Fernhill Riddle Walk
/For the past two weeks students have been hard at work on their wetland riddles and artwork. For this project, I intentionally assigned students to specific partnerships. As I assigned students to work with specific partners I kept my learning goals for individual students at the forefront of my mind. For some students the main goal of this project was to demonstrate flexibility in thinking and the ability to collaborate with another child. For other students, improving their penmanship was a main goal. For still others, a main goal was letting go of total control and being able to take others' ideas into account. For still others, I was hoping to provide an opportunity to read challenging scientific texts or to perfect some scientific drawing techniques. A main goal for all students was to demonstrate persistence and learn how to give and receive clear, specific feedback related to their drawings. We watched this video about giving specific artistic feedback. With their partners, students had to decide who would read the science article about their animal aloud, who would take the research notes, who would do the drawing, who would give the specific feedback, and who would paint the background. Together partners came up with clues for the riddle portion. As you can imagine, much learning took place as students negotiated their roles and solved the challenges that arose. This cross-curricular project involved reading, writing, science, and art. Some partners did up to nine drafts of their animal, each time receiving direct feedback from their partner to improve their drawings. I'm immensely proud of all the hard work that went into these projects! Students demonstrated terrific grit and perseverance.
These riddles and art pieces are currently on display at Fernhill. This morning several ELC families gathered to enjoy the beauty of the wetlands and wonderful company as their children led them through our ELC Riddle Walk.
