Category: Research People

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Leonardo Coming Soon!

Look

Imagine

Create

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.”

                                                  ~Leonardo da Vinci

Observation begins with a question: What am I seeing? In a world filled to the brim with stimulation, it is easy to take our senses for granted. Though we are usually quick to have thoughts on things that we taste and smell, sight (of all things) can often be overlooked. We see so many things on a daily basis that it’s easy to forget to stop and really look.

You might assume that this is true for things we only see once, but oftentimes this overlooking occurs with things we see on a daily basis. Think about the patience of your front door. It’s waiting every single day for a passerby. Surely you walk by it and through it several times a day. But when was the last time you truly observed your front door? Are there new cracks? Has the paint faded? Has the metal of the hinges or doorknob tarnished? Most of us probably couldn’t answer these questions without going to have another look.

Observation is not just for the artist making masterpieces or the scientist performing meticulous experiments. It is for us to better understand and know the world we live in. It is for us to learn to move past assumptions and fill our minds with sighted knowledge. Our world with is briming with sights to see, so let’s dive into the art of observation.

There is nothing like art-making to engage students in active learning. Leonardo da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance Man, made over 13,000 journal observations during the course of his lifetime, and as he did, he not only gained an enormous body of knowledge, but also created masterworks and made significant discoveries that he generously shared with the world. His influence is far reaching.

In our brand new interdisciplinary 20-week unit, students will research the life of the extraordinary Leonardo da Vinci, taking notes along the way in preparation for the culminating biographical essay. They will also learn to slow into the art of observation via weekly drawing exercises. All of the exercises will be supported by online videos that can be accessed at the convince of the student.  Watch our social media for our April website drop date.

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Research Writing Informs and Inspires!

Who was? What is? Where? When? Why?

These are the questions that writers ask as they read for information. Research writing is a unique writing genre where students simultaneously gain knowledge and share ideas to inspire readers to do the same.

Research writing begins in 2nd grade with Taxonomy of living Things: Introduction to Animals. Over the course of 13 weeks, students will be guided into the work of learning about the animal kingdom, journaling their discoveries along the way. This opportunity to research will not only help them to gain knowledge, but also to springboard into the realm of early non-fiction note taking and the writing of complete factual sentences.

From there, students are ready to move into Research People in grades 3 through 6. A great place to begin research writing is by adding two Research People units to your 3rd grade back-to-school writing plan. The d’Aulaire books,  published by our friends at Beautiful Feet Books, are just right for the 3rd grade entry to research writing. Take Lincoln for example,  the quintessential embodiment of American possibility in his myth-like rise from rail-splitter to Chief Executive and Emancipator of the oppressed. What better way to start off learning to write a biographical essay—YES, a biographical essay!

Each of the Research People units takes the prep and guess work out of the process of writing the biographical essay, so you can enter the process as a mentor, inspiring your student to glean and gather ideas as they read for information.

Students will grow a vocabulary specific to each famous person, will review the plot of the weekly reading in a handful of complete sentences, and most importantly, learn to brainstorm and narrow down ideas in a topic wheal as they tackle constructing each of 3 body paragraphs over three weeks. On the fourth week, students will be lead into the construction of an opening and closing paragraph (three sentences each) which will bookend the body paragraphs.

Utilizing the Research People units year after year, you will mentor and inspire as your  students become increasingly independent. If you are familiar with the rich history and beauty of the d’Aulaire books, you might consider purchasing the Superset here. Moving into 4th through 6th grade, we have a wide selection of exceptional people for your student to write about—John Muir, Rosa Parks, and Mr. Rogers and more. Scroll through to discover.

When students arrive in the 7th and 8th grade, informational reading moves from biographical, historical research to science reading and research. When students engage in non-fiction reading and research writing, they are not only tackling benchmark reading + writing skills, but also gaining cross-curricular knowledge. At this level, students have become very independent, and, because each self-contained unit is organized with a familiar supportive scaffolding, you will, once again, be supported in the role of writing mentor!

As with all research writing, students will begin with a great question: Have you met Carolus Linnaeus?

