Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

Know Your Neighbor

The Hudson River

Treasure Hunt

Group Name: _____________________ Members: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

Gathering Evidence• Assemble a team of four

– include two bridge grade-level teachers, a special ed & a special program teacher; give the group a name; write the name & members on the front

• Using the attached sheets as cues, observe and note theme related possibilities for instruction under at least four of the categories

• Teams should ask, what can you:– Observe, smell, journal, or

draw about this aspect of the Hudson

– Measure, test, quantify

• Why or how would this be interesting to TOAST students?

• Your notes will be used for group activities / discussion back at school directly after the boat ride -- think outside the box – “prizes” coming

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

Shoreline

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

River Plants

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

River Animals

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

River Bridges

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

River as Recreation

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

River Commerce / Transportation

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

River as “Inspiration”

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

River Locks

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

River Testing

• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________• ________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

Creating a Hudson River Instructional Lesson Name for the Lesson: ______________________________ Grade Level: _________________

Instructional objective: ________________________________________________________

Briefly describe the unit, the way you would include the Hudson River, and how you would involve the students with the Hudson? (field trip / research / etc.) ____________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

How would you tie-in this lesson with the theme curriculum, with other class activities, with computer, camera or web technologies, or with school-support programs? _____________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

How could you bring your bridge class into this lesson? _______________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

Group name: ____________

Members: ____________________________________________

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

Expanding the Instructional Ideas Teacher / staff name: ____________

Group Name Comments Suggestions / Expansions Top 3*

* Place a 1 next to your first choice, 2 next to second, 3 next to third

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

Special Panel of Judges Judge name: ____________

CATEGORY Group Name

The “No, You Can’t Bring the Hudson to TOAST” Award; (Most unrealistic field trip ideas)

The “Blind Leading the Blind” Award, or “Whose My Partner Again?” Award or “You Want the 4th Graders To Do What?” Award; (Most innovative use of the bridge class)

The “I Love the Unstructured Environment,” or, “You Can’t Go on This Field Trip Unless Your Father Comes” Award; (Greatest use of outside classroom activities)

The “Popsicle Lifetime Achievement Award”; (Most artistic use of the Hudson River)

The “Glutton for Punishment” Award or, the “I’m a Professional; Overtime is Part of the Deal” Award; (Most pre-planning needed)

The “Fernie, I’m Really, Really Sorry” Award; (Most likely to create a huge mess)

The “Building Castles in the Sky” Award or “Remind Me, What’s Origami?” Award; (Most innovative use of construction paper)

The “Beg, Borrow, Steal” Award; (Most new equipment/supplies needed)

The “Barb/Brenda, You’re Going to Hate Me for This” Award; (Most likely to drive the secretaries crazy)

The “Oops, I Only Count 19” Award; (Most likely to have a student overboard)

Hudson River – Planning - O’Connor, PhD. ILS – copyright 2003

Notes to Planners• Make a fun treasure hunt; let groups take notes using the handout as prompts – have

one person take notes for the group; encourage original thinking – circulate around the boat and be sure folks are taking notes; take pictures that include ALL staff

• Upon return to the school, have the groups re-form, taking their “reminders” and generating an instructional unit – give groups about 15-20 minutes to assemble some lesson ideas (see attached sheet); have them choose a task leader (for ensuring that all parties are participating and for leading the discussion about the unit), a recorder (for assembling the group’s ideas onto the sheet), and a reporter (for summarizing ideas to the school staff) – give at least two copies to the group

• Have the reporter for each group read the ideas to the assembly; set a time limit for this “report back” (2.5-3.0 minutes) – use a stop watch to track time / flag when 1 minute remains – the teachers/staff make notes and comments about the ideas proposed (see the attached sheet); move to the next group quickly; should time permit, guide a discussion about the learning ideas

• During the reporting have teachers and staff complete the “Expanding the Instructional Ideas” grid – to keep them engaged and to gather their ideas and their votes; tell them that summaries of this information and the tally of their votes will be posted on the internal web site

• Secure several immediate judges either by: appointing (tape something to the bottom of selected chairs) or having volunteers– have these judges sit in a separate section (to keep their judgments anonymous) / generate serious to silly categories – have these judgments compiled during the closing comments (Salerno / Savino ) / announce the findings – give prizes

• Follow up: Chipman begins to compile lessons; O’Connor creates web documentation of the boat ride, the ideas and units generated, and the contest winners