Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Theme: “Flowers: Nature’s Delicate Beauty”
Class: 3rd & 4th ClassScience: Nature Walk around the school grounds, observing and exploring. Use of Trail checklists composed in advance by teacher including some decoy flowers!
I.T: use of the ipad to photograph some common local flowers and use of the ipad app ‘Seek’ or ‘Picture This’ to identify less common flowers observed.
Use of Aileen Lambert’s Song ‘Na Blathanna’ and the video tutorial for the teaching of this song on the Heritage in schools website. Love the Linkage with Gaeilge and the chance to learn the Irish names for these common flowers such as the daisy, the dandelion, buttercup and primrose.
Use of Ruth Marshall’s video tutorial again on the Heritage in schools website on how to write a Riddle Poem. Lovely little creative writing lesson in creating their poems and the children would love the game element of solving the riddles to figure out which flower they each wrote about.
Visual Arts Lesson Plan: Flowers from Observation
Strand: Visual Arts
Strand Unit: Drawing / Paint and Colour
Stimulus: A collection of handpicked natural flowers such as daisies, primroses, buttercups and dandelions
Focus: Observing, drawing and painting flowers from direct observation
Learning Intentions
Children will:
• Observe flowers carefully and identify their shapes, lines, colours, patterns and textures.
• Develop their ability to draw from direct observation.
• Experiment with colour mixing to create realistic and imaginative flower colours.
• Explore composition by arranging several flowers on the page.
• Appreciate the beauty and variety found in the natural environment.
Success Criteria
By the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to:
• Look closely at a natural flower and identify interesting details.
• Draw the flower using a variety of lines and shapes.
• Use colour to represent the flower and its surroundings.
• Add detail and texture to make the artwork more interesting.
• Explain something they noticed about their flower or artwork.Your Living wall project sounds absolutely fantastic CJ. Love your idea of creating the bottle top mural. Lovely repurposing activity to involve the whole school in.
This sounds wonderful Siobhan, children love exploring the great outdoors and sounds like you are making fantastic use of what’s on your doorstep. it would be such a lovely activity for the upcoming autumn season and your artwork would reflect the beautiful autumnal colours and the rich and varied leaf colours observed. Leaf and bark rubbings are always a big hit, simple yet effective!
Wondering: We would begin by looking at Engineering and I would show them the video of what an engineer is. I would inform the children that they are to become Civil Engineers. We would look at a selection of photos of bridges, Birr Demesne Rope Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and pictures of our local Bridges crossing the River Nenagh. I would show the Video clip of the Farmer who needed to build a bridge over the River Suck to relocate his animals. We would use our familiar story of ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’.
Explore: What is it that we are going to design and why? What problem are we solving?
I will set the Challenge that the children need to design and make a bridge that spans a river, high enough for a toy boat to pass under and able to support the weight of 3 plastic farm animals.
Plan: Brainstorm Session. What are our criteria? Who is it for? How big does it need to be? What materials are we going to use? Sketch: Draw and make a plan of how we will make it.
Make: Build it! Make it! Or Model it! Recyclables, Lego bricks or Duplo blocks, Play-Doh etc.
Evaluate: Start with a positive focus. Does it fulfil its purpose? What have I learned? Would I change anything? Are you happy with it?
Maths link: 2 D shape, 3 D shape, lines and angles formed, lines of symmetry, height of our bridge- can toy boat pass under, weight of the plastic animals it supported, could it have supported additional weight, measure span of the bridge etc.
Outdoor exploration: Visit to the local bridge and enjoy a nature walk and explore the local flora and fauna enroute. Linkage to Art: pencil sketch the bridge. I.T: use the iPad to photograph the bridge. Mindfulness: The sights and sounds of nature around us. What can we hear? What can we feel? See? Smell? etc.This lesson has been very well thought out and sounds like a very successful engineering project Aoife. I hope to do something similar with my class. Making the comparison and connections to a bridge on their door step will reap many benefits. If ye have school ipads, it would be a lovely idea to photograph the bridge and allow for greater analysis in the classroom after your visit.
