A Season Of Change

Indicators:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry necessay to conduct a simple scientific investigation.
2. Illustrate the weather conditions of different seasons.

Monday: Read aloud SPRING,SUMMER,AUTUMN,WINTER
Discuss with students the cyle of the seasons.
Write on chart paper: Summer looks like, Fall looks like, Winter looks, Spring looks like. Students will tell the teacher what they know about these seasons and she will write their words on the paper.Students will then complete a premade class graph illustarting their favorite season using stickies. Students will then write about their favorite season.

Tuesday: Read aloud :MY BOOK OF THE SEASONS.
Review yesterdays chart, add to it or delete misconceptions.Next students will write down their birthday month and illustrate the season he/she was born in and label the picture. On the Smart Board we will visit the web site www.ReadWritethink.org Weather dectectives to view weather sayings and discuss them. Students will be asked to brainstorm other ways to illustarte seasonal weather phenonmena. The teacher will direct them to the possibility of using digital cameras to take actual photos of our outdoor classroom habitat as it changes through the seasons.


Wednesday: Read aloud: ROUND AND ROUND GO THE SEASONS.
Bring in the cameras.The teacher demonstrates how to operate. As a class write norms for using the digital cameras. Put students in teams of two. (Parents will be invited to come to help guide students through this exploration phase.) Pass out cameras and as a whole group work with the cameras. Practice taking pictures in the class and then of the tree outside our window. We will adopt this Bradford Pear tree and we will all photograph throught out the seasons.

Thursday: The teacher and the teams of students will walk to the outdoor classroom. The teacher will review norms and demonstrate proper camera usage. The students will then be given cameras for their pair. They will be encouraged to walk along the path and take pictures. We will print the pictures. The pictures will be housed in our class.

Every month thereafter, our class will visit the Outdoor Classroom and take pictures. The pictures will be dated and classified by the season. At the end of the year-each child will create his/her personal season booklet. The booklet will integrate the writing process as well as the visual arts using photographs. The author will be photographed also! Parent help will be encouraged throughout the year as we use the cameras.The booklet will be scored using a class designed rubric. We will display our booklets in the Public library, at a local resturant called Triple Play and at our Lexington I District Office.