Our World and Trash
3/31/2018
This week we explored how trash and garbage affect our community. We read the poem "The Litter Monster" and talked where litter comes from. Our explores had insightful ideas: "maybe someone was in their car and there wasn't a trash can in the car," "they were outside and didn't know where the trash can was." During morning meeting we used a hairdryer to simulate the wind and saw how far and messy even a small pile of litter can become. After reading "The Adventures of Gary and Harry," where a sea turtle accidently eats a plastic bag, the students were concerned for the natural environment and the animals we share it with. We did a "Sink or Float" experiment with some of the junk from our collection to see would happen if different types of trash ended up in the ocean. The students learned that different materials have different properties and we got the opportunity to sort our collection by something other than a visual characteristic. Our explores were also interested in making signs to put up reminding people not to litter. As a teacher it was exciting to see their interest in combining writing and drawing and to see how far their abilities to write and draw detailed pictures have developed. Many students were writing or copying whole sentences on their posters. We also used items from our junk collection to make recycle robots to remind us dispose of trash correctly. We will also return to these robots later when we discuss how we can reuse junk. Outside Fun and SunInvestigating Trash
3/24/2018
This week we began our study of recycling. As part of our introductory week we had a lot of discussions, explored our topic through art, and observed recycling in our school environment. We talked about what type of things we throw away and started paying attention to the trash we make during the school day. Our explorers talked about the difference between trash at school and trash at home. We have started our "junk collection" at school of the trash that is clean and that we can use for our investigation. We also talked about how we need to use gloves to explore trash that is not clean. When our explores were telling what they knew about trash and what they wanted to learn we realized that while we knew that trash should go into the the trash can, we didn't all know what happened to trash after that. On Friday we followed the path our school trash and recycling takes. We took our trash cans and recycling cans to the big cans stored elsewhere in the school, then went outside and saw the dumpsters that hold all the schools trash from the big cans. Our explores looked inside the dumpsters to see what was in them and how they smelled. One of the ways we investigated trash this week was through a process art project where we used items from our junk collection to stamp shapes. This activity allowed us to explore the shapes, textures, dimensions, and weights of different trash items. They explored how the top of an egg carton made a different shape then the bottom, or how the lid to an old marker made a circle when stamped but created a band when rolled. Some things got squishy in the paint while others maintained their ridgedness. Excited to be back at school, exploring our new centers and seeing friends again!
Dr. Seuss Week
3/3/2018
This week the EK Explores:
~Studied Dr. Seuss, reading "Ten Apples Up On Top," "Fox in Socks," "Green Eggs and Ham," "My Many Colored Days," "Horton Hears a Who," and "Red Fish Blue Fish." ~Practiced lots of rhyming ~Did apple stamping and colored characters from "Ten Apples Up On Top" ~Painted their feeling by mixing paint ~Celebrated PJ and stuffed animal day with show in tell and a special snack of milk and cookies (which we baked in class!) ~Attended Dr. Seuss Day activities with all of lower school ~Loved playing in all our new snow! |
Anna RamseyArchives
April 2021
Categories |