Exploring Forces

It's been a busy week and these Wild Tigers have been busy scientists. We began our forces unit by exploring what pushes and pulls are. We explored how things move by either being pushed or pulled, and that more force is needed to push and pull an object that is heavy. Students brainstormed and acted out how they would move a heavy object like a car, by pushing with a large group, pulling and pushing with a large group, or my personal favourite, by calling a tow truck.

We then looked at pictures of familiar actions/objects and decided whether or not the object was being pushed or pulled. Some of the actions included water skiing, throwing a football, raking, mowing the lawn, bowling, flying a kite, skating etc. We sorted by push and pull.

Then we explored science centres.

Centre 1: Will It Bend?

In this centre, students inspected a variety of objects and determined whether or not they thought they could bend them. They recorded their observations, then experimented by attempting to bend the objects.

Centre 2: Will It Float?

In this centre students made predictions about which objects would sink and which would float. After recording their predictions, they conducted the experiment by dropping the objects into a bucket of water. Students recorded the results. They talked about the invisible force of buoyancy that was pushing on the objects that floated.

Centre 3: Using Pushes and Pulls

In this centre, students used pushes and pulls to create a plasticine snail. Students learned that they could manipulate a material and change it's shape by using muscular force and a combination of pushing and pulling.

Centre 4: Magnetism

In this centre, students learned that some forces can push and pull such as the forces conducted by magnets. Students learned that magnets have north and south poles, and experimented with pushing the north and south poles together. Students experimented with magnets that attracted and magnets that repelled, and learned how an invisible force can make objects move.

Next week we will explore balanced forces and buoyancy, gravity and friction!

Teaching and Learning with Shadow Puppet

We have been having way too much fun using Shadow Puppet in our classroom. We have used it to share and organize our research and create a presentation, and more recently to tell a fiction recount. Some students work best choosing pictures first and then brainstorming the story, while others work well with an organizer, planning what they want to say and choosing the pictures to go along with their words. Having some sort of a script made for a better told story!

Harini and Ruhani tell a fiction recount: The Day I saw A Ghost

Jessica and Josephine share what they learned about how the Wendat people preserve meat and fish

Harshit and Matthew discuss How the Wendat People Used Corn

Coming soon:

Josephine, Aaron and Nathan's fiction recount: The Day A Zombie Came To School http://get-puppet.com/s/6787F2FF-4100-4A2F-A57C-6949F1FF51FC

We're a little excited for Halloween. Can you tell?

Hands On Math Centres

I find it challenging trying to create a math program that is an equal balance of inquiry and exploration without completely abandoning the writing component to math: solving math stories and equations on paper. I try to do a mix of hands on problem solving with partners, in groups and independently, as well as exploring centre games and activities. We start each morning with our arrival activities which are generally math oriented based on what strand we are currently learning. I also try to incorporate as many math centres as possible. These centres are pretty low-maintenance. Many can be completed with number cubes, playing cards and paper and pencil. The ipad centre was my first math tech centre, borrowed from the wonderful Mrs. Wideen.

Many of the games and activities I have in my bins and centres I have borrowed from other fabulous teachers I have met either in person or through endless google searches. Today we explored addition and subtraction in 5 hands on centres!

Centre 1 "Race to a Unit"
This centre came from my fabulous grade three teaching partner. She originally introduced me to this game as "Race to a Flat" where students roll a number cube and trade in their ones for rods as they add up to 100 (a flat). In "Race to a Unit," students do the opposite. They start with a flat and subtract each number they roll. Now they are trading the flat in for rods, and the rods in for units as they try to get down to 1. Great way to introduce borrowing!

Centre 2 "Find the Missing Number"
This centre requires 3 players and 1 leader. We decided that Aces would be worth 1, and Jacks, Queens, and Kings are worth 10. The players are each dealt one card that they don't look at. They hold the card up to their foreheads facing out. The leader calculates the sum, and tells the players. The players look at their opponents cards and try to figure out what number is on their heads by using the sum and adding, counting up or subtracting.

Centre 3 "Roll up to 50"
Here, students start with 0. They roll a number cube and add the number to their total each time. The first person to add up to exactly 50 wins! However, if you go over, you have to start again! The fun never ends!


Centre 4 "Make the Greatest Difference"
We have played this game with addition as well trying to find the greatest sum. We used UNO cards. Students are dealt 4 cards and need to create two 2-digit numbers. The goal is to arrange the numbers, so that when they are subtracted, they are left with the greatest difference. The student with the greatest difference gets a point. Students learned that they needed to create a large number on top and a small number on the bottom. Wild cards were free cards. Students could make them be whatever number they wanted (9's and 0's became popular choices as the game caught on).

Centre 5 "Fact Family Stories"
This activity comes right from Mrs. Wideen's Blog. Here students drew a fact family card, took a picture of it, explained it on the ipad using Educreations. They uploaded their Fact Family Stories to Kidblog.

 

Arshdeep's Fact Family Story

When I can figure out how to attach documents, I will add the instruction sheet.

These were done well. We had issues with the technology, that slowed things down a little. I had to continually log in and out of my Educreations account in order to save and get a link to their Fact Stories. It was somewhat of a nuisance, and meant that the students couldn't do it independently, but overall, I'd do it again.

