Seekers Day 5 — Mesopotamia

<intro/overview> add the flood story in? what else from the bigger book?

Seekers Day 4 — Egypt

<intro/overview>

Seekers Day 3 — Interwoven Wisdom

Seekers Day 2 — Heroes, Collaboration, Commitment

• MM —
• Relay—[tables, wb, 5m] So we talked a little bit yesterday about the value of helping each other stay focused and we recognized that times of transition can test our strength there. Signal <model> if you've heard of 'passing the torch'? It's like a relay race, you pass it to the next person, so that they can carry it further. Signal if you've heard of or know what a relay or relay race is. What are the origins? <nod to maps, note how we relay messages today, c/c>
• Transition to Sharea—[transition, 2m] I want to meet you guys over at the Sharea, so I'm going to pass the torch to someone, who will silently pass it along on their journey to the Sharea. You can pass it to the person to your right or your left, across from you or on the way to the circle—the point is to be quick and quiet, swift and silent. Thank you for helping each other maintain focus.
• Read The Mother Who Turned to Dust—[Sharea, NM bk, wb, 30m]
  • What was the timeline of this story? <b/m/e> What was a key turning point? <a few, including the strong one standing up and offering to help>
  • Raise your hand if you want to be that Strong One, if you want to help—our mothers, each other, our cities, our planet? 
  • Given that everyone's had some time to consider the map we made yesterday, our goals to generously and curiously challenge and support each other in effort to leave it better than we find it, to pay it forward—is this something you take to heart? <model signal hand over heart, yes?>
• Palm Tree—[transition to tables]  We are going to Pass the Torch quietly back to our desks. I want us to maintain a sense of silence so that we can all contemplate this valuable commitment and opportunity. As you guys Pass the Torch, I will distribute blue and yellow paint to our table tribes. Please quietly continue your consideration of whether you'd like to raise your hand to help. 
  • Thank you all for nurturing our focus. Signal if you feel like you've had enough time to consider your commitment. Signal if you think it's important. Valuable? Heroic? Do you choose to be a hero? 
  • If you want to commit to generously and curiously challenging and supporting each other throughout our adventures, please show your commitment by combining the two colors at your desks to make your shade of green. Then, as a show of our commitment toward generous and curious growth and development, we will plant our palms on this Palm Tree, under whose shade we will learn and grow together. You have one minute to mix your paint. When you are done, please center it in your desk, place your hands in your lap and look at me. <I see ____ Tribe is ready, thank you... etc.>
  • Now, I could have called you all over individually as you finished—but this is important and a communal commitment. We're all in this together, so I am going to pass the torch to a Table Tribe who is showing me that they are ready to commit to our crew here on Spaceship Earth. We will all watch each tribe plant their palm on the tree, and then we will give them a thumbs up to show our appreciation and support before they take a paper towel, carefully clean up and quietly return to participate from the Sharea in prep for Anthropology.
• Anthropology—
• Discuss, Intro; Antrhopology, Stories, Culture/Community—[m, Sharea, wb]
  • What is Anthropology? How is it?
  • How and why do people cooperate? 
  • Why are stories valuable? 
  • So we—like many before us, and hopefully many generations to come—have just made a commitment to come together as a group of diverse individuals and work together toward a common goal of something larger than us individually—just like the two colors of paint combined to make a new color <Venn Diagram>.
  • What happens if we don't make that commitment to consciously come together? <we fall apart> People have had to do this again and agains and again throughout history—how do they do it? What have we been coming together over so far this week? <stories>
  • And when people tell stories, do we tell them exactly the same way, every single time? That's right—people edit and embellish, forget and omit and occasionally construe. Signal if you've ever heard of or played the game Telephone. And if you can explain it to me? <explain>
• Telephone—[m, Sharea], 
  • Now if we could all scoot into a circle, I'd like to play a game of Telephone. You are, as in storytelling, free to add your own edits and embellishments, as you might in storytelling, but you do want to strive to maintain some integrity and remember what you heard bc we might ask you to share that in review. <play game, announce messages, c/c original and latest.> Are they the same? Why not? <lost in trans, due to imprecision, embellishments, etc.>
