Do you like sitting and just listening to someone got on and on.
I know I don't.
Cause I get bored with that in the first five minutes, especially if
it's something that you already know or you have no interest in.
Well guess what?
Kids.
Don't like sitting around, listening to us, go on and on either.
They've got better things to do, like chat to their friends,
socialize, play, run around.
If you've ever taken time to just watch children just observe, which should really
be the thing that you're going to do as you go back to school for the first
week, at least is to create activities where you can just observe children.
Look at their strengths look where they need help social emotional, or
they've got issues, making friends, communicating, whatever it might be.
But if you just look at the way children learn, you will notice very
quickly that they like being together.
That they like really getting stuck into things.
Sometimes, really messy play.
But they don't just sit.
it's actually not part of their natural makeup for them to just sit.
They are active.
They are active learners.
So, how could we take these natural God-given traits that
our children have and use them to our best advantage as teachers to
really get them hooked on learning.
Well, the one little experience that I found really, really helpful,
especially as you just going back to school now is to connect everything
that we're doing through stories.
Because, if you think about it, apart from socializing and playing with their
friends and being outside and being active, kids love listening to stories.
And so if you can take those three things being active, being sociable and listening
to stories and create learning experiences that integrate those three things.
Then you're onto a winning formula.
Now, one of the things that I've done really successfully over the years is
to take a little picture book called
I went walking by Sue Williams.
We read the story and then we go walking and see what we can see.
Now you can take this activity and you can use a camera or an iPad
to record what the children see.
Or, if the things are small enough, I mean, obviously, you know, I see a
tree, whatever, but if you see a red bucket or you see a blue shovel, you
might want to pick those things up and bring them back to the classroom.
Or perhaps it's a brown pine cone or a green leaf or.
You know, yellow twig, whatever it might be.
So it's a combination of actually collecting these things , and also
just taking photographs either with a camera or your iPad or your phone.
Or you put kids into little groups and you give each group an
iPad and they take turns taking photographs of the things they see.
So then what do you do?
When you get back to the classroom, there's a multitude
of integrated activities you can do that help you meet actually
cross-curricular learning outcomes.
There are so many ways that you can use the objects that
you see in a mathematical way.
You can weigh them.
You can measure them.
Group them, according to characteristics, the list goes on and on.
Now, if you've taken all these photographs what you will then do is
to very quickly then print them all off.
And you've then got these objects and these photographs and children
then record their own little booklet.
And I have made this little booklet for you in a fabulous little resource where
I've given you the integrated lessons, ideas, for maths, science and English.
And in this little booklet, children can then write and create their own little
story of what they saw on their walk.
And once you have all your pictures.
You can then use, hula hoops and you can categorize all your objects
that were found on your walk, the things that the children saw.
Into whatever the characteristics are.
So it could be in a hard things, soft things, natural things, or
living things, non-living things.
So here, you're integrating your science.
You're integrating your maths because you are.
Uh, grouping, according to certain characteristics, you can even use the
pictures or objects to create patterns.
So you've got your AB AB you've got ABC, ABC, so like stick, leaf,
flower, stick, leaf, flower, whatever
it might be loads of different ideas that you can do with something so simple as
just taking the children outside, having a walk, see what they can see coming
back, using those objects, either in science, where you can look at living
and non-living, and then go off and even do a inquiry project on what is living?
What is non-living, what are the characteristics of living things?
What do they need in order to live?
And in non-living or what makes them non-living why are they non-living.
And then of course, in writing in English.
So if children are still learning to write and they not quite there yet,
and they will just tell you, they will paint a picture or draw their picture,
however, you've decided whether they're going to draw paint and they
just then will tell you what that is.
And you then just write it for them.
If they get to the stage where they are now being able to write themselves,
well, why not allow them to have a go.
What sounds do you hear in leaf perhaps they know how to write an L or perhaps
they know F and they're just having a go remember this doesn't have to be perfect.
You want children to love learning.
And so if you're going to straight away, come down on them well that's
not really how you write leaf, you automatically going to get them
to shut down because they're going to be too afraid to make mistakes.
The idea is to get children, to encourage them, just to have
a go and to enjoy the process.
Remember we always talking about it's the process, not the end destination.
It's not the product.
It's the process that matters in these early years of learning.
And so I've created this little e-guide for you, what is a little
booklet really, for, I went walking, you can download it for free.
I'll leave a link in the show notes, and this is a great activity just to get you
started as you go back to school or even if you've already started and you're in
the Northern hemisphere, you guys are probably some places you've got snow.
You've got all sorts of fabulous things, cause you've got cold weather.
Why not take a camera, take an iPad or bucket or whatever, go and see
what you can see, get kids to recreate the story for themselves, and then
use those objects in multiple ways to tick off your outcomes in other areas.
So hope you have a lovely week, and I hope this has given you some kinds of
inspiration into how you can use a simple picture book activity to spark curiosity
and a love of learning in children.
So I will leave a link in the show notes for you.
Go there, download it and enjoy.
But here's a little top tip before you actually leave the classroom.
You've got to make sure that you're organized.
So you're going to tell the kids exactly what you expect, how they need to
behave, how they need to use the iPad.
You cannot just go out free for all, because it's going to get chaotic.
So you have to make sure that you are really explicit, that
you model exactly what you expect in terms of their behavior.
That you model exactly what you want them to do.
And also be ready for when they get back so that you can download the images.
Or have a space ready for them to put the objects that they have come back
with and make sure that your equipment makes sure that the little booklet is
printed off and ready for all of them.
Make sure that they've got all their equipment that you want to use
to create their pictures, whether that be colored pencils, texters.
Uh, paints, whatever you've decided.
So organization is key.
So make sure you do that before you go out.
Next week.
I have a really, really.
Fabulous episode coming that is not to be missed.
I have interviewed Tonya Gilchrist and she is going to be talking
all about inquiry and integrating inquiry into all your subject areas.
So you don't want to miss that.
So make sure that you follow or subscribe so that you get
notified when that episode drops.
I'll see you next week.
And until then stay bloomin' curious.