Mounds Park Academy: Day 2

Abby and I went in on the following Monday morning to teach the 3rd and 4th grade classes once again. I had constructed a syllabus that revolved around two main topics. The first thing we were going to do was conduct the plant family activity that Mary kindly constructed for us. We started by doing a brief lesson on the white board of what the six plant families were: carrot, cabbage, nightshade, lily, cucurbit, and legume family. We passed out about 2 identification cards for each family, since the class sizes were around 10-18 students. Once they received these, they took time to find other students in their family and discussed the characteristics that might tie their family together. Abby and I walked around to help the students clarify different features at this time. They were then told to write up the conclusions they made on the board, and then present them to the class. While this was successful in some regard, it was harder to do with the third graders who did not have as much knowledge on the topic so getting together in groups to discuss was a little more difficult. In addition, this portion of class took the full amount of time, so we were not able to get to the second part of the lesson which went over various plant parts, and what each contributes to a balanced meal. We were able to incorporate some of this material into our following lesson; however, not to the degree I planned on for this day.