From Start to Finish

Have you ever wondered how something is made?  

Where do we get the resources to make all the things we use every day?  

These were two questions that helped launch a unit of study as we traced the development of a product from a natural resource to a finished product. 

We began with an open sort of items and students were asked to sort them in any way that they thought would make sense.  We learned there was one secret way to sort the times.  

The different ways we sorted

Things we use and Trash

Things that are not flexible and Things that are flexible

Plants and Not Plant

Things you find inside and Things you find outside

One group guess the secret sort:

Things that are made by man and Things that are made by nature

Each group took a picture of their sort using our classroom iPad and then shared it with the class using AirServe to explain their thinking. 

Then we went on a walk around our school to find more examples of natural resources.  We took pictures of what we found using our classroom iPad.  We also read a passage from our social studies textbooks and viewed a video about natural resources to get more information.

Next, some students were given a clip art picture of a natural resource and a man made product and mixed around the room, using a Kagan cooperative learning strategy.  Students had to find their partner by matching the natural resource to the man-made product. As groups found each other, they were given a corresponding book from the start to finish series that explained how the product is made from the natural resource.  

After having time to explore each of the different books in the series, students broke themselves into groups and three and each group selected one of the books they would like to explore further.  

Groups read the book and discussed the process.  They then made a Flow Map (Thinking Maps) to trace the development of a product from a natural resource to a finished product. 

Because we wanted to share our learning with others, each group also created a short video to explain the process using Educreations.  We were inspired byt the book Tomorrow's Alphabet as we created our titles.  We added a QR code to our maps and sent an email out to our campus inviting students to view our work.  

 We also learned how to use the i-nigma app to scan other groups QR code to view their videos.

This unit addressed the following enduring understandings:

People depend on their physical environment, including natural resources, to satisfy their basic needs.

All goods begin with natural resources.

Below are the Educreations projects we made:

Project Based Learning

We are getting ready to launch our first Project Based Learning (PBL) experience in two weeks.  I am not going to share exactly what our PBL will be about until we launch it as a class, but in the meantime, below is some information about Project Based Learning if you would like to learn more.

Watch this video

Read this article

8 Essential Elements  for Project-Based Learning

Citizen Heroes

Our class has been studying the qualities of citizenship for the past several weeks.  We began our study will the question "How might we, as second graders, recognize and celebrate the citizen heroes who live among us?"  The students brainstormed in groups in realized this question caused additional questions for us.  We narrowed our questions down to three main questions and then decided to tweet our questions to our learning friends and parents on Twitter. 

We received numerous responses that guided our thinking.  

We also read information in our social studies textbooks and shared what we learned.  

 

Then Ms. Casida, our brilliant assistant principal, asked us a question that really made us think.

We thought about the people we have met at Polser and realized that there were many citizen heroes learning alongside us.  Below are our projects that we created to share our thinking.

Dylan

Mia

Gianna

Nadia

Sydney

Andrew

Kathleen

Olivia

Serena

Kendell

Payton

Caleb

Morgan

Emerson

Chance

Allan

Jordan

One amazing thing about our learning community is that each of us are teachers and learners.  Mrs. Haney showed a core group of students how to use the app and then each of them became "trainers" who helped train others.  Below are some pictures of the students collaborating to complete their projects.  Also, one of our students took advantage of our district BYOT policy and brought his iPad from home.  

Mrs. Haney's reflection after this project:

This project was a huge ah-ha for me.  When I first began planning this, what I envisioned was not at all what it turned out to be.  The kids and our learning partners on Twitter took in a different direction than what I initially thought.  I love that one of our parents also tweeted us to share her thinking. Opening our classroom up to learn with others is a professional goal of mine this year.  After collaborating with my colleagues during professional learning and with the support and encouragement of our campus administration, I felt empowered to take a risk and try new things.     

One thing I will keep in mind next time we do a project like this is the background noise when students are recording.  (I am sorry Superstars, I should have had you to into the hall to record.  Serena actually thought of that for next time--great idea!)  Gianna told me something that also made me think.  She said she has always enjoyed playing on the iPad but she really loves learning with it like we did this week.  Excellent point Gianna.  We will have to check out the iPads often this year!

We would love to hear your comments and suggestions to help us learn from this project.