Exhibit Night

Since we are a Museum Magnet school, at the end of every quarter we have an Exhibit Night where we showcase what the students have learned in module (what we call social studies and science, integrated). First grade was studying the Human Body, and I can't tell you how much Katie learned. Every day she came home talking about blood cells, the trachea, plasma, etc. and was drawing cells and labeling all the parts all on her own. Here are some of the pieces of their exhibit:
Katie's Body Book:

Page 1: She wrote Skeletal System: Bones make blood.
Page 2: Respiratory System: The lungs help us breathe.
Page 3: Circulatory System: Your heart pumps blood.
Page 4: Digestive System: Your esophagus sends food to your stomach.
The Body Lab:
1st grade became doctors at the beginning of the year and went to a "medical lab" where they got to touch and explore organs (from a cow, I think) Here they are on exhibit:
Here are the pictures of the students at the Body Lab...
Every student gets a Travel Journal every quarter, where they record what they learn about in module. Here's Katie's cover to her Travel Journal which was out on Exhibit:
And here's the first page
This is the picture of Katie and her friend Ella during the Body Lab. Katie has the pink bow in her hair. They are in their lab coats, masks, and in the full get up!
As an interactive piece of the exhibit, they made body parts out of that Crayola "clay" stuff (I can't think of the name of it at the moment, but you know what I mean, I hope!) that included each system they studied, and kids could come and follow the directions and build a body. How fun!
Another cool idea... this is a layered "book" which on the top layer made out of wax paper it says "If I didn't have a (stomach)" and then a drawing of it, and then "I couldn't..." and then you lift up the wax paper and they had cut out pictures from magazines of things they eat!
They also studied Healthy Choices. In art, they made healthy food models out of clay. Here's Katie's apple she made and painted.
They also made Healthy Choice commercials, which were awesome! In Katie's, she had to sneeze without covering her mouth and nose (this was a big deal for her - she said that even though she knew they were "acting", she was raised to always cover her nose when she sneezed, so she had a lot of trouble doing it!) and other students told her to cover her nose. They are SO cute!
Here she is looking through a microscope at blood cells.
And this is how they "built" blood cells in Science Lab...I think the label explains what candy represents which part of the cell. The one in the container was really cool...it's honey with red food coloring to look like blood, and various types of candy to represent red cells, white cells, and plasma. And, what I think is really impressive, is that she can tell you what each of those do!
So, I'm sure my kids didn't learn as much as 1st grade did, but I know this has been an incredible learning experience for Katie. Exhibit Night is a LOT of work...I have never worked this hard before. But it is so cool to see how much she knows!