Thursday, February 18, 2010

Symmetry...and Book Burning (or, subbing at our co-op)

Yesterday, I substituted for an art class at our co-op. There are only 4 children in the class; they're between the ages of 6 and 10. The teacher usually gives some kind of art demonstration and then lets the children do whatever they want with the supplies.
 
I decided to do a lesson on symmetry that I'd found at mathwire and used with Alex several years ago. I enjoyed creating several examples and sharing them with the students. Only one child used my lesson. He created a shield. (I also made a snowflake and one student had me show her how to do that.)


The art room has TONS of supplies, and the kids really have fun doing their own thing. (Below is just a small portion of the supplies.)


I'm substituting next week for a history teacher. They are talking about the library at Nineveh (from Story of the World 1). She wanted me to talk with the students (4th-6th graders) about book burning. She gave me copies of several articles, but I'm not sure where to go with this. And, as I did further research, it sounds like the Nineveh library was partly destroyed just because of war. It had nothing to do with book burning.


So, I'm trying to figure out what I'll teach next week. As a sub, I can follow the teacher's plan, or come up with my own ideas. My thoughts...

  • I could go with book burning - if so, any ideas?

  • I also thought about the Dewey Decimal system (this class incorporates Language Arts into SOTW) and/or the history of libraries... or other famous libraries???

  • The students are also talking about the next chapter which covers Nebuchadnezzar's Madness and The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, so I could teach something about one of those
Anyway, I was just seeing if anyone had any great ideas. :-) And, I'm sure some of you have used SOTW and might have some ideas from something you did with one of these chapters.

Thanks for any ideas!!!

4 comments:

Phyllis said...

I agree with you...war, not book burning. :)
-Phyllis

Robin said...

I've never used SOTW, but I've heard good things about it.
And Cade would definitely side with your previous commenter. War, not book burning, is more interested.

Shawna said...

The "books" in that library were clay tablets, so I don't know if the image of book burning really fits. I have the activity book for SOTW and it suggests making an Assyrian Siege Tower and Battering Ram out of lego or asking the kids to draw the what they think the Hanging Gardens of Babylon looked like.

Teacher of One said...

I remember when we read about this and G could not believe that they would destroy the library. He loves our library and was just flabbergasted.

It is an interesting line of discussion. It was during war but maybe discuss how they would feel. What is so important about libraries and though this one was a casualty of war some, the Nazis come to mind, used it to control the knowledge/ beliefs of those around them. The same with modern day book banning... just because one or a few people believes a book is offensive should it be removed for everyone.

How does a destroyed library effect a society?

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