Expanding Experiences: Into, Through & Beyond
5th Grade
Make the most of your Museum field trip by integrating it into your classroom curriculum. “Expanding Experiences: Into, Through &
Beyond” lesson plans provide a sequence of pre-visit, visit, and post-visit activities. Built around grade-appropriate essential
questions, these lesson plans use a Museum field trip to activate student prior knowledge, engage minds, and expand thinking.
Essential Question:
What makes something valuable?
Inspirational Work: Gold exhibit
Halls: Gem and Mineral Hall
Content Standards:
English/Language Arts Standards
Writing 2.4 Write persuasive letters or compositions
Mathematics Standards
Measurement and Geometry 2.1 Measure, identify, and draw angles, perpendicular and parallel lines, rectangles, and
triangles by using appropriate tools (e.g. straightedge, ruler, compass, protractor, drawing software).
Measurement and Geometry 2.3 Visualize and draw two-dimensional views of three-dimensional objects made from
rectangular solids.
Materials for your fieldtrip:
Document 5.4
Pencils
Clipboards
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Pre-Visit
Into – 10 min
Print out the pictures of 6 types of gems and minerals (Document 5.1) and prompt the students with the following
“pair/share” questions:
“What do you notice about the pictures?”
Through – 20 min
Introduce and read essential question aloud to students
Introduce vocabulary word: “valuable”
Pass out paper and pencils to students
Have students respond to the following questions:
“What makes something valuable?”
“What are some things that are valuable to you?”
“Name some valuable rocks and minerals.”
“What do you think makes them so valuable?”
Have students pair/share their thoughts
Beyond – 10 min
Post a chart or pass out KWL charts (What you know, what you want to know, what you learned) with the question,
“What do you know about value?” (Document 5.2)
Record student responses
Visit
Into – 10 min
Gather students in front of the Gold exhibit and discuss the following questions:
“What are the different uses for gold?”
“How does that impact its value?”
“What types of angles (45 and 90 ) and lines (parallel and perpendicular) do you see in the gold exhibit?”
Through – 20 min
Have students walk around the Gem and Mineral Hall in small groups with the goal of finding another example of a
valuable gem or mineral. Have students complete Document 5.3 to guide their inquiry
Beyond – 5 min
Gather everyone back together in front of the Gold Exhibit and discuss which examples they chose to sketch and their
responses to the Document 5.3 questions
Ask for a group to volunteer to make a human sculpture representing a gem or mineral. They will display, using their
bodies, the angles and lines they observed and sketched
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Post-Visit
Into - 10 min
Complete the “learned” part of the KWL Chart
Have a discussion about the gems that were chosen and commonalities between the choices the students made. Are
there connections between the value to each student?
Through- 45 min
Explain to students that they will be using Document 5.3 that they filled in at the Museum to practice their persuasive
writing skills. Students will write a persuasive letter to the curator of the Gem and Mineral Hall in order to persuade
him/her to create a display for their gem or mineral that is as large, detailed and impressive as the gold display. Their
letter should detail the value of their gem or mineral by discussing the following:
-description of the physical appearance of the gem or mineral including:
color
shape
size
angles
lines
-ideas for how the gem or mineral could be used
-what their gem or mineral means to them and how the public could also benefit from a larger display
-ideas for the display
Beyond - 10 min
Provide envelopes and stamps to the students to send their letters to the following address:
The Natural History Museum
Attn. Mineral Sciences
900 Exhibition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007
Reflection/assessment
Print out the essential question (Document 5.4) and have students write about their current ideas on what makes
something valuable
Extensions
Students make their own museum label. Research the elements that make up their gem or mineral. Research how
people use this mineral. Where is the mineral found? What is the value of this mineral?
As a class, students can then create their own gem and mineral hall
Ask student to reassess the value of their mineral
“Did its value change when you learned more about it?”
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