Culminating Activity-Field Trip

Title – Walls That Tell a Story Unit – Culminating Activity – Field Trip
By – Donna Hennessy
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Secondary Subjects – Math, Science, Social Studies, Computers/Internet
Grade Level – 5

I. Table of Contents

II. Curriculum Web of Activities

III. Narrative Rationale

IV. Timeline for Implementation of Lessons

V. Unit Materials and Resources

VI. Lesson Plans:

Lesson Plan 1 -

Mapping Walls

(Math, Social Studies)

Lesson Plan 2 -

Building the Biggest Walls

(Science)

Lesson Plan 3 -

Virtual Exploration of Lascaux Cave

(CI)

Lesson Plan 4 -

Breaking Down Walls

(Language Arts, Other)

VII. Unit Comprehensive Assessment

VIII. Culminating Activity – Field Trip

The fifth grade students will wrap up their unit on Walls That Tell a Story by visiting the “Moving Wall”. This is a smaller version of The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. The company brings the wall out to specific locations throughout the year, and the teacher was able to have them come out to a location in New Jersey that is only 15 minutes from the school. You might be able to arrange for the “

Moving Wall

” to visit your community, your community might already have a local war memorial that you could visit or students could access a

virtual wall

.

In the book we are reading,

Talking Walls

, Margy Burns Knight describes the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall as a place that brings people together by honoring the brave men and women who died in the war. Prior to visiting the wall, children will each be given the name and background information of several veterans whose names appear on the wall. Each student must read about their assigned veterans and find their names on the wall. If a child has a family member or friend who died in this war, they can choose this person to research.

Visiting the “Moving Wall” will accomplish several things. First, it will help the students to see that this wall honors real people, some of who were not very different from themselves. Next, they can see how the wall was constructed. Last of all, they can see the impact it has on people who come to visit it.

The schedule of our field trip is as follows:

9:00 a.m.- Bus arrives and children are loaded onto the bus

9:20 a.m. – Bus leaves for our field trip location

9:40 a.m. – Bus arrives at the “Moving Wall” memorial

9:40 – 11:00 – Children will get to examine the wall and find the people they are responsible for.

11:00 a.m. – Picnic lunch in the park surrounding the Moving Wall

11:30 a.m. – Children will be loaded back onto the bus back to school

1:00 p.m. – Back at school children will have time to discuss their feelings about the field trip. What they liked/disliked, if it was what they expected, and the impact if any it had on them.

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