• The Message—[m, Sharea]
  • Now gather round, I have another story for you...<The Message>
  • Why this story? Is this worth re-telling? Would you edit or emphasize anything? 
  • <Quick Chalk Talk>
• Mathematics
• Songs as Stories, The Mathematics of Music/Musical Mathematics
  • So we've been exploring the role of story in human history as a way to help us better remember as we relay across the deserts of Time—and we know these fragile stories are vulnerable to these sands of time. How might we reinforce a story's staying power—even just a little bit?
  • Does anyone here know what a jingle is? <ever get a song stanza stuck in your head? examples: discuss, play a few: folgers, rice-a-roni, state farm—used largely in advertising to stick in brains>
  • Did you guys know that the first songs and rap songs were traveling bards, messengers carrying a poetic tune from village to village? So yes—a song can help protect and maintain a story through time. 
  • We spoke yesterday of what our songs might sound and feel like—let's take another look at musical measures now. 
  • <You all have sheet music in your folders/desk centers/math baskets>—I want you to mark where you think these beats would fall on a 4 count measure. How many beats did we hit in each measure? That's right * out of 4 beats or */4. Note these beats above each measure in this format. How many beats did we hit total? How many would we have hit if we'd hit all 4 beats in each measure? What's the difference between these two numbers? (Is 4/measure the most we could hit?)
  • Quietly enough to help your friends focus, try out a few beats and note them on your measures of music. If any of your neighbors gets lost in the music, gently put your hand on their shoulder and smile understandingly to remind them. I'll set the timer for 5 minutes to decide on a beat/rhythm for today. When the timer sounds, you'll have an additional 5 minutes to answer the same questions <on the board>. For the next 2.5 minutes we will turn and teach to our side neighbors and then switch. As I see teams that are ready, I will start signaling tables over to the Sharea for Science. <observe, listen + note>
• Science—
• What/Why/How is Science <Venn? Table?>? <evidence, inference> How are Science + Stories interwoven? 
  • Evidence/Inference/Reality—So, we've explored the role of stories and their susceptibilities to cultures and time; we've seen how messages can change as they're handed on, one generation after the next. With that in mind, do we always take things at face value? <metaphors, we don't really we don't really, various other susceptibilities> How can we reinforce and find our footing in a world rich with metaphor and play? <science-define, as a tool, etc. > 
  • (read excerpt from The Value of Science? or later? may be better for Discoverers unit...)
• Gather round for a story <Honey Words>
  • <Quick predictions/guesses/ideas>
  • Why that title? Why did he do it? Why did they do it? What could have saved the monkeys time and energy? Now that they are stronger physically, do you think they are also stronger intellectually? How do you think they would handle it the next time? How would you handle it? <discussion/s>
  • What is Science? Why is Science? How is Science? <journal>
  • Energy is neither created nor destroyed—what happens? What's its timeline? Where does it start and where does it end? Where do we get energy? Where does our energy get energy? Where does our energy go?  <separate lesson> (<==why do we seek)
• Readers Workshop
• Intro to Adventures of Spider
  • Warm Up [m, desks, wb/journals/notes]—What makes for a good story? <basic timeline, Hero's Journey, characters, setting, specifics>
  • Map— <slide, print outs, otg slide, colored pencils>
    • Which is West? How do you know? <from looking at map>
    • What if you were on the ground in Africa? <slide with sun>
    • <print outs in folders>Find Liberia <color blue>. Ghana? <color yellow> Which is further West? East? <label, add your own compass>
    • <Journal/Tribal Meeting—Can the setting be a character in the story? Why/How or why/how not?>
  • Read Introduction + Waist—note characters, setting + specific descriptions. Discuss + note on table on wb.
  • <wkst, wb or tribes?> If this is East Village and this is West Village, please put Anasi in the middle. 
  • Choose a question: Can setting be a character? Specifically describe a setting or a character.
• Writer's Workshop
  • Review timeline/arc/cycles
  • Review elements of myth/legend/folklore <Venn Diagram>
  • Highlight themes, characters, settings, elements etc that inspire
  • Over the next 7 weeks, we are going to build out our own myths <slide of 7 wks>
  • Choose a metaphor/moral/animal/approach
  • Continue to explore and build on ideas from yesterday

materials:

NM/Mother, signals, blue + yellow paints x tables (or math or science?) sheet music, drum