Engagement and Active Participation
Having a classroom where students are engaged and actively participating is key to ensuring that students are enjoying school and learning. If children are bored in school it doesn't matter how many times you go over content, many students will have a difficult time remembering said content if activities are not varied and active.
It is important to make the most of the classroom. In many of my lessons I moved students away from working at the desks and had them working on the carpet, in corners around the classroom, and whenever possible outside.
It is important to make the most of the classroom. In many of my lessons I moved students away from working at the desks and had them working on the carpet, in corners around the classroom, and whenever possible outside.
Varied Methods of Engagement
In my units I like to vary the activities. Some examples of activities the class completed in a geometry unit include:
- Being shape detectives, looking for 2-D shapes in the classroom
- Shape walk - looking for shapes outside in the park and playground
- Read aloud of shape books
- Break break shape videos - Storybots
- Shape building with marshmallows and toothpicks
- Making shapes with our bodies
- Art making using shapes
- Shape games - dominoes, memory, ispy
- 'I feel Shapes' - students feel a shape that is hidden in a bag and try to guess what it is
- Shape experiments: students test how shapes move (roll, stack, slide)
|
|
|
|
Field Trips
Field trips are often a great way to get students engaged and participating in unit of study. Often field trips allow students to relate and remember content more. For my practicum the class was studying community helpers and plants. For our field trip we looked at community helpers in our area by taking public transportation to a different community park and looking at the different plants there.