Skip to main content

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.

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A week of celebration

This was a week of celebration.  We were able to watch the students performed their best during the Winter Concert at the MPR.  They danced and sang the Christmas Songs with confidence and pride.  At our Christmas Market, the preschoolers did their assigned responsibilities attentively.  They sat at the table and encouraged everyone to have their pictures taken at our *Perky Picture Perfect* booth.      A reason why ALL the preschoolers were on the nice list and got their presents from Santa!                Big smiles with Santa after receiving their presents. and we are all ready for our Christmas Break!  Enjoy our video,  A celebration of growth and change!   
Post a Comment
Read more

How The World Works

PRESCHOOL ASSEMBLY What a beautiful way to end our unit on celebration, to start a new unit on growth, and to connect it to our unit on imagination. As we begin our new unit on how the world works, the preschool students went around the school premises to list down living things that they saw around them.  As their curiosity kicked in they got so excited and started thinking exactly what living things are.  At first, some characteristics they mentioned about living things were: move  eat drink grow drive cars talk take a bath more But what really is the difference between living and non-living things?  Back in the classroom, we revisited their list and narrowed down the characteristics of living things into these important traits: they eat and drink (food and water) they grow or change they reproduce (make new living things) They agreed that even if something is moving (like robots or cars) it doesn't mean that they are living things. Trees do not move but they eat, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Our Country

Know your country. Appreciate your culture.  It is important to know your country's culture to also understand who you are.  As young researchers, the preschoolers looked for information and facts about their country.  They looked at the flag and what it signifies, the population, the capital, food, and popular places. This activity helps them develop cultural awareness which is important as they begin to understand that they came from different backgrounds. Learning about their differences creates a sense of appreciation and respect with people different from them.  "We are better at football!" "Our food is better!" But, it is not a competition of which country is better in football, bigger in size, or which hair color looks better.  It is knowing that they are all here together to celebrate everyone's similarities and differences.    As they become knowledgeable about the bigger picture of their own culture, they also learn to relate better to one an...
Post a Comment
Read more