MY FAVOURITE TREES
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Isabel Cervino
| 2007-05-20
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A PROJECT TO EXPLORE THE TREES OF OUR ENVIRONMENT
Five and six years'old pupils went to the surroundings and find out information about the trees, their leaves, fruits.
The trees are part of the environment.
We have got some trees in a nearby park. So the teachers and the pupils of year 3, designed a project about TREES; specially, about typical Asturias trees.
First of all we talked about trees:, parts, names, where we can we find them, benefits, what they need to live, why they are living beings, kinds of trees and so on. We called this stage, previous knowledge about trees.
The key questions were:
WHAT, WHY, WHERE, WHAT FOR
Then we observed the trees, we were 4 classes and divided into groups, some parents came with us as helpers.
Previous Knowledge
The trees are part of the landscape that surrounds the children in the Forest, in the mountains, in the paths, in the parks, in the boulevards… The children show great interest towards these plants, they pay attention to the changes in the leaves, the hardness of the trunk, the roughness of the crust, they know that some animals live in the branches and they enjoy climbing and swinging in them. The Children value the fruits that they eat from the trees, “The trees give them to us”, and they notice that some of the trees get “naked” in the winter.
Taking advantage of the previous knowledge that any five year old pupils already posses, we prepare the project “My favourite trees”, with the idea of introducing new information about trees.
Carry on the Project
First we want to thank the families for their contributions in the shape of help, materials and information.
The dates of our project are based in regional season patterns.
Through observation, exploration and investigation we obtained the necessary information to complete our Project. We answered the key questions What is it? How is it? What is it for? Where is it?, As we were answering these questions the children were building up more knowledge.
During October, we expanded our knowledge in the subject.
We decided to visit a well known park, “Parque de los Pericones”, that all the pupils were familiar with, but we focused in a different way so the children would experience it in new light, and to do so the grade team devised a series of activities to complete during the visit. With the help of parents, the 2nd and 3rd of November we went to find out about four specific types of trees. Back in the classroom we studied them in more dept.
The oak: we pick leaves and acorns.
The chestnut tree: we pick leaves and chestnuts.
The fig tree: we pick leaves and figs
The apple tree: no apples left!
We measure the width of the trunk with our body and we practise measuring
Trees have different types of skins: smooth, with colours, rough… we took samples to compare later.
We registered data like: name of the tree, picture, where is it, specific characteristics… The groups were made of five children and the activities were supervised by themselves. At the end they made a field file.
Back in the classroom, we classified, we registered, we made transfers and drawings, looked at pictures… and we talked about everything that happened during our outing.
Before leaving the classroom, we outline the behaviour and safety rules, and they were remained during the outing when necessary. The aim was to enjoy and learn causing the least impact to the environment
We showed our Works and all the things collected in the corridor at school.
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