Sunday, 16 November 2014

Forces and motion - topic

Day 1
Today we began our new topic of forces and motion. I introduced this by playing student the song Animal Action.

My students had to act out and move in the different ways. My student then paired up and had to discuss whether they knew what a motion or movement was. We shared our ideas and listed them in 'is', 'will', and 'can' categories. I had to help guide their answers through question like:
  • Can you show me motion?
  • What can move?
  • Can everything move?
  • Can _____ move on their own?
  • Do they need help to move?
Once we had brainstormed lots of ideas my students had to choose 3 for each and make their own poster.

I then had an activity from this unit where students had to decide if things move on their own or don't and sort them into the right category. After we had done this my students started going around the room and say whether yes they move on their own or not.
Day 2
Today we were exploring pushing and pulling. I introduced this by moving a chair around the class and asking my students what motion I was using. I had to probe a little to get the exact PUSH and PULL vocab I wanted. I then asked my students to explore the classroom to find somethings that can be pushed and pulled.

We then listed these in the form of a venn diagram. My older students did this independently while my younger students did this with assistance.

I then had another activity from this unit where students had to decide if things are pushed or pulled and sort them into the right category.

Day 3
Today we were looked at the speed in which things move. I introduced this by moving a chair fast and slowly and asking if they noticed the difference. I fed in heaps of vocab during this time for fast and slow. I hired a parachute from Sports Waikato (Katherine our Project Energize instructor helped organise this) I had my students stand in a circle each holding an area of the parachute - using the words that they had just learnt they had to work together to move it.


Day 4
Today I had a release teacher in my class as I had a PRT day. She is great and any activities I give her she does with my kids. We had a discussion last week and she brought along an activity to do with pushing and pulling. The kids had to decide if the motion is a push, pull or both and then classified them using a venn-diagram.

Day 5
Today we talked about how different things move. I started by explaining that things will not move unless something makes them move by applying force. We quickly brainstormed some things that apply force.
I used an example of a tennis ball. It can move but it won't move by itself. You can make it move or a bat can make it move. You can move it fast or slow.

I then went on to make a simple pinwheel with my class.
1. I printed a template which they had to colour.
2. We cut out our pinwheel - make sure this is super modelled as littlies may cut wrong.
3. I used a thumb tack to push a hole in each corner - I did this with 3 students at a time. I then used a proper pin tack and threaded it through a ruler so they could make their own wheels move.

Day 6
We continued to look at forces today. My students had to complete a sheet where they were required to classify objects into either a force or not.

We then went over some of what we had already learnt. I found a few interactive games that focused on pushing and pulling and paired my students into groups and gave them time to work through these.








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