2. What Scientific Process Skills were used?

3. Share the voices of children.

4. What Learning Disposition did the children practice?

5. What was a challenge you faced and how will you carry out this activity differently?

(One class to document outdoor learning)

2. Scientific skills: Predicting, experimenting, observing

3. Children’s voices:

   Hope: The magnet can push the car

   Arissa: The car can’t move. The magnet is stuck to the car.

   Reshmann: When I put N and N, the car will move in front.

4. The children learnt to develop perseverance as they tried to their best to get their car to the finish line using the bar magnets.

5. I intentionally did not demonstrate how the magnet attracts or repels before the start of the race as I wanted children to explore it themselves. The bar magnet attached to the car had the N and S indication where else the bar magnet that they held on to had no indication. When the race started, it was clear who knew how to repel the magnet and who did not. As I wanted each child to discover what “attract” and “repel” meant, I changed the bar magnet to the identical ones (with the N&S indication) the second round.

   This time, I highlighted to them that in order to push their car forward with their bar magnet, they had to place two identical poles (either N & N or S&S). With the written symbol on the magnet, it was clearer to them and all could repel the car forward.

Scientific process skills: Predicting and communicating observations

Heng Yu: "Zayne can you please add more water in our pot?"

Zayne: "Okay, I have a cup of water here!"

Hailey: "Thank you Zayne! Then I will stir and mix it up!"

Learning disposition: Appreciation, inventiveness

This was the first or second week of our mud kitchen play. I observed that some children had some mud stains on their school uniform and it made me and N2 teachers to decide to ask parents to bring old home clothes for children to put on during mud kitchen play to avoid staining their school uniform.

• In this activity, the children exploring on the different properties of materials - transparent, translucent and opaque. Before switching on the light table, the children were told to guess which of the materials allow light to pass through. They predicted that the bottle caps will not allow any light to pass through. After I switched on the light table, they explored with the different materials to see which of it is transparent, translucent or opaque.

2. What Scientific Process Skills were used?

• The children used predicting in this activity as they predicted which materials were transparent, translucent and opaque, with their own reasoning.

3. Share the voices of children.

• Tim: I think the bottle cap is opaque because I cannot see anything.

• Serrah: I think the coins are translucent because I can see through a bit.

• Raoul: The plastic sheet is transparent because I can see (through it) easily.

4. What Learning Disposition did the children practice?

• The children displayed sense of wonder and curiosity as they explored with the different properties of the objects.

5. What was a challenge you faced and how will you carry out this activity differently?

• I get them to find their own items in the classroom and get them to sort according to its property. Then they can use the light table to check on their predictions.

• Light & shadows: In this activity, the children were tasked to find out the opacity and transparency of the different items given. They recorded their predictions and findings too.

2. What Scientific Process Skills were used?

• Predicting and Communicating

3. Share the voices of children.

• Marouane: “This ipad cover is transparent! Light can pass through it!”

• Zayden: “This cover doesn’t allow the light to pass through it. It is opaque!”

4. What Learning Disposition did the children practice?

• Sense of wonder and curiosity

5. What was a challenge you faced and how will you carry out this activity differently?

• A challenge was to explain the theory of transparency and opacity. Even though the children were engaged in the experiment, some of them do not use the terms correctly. Thus, in the future, i will use the terms more intentionally in my explanations.

Children's Voices:

Trilise: "We can get some vegetables and cook them to make a soup"

Azaylea: " Then we can add lots of water"

Learning Disposition: The children displayed a sense of wonder and curiosity as they explored new kitchen tools and the plants at the Mud Kitchen.

Challenges:

It would have to be the presence of mosquitos at the Mud Kitchen. The children and I got uncomfortable when mosquitos started biting/sucking on us. So have to make sure everyone sprayed repellent.

2. Scientific Process Skills: Predicting, Observing

3. Share the voices of children.

Teacher: Where do you think the water will go when I pour here (highest point)?

Ayden: The water will go down.

Teacher: Where do you think the water will go when I pour here (lower end of the pipe)?

Yu Ze: The water will go up.

(After mud kitchen exploration)

Teacher: Did the water go up or down?

Yu Ze: The water go down. It never go up.

4. Learning Disposition: Sense of wonder and curiosity

5. Challenge: One of the challenges was the wet weather. As the waterfall was down the slope, it can become very slippery when there is rain.

The children used Observing and experimenting to gauge their learning about water troughs. The children experimented with various ways to connect the pipes to be able to keep the water flowing. The children used observation to see how the water flows as it follow the structure of the pipes.

Children's Voices:

Ernest: The water goes in the pipes slowly.

Yu Xuan: The water splashes when we pour it. We need the funnel.

Yu Nuo: Why is it spilling? I think we need to check the pipes. Must connect it tight.

Sharlette: Please pour the water gently, okay?

Learning Disposition:

The children displayed a sense of inventiveness in building a strong and stable structure using pipes and connectors to be able to observe water flow in it.

Challenges:

The challenge we faced was that it became muddy as some water spilt on the soil. Engage the children in wearing closed shoes.

Some questions asked during the activity:

• What parts of the paper are similar or the same with one another? (i.e Size, Texture)

• What parts of the paper are different from one another? (i.e. Shapes, Thickness, Patterns, Purpose)

• Why are some paper made thicker than others, such as cardboard?

• Why do some papers have colour or printed words on them, and some do not?

• What is your favourite type of paper, and why?

What went well:

This hands-on and concrete learning experience was thoroughly enjoyed by the children, and some were inspired to be environmental warriors, to create their messages or posters for the community to ‘Save the Trees’, ‘Recycle Paper’, or ‘Don’t Waste Paper’. This was also a great platform for the children to learn and explore design-thinking on what can be made with paper, as well as a lead-in towards the next and upcoming Creative Art activity that was modified and created based on their interests: ‘Paper Airplane Experiment” and “Paper Bridge Challenge”. The activity was a great anchor to many discussions and thoughtful ideas and predictions about the world around them (i.e. materials around us, recycling, upcycling, repurposing, sustainability, parts of things, big things are a sum of small parts, etc)

Some challenges faced:

The activity time was insufficient for the children to be able to delve more in depth into their inquiry and processes. Due to the time-constraint, the activity had to be contained and modified according to the scheduled time, to only include the recording and documentation of the KWL Chart as well as throwing off ideas on what they would like to create with paper.  An additional challenge posed following the time-constraint was that the lower-ability learners were not able to follow through together with the rest of the children on the objectives of the lesson as we shared, explored and discussed as a class on the different types of paper and their uses. These children needed more sensorial and concrete input (e.g. more touching, folding, manipulating of paper). 

What would be done differently:

Allow more time to play, explore, and manipulate various types of paper through more STEAM challenges, to cater to their varying abilities.