Colour in Nature: New Unit Starts This Week

Central Idea:

Learning about colours helps build awareness of colours in nature

Lines of Inquiry

Colour mixing (change)

Colours in nature (connection)

People have often represented nature through the colourful, visual arts

During formative week the teachers are collecting the children's prior knowledge.  

I made an interesting observation today when I asked "Where do you find colour in nature?" 

It soon became evident that not everyone was familiar with the word nature and further discussion prompted the question "Are people a part of nature?" 

I told the children we could find out the answer and Bela suggested "Ya, look on the internet." 

So I did and found this definition of nature . . . 

the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.

So people are not nature.  

The children responded to the video we watched by noticing that 

some things in nature come in more than one colour. 

Colour in Nature

The children made a memory matching game in which they drew something from nature in one colour and then matched it to the same colour card. When Chloe drew a pink pony the children noticed that not everything in nature comes in all colours

Friendship: Summative Project

After 7 weeks of investigating How We Organize Ourselves and the role friendship plays in our lives the children are preparing for the final summative project to show what they've learned.

They've explored the qualities of a friend, what it means to be a friend and the importance of friends in their lives. They've also explored who and what can be a friend and how they know someone or something is their friend.


Rock Friends

Byrd Baylor's Everybody Needs A Rock was the catalyst to the final project. The children listened carefully to Byrd's 10 rules in selecting a rock and then chose the rock that was special to them. This week the the children are working on creating a friend in their rock and Deb will continue the process asking them specific questions that they will reflect on and respond to.

Friendship: A Friend Can Be . . .

Mem Fox's "Henwick's Egg" is about a little bandicoot who finds an egg that doesn't seem to belong to anyone. He takes it home and cares for it and soon the egg becomes his friend. Why did Henwick think the egg was his friend? Because the egg listened to Henwick's stories and when he shared his troubles. Soon Henwick figures out that the egg is actually a stone but he doesn't care, he loves it and it's his friend.

What Can Be A Friend and What Can't Be A Friend

The purpose of this activity was not to have our ideas be right or wrong but to think about our thinking.  The children looked at a variety of pictures; a baby, a teacher, a dog, a slide, a teddy bear, a tree, and I asked . . .

"Can this be your friend?"

"Why do you think this?"

It was interesting as the children identified their own criteria of what makes a something a friend.

"A dog can't be your friend because it can't smile, a teddy bear can be 

your friend because it's smiling" - Billy

"A tree can be your friend because it gives us apples." Michael

"A teddy bear can't be a friend because it can't talk" - Ryleigh

"A baby can be your friend because you can snuggle them" - Sofia

"A dog can be your friend because you can play ball with it" - Bela

"A slide can be a friend because I like it" - Chloe

Friends Criteria

they smile at me

they give me things

they talk with me

they snuggle me

they play with me

they like me

Friendship: Joining In

The story "Say Hello" by Jack and Michael Foreman is about two different approaches to joining in a game. A group of children are playing ball at the playground when a dog comes along and wants to play. At first the dog feels left out and lonely but then asks if he can play and joins in. Next comes a boy who wants to play. He feels left out and alone and watches and watches.

Tyreese had an idea "He forgot to ask!"

In the end the dog notices the boy standing alone and invites him to play and he joins in.

Joining a group of playing children is an important skill.
Why do you suppose the boy didn't ask if he could join in?
"He didn't think about it"
"He was scared"

Maybe he didn't know what to say. We played a game of Ring Around the Rosie with two people. The children practiced asking if they could join one by one.

Playing Ring Around the Rosy

"Can I play with you?"

Joining in!

Friendship: Is Sharing Easy or Hard?

Yesterday I asked the children what friendship means.

"Sharing"- Ryleigh

"Making bracelets" - Sofia

"Racing" - William

I used their ideas to plan todays group time. "The Best Gift of All" is a story that identifies friendship being the best gift of all rather than material things.

The children made bead bracelets. As they exercised hand-eye co-ordination and focused on stringing the tiny beads I asked if they would share their bracelets or keep them. At first everyone except Tyreese said they would keep their bracelets. After a reminder that sharing is different than giving away they decided they would share their bracelet.

Who will you share it with?

My little brother - Bela

My brother - Michael

My mom and my brother even though he's mean to me - Ryleigh

My dad - Billy

My sister - Chloe

Later in the day, I noticed that some chose to share with other children at school.

Is sharing hard or easy?

The children reflected on this and had 4 choices; easy, hard, a little bit easy or a little bit hard 

A little bit hard - Bela and Ryleigh

A little bit easy - Billy and Chloe

Easy - Tyreese

Hard - Michael