Create Your Own Park
April 6, 2022
In our Social Studies period, we were focusing on People and Environments, specific expectations that had to do with the natural and build features of parks, and investigating relationships that take place between people and the natural and built parts of our community. We went through a short slideshow of natural features in Ontario and then discussed the natural features of our community. We then discussed the parks in our community and the natural/built features in them, then created a chart of the local parks in our community, along with the natural/built features in the parks.
The activity that went along with this was to create our parks. The park had to include natural and built features. The students had a great understanding of the natural and built features of the parks because they understood living and non-living things. They all included playground equipment like swings or slides and added natural features like trees, grass, and flowers. After they had drawn and coloured their parks, I asked students to share with their groups, and then share with the class (if they were comfortable).
This activity was a great consolidation activity for students. They were planning out their idea of the perfect park. I went around and asked students about who they wanted to make their park for, and what they should add to make sure that those people come. For example, if students said they wanted families to come, they added parking lots, picnic benches, and bathrooms. If they wanted it to be just for kids, they added splash pads, pools, and fun playground equipment. The group discussion element was also beneficial. My entire time at this placement, my AT wanted to push for as much group work as possible because of the COVID restrictions being lifted. After a lot of group work in math and literacy, I could see the students becoming more comfortable talking with their group members, being patient, asking questions, and being respectful. It was great to see their skills improving so well. If I were to do this activity again, I would try to do it in groups, and then individually. This way students could learn about compromise while also completing the specific expectations the assignment is designed for.
Whiteboard Fraction Sorting
April 5, 2022
I took the fractions unit step by step for the grade 1s in my class. I wanted them to have a very strong understanding of the characteristics of certain fractions before getting into fair share problems, where the type of fraction becomes very important. On the first day of fractions, we went through what a fraction was, what halves meant, what unequal fractions were, and looked at real-life examples of fractions/halves (chocolate bars, half a cake, fruit, etc.). For a review on day 2, I put this chart on the whiteboard and had students come up and show me where the fraction picture goes, in the equal halves column, or the nonequal fractions column. Every student in the class wanted o come up and sort the fractions. They all had their hands up and that made me feel very confident that the students understood the material this far, and could answer questions based on their knowledge. As students came up to drag the shape (while I moved the shape with the computer mouse), I asked questions like how do you know that this fraction is split into halves, why is this fraction non-equal, etc. Students gave great answers that reflected the characteristics that we had talked about previously (i.e., “It is split into halves because there are two parts, and if it was a pizza it would be fair if we shared it”).
This activity was supposed to help students become aware of the fractions, understanding why and how they are different. It was an introduction to the activity “Fraction Chart Paper” which is also an artifact that I have added to this portfolio. The activity took around 5 minutes as an introduction, and it transitioned into the topic of fourths. Even though the technology in my classroom was very basic, I was able to use what I had and create an interactive activity that used the projector and presentation. During this placement, I learned how to be creative with the materials I was given, and the importance of interactive activities in the classroom, especially when introducing new topics.
Next time, I would add some real-life example pictures into the chart, to further students understanding of the fractions, even though I felt like they had a great understanding with just the fraction pictures. This introduction/review was very successful. It made me feel like students were ready to move on to a new subtopic in the unit of fractions. If the students were not understanding the properties of halves/nonequal fractions, this activity would have shown me, and I could do even more reviews with the students before moving on.