We are Generous Beings #3 - How Can we be Generous?

painting the Giving Tree

The children can see that the giving tree gives to the boy and the boy receives from the tree. I asked the children if they were the little boy, what would they do? They answered they would be generous and give something to the tree.

The children painted each part of the giving tree (trunk, branches, leaves and apples). Then they thought of what the tree will need and made their gifts with felt fabric. 

adding the leaves

Enxin and Natalya think that the tree needs a heart so they each made one for the tree.

Andrew and Cameron wanted to give the tree a cat and a boy as companions so it wouldn't feel lonely.

Jayla and Peter gave the tree apples because the tree gave its apples to the boy.

The tree will feel lonely anymore!

Even though the giving tree that the children created is made out of paper, the children felt a connection with it. As Enxin and Natalya put their hearts on the tree Natalya said: "I think the tree is feeling happy right now."

Putting the tree together

Giving hearts 

We are Generous Beings #2 - What is generosity

The Water group began this unit by telling others who we are (the transdisplinary theme). The children told what they like to do and some of the qualities they have.  
Next we looked at Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. The children immediately noticed that the tree always gives the boy something when he visits the tree. Enxin commented: "Genenosity is sharing so the tree is being generous." Natalya noticed that the tree is just a stump in the end of the story. Peter added: "Yeah, the tree has nothing left." I asked the children: "Do you think the tree is happy?" Below are some of their answers:

Aiden: "The tree is happy when the boy is happy."
Cameron: "No, the tree is not really happy. Sometimes I don't have to share my legos."
Jayla: The tree is angry.

We are Generous Beings #1 - Generosity Party

 On Monday we brainstormed about generosity with the children. Here are some of their thoughts:

Sharing treats

Trystan: Generosity is helping friends when they are stuck.

Enxin: It is helping people when they are hurt.

Lysander: Sharing!

Tai: Hugging.

Aiden: Generosity is really good.

We told the children that we are going to hold a party where everyone is celebrating the new year and Orin suggested: "We can have a generosity party". What a great idea! I asked the children what we should do to make it a generosity party. The children said they could bring something to share with everyone and started to think about what to bring from home. 

Dancing with our friends

Laughing with our friends

Cheers!

Yum!

The children could not wait for the party! Even the children who did not attend the discussion day wanted to share something from their lunch kits. Everyone enjoyed the treats (thank you parents!) and dancing to the music(shared by the teachers). After, the children gathered together for a story The Gift of Nothing. It is about Mooch (a cat) pondering what gift to give Earl (a dog) when Earl has everything. The answer, of course, is nothing. Inspired by the story, the children wrapped empty boxes with colourful wrapping papers and played with them in our block area. 

Playing with the gift boxes

Gift wrapping

Please view our IB Wall to see the concepts, lines of inquiry, and teacher's questions for our new unit. 

Colour My World #5: Why is the sky pink?

Light through milky water

Light through clear water

Child initiated inquiry: Why is the sky pink?

When we were playing in the playground one sunny afternoon, Natalya looked up at the sky and asked: "Why is the sky pink?" I told the Water Group about Natalya's question and we researched together. We found an experiment from The Science Book of Color. It shows us how to create a sunset with water, milk, and flashlight which the children eagerly tried it. They exclaimed: "It's orange!" as we shined the light through milky water. We learned that white light from the sun passes through the air. At sunset, only orange and red rays get through the air. Tiny particles of dust or smoke in the air stop all the other colors.

The children concluded the activity by painting their own sunset.

Colour My World #4 - Exploring hues, tints and shades

tints & shades

"Indigo looks like blue," said Aiden. "But it looks purple," said Natalya. This led to our discussion - what is indigo? 

We decided to mix blue and purple together to see if they make indigo. First we need the colour purple. The children mixed blue and red together until they got purple. Then they added more blue. Natalya exclaimed: "It's indigo." Enxin said: " We just need to add more blue." I explained to the children that indigo is a secondary colour and when we mix primary colours together we may get different secondary colours called hues. 

Enxin asked: "How about pink? I can't make pink with the primary colours."
I prepared some white paint and the children tried adding white paint to the primary colours. They observed that when white is added, the colour gets lighter. I let them know that they are making a tint. I asked if they can guess what will happen if black is added to the colours. They all knew the answer - it gets darker (shades)! So knowledgeable! 

hues of orange

I

Colour My World #3 - What is colour?

This week we explored one of Enxin's inquiries: How come there is colour? What is colour?

To help the children understand that we see colours through light, we did an experiment. First we sat in the dark and the children immediately noticed that they couldn't see anything. Then I asked the children to grab a piece of fabric from the dark and shone the flashlight on it. They each exclaimed the colour in his/her hands. 

They came to the conclusion that we cannot see anything in the dark (not even colours) and when there is light, we can see. 

I explained to the children that all light rays contain colour. When light shines on an object, only some colours bounce off it. Our eyes detect the colours in the light coming from objects and we see them as that particular colour. 

Sitting in the dark

It's a red scarf!

light beams passing through a triangular prism

It's green!

Making the light spectrum

Colour My World #2 - Primary and Secondary Colours

Testing the colours

The results 

The Water Group started off their inquiry on colour with the concept change in mind. The children became scientists and tried to figure out how primary colours can make secondary colours. They eagerly tested the colours and recorded their findings. I love the way that the children worked together and voiced their thoughts and questions as they did their experiment. I could hear them say: "Let's see what will happen if I mix red and blue", "How about mixing all the colours (red, blue and yellow) together." and "Hey, I can't make the primary colours."

"I made purple!"

What a group of thinkers!

Painting with primary colours

Painting with secondary colours