"What do you mean we're done with Greece?!" This was the outcry when I congratulated the Herons on a job well done and began to talk about how we were going to reflect on our work. Many students wanted to dig more deeply still and felt they still had a lot of questions. When I assured them that, no, we were going to wrap up Greece there was a long pause. "What's our next theme going to be then?" one student asked. "I know, Rome! It'll be just like Greece but they'll improve on everything a little bit."
It was heartening to read the students' reflections. I had them write about a Habit of Mind they exhibited during our unit as well as the most interesting thing(s) they learned and their favorite part(s). In addition, I asked them to share the parts of ancient Greece they felt still influenced us today. Many wrote about the democratic system of government — something that we spent a lot of time discussing. When we begin Village, our governmental system will be a direct democracy and it will be interesting to see the Herons' in that setting given their experience with this unit.
Students also glued in mementos of our final event and organized their work from the rest of the theme to create a kind of scrapbook. Our blue books enable us to capture the process as well as elements of the product of our learning.
I'm hoping that some of you have pictures of the play. I was very excited to be able to watch from the audience (in past plays I've been needed back stage but these Herons were very ready to perform completely independently.) Indeed, they were so ready to be independent that they began without my realizing they were going to and I was stuck back stage for the duration!
Here are some shots of the evening. In addition I've attached the unit overview and recipe book in case you didn't get a chance to see them at the event Download Unit Overview Download Recipe_book
The Rookery 
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