Milky Way Mountains & The Third Dimension

Math: We are close to beginning the final investigation in our current unit. It will focus on surface area and volume. My students struggled to recall much (if anything) about parallelograms when we began the last investigation(on area of parallelograms), so rather than assume they learned 3D shapes in previous years, I researched online - is Pinterest research?? ;) - for a hands-on activity that would allow pictures, examples, and info on 3D shapes to be with them at all times as we moved through the lessons. I found an excellent one (see below). I plan to  have them take this to 7th grade with them. It was neat to hear them whisper, "I love this" and "This is so fun" as we color coordinated everything in the foldable...

 

 

Science: They just thought Math would be the fun "half" today! Tomorrow will be our test over Earth's layers, plate boundaries, and plate movement/continental drift. To finalize our learning and make plate boundaries really stick in their minds, we used Milky Way chocolate bars. The kids broke them in half, drew what they saw and identified the chocolate as crust, caramel as mantle, and nougat as core material. Then, they labeled on diagrams that "pulling apart" was like a divergent boundary. The best part came next...working in partners, they "collided" their "plates" to represent convergent boundaries. This was a wonderful teachable moment...they saw quickly that if both students had equal strength, it was like two pieces of continental crust colliding to form a mountain-like shape. If one student wasn't as strong, subduction occurred (one piece slipped below the other) and a "trench" formed - which was an example of oceanic and continental crust colliding.