My Gatherings

Introductory Lesson (Lesson One) -An inquiry activity where students explore personal interests by gathering objects for the purpose of  creating a collection.    

Instructional Objectives

• Students will decorate a collection box for holding newly found treasures.

• Students will learn how to use and maintain a Collector's Field Log.

• Students will write descriptions that use concrete sensory details to present and support unified impressions of places, things or experiences.

Time Required

1. One class period for explaining the decorated shoe box homework activity.  Introductory Letter Home

2. One class period for reading Everybody Needs a Rock and creating a pattern poem.

3. One class period to explain and model: a) walking field trip around school grounds or local community to hunt for and collect 1 or 2 "treasures." b) entering details in the Collector's Field Log. c) students collecting one special item to enter in their Collector's Field Log.

Advance Preparation

• Families may need advance notice to save a shoebox for this unit.

• Read aloud or review, Ira Sleeps Over where Reggie shows Ira his junk collection.  Have students identify natural items from Reggie's collection.  Ask students to think of things they collect that come from nature, such as rocks, feathers, butterfly wings.  

• A knowledge of items to be found around your school environs for modeling finding treasures and entering the information in the Collector's Field Log.

• Parent permission slip if you intend to leave the school grounds on your walking field trip.

• Copy and distribute one for each student: Introductory Letter Home, describing the unit and outlining activities and requirements.

• Students are encouraged to be aware that treasures may be found at any time and anywhere.

• Teacher should have a decorated collections box as a sample.

• Students are urged to look for items anywhere they go, school, home, anywhere in their local environs.  They are also encouraged to add  "treasures" from home they may have previously gathered.

Materials / Resources Required

(web sites with annotated, working links; equipment; soft ware; people; <guest speakers, experts>;field trips <virtual or real> books/magazines with necessary citation and synopsis

• Book: Everybody Needs a Rock, (Byrd Baylor, Peter Parnell)

• Book: Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran, Barbara Cooney (illustrator)

• Book: Ira Sleeps Over, by Bernard Waber, 

• Shoe box, one for each student

• One Collector's Field Log booklet for each Student, Recommend a cardstock cover stapled horizontally to 5-6 double sided log sheets, (double sided copies make 4 log pages per sheet of paper.)

• Preprinted log sheet for the overhead projector .

• Pencils, colored pencils, and crayons for Collector's Field Log

• Optional hand lenses for use in field discoveries.

• Scrap paper and poster paint , scissors, markers, and magazines for decorating collection boxes if students do not have access to those materials at home.

• Vocabulary chart posted in the classroom related to collecting, sorting and describing objects .  Suggested chart would list the term, have a picture ( rebus) and definition.

• Walking field trip within your school environs.

• Internet Access

Unit Vocabulary

Unit Vocabulary By Lesson

 Concepts

• Developing and asking meaningful questions

• Collecting data

• Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information

• Sequencing and prioritizing information

• Observing patterns

• Describing detailed features of once living and non living objects.

Key Points

1. The teacher leaves the definition and criteria for defining  “treasure” very open.

2. Brainstorm and encourage a class discussion of all the ways the word "treasure" is used in our society.

• buried treasure, lost treasures, found treasures, rare treasures, valuable treasures, "junk", antique treasures, family treasures, heirlooms, treasures from the heart, precious treasures.

3. There is nothing too insignificant to collect at the first stage of this lesson. Students will later have the opportunity to explore their items and refine their collections.

Activities

Anticipatory Lesson  

• Read aloud , Everybody Needs a Rock, (Byrd Baylor, Peter Parnell)

          This is a great book to motivate students into rock collecting and to begin describing items with rich adjectives and descriptions.

          Choosing their own special rock, students are encouraged to explore a sense of wonder and curiosity about rocks and their sources.

  

• Take a "rock hunting" walking field trip or encourage students to bring a rock in from home

• Create a pattern story of the students "own TEN RULES for finding a rock......." 

Day One    Assign homework: decorate a shoebox to become a collecting box . 

Day One,  Prior to "Collecting" Field Trip    Explain the norms for what is appropriate and not appropriate for gathering .

    Procedures

• Students will collect items of interest or items they find eye catching and place them in a shoebox.

• Instruct students to gather only objects that are safe to handle. (No living plants or animals, no dead animal parts where evidence of hair or tissue is present.)  When collecting feathers or skeletal remains they should wash their hands immediately after handling. 

Day One    

• Lead a field trip around the school grounds where the teacher demonstrates collecting a few items for the teacher's collection box.

• Teacher models use of the Collector's Field Log while in the "field."

• Return to classroom and model logging/entering an artifact from home on a preprinted overhead projector sheet .

• Explain grading rubric for collectors log sheets.

• If students wish to include collected items from home that are of value or family significance, students are encouraged to substitute the item for a drawing or a photo placed in their box in place of the actual item. 

Ongoing    Assign homework: complete student field logs when adding items found at home to their boxes.

Extensions or Follow-up

• Read aloud story called Roxaboxen, illustrating how children living in the Southwest collected objects from their environment to create something new and how they created a imaginary community.

       This is an excellent story for third grade social studies lessons exploring community.  For the purpose of this lesson, lead a discussion on how the children were able to create their imaginary  community from treasures found in the Arizona desert where they lived.

• After reading Everybody Needs a Rock encourage students to collect a variety of rocks and use guide books and geology books to identify several rocks and give "histories" for them, where their rocks fit in the rock cycle.

• Using field guides from the library or from on-line, (birds, sea shells, plants) students should further identify items listed in their field logs for accurate labeling.

• Students are encouraged to add to their collections and Collector's Field Log, in preparation for their final Mini Museum display in Lesson 4.

• Students learn to "jury" and refine their collections becoming more focused on their items in preparation for the Mini Museum exhibition.

Homework

Day One    Decorate a shoebox to become a collecting box . 

Ongoing     Complete student field logs when collecting and adding items found at home to their boxes.

Ongoing     Keep looking for items that will enhance your collection.

Illustrative Materials

Collector's Field Log, Introductory Letter Home

Evaluation

Shoebox Decoration Evaluation:

Collector's Field Log Evaluation*:

Complete Collector's Field Log, complete page for each  item in collection box, detailed illustrations and descriptions.	Exceeds Expectations	50-46 Points	A+
Complete Collector's Field Log, page for each item collected, basic illustrations and descriptions, no evidence of detail.	Meets Expectations	41-45 Points 40-36 Points	A B
Partially completed Collector's Field Log, missing information on log sheets, all objects represented in log.	Minimal Effort	31-35 Points	C
Incomplete Collector's Field Log, log pages incomplete, pages do not match items in collection box.	Needs Improvement	30  Points or less	D

                        *(Points are suggested, may be modified as necessary)

Illustrative Materials, such as worksheets, graphic organizers, photos, and answer keys

Student Work Samples (include a range of samples, not just the best)

 

	Outline Time Line		Introductory Lesson "My Gatherings" Creating a Collection
Lesson Two Vocabulary Treasure Hunt Digital Reference Desk		Lesson Three  Organizing My Collection Sort and Classify
	Lesson Four "Virtual Museum Tour" On-Line Dig		Lesson Five Classroom Mini Museum Showcasing Collections

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