Apples, Apples Apples Everywhere

Apples is a very popular beginning of the year topic of study.  This year, we put a new twist on the study of apples.  We chose to study apples from three different view points; as a scientist, as an artist and as a mathematician.

Apples- Like a Scientist-  As I wrote in our previous post, "What is a Scientist," our science program really focusses on the dispositions of a scientist.  We want our kids doing science.  During term one, once we have completed our introduction to what is a scientist, we focus on the skill of observation.  We expose the children to what observation is and how scientists use their five senses to observe objects, events and organisms.  During and after observing something, scientists often communicate their observations to others through talking, writing, drawing or taking photos.  We do lots of group shares, where we sit in a sharing circle and practice using the language of a scientist, "I noticed"  or "I observed."  Our apples were no different.  Students were given magnifying glasses and were presented with a whole apple and an apple cut in half.  After observing their apples, they were asked to complete a page in their science notebook recording their observations.

You will notice that the students are using text boxes to communicate extra information.  We have been doing mini lessons on non fiction text features during our Fact Friday lessons (more on this later) as well as focusing on using text boxes in science.

The next day, we recorded our background knowledge about apples on chart paper.

This led us into our next activity, recording our wonders about apples.  Each student was given a piece of paper to record things they wondered about apples.

After the lesson, I chose four wonders to investigate as a class. I chose some wonders that can be tested and some wonders that needed to be researched.  I wanted students to understand the idea that scientist test things, but also research questions that they have. Over the next several science blocks, we worked in small groups to find answers to our wonders. The wonders that we investigated:
Will an apple sink or float?
Why do apples have cores?
Why do worms like apples?
How many seeds in an apple?

Apples- Like a Mathematician
The students had a chance to peel and core and apple using this fancy machine.

We predicted how long the skin would be and measured with unifix cubes.  I got the idea from this amazing math and science blog
We predicted and counted the pieces that came off some of the apples.  Then once peeled and cored, we tried the three different kinds of apples and graphed the results.

I found this poem and idea on an excellent blog, but now I can't find the blog where I found it.  The poem was written by someone else and when I come across who it is, I will link it up.

Apples- Like an Artist To end our unit, we looked at apples like an artist.  The children sketched their apple and then used tissue paper and watered down white glue to decorate their apples.  They turned out great.

Science- What is a Scientist?

We love science.  We love teaching science to our kids.  We want our kids to be as excited about science as we are.  Over the past decade there has been a change in how we teach science.  The focus has shifted from teaching kids facts to memorize or regurgitate to a focus on what we like to call the "doing" of science.  We want our students to understand the processes of science.  We want them to act like scientists and explore like scientists.

We begin most school years with a science unit to develop background knowledge, encourage curiosity and a sense of wonder while focusing on the processes of science.

During our first lesson, we access their background knowledge.  We want to know what they already know about science.  We focus on what do scientists do and what do scientists use.  One of the books that lends itself to this topic is What is a Scientist? by Barbara Lehn

After the first lesson, we sit down and plan four or five science tasks that will enable students to act like scientists while exploring the different things that scientists do.  We start an anchor chart titled, "A Scientist is Someone who" and after each task added to our list.  The focus is on hands on activities and discussion so for these tasks, the students do not do any writing.  The richness of the discussions helps build their background knowledge.  We want to give our students lots of opportunities to be curious and to observe using their senses.  So that when we launch into our other science units for the rest of the year, they know what a good observation looks like and sounds like.

Science Task 1:  Bubbles-  Scientists ask questions and try new things.

Give each student a small plate with dish soap and water and a straw.  Allow them to explore.  Have them ask questions.  Give them challenges such as, "Can you blow one bubble inside the other?"

Science Task 2:  Cookie Mining- Scientists use special tools and dig for things.

      Bake cookies with lots of different ingredients.  Add things like raisins, chocolate chips and white chocolate chips.  You could add nuts if you have no nut allergies in your class.  Give students chops sticks, small paint brushes, toothpicks and a magnifying glass.  Ask the students to excavate all of the different items in their cookies.

Science Task 3:  Ooblek/Goo- Scientists explore the unknown and come to conclusions based on their observations and experiences.
This is the ever popular cornstarch and water potion that kids love.  Is it a liquid or is it a solid is the burning question?

Science Task 4: How many drops of Water Can a Penny Hold?- Scientists make predictions and do experiments.
Give partners a penny and a dropper.  Ask them to predict how many drops of water their penny can hold.  Before beginning, show the students how to use the dropper.  Often their predictions are way less than what the penny can really hold.  Have them do the task several times and see if they get different numbers.  Discuss why this might be. We find it helpful to have one person counting while the other is doing the experiment and then switching.

The key to these tasks is lots of discussion and debriefing afterwards so that they students can begin make the connection that these are the behaviours of scientists.  


We are always adding to our anchor chart, but here it is so far.

September- Building Community

We spent a few weeks in September getting to know each other, establishing expectations and building community.

A few activities and the resources we used are listed below:

Getting to know each other and beginning of the year self-portraits:


We love the author Todd Parr and find that his books lend themselves well to the beginning of the year.  While some years, we begin with a full Parr author study, this year we used some of his books to do an art project.  It's Okay to be Different is a great book to begin with.

Image taken from Amazon.ca

After reading several of his books, we did a directed drawing activity, where children were led through the process of drawing themselves on 11x18 drawing paper.  This part was a whole group activity.  Over the next several days, the children painted first the background and then themselves in the style of Todd Parr.  Think bright and bold colours with a black felt outline to finish. We made this part a centre activity, that way we had an opportunity to teach and model some beginning painting skills such as how to hold a paint brush. After a two week stint as our welcome bulletin board, the portraits line our classroom for the rest of the year, accompanied by this quote:

"It's Okay to be different.

You are special and

important just because of

being who you are."

-Todd Parr

Using No David books by David Shannon to establish expectations and classroom promises:

This idea was first spotted on the blog, First Grade Parade.  We decided to use it in our own classroom to have the kids come up with classroom expectations.  It seems all kids love the No David books, especially the part where David runs naked down the street.  After reading the books we establish the two lists.  What is a peacebreaker and what is a peacemaker: 

We decided as a class, that we wanted to be peacemakers.  Each child created a coloured cut out of themselves.  Again, we did this as a directed drawing activity.  Students were given three pieces of 8.5 x 11 paper.  One piece for the head, one piece for the top and one piece for the bottom.  This is a great beginning of the year activity to see how the students are at using scissors.  Once completed, each child was given a peacemaker badge to put on themselves.

How Full is Your Bucket and building a sense community in our classroom:

We came across this book and started using it in our classroom last school year.  The kids loved the book and really understood the concept.

Image taken from Amazon.ca

The idea that what we say and do can have a big impact on the feelings of others is the message of this book. We all have invisible  buckets over our heads that are full when we are happy and empty when we are feeling sad, angry or alone.  We use this book to talk and write about things that fill our buckets because not only can people fill our buckets, but we can fill our own buckets when we do an activity we enjoy or when we help someone else.  We often end our school day by talking about our buckets.  At the beginning of the year, we ask, "Who filled your bucket today?"  As the year progresses and we have introduced the idea of criteria, we may ask, "How full is your bucket today and why?"  In this case we are asking students to give their bucket a rating out of five and reasons for their rating.  Five being full and one being empty.

What are some tried and true beginning of the year activities that you like to use in your classroom? Please share.

Welcome

Welcome, come into our classroom.    We are two teachers who share a grade one classroom.  We are passionate about literacy and love math and science.  Join us as we use this space to document our learning with twenty two enthusiastic students.