Waffles and Integrated Learning

This past week we incorporated Explain Everything in to our 'Integrated Learning' which, this term is Science- looking at the Physical World using everyday technology to"Work Smarter, Not Harder." Class 20 looked at equipment used in the kitchen that has been designed to make our lives easier.  To support our understanding we made waffles in the classroom!  The first step was to describe and discuss the equipment to be used use. Language was developed, recycled and ideas shared. Labels were made and placed on the white board for further development. The learners then had to take photographs in Explain Everything adding in a new page for each new piece of equipment.  The labels were then placed on the equipment and the learners toured around class using their stylus to correctly label each photo.

During middle block we made some waffles using all the equipment and the special ingredients. We followed the recipe making sure that at each step we discussed the ingredients used. They were broken down into 'wet' and 'dry.'   Once again labels were made placed on each ingredient. The learners took turns using the measuring equipment and adding ingredients to the mixing bowls.  It was decided that an electric beater made it easier to mix the batter than a whisk.  As Arkar said "it was really hard to mix using the whisk."   Great outcome!


After all the excitement of eating waffles the students took photos of the ingredients and again wrote the words underneath each photo.  They then used Explain Everything to create a picture of themselves making the waffles and talked about their pictures.   The resulting creation was a their very own booklet with vocabulary and illustrations immediately available for them to use in their story writing.

Spark

Spark (formerly Telecom) have put together a video about digital learning featuring some of our learners in Class 20!

Identical shoes

Identical shoes from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

One day Nature and Kahurangi came to school with the same shoes. They both noticed and from this a discussion was formed. We started to think about another word we could use instead of 'same.' Kahurangi came up with 'identical.' And so a song was developed! Another unknown word taken into the known!

The zookeeper and the birdhouse!

IMG 0018 from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

IMG 0029 from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

Another example of building stories into song to help understand and remember how technology was used at the Zoo. Here are two examples showing their understanding of how a pulley was used in the bird enclosure. This then linked into writing allowing the learners to recall what they wanted to write.

Writing changes...

Our writing has finally taken another step. Now that some groups have more control (fine motor and letter formation) we have gone from writing (rather large) high frequency words on an Explain Everything blank sheet, to writing our story during Guided Writing time. Today we focussed on hearing and recording sounds, locating unknowns and the 'old chestnut' finger spaces. The girls in this group were then able to save their work into their writing folder on Teacher Dashboard.

Fiafia

The adage 'slow and steady' has been at the forefront of any of our decisions and so far has proved to be advantageous to both the teachers and learners. Last week, the day after Fiafia, we were all exhausted so decided to up our game and throw together two learning skills the children had been working on separately. With a bit of scaffolding the children were asked to draw and record their experience from the previous night. The whole class know how to use the drawing tools on Explain Everything and the recording button so put them together and we have a wonderfully illustrated story!

fia fia oalii from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

nature fia fia from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

Number pictures

Here is one way we have used Explain Everything for maths. This can be used in all maths stages. To make sure the children are on task we have a 'number' checklist they must complete. Today Francis was asked to show his understanding of the number 5. He put 5 insects on to his 10 square, took a photo, re-sized it, saved it in Explain Everything, re-positioned the picture and then wrote the number 5 using his stylus!