Eastern Wayne Elementary creates rain forest
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on January 27, 2005 1:57 PM
Pat Peoples joined Eastern Wayne Elementary School this year as curriculum facilitator, working with academically gifted students. She has also been state-trained in writing end-of-grade tests, a talent she incorporated into the fifth graders' recently-completed project on the rain forest.
In addition to teaching the students how to do the work required for a research paper, Ms. Peoples had her pupils make proportionate drawings of the animals they studied, and then create a three-minute presentation for the younger grades.
Last week, the fifth-grade hall at the school was transformed into a rain forest. Walls were decorated with pictures of waterfalls, elephants and snakes. Students were stationed near their artwork, prepared to share with all who stopped to listen.
Ms. Peoples said the students spent the first half of the school year working on the project. They read extensively, then designed the questions for the end-of-grade tests on the unit. The tests will be used by students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Ms. Peoples said her next project for this semester promises to be equally as exciting.
"Kids will become architects and town planners for 'Polyhedraville,'" she said.
"We're planning to have architects come out and talk with the students and will also invite the Goldsboro city planner and Mayor."
Students will be given a budget, create their own town, name the buildings and construct them from prefabricated materials.
Polyhedrons are three-dimensional figures, she explained. Buildings will be made proportionately and once the project is completed, younger students will be invited to walk through and tour the "city," she said.