More Than Just an Explorer Report

To wrap up our formal study (and just the beginning of a lifelong awareness) of Explorers, the Navigators embarked on a multi-faceted, multi-leveled, rather advanced project called

My Explorer Report. 

First of all, we picked our explorer. It could be an explorer from the"Age of Exploration" or a more modern explorer. We discovered that there weren't many women explorers from long ago, much to our chagrin. 

Mary Kingsley was an English explorer and scientist. She couldn't go to school but she taught herself lots of things in the books in her father`s library. She explored Africa, some rain forests, and the Congo River. She always, always, always wanted to explore so when her parents died she explored Africa. She was from England and no one from Europe has ever traveled to Congo. I think she was really brave to explore without her parents and to explore Africa.

Then, with the help of our older schoolmates, we went to the computers and books and did some research. 

They helped us find at least three important facts about our explorer plus what he/she was most famous for. 

Louise Boyd was a scientist and explorer. She went to the Arctic for the first time to hunt for polar bears and seals. She explored Greenland and the Arctic. I love learning about Louise Boyd.   

We then wrote a paragraph with at least five sentences:

1 topic sentence

3 detail sentences

1 sentence to "wrap it up like a bow on a present."

George Vancouver was an English navigator and mapmaker. When George Vancouver was 15 he joined James Cook’s crew. The maps he made were so accurate. He was looking for the NW passage. He never found it. It was covered with ice. The city Vancouver was named after him.

With our rough drafts in hand, we were ready 

to continue through the steps 

of the Writers Workshop process:

We revised, edited and evaluated our reports, learning editing marks in the process. 

Amelia Earhart was an American pilot and explorer.  She wrote best-selling books. She was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane. One day she crashed and no one knows what happened to her. I think that she crashed on an island. 

After typing up our reports, we learned other computer skills:

• Opening up and saving into our personal computer folders
• Searching for pictures and maps, saving them into our folders, and inserting them into our Explorer Report template
• Choosing a background, fonts, shapes, special effects, colors, textures, and sizes for our Explorer Report Poster
• Making sure we save each time we work on our project
• Shutting down our computers properly

Sally Ride was an astronaut. She became an astronaut because she is so smart in science! She was the first woman in space. She was on the space shuttle Challenger. Sally Ride is cool because she wants girls to study science and math.

Publishing is such an important step for our young gifted students. It gives them a sense of authenticity and accomplishment. The students were proud of their focused, multi-faceted hard work.

Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish conquistador. He was looking for the Fountain of Youth and for gold and jewels. He sailed between 1508-1513. He claimed Florida for Spain. He also conquered Puerto Rico. He conquered new lands. He conquered lots of them. He sailed on a ship. 

This project was more than just an Explorer Report! 

We learned about our explorer, wrote a five sentence paragraph, practiced the writing process, learned about spelling and grammar, gained new computer skills, experienced research, had the opportunity to read them to our classmates, traded a smaller version (trading cards!) with our friends, and experienced true grit--passion and sustained persistence, what Angela Duckworth considers to be the key to success. 

Mission Accomplished!