His life’s work will inspire you. All living things can be ordered according to their common biology. Classification allows scientists to explore levels of similarity, dissimilarity, and interconnectedness of cells, systems, and structures. The first level of classification is the Kingdoms. There are five: Protista, Monera, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.
This unit can be easily incorporated into your spring semester. Over the course of five lessons, students will explore and research the diversity of the animal kingdom. They will gather knowledge that will connect to many corners of the field of biology, and they will posess a journal chalk full if information to apply to a great many writing projects: a persuasive or compare/contrast essay, a lyrical poem, even a non-fiction inspired narration. Pick up a copy of our Taxonomy of Living Things unit today!
And last, but not least, Elemental Journal, will guide students on a wonderful voyage through the mysteries of the periodic table. What at first looks like an unapproachable block of numbers and letters begging to be decoded, will be opened up to discovery in an easy and interesting way. Each element has its own quirks and purpose. As students engage in the ongoing work of decoding the table, they will marvel at the diversity of these building blocks of the universe. Students will not only summarize and organize information, evaluate, interpret, and draw conclusions, but more importantly, learn to strike a balance between original information and original ideas. Embarking on an exploration of the periodic table is like traveling across an amazing landscape full of surprises.

And it all begins with a simple question: What do stars and human beings have in common?

Elements, of course!

Everything you can imagine is made of elements — an octopus, a basketball, and each of us humans!

Blackbird & Co. research writing units are designed to foster inquiry, spark imagination and get students writing in the non-fiction realm.

 

~Kimberly

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Learn with Leonardo

Look

Imagine

Create

 

“Whatever you do in life, if you want to be creative and intelligent, and develop your brain, you must do everything with the awareness that everything, in some way, connects to everything else.” ~Leonardo da Vinci

 

Observation begins with a question: What am I seeing? In a world filled to the brim with stimulation, it is easy to take our senses for granted. Though we are usually quick to have thoughts on things that we taste and smell, sight (of all things) can often be overlooked. We see so many things on a daily basis that it’s easy to forget to stop and really look.

 

 

There is nothing like art-making to engage students in active learning. Leonardo da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance Man, made over 13,000 journal observations during the course of his lifetime, and as he did, he not only gained an enormous body of knowledge, but also created masterworks and made significant discoveries that he generously shared with the world. His influence is far reaching.

Over the course of 20 weeks, students will learn to observe from no other than the Renaissance Man himself! Students will research the life of Leonardo Da Vinci and learn to create observational drawings. Watch for our brand new unit to be released early this summer.

 

~Kimberly

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Read a Book / Make a Map

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When is a family like a map? 

Help your 3rd and 4th grader explore a metaphor.

This is the story of an old Parisian named Armand, who relished his solitary life. Children, he said, were like starlings, and one was better off without them. But the children who lived under the bridge recognized a true friend when they met one. And it did not take Armand very long to realize that he had gotten himself a ready-made family- one that he loved with all his heart, and one for whom he would have to find a better home than the bridge. Trace the steps of Armand and the children through the streets of Paris and discover just how a family if like a map.

After discovering this mystery, create a map to document the journey.

 

-Kim

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Happy Birthday Ben?

NOT really…!

Ben’s family birth certificate says that he was born on January 6, 1706, but when the Colonies switched to a different calendar to keep pace with the seasons, his new birthday became January 17!

Founding Father.

One of five men who crafted the Declaration of Independence.

Once, the Postmaster General.

Founded the idea of the public hospital and library.

Organized the first volunteer fire department which led to his concept of fire insurance.

The architect of Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Inventor of the glass armonica, bifocals, swim fins, Franklin Stove, and, of course the lightning rod.

Honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, University of St. Andrews, University of Oxford, and University of Edinburgh.

Spent 27 years of his life living abroad, crossing the Atlantic 8 times!

Earned his place on the $100 dollar bill.

All this more than 311 years ago!

Celebrate this life well spent one of two ways:

Ever wonder where inventors get their ideas? As it turns out, the great inventor Benjamin Franklin got his best ideas from a mouse named Amos (not really, but make for an adventurous historical fiction)! Consider this from historian David McCullah who read the book as a child:David McCullogh says “I can never be in Old Christ Church without wondering if perhaps some of Amos’s line are still there, back behind the paneling.” Pick up a bundle today. Who knows, you might cultivate a historian!

