5th Grades Exploration Through the U.S!

Today was our second instructional day; the inquiry lesson ! We began our lesson with a recap of the rules, but we changed them up a bit to fit our new lesson. We then conducted a pre- assessment with a word cloud, as seen on the right. We then went over three facts about Lewis and Clark. I was very excited to introduce the problem to the class through our Voki but for some reason... it didn't work!! It wouldn't play !!
and we didn't know why ! We played the Voki several times and never had a problem with it. It was Miss. Becca's slide to introduce to the class and she handled the situation very well !  She tried to make it work numerous times but once she realized it was hopeless, she just said what the Voki was SUPPOSED to say! Becca if you're reading this, great job girl :)! After we introduced the problem, we explained to the class that explorers are scientists. When we asked the students how they are like scientists, many had great ideas and i was pleased ! It was now my turn to speak, I instructed the class that the classroom has now transformed into 1803 and we were in the Louisiana Territory. I explained that the students would visit 5 different centers that represent what Lewis and Clark saw on their journey. I think this activity went well, the only thing we really had to work on was letting the students know where they were transitioning to, what center they needed to go to next! That part was a little confusing to the students but now I know just what to do in my  future classroom :). After the centers, the students did their independent practice. We were running short on time AGAIN, and got a little anxious. I think we should have handled our closure a little better but hey, we're LEARNING!