It is so very tempting to keep students indoor on these cold days. Last week, I planned mostly indoor activities fearing cold. I quickly learned that though those activities were productive and students learned, we did rob them of the experience that could have had out in nature.
This week each class was given an option to go outside in 20-degree weather or learn indoors. To my surprise 100% of students chose gardening over staying warm. Our objective was to make pumpkin observations, record data and make predictions about what was going to happen to them in spring and summer. After that students were shown how to use found natural material to create a sculpture or a mural. They could choose if they wanted to work with a team or by themselves. I can honestly say this has been the most fun garden project I have done to date! Students showed great creativity and teamwork. They were intensely focused and had so much ownership over their projects. Thank you Ms. Mittler for this idea and inspiration.
Here are some of the pictures from yesterday. Please take a look and see what happens in the garden.
Some of Mrs. Wright’s students found this frozen bird bath much more interesting. They were able to figure out why the edges were easier to break than the center and why under it all the water wasn’t frozen. Not surprising, Lola related it back to how fish go deep to survive winter cold. Not too shabby a way to learn about states of matter after all we decided.
Making observations, recording data and making prediction to what will happen to the pumpkins in spring. They have got the composition part down but no one so far has predicted a pumpkin patch. 🙂