Follow the step- by- step guide to CREATE A POLLINATOR PLAN FOR YOUR SCHOOL:
Form a ‘Pollinator Team’: the Green School committee, teachers, students and the school caretaker. Visit their website http://www.pollinators.ie to learn more about bees and other insect pollinators.
Map your school grounds: identifying all the existing wild corners, flower beds, mowed areas, playing fields, and hedgerows.
Draw up your School Pollinator Plan, with a new school map showing your ‘Pollinator sites’ – e.g. areas where you want to reduce mowing, locations where you want to provide nesting sites, and areas where you want to create a wildflower meadow or plant pollinator-friendly bulbs.
In autumn you can collect pollinator friendly wildflower seeds from the local area and grow it in pots over the winter to add to the longer grass areas in spring.
Trees are a very important source of food for pollinators in spring, if possible plant some native trees such as Willow, Hawthorn and Blackthorn.
Put up signs at places you are protecting for pollinators.
Log your actions on the mapping system, Actions for Pollinators
Enjoy the new buzz around your school!Mary this is a very comprehensive and detailed account of setting up the school grounds as a pollinator friendly zone. I agree that it really does need to have the backing of the whole school community and having the Caretaker involved is pivotal. We’ll all be advocating for an area for No Mow May!
I will definitely use this idea of creating a 3D map of our school grounds with my First Class pupils. This ticks all the boxes for an engaging and collaborative STEM activity. It will provide ample opportunity for talk and discussion around Maps. Questions can be raised… Who uses maps? What information do they provide us with? Does anyone use sat nav or google maps when travelling in the car? Would it be useful to map our school? Could we create a biodiversity map of all our trees, grasses and hedgerows? Lets use Google Maps to locate our school. What other buildings are nearby? The Church, the shop, the GAA field. What shape does the area of the school look like? Let’s take a walk and explore outdoors. Let’s bring a trundle wheel and measure the length and width of the school garden. Let’s measure the area of the tarmac and tennis court. How do they compare to each other? Allow the pupils an opportunity to actively engage with their surroundings and tell them we will make a 3D make of our school grounds. We will include the buildings, the playing field, the tarmac etc. Planning: Consider the size and scale of our map. Making: Gather Materials, ensuring everyone has a role. Will we use natural materials, recyclables or even LEGO? Evaluating: Pupils present their maps and explain the different features, what was their biggest challenge, what did they enjoy most about the process. Relish in the knowledge that they are all wonderful cartographers!
Hey Aoife, I agree with you and hope to use these Heritage videos too with my class. Simple videos but very effective.
Fair play to you CJ and wishing you every success in achieving your Green Flags. It certainly sounds like ye have nailed the Biodiversity mapping component. You have highlighted most of the course content for Module two here, with your digital mapping, biodiversity, use of photographs, use of google maps. It truly sounds fantastic and very well planned and executed. well done!
Having explored the course content for Module One and having read the paper Unravelling STEM: Beyond the Acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (Liston 2018)… I have reflected on what STEM education needs to look like in my classroom for the year ahead. It will enable pupils to delve deeper into Maths and Science concepts with a strong understanding of how to approach and solve problems. The children will become innovative critical thinkers and make good decisions. They will be more technologically literate and prepared for the modern world in which we live, they will have the doors to future careers in STEM opened to them. There will be a strong emphasis on STEM projects which will allow for teamwork, collaboration and communication. I will endeavour to create ‘real-world, rigorous and relevant learning experiences for students’. I will adopt the engineering Design Process framework for STEM lessons and Activities
• Ask/Define the problem.
• Research
• Imagine
• Plan and Design
• Create/ Build
• Test and Evaluate
• Redesign and Improve
• CommunicateFair play to you Louise for outlining in such detail the use of the Climate Detectives concept with your class and the endless possibilities it allows for. Climate Change is such a huge concern for all and I think this Summer in particular it became very relevant for children with the horrendous wildfires across parts of Europe, we had first hand experience of a campsite in southern France being destroyed. Then on return home we had the devastation of raging wild fires in our beautiful Slievenamon in Tipperary. I think children would learn so much through your Climate Detectives in such a meaningful way.