Early to bed and early to rise… you know the rest (I hope).

Benjamin Franklin was the youngest of seventeen children. He was the inventor whose thirst for knowledge led him to constantly seek to improve the lives of his fellow men. Follow his life as a leader in the American Revolution and ambassador to both Britain and France and learn why the French hailed him as the man who “tore the lightening from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.” Explore this an so much more in the D’Aulaire recounting of the life of Ben Franklin. And over the course of 5 weeks you student will not only be guided through the crafting of an original essay, but will discover just how valuable a life can be.

 

-Kim

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Liquid, Solid, or Gas?

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For an interdisciplinary approach to literature, dive into our Winter Earlybird Literature Discovery Guide that features an eclectic mix of wonderfully told stories. It begins with Snowballs by Lois Ehlert, where your child will discover the wonders of the water cycle and how snow comes into being.

Did you know that you can watch the water cycle water cycle in a ziplock bag? For best results, make sure you hang it in a sunny window. We'd love to hear what you discover.

To extend the fun, read All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon

 

-Sara

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Why Ask?

Frog
I say, "Dissection."
And they say, "Yuk."
 
There are many reasonable reasons to object. 
But there are also many reasonable reasons to overcome. 
 
We should first stop to consider that dissection of a frog, for example, provides a way for our students to experience the complexity of life, the ecology of biological systems, and organs that are similar to our own. Frogs are an important part of the food chain, being consumed on a regular basis by snakes, birds, and even human beings. We teach about it: Hawk eats the snake that ate the frog that ate the grasshopper that ate the grass. And so it goes, day after day in the wild. Still, I always begin dissection reminding students that we are considering something that once lived. This gravity helps to elevate the work at hand but also to exercise empathy. Ultimately dissection is not for the faint of heart. 
 
In my mind the overarching reason to dissect is to learn to ask a question. Simple questions like, "How does this work?" delightfully lead us to complexities.  
 
To make the most of dissection, have sketch paper on hand where students can take notes as they work through the process. Here is where the asking begins. Encourage students to jot down questions as they go.
 
Once the project is complete, they can re-create the details of dissection in their Observation Journal and they can begin looking for answers. This culminating activity will help them to commit the information to memory while simultaneously discovering the WOW inherent to the intricacies of life. 
 
And if you are simply unable to dissect, use the World Wide Web like Marlo did and conduct a virtual dissection. 
 
I'll leave you with this from Jonas Salk who developed one of the first successful polio vaccinations: "What people generally think of as the moment of discovery is really the discovery of the question." 
 
 
-Kim
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Happy Birthday Antonie van Leeuwenhoek!

Cocci

It began with a hefty dose of imagination, a glass pearl, and some strands of fabric.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the very first microbiologist never intended to be the world’s first microbiologist. He was actually a tradesman who had never studied science!

From the time he was 16, he apprenticed in a linen-draper’s shop. Soon he became a merchant because he worked diligently. He developed a fascination for the small world that our eyes alone cannot see while working with fabric, using pearls of glass to observe the fine weave of linen.

He developed more than 200 microscopes during his lifetime and made many important discoveries including the first observations of bacteria which he called “animalcules” in 1674, “animals so small, in my sight, that I judged that even if 100 of these very wee animals lay stretched out one against another, they could not reach the length of a grain of coarse sand”.

During his lifetime, he made many discoveries and observations that he carefully documented and illustrated. He died a very old man who accomplished his important work, a work that inspired generations to follow in his footsteps..

So what better way to celebrate the birthday of this man of science (October, 24, 1632) than to create a close observation of something from the micro-world? You can begin with a microscope or, because we live in the 21st century, a Google image!

This amazing drawing of cocci (bacteria that can lead to diseases such as strep throat) was done by former apprentice Marlo. What makes this observation incredible is the detail she included. So did she complete this in 15 minutes? No way! Do you think it took over an hour? One sitting? Two sittings? The answer is unknown. But I can say with certainty that Marlo dedicated sincere concentration to this accomplishment. The reward is, well, obvious!

Anyone can create an observational drawing, think Dory’s song: “Just keep swimming!”

