Shifting Perspectives: Colonial Grandparents' Day

I can’t believe we are more than halfway through our TRC year!  I am so proud of my teachers and the amazing projects they have created thus far.  One of our best projects was in our 5th grade class using our new iPads.  Every year since I can remember (I did it when I attended 5th grade in Hesston over 20 years ago!) we celebrate “Grandparent’s Day”.  It is associated with our colonial unit for 5th grade studies and has always included a major project (usually a 3-D model as well as a poster), and presentations to an audience of grandparents. 

This year we had about 100 grandparents in attendance, the furthest coming from California!  We decided we needed to enhance the project by including technology as well as relating back to the students’ world.  The students each completed a 3-D display of various topics including food, housing, clothing, toys, etc. and a keynote presentation made in teams comparing colonial times to the present. For example, a team built a log cabin and then a modern house and others built a Walmart and then an old time grocery store.   We had all of the displays in the gym and our grandparents were our authentic audience, walking around and learning from our students.  I captured the excitement not only on the students’ faces, but the grandparents when they were shown things of then and now. 

The big hit was the iPads and it was cute to see the grandparents acting as children, wanting to touch, hold, and play with the iPads!  Some of the grandparents spoke about how things were different when they were kids and what school was like for them compared to how it is now.  We even recorded several student presentations for grandparents that were unable to make it to the day (including a grandparent in the final stages of cancer) and posted them on the Internet for them to view.  What a fantastic day it was and it was interesting to see the students’ take on how things have changed from colonial times, to their grandparents’ time, and now to their own.

~Staci Hanson, TRC Faciltiator, Hesston USD

Bonus Blog Post!

Let Your Computer Do Your Grading for You!

http://www.kansastrc.org/profiles/blogs/flubaroo-let-your-computer-...