Wetland Explorations
/This week students worked with partners to learn about a wetland mammal, reptile, or amphibian. Partners worked together to research their animal and then create a riddle and artwork to showcase their learning. 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 practice 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 do each part of the project. 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. Student artists did several drafts of their animals, each time receiving direct feedback from their partner to improve their drawings. Students demonstrated terrific grit and perseverance throughout this project and are excited to showcase their work at our riddle walk on Saturday. This morning we took a field trip to Fernhill Wetlands with the Whales. At Fernhill we saw many kinds of wildlife including nesting birds, nutria, a baby frog, and a garter snake. Scientists helped us use scopes to get a closer view of the wildlife. We learned how to use the Merlin Bird ID app to identify birds and we created layers of the wetland art pieces with chalk pastels.