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Discover Research and the d’Aulaire’s

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Hear the tale of Pocahontas as only she can tell it… Experience the wit and wisdom of Ben Franklin… Sail the seas with Leif… Join the Pony Express with Buffalo Bill, the man in the buckskin suit… Join the adventures of the great mariner Columbus…  Follow George Washington from the little red brick house where he was born to the White House…. and climb upon the shoulders of our beloved Abe Lincoln. And who better to tell the tales than Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire? We are so thankful to our BFFs at BFB—Beautiful Feet Books—for keeping these beautiful pockets of history in print.

Blackbird & Company's brand new History Discovery Guides will inspire your students to engage in meaningful research activities. As students are encouraged to independently investigate, they will gain a greater depth of understanding, and a broader knowledge base of the great men and women who have shaped our history. Use one guide of your choice in the fall and another guide in the spring in conjunction with our year 2, Level  2 or year 1, Level 3 Literature and Writing Discovery Guides and your student will have a seamless transition to the entry level Introduction to Composition: The Essay during middle school to fully prepare them for Level 4 in high school. 

Our History Discovery Guides provide the scaffolding your student needs to successfully craft a biographical essay. Each week, for three weeks, the student will examine rich vocabulary to describe character traits exemplified by the historical figure, respond to comprehension questions designed to help them extract details that matter, and craft one body paragraph that will later become part of the culminating essay. During the fourth week, students will be guided through the process of composing a simple three-sentence-with-a-punch introduction and a simple-three-sentence-with-a-punch conclusion. They will put the components together and, viola, an essay! There is a fifth week creative project, of course, that offers directives to tap into the students imagination.

Honestly, the d'Aulaire books have been part of my personal library since childhood. I read them to my children when they were small enough to nestle on my lap during story time. Later they read them again silently, on their own cozily snuggled in our living room armchair. As a writer and an educator, I am happy to offer this opportunity for your students to not only experience these wonderful stories, but also to glean from their riches and to offer in response their own original insights inspired by our rich history. So challenge your students to raise their voice! Challenge them to write authentically so their ideas will Take Flight! 

-Kim

 

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Ideas of the Original Variety

Taxonomy4

I've had the privilege of exploring his architectural scaffolding—Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species—with my apprentices during Science Discovery. 

There are four types of sentences: Statement, Question, Exclamation, and Command. Teachers are famous for jotting that last type—command—in swarms on their chalkboards.

But imagine your science teacher marching into class and scribbling this on the chalkboard:

Devise a system for naming and classifying ALL living things. 

Imagine the buggy eyes, the tilted heads, the groans, the tears.

Never happen.

Now imagine a time way before the technological advances that our computer age has to offer. Way, way back before our Declaration of Independence was conceived in the minds of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin there was a young man named Carolus Linnaeus. Born on May 23, 1707, in Råshult, Sweden, his father, a lover of all things botanical, introduced him to the joy of observational science. Young Carolus was encouraged to imagine possibility as he tended his very own garden over time. He looked back fondly on that garden as a place that "inflamed my soul with an unquenchable love of plants."

As Linnaeus continued to observe nature, he developed a passion for order.  Over the course of his life, Linnaeus accomplished a great many things—research, publication of scientific papers, a medical practice. Greatest of all, he devised a binomial system for naming and classifying all living things… without the prompting of a teacher's command!

Way before computers, Linnaeus was an information architect.

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It's taken the better part of the year to appropriate the great lessons we chip away at on a daily basis—value silence, process is a slow and steady pacing, your-ideas-matter, work works—but now, like a spring bloom, I marvel at the fragrance of their progress. In a few short weeks, you too will be able to flip through the Science Discovery Journals to experience the wonder of this important work.

So much of education is couched in the promise that technology will ensure success. But so much of what we really desire for our children cannot develop without the passion to care about an academic work at hand and the longitude to explore. Challenging children to engage in the work of idea-making and providing the time to Discover just what it takes to bring shape to that idea, time and time again, leads to Critical Creative Thinking. Truth is, technology is a tremendous asset of our age, but the art of learning is a low-tech endeavor.

Ideas of the original variety begin with a spark of curiosity, not a command, and rarely a click.