Architectural Tour, McConnell Mansion and LCHS, and the science of predicting the 'cotyledons'

Dr. Reese describing the first house of the Architectural Tour of the Fort Russell Historic District. The kids were being introduced to the architect Henry Black and the use of the local reource of the area, basalt.

Throughout the tour, the kids took notes on the age and address, design features, and did a sketch. They learned about the  area and how the people of Moscow lived at the time.

 The kids learned a lot about how the houses reflected the ideas that people thought represented beauty and the attention to detail that made the houses so unique even if they had some of the same design qualities. The outside of a house was as important as the inside in representing character and individual ideas and the changes in technology.

Here, Mr. Groves, a Docent for the Latah Historical Society, explains what the items and furniture are, and how people lived in the rooms. Each had a purpose and the lives of the families can be felt in his story telling. He did a wonderful job explaining so much. The kids had questions and could easily go back and learn much more.

Cranking up the gramophone

Wondering why people collect hair, how servants lived, and what kind of food was prepared and served.

The great lessons of human sanitation removal

Mr. Wittier, the Curator of the McConnell Mansion, shared primary source documents and a collection of irons that the kids took guesses about which was oldest. They saw how the technology changed. The were reminded that script, which they have learned and used a lot this year, will allow them to read historical material in its original form.

  Below are the prompts and the essay introduction paragraphs. The focus or topic sentence is underlined or blocked so that the kids could remember write details and specific information to support it from their notes. They chose one of the prompts. We have had 2 Writers' Circles, did a big lesson on writing conclusions, and their revisions show that they gained a great deal of content from their day with on the field trip.

  The pumpkin seeds are from the one I brought in from the fall. The kids planted and made a prediction of when the cotyledons would appear. Based on their background with the Sprout Houses in the fall, some were quite accurate. We talked about the variables and they definitely know the difference now between the cotyledons and new leaves. Each student is taking their sprout home after the new leaf is at least 2 mm.

 Getting ready for the Fun Run!! Ms. Ruane gives directions. The kids did great. We took all the data from the run and did some math--mean, median, mode, and range.