Recipe to Discovery

We came back from spring break and I was greeted by these colorful projects on the window.

They are mine from my class. This was my idea.

Well, I found the idea online, but it was my execution.

Since the students had many questions about it, we did this activity to see what the water cycle was physically like. The water in the bag will actually go through the water cycle when it gets heated and cooled.

But looking at the bags, I thought back to something I have heard often that goes something like, "If all the students are doing the same thing, it's not an activity, it's a recipe." (Iknow that's not right by a long shot, but I cannot find the quote right now.)

I don't regret doing this activity, but I do regret the way I did it. If I were to do it over, I would ...

1. Start by putting water in the bags and putting the bags up on the window. Then we would just wait, watch, and question.
2. We would then figure out where to go from the students' questions and wonderings.
3. I would hope that we would come to (this might need to be guided) how the water cycle works in the world. Students would research different versions of what the water cycle might look like and draw them on the sides of the bags.

My class is pushing me this year.

Take Advantage When Opportunities Arise

In her book, The Power of Inquiry, Kath Murdoch has a chart of what inquiry teachers do. One of those things is to link investigation to authentic contexts (p. 21).

This has been a focus of mine for this current unit. The phrase jumped out at me because I missed out on one such opportunity about five years ago, and I have probably missed out on many opportunities since then, but I have always thought about that missed chance. Hopefully, regretting that missed chance has helped me be more confident in taking risks with my teaching and looking for opportunities when they arise.

The other day I may have caught the opportunity.

The Junior High was having a Pancake Bake Sale fundraiser, but it was during recess time. The schedule worked out so that Grade 1 had class during this time. My students were not too pleased with this development and I got an earful coming up the stairs.

We are currently looking at opinion writing, so I decided to try to make a connection to our writing by telling them that they should make their voices heard by writing letters. I gave them a choice of three people to whom they could write and set them up by saying that they should think about:

Who - who will they write to
What - what they want
Why - why they want it

There was only about 15 minutes of writing time until an assembly, and some students were not into it since we had already "done writing" in the morning. But some students were able to express themselves. And hopefully, the others started to realize that the different subjects are interconnected throughout the unit.

* While not exactly an authentic inquiry, I think it was an authentic context for which I could guide the students to make a connection. It was probably as close I could get with this group.

Looking into Vowel Sounds

I wish I had prepared for this with anchor chart paper, or just simply paper. But, sometimes these little inquiries happen when you don't expect them ... and those are the best kind. It seems the best inquiries happen when the students are ready.

I just ordered poster paper, so I'll be prepared for next time.

And next time I would have them think of all the words they know with "oo". Then I would have them grab a book and look for 5 min to see what other words they could find. Then we would come back together and I would ask how they would sort them. I would imagine I would need to guide them to see the difference in sounds, but they would probably surprise me.

Just Do It

I don't normally inflate myself or try to point out what I did, but I am going to this time because I want this lesson to stick with me.

That was my idea.

This morning I was talking with the Grade 5-6 guy, and I looked out and noticed the corn was all smashed. We talked about it a little bit, and I mentioned, in my mind at least I don't remember if I had said it out loud or not, that he should take his kids out and look at it.

He did. I didn't.

From what I saw it was awesome. His kids were engaged. They had fun. They learned. We did a math assessment - that we didn't even finish.

Now, my class of Grade 1-2s would have had a completely different learning experience. After all, I brought out one of my students and asked him what happened to the corn and he said ants ate it. But I think that we could have learned a lot just asking questions and asking, why?

Here is the exchange I had with him:

Me: Why do you think ants ate it?

Him: Because there are ants there.

Me: Could ants push the corn down?

Him: Yes

At that point I am sure other kids would have challenged him.

I missed one of the greatest teaching chances I have seen in a while, and the lesson I learned today is to never pass up an opportunity like that again.