s. Sailors completed courses in navigation, first aid, knot tying, and food preservation.

Team Valeo, sailing for France,
practices tying knots.

Sisters Audrey and Laura proudly show off
their knot tying prowess. 

Sailors for England's boat
The Lions use an astrolabe to
help with navigation.

Two sailors from Portugal's ship
Double Fishes spot the North Star.

Three sailors use teamwork
to build an astrolabe.

More Place Value

In an effort to continue our work on being able to explain place value patterns we worked more with seeing the value of numbers.

That worked a little bit. A few more kids were starting to be able to put the pattern into words.  But what really seemed to be the "aha" moment was to relate it to one of their favorite things...money! 

When I got out the Monopoly money and they could see that Ben had $6, Jacob had $60, and Caleb had $600, they started to see the real significance of place value. Students could finally begin articulating clearly how changing the position of a digit in the number, significantly changes the value of the number. I pretended that we had earned this much money at a car wash. I told them that I would keep Caleb's 6 and they could have Jacob's 6. I asked...is this fair?  Suddenly, they could all VERY articulately explain the importance of place value. They were able to tell me that no way was this fair because the Caleb's 6 is worth ten times the amount of Jacob's 6. 

I have to give credit to Jack, whose fascination with money sparked the idea in the first place. Thanks Jack!