Learning Camp: Week 2- Lighthouses

Welcome to Week 2!

Week 2 was full of fun as we studied lighthouses. We did some research on local lighthouses, read stories about lighthouses, and made our very own lighthouses. We also had a special helper this week named Alison who has helped us out the last few summers and is a rock star!

We started off by splitting into three groups. Each group was assigned a local lighthouse: Bug Light Lighthouse, Spring Point Lighthouse, or Portland Headlight. The groups needed to find out various facts like when it was built, how tall is the lighthouse tower, where is it on a map, how often the horn and light go off, and label the various parts of a lighthouse. They created lapbooks, which are file folders that contain all of this information. Below are some pictures of the students working in their groups on their lapbooks.

When we needed to take a break from the research, the students were each able to make their own lighthouse that even lights up. Mrs. Kelsey headed up this project and they turned out great. The students started off by painting the tower, house, and base. Then they added grass, a shark, or sand to the base and some gray sponge paint to the tower or red tape stripes. We glued all three together, drilled a hole for the light kit, and added the top. The students worked really hard making each of their lighthouses different and could not believe it when they actually lit up! Below are some pictures of the students working on their lighthouses.

Here are the finished products! They turned out great. We took pictures of the students at the Bug Light Lighthouse and put them into the picture frames.

We read the story "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" by Hildegarde H. Swift and Lynd War. The students answered comprehension and inferencing questions about the story along the way. When they were done, we acted it out. The students were boats, rocks, the bridge, the lighthouse, and the lighthouse keeper. They did a great job with the recall after only hearing the story once. Below are pictures from the performance.

On the last day, we took our weekly field trip to Bug Light Lighthouse. Jack was our tour guide and lead us around the lighthouse. He had wonderful stories about what the lighthouse has done in the past. He shared information about what is was like to live in the lighthouse years ago. The keeper had to clean the windows daily. There used to be a house attached to the lighthouse, but due to the bad weather and big waves it was torn down. The light can be seen as far as three miles away. The stairs were very steep and it was really hot at the top. We had to split into two group because there was not a lot of room inside. Below are pictures from our trip.