“Education is not the learning of the facts, but the training of the mind to think.” – Albert Einstein
Monthly Archives: October 2014
FollowAutumn Tree
We decided to invite autumn into our classroom our way 🙂
1. Paint two pieces of long craft paper brown. Dry them.
2. Crumple up newspapers and scrap papers and have a paper ball fight!!!! (WARNING: psychologically prepare yourself for an out-of-control scream and laughter for about 5,10min)
3. While the paper ball fight is going on, quickly prepare the tree trunk as you keep an eye on the students. If you crumple the painted paper first, it will add texture to the tree and make it easier to form the trunk.
4. Trunk doesn’t have to be perfect yet. Once you sort of have it, let the students throw the paper balls into the hollow trunk. When the trunk is filled, it will look perfect!!!! 🙂
We cut out a little hole in the tree and made a squirrel sit in it. We also made autumn coloured leaves and put them on our tree. The students were very proud of their tree!!
Welcoming Autumn into our Classroom
Studying about seasons <Autumn>
Let’s go on a walk! I took my students out for a mini walk around the neighbourhood one afternoon. We stopped at a park and I let them run around.
“Look at the leaves! They are really pretty now.”
“Maybe you can collect all these leaves on the ground and dive into it!”
“It’s getting a little cold isn’t it?”
While I was there, I dropped these comments casually to direct the students’ attention to the changes that were happening in their environment.
After the stroll, I put up a couple of summer pictures and asked my students: Who likes summer? Most of my students raised their hand and excitedly started sharing why they like summer – we can eat ice cream and we can go to pool and dad and mom takes me to the beach, etc. We then discussed things we saw during our walk that were different from summer. The trees are pretty! The leaves have different colour! We can get acorns! etc. were some of the things they mentioned.
Going on a walk and dropping topic-related comments prior to introducing the topic seemed to have work very well with these students.
During our Autumn topic we explored the nature a lot. We collected leaves of all sizes and colour, acorns, pine cones, seeds, etc. We then used these for various crafts. The students were always very excited to make crafts out of things they themselves collected!
Then one day a student came up to me and asked me “Yuka, can we bring all the leaves inside?” I asked her why. She told me it was because she liked autumn and she wanted autumn to come to our classroom. Of course I couldn’t let my students bring in piles and piles of leaves to the classroom. But I thought bringing autumn in our classroom was a brilliant idea. So together we made it happen: Autumn Tree.