Plate Tectonics with Mrs. Gunn

Mrs. Gunn, my next-door colleague, is an amazing teacher. While my strength in teaching is lecture and discussion, Mrs. Gunn teaches primarily with collaborative groups and hands-on activities. Several times per week we co-teach geography with our homeroom students. One day last week I hosted Mrs. Gunn's class while they illustrated the water cycle in their interactive notebooks, and my students went to her classroom so she could teach them a hands-on lesson about plate tectonics using cake frosting and graham crackers. The best part of the lesson was that at the end they would get to eat their activities. Now that's a way to keep students attentive!

Mrs. Gunn teaches near Sean's table.

An edible activity. Yum!

Aaliyah and Anisha get in the mix.

Mrs. Gunn gave the students the following four definitions for their interactive notebooks:

plate tectonics - the theory that pieces of the earth move and change shapes

convergent boundary - when two plates collide

divergent boundary - when plates move away from each other

transform boundary - when plates slide past one another

Mrs. Gunn demonstrates a transform boundary at Shayla's table.

Michael enjoys eating his project.

Aaliyah and Shayla think it was a sweet lesson!

Thank you, Mrs. Gunn!