Patterns in Nature

"Go down deep enough into anything and you will find mathematics."

Dean Schlicter

It's amazing what you can see when you look at everything through a mathematical lens. 

On Friday one our of children came to school clutching a tiny snail in his hands. He was so excited to share it. "Look! It's so small and slimy!" he giggled as he opened his fingers and revealed it to his peers.  The children asked if we could put it in a clear glass aquarium so they could observe it for the day. 

In kindergarten this is not an uncommon request; children find many treasures in the outdoor world and bring them inside in order to explore them further. We are always finding natural artifacts in our classroom - rocks kept in the children's coat pockets, wild flowers stored in cubbies, pinecones and leaves strewn about the room. The old me - the teacher who I was before I fell in love with math - would have smiled at the children as they observed the snail and complimented the experience with literacy materials such as nonfiction books and drawing tools.

But on Friday this was not the case. Ever since my own mathematical mindset grew over the last few years, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to ask the children what math they noticed in the snail.

"Shapes...it's a circle! I see circles!"

"There are swirls on it, like when we made swirly lines with the gems."

"It's little and other snails are big."

"We can see how far it goes with it's slimy trail."

"I see a pattern...the shell has colours on it."

Although there was interest in all ideas, the children focused mostly on the patterns on the snail's shell. I wondered if it was because we had recently explored patterning with loose parts.  

The children helped me create a 'Patterns in Nature' exploration area where the snail could be observed and other natural patterns could be investigated further.

I added close up photos of other animals so that the children could notice many interesting and different patterns...

It was fun guessing what animal owned the pattern and seeing the different ways we could describe what we saw, since many patterns were not neat and linear and had to be investigated further in order to be uncovered.

We also added some nonfiction books about shells and other patterns in nature. Photos of patterns from a recent trip to Fighting Island were also added to the centre so our SK children could reflect upon their experience on that trip and make connections to the current activity.

Some children spent time observing and drawing what they noticed while others just enjoyed watching the snail.

Later in the day we went outside for some play and the children began noticing some of the patterns occurring in the garden. I encouraged them to document what they saw using the class iPad.

Here are some of their findings. Can you guess what where these patterns might be found?

Many people wonder how children can engage in rich mathematics in an inquiry-based, child centred classroom. Although I also introduce ideas to children through interesting provocations and whole/small group lessons and activities, it's easy to see from the small act of a child bringing a snail to school how educators can cultivate a genuine interest in and appreciation of math in daily events. When one looks at the world through math-coloured glasses, you never know what you might discover! Math is everywhere!

Generating Wordles with Grade 8 Technology Buddies

Wordles are 'word clouds' and are a great way to capture a lot of information on a subject in an aesthetic way. Today we met with the Grade 8 class to do some partnered technology work. Each kindergarten child shared what he or she loved about school and their Grade 8 buddy used this information to generate a personalized wordle. The Grade 8 prompted the kindergarten child by asking thoughtful questions about school in order to promote reflection and rich oral language.

Here are a few examples of the completed Wordles. It was amazing to review these with the children and see what they loved about school! Copies will be coming home shortly - why don't you consider engaging your child is a discussion about how they created the Wordle and what their favourite parts of school are?

 

What is that Pipe?

We are exploring how to use imovie as a way of compiling the videos and images we take during our time together and how this form of media might be used as a reflective piece for children and a method of communicating our inquiries to a larger audience. Check it out!

Still Life Painting

We are always encouraging our children to take time to enjoy the moment. In a culture of instantaneous information, our hopes are for our children to be able to slow down and notice the small details of life. One way we do this is by encouraging still life drawing and painting. This week we displayed an arrangement of fresh spring flowers in a vase and invited the children to use chalk and paint in order to create a still life representation.

Because we are also looking for ways for meaningful integration of technology, we set up a iPad with the Lapse It app ready to capture the activity at the centre. Can you spot it hanging on the white board?
Here's what happened that morning! See if you can find your child in the flurry of activity!

Early next week we are going to ask the children what they would like to film with the time lapse photography. Stay tuned to see what is important to them!

Painted Lady Caterpillars

The timing of the arrival of our painted lady caterpillars couldn't have been more perfect!  Just as we are finishing up our best inquiry about birds and nests, another opportunity to study a life cycle arrives!

The children were so excited to get the box in the mail. We carefully removed the nine cups and examined the spiky caterpillars. 

During playtime the caterpillars were placed at the science center and the children were invited to observe them. Some were very active and squiggled about, others were quiet, and some spun a web-like material around themselves. We wondered if they were getting ready to spin their cocoon. We also had two iPads available with time elapsed videos of painted ladies emerging from their cocoons. One video was created by a grade two class in the United States that documented their exploration with caterpillars. Our children were amazed that other children could create such a thing!

Here is the link to the YouTube video for those of you who'd like to watch it at home with your children:  http://youtu.be/63B1lnqPa8k   

Patterns Around the House

I've been continuing to explore the possibilities with our new ipad app, Pic Collage. Today Cadence and I had some fun scavenger hunts around the house looking for, and finding patterns. We played the game this way. First I secretly found some interesting patterns from around our house and compiled them using the Pic Collage app. Here is a screen shot of what it looked like:

Cadence was able to search the house and see if she could spot where the patterns were. Her initial observations of the patterns were really interesting to hear. She noticed how size, shapes, and colours repeated and expressed what the pictures reminded her of.

It was so much fun to search the house and compare objects to the patterns and see if her guess was right!

When she had found all nine patterns we switched and she created her own pic collage with nine patterns that I had to then find. It was a great way to infuse patterning with technology and help us to become more comfortable using the ipad!

Deconstructing Colours

The kids have been very interested in colour mixing lately and instead of mixing primary colours together to get a secondary colour, I thought we'd deconstruct secondary colours by diluting them with water.

Cadence wrote the name of a colour on a piece of paper towel and we placed it on top of our light table (that was protected with a clear plastic bag). She slowly dropped water using a pipette on the marker and after many drops, the colour became diluted and we could observe the individual colours that had been used to create the secondary colour. They are hard to see in the photos, but as the green diluted we could clearly see the yellow and blue that had been used to create the shade of green separate from each other.  We tried this with many different colours - even black!

I thought it would be fun to document our exploration using a new app called Pic Collage that has lots of potential for sharing information and student creation in the classroom!

Documenting Spring Digitally

It was a beautiful spring day around here today and I was eager for the children to explore the changes happening in our yard. After taking a walk around and looking for 'signs of spring' I encouraged them to use the ipad to document what they saw. They noticed many interesting things like...

...a blooming crocus

...not wearing coats

...growing plants

I was recently introduced to an app called My Story, that allows children to create their own digital books. They can draw their own illustrations, use pictures from their photo library, type text, and record audio. We imported the photos that were taken outside into a digital book that the kids named "Spring". I helped them type the words and they recorded the audio.

It was a great way to infuse literacy into our experience exploring the arrival of spring-like weather! I see great implications for this app in the classroom! Children can become authors and illustrators and share their own books. Documentation from an experience (e.g., field trip) or inquiry can be created and shared using this very easy app!

Check out our finished spring book here! http://msty.me/YUFkFe