Field Trips Enrich the Curriculum

In the past two weeks, we have gone on two field trips connected to our science curriculum.  While learning occurs in the classroom through many resources, there’s nothing like an excursion to meet the experts and explore, observe, and discover! During our trip to the Waikiki Aquarium, the children met in a large classroom to watch a slide show about animal adaptations featuring the ocean and coastal tidal communities here in Hawaii before breaking up into smaller groups to view many of the animals on display and note their various adaptations. The docents were well-informed and were very complimentary of our children. I was so proud of them. Their manners and level of preparation were evident. As the staff leader said, “Wow! I can tell you have really been studying!" The best part of all occurred after we left the Aquarium, however. Just about 100 meters down on the beach were two Hawaiian monk seals sleeping peacefully. We quickly walked over, and as good scientists do, we observed with all our senses. What a wonderful way to end the field trip!

Yesterday we went to the Honolulu Zoo for a guided tour all about mammals and their adaptations. The children were such good listeners, and their comments and questions were thoughtful. Even the chaperones and teachers learned something new on our excursion. Did you know that a giraffe’s tongue is as long as your arm? And do you know what color it is? Black, to keep it from getting sunburned! Our guide was great with the children and kept their attention so well. Again, as we left, he told me how impressed he was with the kids and their behavior. And this was after starting the day bright and early with flu shots!

Next week we will have two visitors. The Dolphin Institute is coming for a presentation on Tuesday, and the Academy of Arts is coming on Friday afternoon as part of their Ambassador Program. The theme is Animals in Art. Animals have been depicted in art throughout history, and the ambassador will share a variety of examples from the Academy’s collection.  Then the following week, we will take a guided tour at the Academy to see more animals in art. The week after that, the ambassador will return to do an animal art activity with the class.

Thanks to all the parents who have helped to chaperone our excursions or come into the classroom to help the children with their research. We are having so much fun learning about animals.

Posted at 1:32 PM| Permalink

Reading for Information

As students read informational books, they learn about the world around them and many other things as well. In fact, research suggests that children prefer to read informational books and are able to understand them as well as they do storybooks (Pappas, 1991,1993).

As the children began gathering information for their inquiry topics and looking for the answers for their questions, it was my task to show the children how to navigate information texts. Authors purposefully include elements to help readers focus on specifics. Tables of contents, glossaries, and indexes help readers locate information more effectively than wading through pages of irrelevant information. Chapters, headings, and subheadings help to prioritize and categorize information. Large print, boldfaced or italicized words, photo captions, or sidebar boxes also shout out the importance of the information. Over the past week, the class has received mini-lessons from me to call attention to these various elements, with the goal being to help the children improve their reading and understanding by giving them a better grasp of the text organizers and signals that are there to help them. 

First of all, many beginning readers do not realize that actual reading is more than just “word calling.” The purpose of reading is to make sense of the text. In order to make sense of what they are reading, they must turn on the reading switch! I demonstrated by reading them a short narrative about hummingbirds. My first reading was in a very slow, unexpressive voice. My comment at the end of reading was that “the information was pretty interesting, but I wasn’t really thinking about what I was reading, so I all I know is that it had something to do with hummingbirds.” On the second reading I read with a more thoughtful tone and interjected aloud my thoughts as I read the passage. For example: “Boy! I never thought about how hummingbirds use their legs” “ Wow! I can’t believe the smallest hummingbird is as small as a bee!” “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen hummingbirds in the desert; they’re tiny and iridescent.” “My reading switch was definitely on that time. I was thinking the whole time!”

In subsequent lessons, we looked at samples of text and used our hands as megaphones to read whenever we saw a style of print or print elements (all capitals, boldfaced print, italics, captions, diagrams) that the author used to “shout out” important information. We also read samples of text together to find the WOW discoveries. By that I mean new information that surprises us or amazes us. This kind of information is often easiest to remember.

During our inquiry time, I watch and monitor as children read for information. Are they using this new understanding to help them in their research? Are they talking about it with each other? Are they using the index or table of contents? Are they making connections in other areas of the curriculum? For example, there was a wonderful moment Tuesday, during Writer’s Workshop, when one boy asked how to make italics (he called it slanted writing) on the word processor. After I showed him, he went on to apply italics and boldfaced print in parts of his personal writing as emphasis. I knew he had made the connection!  

Posted at 1:29 PM| Permalink