Theme:

4 elements

Subject Area:

Our World

Time:

World Water Day

Duration:

2x30 minutes

Content:

Water

Learning objective:

Developing critical and logical thinking

Developing creativity

Experiencing  further the feel of water and its qualities

Developing sensory skills

Prior knowledge, activities:

Playing with water - experiencing the feel of water and its qualities

Raising awareness of the use of water

Songs and literature: Draw a bucket a water (singing game), Slippery fish, Steve Hanson – Water cools my drinks

Educational opportunities, tasks, content for development:

 Developing a healthy life style:

everyday physical education

Realisation of language and cognitive development and education:

language development, (vocabulary building, questions, arguing, presentation),  improving thinking processes, developing endurance, attention, focus on tasks, memory

Emotional, moral and social development:

promoting co-operation, sharing, raising awareness of rules

Didactical role of tasks:

expanding and revising existing knowledge (on water) , new input (salt water), awareness raising, experimenting

Skill development:

Developing creativity, logical and critical thinking through experience, through experimenting

Developing sensory skills

Improving memory, communication skills

Developing fine motor skills

Applied methods:

presentation, demonstration, observation, activity, feedback

Content of Areas:

Steve Hanson – Water cools my drinks

Slippery fish- song – Charlotte Diamond

Draw a bucket of water

Five Little Fish Teasing MrShark

Nick Sharratt – There’s a Shark in the Park

Integration with other subject areas:

Music, singing games, Expressive Arts

Aids:

sound effect application (ocean drum), folding screen/partition divider to hide behind, water tanks, (with tap water and water with salt in it), flashcards, egg, some other objects for testing “sink or float”, self-made paintings of pictures from the book, paper and pencils

Managing frames:

free

Interaction:

frontal, individual, pair, group

Anticipated problems:

discipline problems, distraction, task focus and persistence problems, fight over space or aids, “I can’t draw anything” statements

Resources used for planning:

Pinterest

see content of areas

Description of activity:

Activities before setting tasks:

• placing needed aids at hand’s reach
• asking nanny for water tanks and towels

Time

The steps of the planned activity

Objectives, methods of development, interaction, aids, remarks

‘10

1. Water - revision

Revision regarding what we have learnt about water and its qualities.

 colourless, odourless, tasteless liquid

 some things float, some things sink in it (e.g. feather, paper, bottle cap/ egg, wooden blocks, glass, etc)

 The use of water (drinking, cooking, flushing, washing, swimming, cleaning, watering, habitat for some animals, etc.

 Revision of poem learnt: Water cools my drinks

 Can water be dangerous?

Expected answer: “Yes, if we spill it the floor will be slippery.”

(possible other answers: flood, drowning)

frontal activity

Aids: flashcards

The aim here is to encourage individual contributions and check their memories. Also to collect facts, recall knowledge, experience.

Anticipated problem: Only the most active one(s) will contribute.

Differentiation:

Some children are shy. I use pictures to recall memories. They love all types of aids as motivation.

Appraisal on individual contribution. It’s a practice activity with opportunities for positive feedback.

‘5

2. Sea and ocean – Lead-in Discussion/dialogue session

“Close your eyes - where are we?”

I secretly start to play the ocean drum.

Expected answer: “Ocean/sea”

“How do you know?”

Expected answer: “because of the sound”

“Very good.” “So are we at the sea?”

Expected answers: “yes/no”

“How do we know for sure?”

Expected answer: “we have to check it/ see it/ because you said so, etc”

I show them the instrument.

“Ok. This is called an ocean drum. Because it imitates the sound of the sea. So was it really the sea?”

“No. Just because it sounds like it, it is not the sea. But it is very helpful when we don’t have a sea at hand. :)”

frontal activity, group discussion

Aids: ocean drum, folding screen/partition divider to hide behind

The aim is to find similarities, make comparisons, draw conclusions, give a hands-on experience.  To ask questions to challenge truth, opinion and encourage children looking for proof.

‘10

3. Tap water vs sea/ocean

Experiments:

I place a washbasin full of salty water on the table. And another one of tap water.

“I brought you sea water.”

(Clever kids might challenge that – for huge appraisal)

“It’s exactly like water we examined last time. Is it?”

Expected answers: “yes/no/I don’t know/maybe”

T: “Let’s check it.”

T: “Is it liquid?” Sts: “Yes.”

T: “Is it colourless?” – we examine how it behaves with placing differently coloured things at the bottom, in our hands, in a cup, so the answer should come out as YES.

“Is it odourless?” – we smell it. YES.

(Some kids tend to smell some odour even with tap water or chemicals can change the odourless state but we should come out of the activity as it is the same or similar smell.)

THEN we check if things sink or float the same way as with tap water, leaving the egg the last. It is supposed to float.

“Whoa. Everything was the same BUT the egg sinks here and floats there. How is it possible? Have we checked everything?”

If students do not come up with the solution – “taste”, then we prompt: “liquid, colourless, odourless....”

Expected answer: “tasteless”

So we taste a drop each. 

“It is salty. So THAT is the difference. Salt makes things lighter.”

frontal activity, group discussion

individual work

Aids: 2 washbasins (with tap water and water with salt in it), egg, some other objects for testing “sink or float”

The aim is to collect similarities and differences, make comparisons, analyse, draw conclusions, give a hands-on experience, let them experiment.  To ask questions to challenge truth, opinion and encourage children looking for proof.

Anticipated problem: Only the most active one(s) will contribute.

Differentiation:

I let shy children to experiment with colours, sinking.

Appraisal on individual contribution and making conclusions.

‘7

4. The Ocean Habitat

Short physical activity

“Who live in the sea and ocean?”

We collect animals living in the sea and try to move around mimicking their movements.

Then they pair up and instruct each other what animal to imitate.

Revision: Slippery fish

We play 2 rounds of 5 Little Fish Teasing Mr.Shark.

frontal work, pair work, group work

The aim is to move about, to get rid of some superfluous energy and get ready for a calm activity with a fresher mind.

Feedback on proper and thorough realisation of movements.

‘10

5. Nick Sharratt – There’s a Shark in the Park

Kids will listen to the story, repeat repetitive lines and try to guess if there is really a shark in the park.

Pictures:

Teacher-centred activity (frontal)

Aids: self-made paintings of pictures from the book

The objective here is to boost comprehension, improve communication skills, let them enjoy literature and make creative guessings about what can be hidden in the park.

Evaluation:

on creativity or memory

‘15

3. Dorsal Fin Creativity

Kids are given the following template:

The task is to draw a dorsal fin in the circle then complement the picture on the 2^nd page to make anything but a shark using the given part (a dorsal fin).

Task 2: Presenting the picture and describing what is similar and what is different about a shark and the drawn picture.

Results from a real life activity made by 6-year-old children:

facilitated individual activity

Aids: paper and pencils

The main aim here is to boost their imagination or creativity

• The activity offers opportunities for active narration, communication structures, and also developing fine motor skills.

Differentiation:

help might be needed with ideas

Evaluation:

on creativity

‘3

Finishing the activity – cleaning up

We get ready and make our “dirty” hands “clean” with soap and water and get ready for outdoor play.

acting according to rules and regulations