Warm and Cool Colours

I adapted this lesson from one I found on Pinterest. Here students experiment with the Artist's Toolkit, exploring warm and cool colours. We discovered which colours are warm and which are cool, and how we can use these colours to show temperature, time of day and even emotions!

We used pencil to draw, black oil pastel to outline and chalk pastels to colour in the scenery. 

We discussed the characteristics of a landscape and the differences between the background and foreground. Students learned that by layering objects in our pictures they appear further away. 

Students had the choice to use warm colours in the sky (background) and cool colours in the (foreground) valleys and mountains. 

We faced some challenges along the way. Some students needed more explicit modelling when it came to making concentric circles. Some made the connection to the circle continuing behind the mountains and around the other side invisibly. Others did not see this connection and drew "C's" that were disconnected. Some students made their concentric circles very skinny, and therefore plentiful. This made it very difficult to colour in.

Blending and smudging pastels is very messy. Students were advised to hold onto a paper towel to rub their fingers on, and to wash their hands often. They were reminded not to rest their hands on the paper while colouring so as to not smudge the colours across the paper.

When I saw similar lessons on Pinterest, the first thing I noticed was that there are many examples of the same artwork, in that the students simply reproduced the teacher's example. I try not to do too many examples, for hope that they will apply the skill taught and make their artwork their own. Then, I worry afterwards that the pictures are going to become the same pictures kids usually draw, and the skill will be lost. 

I had to take a step back and ask myself what I hoped my students learned from this assignment. Did I want them to learn to simply copy a design style, or actually create a style of their own? I wanted them to learn the difference between foreground and background, I wanted them to layer objects so that objects that were further away were hidden behind objects in the foreground, I wanted them to learn the difference between warm and cool colours, and I wanted them to experiment with pastels. If the pictures became full of birds, trees, and flowers, then so be it!

My suggestion to the students who wanted to add their own spin to the picture was to make their elements pop by using the opposite warm or cool colours. If they chose cool colours for the foreground, then I would like them to use warm colours for their accents. Where students had difficulty was when it came to the mountains further back. Some started colouring those in the same colour as the sky, rather then the same colour as the rest of the hills.

Bringing Open House Home With Shadow Puppet

So Open House was this past Thursday and the turnout was great! Students brought their parents, siblings, grandparents and neighbours to visit the class, meet the teacher, and explore the school.

We talked as a class the days before in the attempt to ensure as many students would be excited to bring in their families as possible. In one of these discussions there was one little tug on my sleeve the day before telling me that her mom couldn't make it to Open house.  She had to work, so would it be ok if she came tonight instead? 

Now as keen as I may be, I wasn't able to stay that evening as well, so we had a dilemma. My student really wanted to show her mom around, and talk about all of the activities that she had created, but the timing wasn't going to work. I didn't want her to miss out on the opportunity to show off all of her hard work.

Enter ShadowPuppet. 

This has to be the easiest app to use. I gave my phone to my extremely trustworthy student who took pictures of the work she wanted to show. Then with a 30 second lesson, she spoke about each piece of work, recording her voice as she flipped through the pictures. The result? A personal portfolio with student commentary that I was able to e-mail to her mother! Amazing. 

Open House Portfolio 

Combining Self Portraits with Book Recommendations

I'm a little art obsessed, so it's no wonder I find myself looking for the art connection to every activity or assignment I plan. I have been getting through the First 20 Days (Fountas and Pinnell), to kick off my reading program. We have been reading, and buzzing, and writing our Reader's Responses, but we're getting tired of all the 'work' involved in reading. I don't want to overwhelm my students with too many routines while they're reading that might take away from the shear enjoyment of reading, so we took a break from reading and responding. I went out and bought a bunch of pillows to comfy up the reading section, found some awesome ways to turn chairs into upside down reading benches on pinterest, and got my art on.

Snuggle Up

The mysterious upside down chair.

Shared Reading!

I noticed that my students loved to "buzz." They loved to partner read, and talk about the books they are reading. I thought, why not share this passion in the form of a book recommendation? I have actually seen classrooms write book recommendations for books in the library and attach QR codes to the backs of books that opened a book recommendation on the reader's device. Pretty cool!

We decided to combine the art of self portraits with Language Arts. Students chose a book they were reading or a favourite book, and used a book recommendation graphic organizer to organize their thinking and ensure that they included all the important details.

Then students re-wrote their recommendations in good copy form, and attached it to the back of a paper book. They added a picture to the front of the book -many forgetting which side of the book is the front -it's funny what you forget needs to be taught explicitly.

After our books were created, we needed to create self-portraits of ourselves reading. I was all ready to go, when I realized I didn't have any mirrors. How was I going to teach self-portraits without mirrors? Enter the iPads!

We took 'selfies' on the iPads, and used these pictures to help focus on different features of our faces. I loved watching my students refer to their iPad selves, pinching and zooming the photo to shrink or expand it.

The final product was a construction paper self portrait, holding a book recommendation. The resemblances were uncanny! My students are so proud of their self-portraits and are excited to read each other's favourite books!