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The unit
started with students receiving an email from the Assistant
Principal suggesting the possibility of creating a Monument
Museum.
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After agreeing
that this might be a great idea, students chose which
monument building team they would like to be a part of by
placing their name in three bags and having a
drawing.
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Before they
could build monuments, students had to learn about shapes,
maps, and basic building. They invited several experts to
their classroom. First, a real architect talked to them
about her experiences. Then, a father in the building trade
came to show a slide show.
 
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Another visitor
shared her experiences creating dollhouses.
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Students
studied about geometric shapes and had a chance to play with
blocks of all shapes.
 
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They came to
the computer lab to construct buildings using Community
Construction Kit. In the process, they had to make
decisions about exterior materials, doors, windows, shapes,
size, etc.
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Many beautiful
structures were created.
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The art teacher
and each group took a close look at their monument. Students
decided what shapes their building would require. Then they
got to work creating the monuments.
  
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Students worked
with large grids to practice mapping skills. Not only did
they use a large grid with paper symbols....
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They
transferred that knowledge to the computer.
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Teachers read
many books about monuments which students discussed
throughout the unit.
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Computer
centers featured activities to reinforce their study of
geometry.
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When the monuments
were finished, all student groups worked with their teacher
to choose the important information they wanted to feature
in the description which would be mounted beside the
monument.
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Once the
monuments were on display, the students practiced what they
wanted to tell visitors and how they would answer
questions.
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The museum was
opened with the singing of the school song and .......
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a ribbon
cutting.
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Visitors took
their time seeing the monuments and talking to the
guides.
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They wrote
comments for the builders on post-it notes which were left
near the monuments.
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There were nine
monuments featured in the Monument Museum.
The Statue of Liberty, United States Capitol, Jefferson
Memorial....
  
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Kings Park
School, Lincoln Memorial, Mount Vernon......
  
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Pentagon,
Washington Monument and the White House.
  
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After everyone
had viewed the monuments, it was back to the classroom to
build your own snack.
  
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Monument Museum 
