Taking Notice: Children's Observation Skills

'Unless someone like you

 care a whole awful lot, 

nothing is going to get better.

It's not.'

- The Lorax - 

Dr. Seuss

What an exciting week it has been! 

As we move on to the Finding Out stage in our unit, the class chose the book 'The Lorax' for our read-a-loud.

They made 'connections' to our current unit and the students were inspired by the story. 

I had to step back to let them continue on steering our class learning. 

They inquired and talked about the word 'POLLUTION'.

Questions came up: 

Why is pollution happening?

Why do some people only care about themselves?

How can they let this happen?

They drew and wrote down their thoughts about this topic to share to the school community. 

UNIT OF INQUIRY

Observation skills is not just simply 'looking' or just 'seeing' things, it can be very specific and children learn how to recognize the importance of things around them. 

Noticing - a very important skill of a researcher. 

It helps the children find and organize patterns around them. 

Scavenger Hunt (Senses)

In this activity, each student with their partner, used their different senses - sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste to complete their scavenger hunt. 

 

Using their senses, they identified different things that belong to a given category. When they finished, they shared their findings to the class. 

It was a great excercise to prepare them for the coming experiments to come.

 

EXPERIMENT NO.1

The easter eggs gift from the PTA were used as the first planting excercise. They planted mustard seeds in soil using the empty egg shell as a pot. 

For the experiment, they planted seeds inside 2 cups. 

Cup A (control group): This cup was placed in area where the plant will grow.

Cup B (experimental group): This cup was placed in a random area they like.

The goal of this experiment is to help the students refine their intuitive skills and be replaced by scientific concepts.  This will help them develop scientific skills of observation as they are provided with:

 

 

... extended time for careful observations,

... shared noticing, conversations between teacher and children, peer interaction,

 ... sketching, drawing, recording 

...and asking questions. 

We will continue to find out more about the different factors affecting change to the lives of living things.

We are hoping that this unit will go a long way and will inspire not only the students, but the whole school community to take action.