Learning Eclipses with Oreo Biscuits

The students were quite amazed to see me with Oreo biscuits in my hand this morning. They were even more amazed when I called them to a table and asked them to gather around and watch me eat the biscuits. What they did not realize was that they were about to be introduced to Lunar Eclipse through Oreo biscuits. I broke the biscuits apart and ate part of the white cream on them carefully to create Crescent Moons and Gibbous Moons in their waxing and waning states. Then I laid them in front of the kids and they were quick to identify them as the phases of the moon. We had a class discussion on the phases of the moon and how Lunar Eclipse takes place.

I also explained the concept of day and night to them using a torch light and a globe.

I asked the kids if they knew of another similar phenomenon and they knew I was talking about Solar Eclipse. It was good fun having a discussion and making our understanding clearer. This was followed by the viewing of a video which helped the students understand the Lunar and Solar Eclipses better.

Research on the Solar System

The Solar System- the closest to what we know about the Universe. The students researched to find information about the nine planets including Pluto as a dwarf planet, comets, asteroids, meteors, meteorites and the Sun. They came up with the list of things they would like to find out about these heavenly bodies. 

They researched about the characteristics of the heavenly bodies, their rotation and revolution speed, number of moons they have, etc. They did a good job on their presentations. All the information on each heavenly body has been compiled in a data collation booklet so that each child has all the information about all the heavenly bodies.

Here are the proud students with their excellent work.

Prepositions

The students were tuned into the concept of Prepositions through an activity in which the teacher had one object in her hand, in this case a small stuffed toy dog, and did some actions with the dog. The students had to observe the actions done by the teacher and make sentences on them. The teacher threw the toy over a table, placed it under another table, put it on a chair, kept it below the clock, etc. The students were quick to guess that they were being tuned into prepositions. Then they made a long list of preposition words and wrote down the definition of the same after a class discussion..

The Big Bang Theory

We began the unit with a big bang and rightly so as we have now begun exploring the mysteries of how the world came into existence. The students were introduced to the Big Bang Theory and had millions of questions about the theory itself.

 There was some great discussion about the religious beliefs on the formation of the Universe and whether we should believe the scientific explanation or the religious explanation as there is huge contradiction between the two theories. 

'Some Kind of God designer' work  by Gustavo Castellanos showing another perspective on the Big Bang Theory

Scientific explanation about the formation of the Universe. 

Everyone had a point of view and their thoughts to share and so many questions. So I felt what better than to allow them to delve into the mysteries of this theory and show their understanding of the same after a class discussion to initiate the process. Friday was used in researching and finding as much information about the theory in class using IPads. The students were asked to complete their research work over the weekend and present their work with a 'BIG BANG' on Monday. Looking forward to some great work. 

Prior Knowledge Assessment

ALPHABET KEY & LIGHTNING WRITING 

To assess the prior knowledge of the students, they were given a choice to either write down all the words related to space with each letter of the English Alphabet using the 'Alphabet Key' strategy or use 'Lightning Writing' strategy to write whatever they knew about space. The students did their work diligently and came up with a lot of words and many interesting facts about space. Here are a couple of samples of the students' work. 

The words written by the students will be pasted on the Word Wall. To make the learning more meaningful, the students will find the meanings of the words and paste them on the word wall to earn an Edmodo badge and the more meanings they find, the better for them as the one who finds the maximum word meanings will earn himself or herself a Mark of Appreciation! 

Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry

The students were introduced to the Central Idea through picture clues for this unit. They were given a few pictures and were asked to come up with one word related to the picture. They were also given a few mystery books to derive the word 'mysteries'. The pictures given to them were:

They had to come up with the words; mysteries, Universe, exploration, human and unravelled. Out of these they came up with all the words except unravelled.

 Then we had all the words and now had to make a sentence using them. We also discussed the value of words like the articles and prepositions without which sentences do not make sense. We started creating unique central ideas using the words and Tejasveer came closest to the Central Idea ' Mysteries of the Universe can be unravelled by human exploration'. It was a fun and different way to derive at the Central Idea and we enjoyed the process thoroughly. 

Then I gave the students the key concepts and urged them to derive the lines of inquiry and we were quite successful in doing that as well. After this we had a discussion on how to make the unit more interesting and meaningful so that the students can gain the maximum from it. The students shared their points of view and gave various ideas. Finally, we discussed some of the questions that came to the students' minds at that point in the lesson. Some very thoughtful questions were generated in this exercise. 

Treasure Hunt

 It's great to have the children back with so much enthusiasm and excitement looking forward to the term ahead. And with full fervour we have begun classes along with practice session for Founder's.

The students were provoked to the new Unit of Inquiry through a Treasure Hunt. The students were divided into two groups and were given clues to lead them to five different spots in the school building. Each spot had an object which would help them know something about the unit. The students found miniature models of astronauts, space shuttles, rockets, etc. These made the students guess that our new unit would be based on space. They had to write what they knew about the objects.

 After this, they were shown a few photographs to help them understand which TD theme they would be working with. They were able to guess the correct one- HOW THE WORLD WORKS. 

So began our new Unit of Inquiry.