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.

Comments

Changes

"Why are all people different?" -Tamaki- I think that this is one of the most difficult question a child can ask. Even I couldn't find the correct or the exact answers to this. However, 'Guess the Baby' experiment shows that we, somehow all look alike at some stage in our lives - when we are babies. We looked at the strip of papers and the names written. We found out that a lot of the guesses where wrong and mixed up. We asked some teachers and students and they had a difficult time guessing the babies. "They all look alike!" was the common response that we heard. But, if we look closely and pay attention, we can see that, the same baby is still there. So today, we have revealed the names of the babies! Look at their photos... THEN and NOW Tamaki "The shape of the face looks the same." Ciel Not one person guessed Ciel. Well, Ciel didn't even recognize his own photo! Koh "He still looks the same." Daisy "Her smile and

ENERGY IN PRESCHOOL

FOOD CHAIN An order in which living things depend on each other for food. We have identified food as one of the things living things need to live. This is the same for both plants and animals. However, we are not as lucky as the plants - they can make their own food! The sun helps them make food through the process called ' photosynthesis'. And because of this special power, plants are called producers. They start the food chain and transfer energy to the consumers. We have learned about the different animal groups and the preschool used their knowledge to create their food chain. They chose one animal and using their knowledge about animals, they showed how animal get their food. Next week, we will continue with our inquiry answering the question: How do animals go through a process of change? SPORTS DAY PHOTOS JAVELIN THROW 500 METER RUN Oh definitely, Preschooolers are full of ENERGY!

DEFINING HISTORY

Personal History "Making your own story" - Perky Preschool - SEE THINK WONDER As a provocation for our new unit on "personal histories allow us to reflect on and celebrate growth and change", we did a ' See Think Wonder' Thinking Routine activity. In groups, the students looked at photos related to the unit and wrote down things that they see, what they thought and wonderings that they may have. This thinking routine was then used as a springboard to unlock our unit vocabulary words such as: personal, history, events, and change. TIMELINE The students also completed a simple timeline that shows the past, present and future. As we inquire further in the unit, they will be able to gain more detailed knowledge about their personal history. NUMERACY / LITERACY This week we also started with our math and reading stations. During the different station activities, each group will get a chance to explore different concepts and activities that will help strengt

Ms. Faye's Perky Preschool Blog

Search This Blog