2004-2005 Social Studies Fair: Gan Projects

							               2004-2005 Social Studies Fair: Gan
                          Projects
                                                         Million Dollar Baby

                                                          In its morning calendar routine,
                                                  the Gan curriculum includes an element
                                                  focusing on money and the value of coins.
                                                  In social studies the Gan begins its study
                                                  of economics with this concept. The Gan
                                                  also learns about the concept of the
                                                  passage of time by making personal
                                                  timelines. These two concepts were
                                                  combined for the Gan social studies
                                                  project in 2004-2005.

                                                         Gan students looked for a penny
                                                 minted in each year of their lives. Parents
                                                 told their children a story about
                                                 something important that happened to
                                                 them in each of those years, and sent a
note to school with these stories. Together, parents and children collected pictures
matching these stories or representing the child in that year of his or her life. During
center time, children read or were told these stories and then, using their own words and
spelling, wrote about something that happened during each of those years. Their writing,
photos and pennies were then used to create a personal timeline.

       Bio-Poem and Four Square Poster Board

        In a joint project with the fifth grade, the gansters heard about the life of a famous
Jewish American from a fifth grade buddy, who had previously researched and written
about this person. Working together, they wrote a “bio-poem” – a poem about the life of
this person. Together they also decorated a poster, including the name of the individual,
an artistic rendition of some aspect of the person’s life, and a map of the person’s world.

                 CORRESPONDING STANDARDS IN HDS GAN CURRICULUM:

       History:
           Describe personal past; construct personal time line
           Read simple biographies about the lives of others

       Geography:
           Locate U.S. on a world map

       Economics:
      Sort coins by size and numeric value

Inquiry:
    Pose questions and identify information from observation; organize and
      record these observations
    Communicate findings to others clearly
    Acquire information from multiple sources; communicate information
      clearly to others

Writing:
   Write for a variety of purposes, including to entertain, to describe, to
      inform and to predict
   Practice proper letter formation
   Reread own writing
   Write using inventive spelling; use conventional spelling for basic sight
      words
   Write from right to left, top to bottom and use spaces between words
   Share writing
   Introduced to proofreading of own writing; begin to self-correct spelling
   Recognize periods, question marks, and exclamation points; begin to use
      them in own writing
   Use correct punctuation, capitalization and other conventions