Grade 3
Third Grade Students Learn about Strata
Bear Creek third grade students are always enthusiastic about rocks and geology. The BVSD’s Earth Materials FOSS kit provides an abundance of hands on learning experiences in these areas.
During one particular session, students are guided in making connections with patterns, layers and strata in the musical piece, Carillon from Bizet’s L’Arlesienne, Suite No. 1. Students are encouraged to listen for patterns in the musical selection as they compare patterns to the layers in the earth’s crust and in the formation of rocks. They show hand motions and play bells of different pitches to represent the layers of the sounds they hear in the composition. Students make the discovery that patterns, layers or strata occur in musical pieces just as they occur in the earth’s crust and various rocks.
Other connections are made with the study of Colorado photographer John Fielder. Fielder has been photographing the natural world since 1973. His presentations celebrating the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains provide students with more opportunities to visualize the layers and strata of the natural world. The familiarity of John Fielder’s photographs leads into the study of Colorado Life Zones, another natural example of layers and strata.
Later, students enjoy sharing poems from Earth Songs, a book of poetry by Myra Cohn Livingston. The excitement of connecting structure and rhythm to patterns and layers is intriguing.
Finally, third grade students visit Dinosaur Ridge where they learn about the dinosaurs who once lived in Colorado and view their fossils within the layers of the land. Students also hike on trails at NCAR and observe the layers, patterns and strata in their everyday world.
Sound Sensations
Patterns help us to understand our world. We use them to make observations, predictions, and to measure in the fields of math and science. They are also important to the understanding of the arts which we use to enrich the curriculum and broaden our learning horizons. While third grade students are engaged in the science unit, “The Physics of Sound,” they study the art of Romare Bearden, the poetry of Langston Hughes, along with classical and jazz music. The painter, poet and musician, Romare Bearden, became famous for his work in collage. His love of jazz and classical music profoundly influenced the rhythm and patterns in his art. Bearden used “cool” and “warm” colors to create moods in his collage as musicians use “cool” and “warm” sounds in their compositions. Students paint on one half of a folded piece of paper while listening to classical music, then paint on the other half while listening to jazz. Afterwards, they compare and discuss the two products.
Langston Hughes is featured because the patterns and rhythms of blues and jazz music were the basis for his poetic expression. Students discover that repetition helps create music in poetry and that a careful choice of words or phrases establishes an appealing pattern in their personal poetry. The fun continues during Literature Circles when students read the biography of Langston Hughes.
Students also learn patterns by engaging in four hands-on activities. They explore their ability to discriminate between sounds and how sounds travel through solids, water, and air. They make sound generators and musical instruments to find out what causes sound and what changes pitch. During the activity called “Good Vibrations,” the children create sounds with the “Long Gong,” the “Kalimba,” and “Mini-Gutbuckets,” which they make along with other interesting devices.