Week Eight: Collaborative Learning
This past week the girls really showed me how much they enjoy working and playing together, and how much they are able to challenge each other and learn together. We started to get into the Halloween spirit with different pumpkins and gourds in the Nature Centre, as well as a Halloween-themed poem. We took another trip to the ravine and marvelled at the fall colours that we saw. We kept thinking about the pros and cons of the different ways of getting to school in preparation for the Social Justice Data Fair. Take a look at our learning:
G and G work together in the Math Centre to build a staircase. First they each built their own staircases, but quickly realized that they wouldn't have enough blocks to make the staircase very big, and decided to work together on it instead.
Z spends some time at the Nature Centre observing and sketching the intriguing gourds. She takes her time to draw the details that she sees, and then to highlight them with sharpies.
G exclaims "Savannah, I am surrounded by letters" as she works on tracing the uppercase and lower case letters, and then lines them up alphabetically. The organizing took a few tries as it was difficult to find them all.
M and G take care of the "sick" monkey in the Drama Centre. They are taking notes on his health while he spends time at the doctors.
M, G, and G paint the background for a fall-inspired piece of art while they are in art class. Brie is showing them how to start with a small circle in the middle, and then to paint rings of different colours around the middle, moving outward.
Z is writing her numbers, and she uses the abacus to help her ensure that she has not forgotten any. She adds her creativity through the use of multiple colours
G is exploring using shapes to create different designs in math. She then decides to use a practice board to help document the shapes she has used in her creations.
M and Z find an old microscope while they are working in the Nature Centre. I didn't think that it was working, but they kept trying to figure it out (which included finding something to actually look at through the lens), and finally were excited to tell me that they could see colours! They were of course correct, and we worked to adjust the focus of the scope to make the image more clear. They were so proud of themselves.
G and G work together at the Math Centre to build a staircase. First they each built a staircase on their own, but quickly realized that they would not have enough blocks to make the staircases as big as they wanted, so decided to work together.
M's Grade 6 reading buddy, C, reads one of our favourite counting books to her. C encourages M to read the words that she knows and try to sound out the ones that she doesn't.
In preparation for the Social Justice Data Fair, the girls are constructing a paper chain graph to represent how all people at Linden get to school. Here, G and Z work together to loop the paper and tape the edges to put together their strand representing the people who walk to school. Great teamwork!
Our finished product - a lot of discussion amongst the girls about the longest and the shortest chains, the patterns they see in the colours, and the conclusions they can draw.
M spends time creating pictures and patterns using shapes. She has a big smile on her face as she searches for the right piece to continue her design.
G Spends time exploring the magnetic letters at the Communication Centre. She is seeing if she can recognize them even when they are upside down.
G is improving her fine motor skills in the Drama Centre. She tries to figure out the best way to lift the banana to her mouth using the chopsticks.
M is proud to share a book that she created in the Communication Centre with me, as well as the other girls later in the day. She did a cover page, inside text and pictures, and a back cover as well.
The Grade 5s are back for our All School Buddies time. G is intrigued by the way S has used the blocks to make taller ramps for the marbles to roll down.
Later the same day G, perseveres to recreate the same type of structure that she saw S building earlier. She experimented with different floorings, as well as block types to support her marble ramps. In the end she was successful (until there were too many marbles in the "pond" and it fell down). Inspiration can come from many different places.
M, Z, and G are hard at work in the Art Centre, working on a variety of creative pieces. They have begun exploring more and more of the materials we have in the class.
Z found a measuring tape in the Math Centre, and measures M's neck because the girls are trying to figure out how long of a ribbon to cut for a necklace that is being made in the Art Centre.
G draws a mandala/randali on the roof with some of the girls in grades 3 and 4 in celebration of Diwali. I am in awe of the patterns they are designing together.
G and M work with another group on the roof to design their own mandala/randali. Look at all of those beautiful colours of chalk pastel!
The girls in cooking club made apple sauce on Friday. We were lucky enough to get some extras to try for our snack. M is quite pleased with the taste and describes it as "yummy" and "tasty".
On our walk through the ravine we stumbled across this structure that looked to be human-made. Some of the girls added onto it, while others used it as a new setting for some dramatic play.