Daily and Seasonal Changes Inquiry

At St. Thomas Aquinas, as a part of the Grade 1 Science unit "Daily and Seasonal Changes," we began by reading the picture book City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Williams as a provocation.  The story is about the unique friendship of a dog and a frog over the course of a year.  Throughout the book, the seasons change with wonderful splendor in the illustrations that brings the seasons to life for the students.  However, the changes are subtle and not mentioned in the book.  Following the reading of the book, the students were asked to point out if they noticed anything about nature throughout the story.  One of the students mentioned that the weather changed through the book; another mentioned that the colour of the grass and trees changed; while another introduced the changed in seasons throughout the book.  This led to a discussion about what seasons were.  For the most part the students could name all four seasons.  We then listed all of the things they knew about seasons in general.  Here is what they came up with:

While the students demonstrated some understanding and knowledge about the seasons being about change (some only focused on the current season of autumn), they did have questions about what causes seasonal changes and how they are different from each other.  Here are the questions that they posed that they will answer through our inquiries and investigations:

 

 

This seems like an interesting beginning to our seasonal inquiry!

Talking about self-regulation

The teachers at St. Dominic Savio Catholic School have been actively in engaged in exploring and discussing the learning skills with their student to help them establish a deeper understanding of each one.  Three of the classes I work discussed the learning skill of self-regulation by showing them the video "Me Want It (But Me Wait)" starring the one and only Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.  The video was a hit with the primary, junior and intermediate students who watched it, not only because of it's humourous take on self-regulation, but the deep conservation it illicited.  Here is a snapshot of the brainstorming the that Grade 3/4 class did together to establish their understanding of self-regulation:

Following this, the students broke out into small groups to write their own ideas of what self-regulations means and how to show it in class.  Then, they came together as a class to compile a class success criteria to refer to on how to show self-regulation independently.  Here's what they came up with:

 

The Grade 2 class also shared ideas on how to use self-regulation in class.  Here is what they discussed together:

As we unpack self-regulation and other learning skills, I will continue to post on our discussions, activities and explorations, so stay tuned!

Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn

One of the best books I read this summer was definitely Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn by John Hattie and Gregory Yates.  The book is divided into three sections:  Learning Within Classrooms, Learning Foundations, and Know Thyself.  According to Hattie and Yates this three sections have very particular foci.  The first part, Learning Within Classrooms, deals with learning within classrooms, teacher practice, student thinking and processing (Yates & Hattie, 2014: p. XV-XVI).  The second part, Learning Foundations, delves into major ideas about learning including acquisition, memory retention, mental storage and overload (Yates & Hattie, 2014, p. XVI).  Finally, the third part of the book examines knowing oneself as a learner and who your learners are (Yates & Hattie, 2014, p. XVI).

Within each section, there are chapters dealing with different topics within each section.  As a classroom teacher, I appreciated the insight and sound knowledge that Hattie and Yates provided based on scientific and educational research.  This book not only provided the opportunity for me to reflect on my own practices and my role as an educator, but also on some of my own experiences as a student.  Although there were some chapters that were more engaging or applicable than others, overall, I really enjoyed this resource as it provides sound knowledge that is helpful to understand how your students learn and how you can better help this process as an educator.  This is definitely a good read for all teacher regardless of experience!

Pumpkin Inquiry

During Hallowe'en week, the Full-Day Kindergarten students began an inquiry on pumpkins.  We began the inquiry by placing a mystery object in the center of the carpet.  The students had to guess what the object under the blanket was (see the photo).  Some of their guesses included a ball, a watermelon and a toy.

What's under the mystery blanket?

After taking a few predictions, the mystery object was finally revealed...

Ta-da!  The mystery object revealed!

After revealing the pumpkin, the students began to share what they knew about it.  They knew quite about about pumpkins from previous experience, but they still had lots of questions about them.  Here's what we came up with so far... we will be exploring our wonderings about pumpkins in the coming days!

Look at what we know about pumpkins!

Here's what we want to find out about pumpkins

Out inquiry is off to a fine start!

