Lesson Two,  "Looking Up" Treasure, A Vocabulary Treasure Hunt

Activity I:  Anticipatory Activity, "Found a Peanut"

Activity II:  Looking up “Treasure”, digital reference desk

• Students learn to use greater detail when describing objects for documentation purposes.

• Third Grade Writing Standards: Writing descriptions that use concrete sensory details to present and support unified impressions of people, places, things or experiences.

• Systematic vocabulary development for sorting, categorizing, and classifying their treasures.

• Use sentence and word context clues to find unknown word meanings.

• Use a dictionary to learn the meaning and other features of unknown words.

• Students will collect natural items (i.e. rocks, seeds, feathers, shells, cones) and manmade items (i.e. coins, sea glass, chunks of conglomerate rock, plastic.) 

Time Required

• "Found a Peanut" - One class period

• Vocabulary Treasure Hunt worksheet- One to two class periods

• The active collecting quest is an ongoing one week activity.

Advance Preparation

• two large bags of peanuts in the shell
• access to the internet
• digital reference desk, "hot list"
•     or... dictionaries for student pairs
•     or ... thesaurus or "word finder"
• Vocabulary Treasure Hunt worksheet copies one for each student
• Teacher's vocabulary preparation sheet

Materials / Resources Required

• "Found a Peanut": one or two large bags of peanuts still in the shell, (large enough bag for each student to have two with a few left over,) colored markers, flat cookie sheet type tray, chart paper, brown lunch sacks (one for every 5 students,) chart paper, lined student paper, Collector's Field Log
• Internet Access
• Vocabulary Treasure Hunt: hot list containing student centered digital reference desk resources.
• Vocabulary Treasure Hunt worksheet copies one for each student
• Students' Collection Boxes and Collector's Field Logs
• Vocabulary chart posted in the classroom related to collecting, sorting and describing objects.  Suggested chart would contain word, rebus and definition.

Unit Vocabulary, By Lesson

Concepts

• Developing and asking meaningful questions
• Collecting data
• Analyzing to identify relationships and logical conclusions
• Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information
• Sequencing and prioritizing information
• Observing patterns
• Describing detailed features of once living and non living objects.

Procedures

Activity I, Anticipatory Activity, "Found a Peanut"

1. Open a new bag of peanuts in front of the class and remove two whole shells.
2. Select two whole peanut shells that appear to be alike in both size and shape. 
3. Display the peanuts for the class and ask the students to brainstorm methods for identifying these two peanut shells from all the others if they were returned to the bag.
4. Record ideas on chart paper. (2-3 minutes)
5. Using a red and green marker, place a large dot on both ends of each shell.  One shell should have two red dots and the other shell should have two green dots.
6. Replace the peanuts in the bag, shake/mix them up and then pour them out on a cookie sheet and select two students to come up and find the two peanuts. (for fun time the students seeing how long it takes them)

Cooperative Groups, "Found a Peanut," continued

7. Move into cooperative learning groups of 5 or more and assign tasks: 

• materials person, (gets one bag and fills it with two times as many peanuts than students in the group)
• time keeper, (makes sure group is on task and can note start and stop time for step 6 to monitor how more difficult the peanut hunt becomes.)
• reporter,    (reports to class the procedures used by their group for marking their peanuts)
• shaker, (makes sure all marked peanuts are placed in the bag and shakes bag to mix them up)
• cheerleader, (makes positive comments to group members complimenting them on their cooperative behavior and give only positive comments encouraging students who follow their assigned tasks.)

8.  Repeat the steps in the anticipatory activity using the brown paper bags containing twice as many peanuts as students in the group. 
9. Each student will get one peanut the others in the bag are to make the task of identifying the peanuts more difficult.
10. In cooperative groups  asking each student to select a method for marking their peanut with a colored marker, this time tell them they need to make a very small, "secret," mark that may fool others in their group and requires each member to examine their peanut more closely.
11. Ask each reporter to give a brief retell of what criteria individuals used for identifying their peanuts.
12. Using the remaining unmarked peanuts students are to reach in the sack and select one of the new peanuts.
13. Give them 3-5 minutes to closely observe and examine their new peanut.
14. Students are not to use any manmade means of identification for this new peanut.
15. Have them look at their peanut very closely to find characteristics they believe they can use to identify their peanut from all others in the bag.
16. They must examine the characteristics and unique form of their peanut in its natural state.
17. After the class feels they have had enough time to fully examine and locate at least three definable characteristics for their peanut...
18. Return all the peanuts to the bag.  The marked and unmarked peanuts. There should be twice as many peanuts as students.
19. Ask students to find both their marked and unmarked peanuts as quickly as they can by using the characteristics they observed during the three-five minute observation period.
20. Ask each group's recorder to record all the describing words, (adjectives) and characteristics they used to sort from the others.  (5 minutes)
21. Return to the chart giving each group a turn to name one characteristic used until all the adjectives have been listed. 
22. Lead a discussion of how students refined their characteristics and added greater detail as the sorting group got larger.
23. Ask students to record  words they might find themselves using to describe their collection.  Record the words on the inside, front and back, covers of their  Collector's Field Log.

• Extension: put two groups together to mix and locate their peanuts
• Extension: put the entire class together in one sack and see how difficult it is to discriminate their peanut from all others.

Activity II, Looking up “Treasure”, digital reference desk

1. Begin creating a vocabulary chart with a rebus where applicable for the following terms: gather, collect, collection, discover, manmade, natural, and  nature.  
2. "Vocabulary Treasure Hunt," Use Reference Desk Hot List to access digital reference tools.
3. Students record definitions on their Vocabulary Treasure Hunt worksheet as they use the on-line digital reference  resources.

Extensions or Follow-up

Students will maintain their Collector's Field Log adding greater detail describing specific attributes of their collected items.

Homework

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

Illustrative Materials, Vocabulary Treasure Hunt worksheet,  digital reference tools, Collector's Field Log, Teacher's vocabulary preparation sheet

Evaluation 

Treasure Hunt  Worksheet Evaluation*:

Complete Worksheet, 95-100% accurate.	Exceeds Expectations	19-20 Points	A+
Complete Worksheet, 85-94% accurate. Complete Worksheet, 75-84% accurate.	Meets Expectations	17-18 Points 16-15 Points	A B
Complete Worksheet, 65-74% accurate.	Minimal Effort	13-14 Points	C
Incomplete Worksheet, 55-64%accurate.	Needs Improvement	12 Points or less	D

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

 

	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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