American
THIRD GRADE STUDENTS EXPLORE AMERICAN HERITAGE AND HISTORY THROUGH CROSS-CURRICULAR PROJECT
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s third graders performed quintessentially American songs and dances on the stage of the Solomon Theater, their parents, grandparents, and loved ones watched, beaming with pride. What many in the audience did not initially realize was that American Heritage Day was the culmination of a seven-week multidisciplinary, cross-curricular project. At the beginning of the school year, St. Martin’s third grade teachers, Laura Blazek and Barbara Weaver, started working with students to study our country’s state capitals. The class also studied the geographical location of the states and their twoletter postal abbreviations. As the year went on, the students explored each region of the United States. Mid-year, students embarked on team projects that helped them not only acquire a deeper knowledge of our country, but also hone their problem-solving, adaptability, empathy, time management, and collaboration skills. Students broke into eight groups, one for each region of the country. Utilizing research, computer science, and digital literacy skills, each group worked to produce an art project, model of a landmark from its region, public speaking presentation and slide show, and persuasive commercial “advertising” its particular region. All of the work was collaborative and happened within the classroom. While the delivery of knowledge and content is important, Blazek and Weaver say the skills learned in the process are just as crucial.
24 | The Bell
“Throughout this project, the students were encouraged to think actively, develop their ideas, and think of their errors as part of the process,” said Weaver. “When they ran into roadblocks, we encouraged them to work it out among themselves in their teams. I’m sure the students thought Laura and I wanted them to learn and remember very specific facts about our nation, but what we’re more concerned with is the vast amount of skills they acquired, rather than the specific facts.” As veterans of the project, fourth graders worked with their third grade peers to teach them how to create slide show presentations. Third graders refined their public speaking presentations and even rehearsed in front of their classmates to provide and receive feedback. Students joined Director of Lower School STeaM Lab Mary Lee Saucier ’91 in the production studio of The Gibbs Family Center for Innovation + Design to create commercials about each region. Saucier guided the students through the process of using green screen software, but students were solely responsible for the script, acting, and graphics production of their commercials.