Exploring Environments: The Beginnings of a Grade 7 Inquiry

As a lead into the Grade 7 Geography unit into Physical Patterns in a Changing World, the student we asked the question, "What is an Environment?" Using that question, the students discussed what they though the characteristics of an environment were or what they thought the word meant. As a class, we then compiled their ideas and thoughts. Here is what they came up with together:

As a class, we then went through each characteristic to agree or disagree it was a good fit to create an appropriate definition of an environments. Students were given the opportunity to vote and rationalize why they believe each idea was a good explanation of what an environment is. Each definition they agreed on, was given a checkmark. Each definition that wasn't was given an "X." At the end of the activity, the students agreed upon the following definition: An environment is:

a habitat where living and non-living things interact

a place where things change - like the climate or the weather

a place to communicate or intact with each other

a place where we get our survival needs (i.e. - food, shelter, etc.)                                                        One characteristic that the students couldn't agree on completely was "a place where things live." We decided to place a question mark next to that one. Some students debated that not all things have to be alive in an environment, where others argued that living things are necessary in an environment. Upon further investigation, we hope to prove or disprove this notion.  Following the initial provocation, the students were able to brainstorm different geographic environments they knew.  Lastly, the students came up with their own wonderings about geographic environments together.

Solutions: The Beginnings of a Grade 7 Inquiry

As an introduction to the Grade 7 Science unit on Solutions, the students were divided into groups and asked one simple question: What is a solution? Together, the students were invited to write and draw what they thought a solution was in any context. This was left open-ended, so students could document it in any context that made sense to them (i.e. - mathematical, scientific, etc). Here is a sample of what one group came up with at that point:

Following this, the students shared their findings with the class. Through a discussion facilitated by the teacher, the students were then asked to narrow down what they thought a solution was in a scientific context, as well as write any questions they have about them. Together, they were able to narrow their focus down to a scientific understanding of what a solution was. This activity enabled the teacher to see what their understanding of what a solution was and identify the gaps were before embarking on anything further. This activity also provided a great springboard for students to begin questioning and wondering about what they could find out about solutions to extend and refine their own learnings and understandings about this particular topic. Here are samples of what they came up with in their groups:

Overall, this was the beginning of one Grade 7 class's journey into inquiry!

Electricity and Electrical Devices: Grade 6 Science Inquiry

The Grade 6 classes at St. Thomas Aquinas have begun their Science unit on Electricity using an inquiry stance. To activate the prior knowledge of the students, the teachers approached introducing the unit by playing a rendition of the popular game "Four Pics, One Word." The teacher posted four pictures: a light bulb, a metal spoon, a solar panelled house and a lightning bolt. In groups, the students discussed how the four pictures were related, then they shared their ideas with the class. They came up with the following words to link the four pictures: light, electricity, solar, energy and food. Through active discussion, the students eventually rationalized why the common link among the four pictures was electricity including that the lightning bolt was a form of electricity, the metal in the spoon helps conduct electricity, the light bulb needs electrity to light up, and that the house used solar panels to power up. Interestingly, although some students demonstrated that they had some prior knowledge or experience with electricity (i.e. - that the metal spoon conducts electricity), they also demonstrated that there were gaps in their knowledge (i.e. - that electricity produces the light in the bulb, that solar energy can be used to produce electricity, etc.). This activity enabled the teachers to find out what the students already knew about electricity and elicit questions they had about it. It was a good beginning what looks like an engaging inquiry on electricity!

Celebrating the 100th Day of School at St. Thomas Aquinas!

As a school community, St. Thomas Aquinas hosted a gallery walk to celebrate the 100th day of school. Each grade from Full Day Kindergarten to Grade 8 represented a multiple of 100 up to one hundred million in a variety of ways. The gallery walk took place in the gymnasium and each class had an opportunity to view each other's work across different grade levels. It was a great sharing and learning experience for all!

Celebrating the 100th Day of School at St. Lawrence!

To mark the 100th day of school and Valentine's Day, the Grade 1 and 2 classes at St. Lawrence created a banner to show 100 different ways they can show kindess to each other.  This is one of many fun activities planned to mark this momentous occasion at the school.

Let the Games Begin!

As the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi got under way, the Grade 8 class at St. Lawrence embarked on an inquiry about the Olympic Games themselves. It began with the class brainstorming their questions and wonderings. In partners, students set out to find out about the questions to present them to the class. Here are the wonderings they compiled together:

Equipped with their laptops, the students embarked on their quest to find out more on their Olympic wonderings.