Colonies, Clusters, and Classrooms
In this project, students will study animal communities; specifically, how animals behave and care for one another within their community. Students will research a variety of animal communities through fieldwork, experts, non-fiction texts and online resources. Then, we will take what we have learned about animals and apply it to our own class and school community. Our Essential Questions are:
What behaviors do animals exhibit to protect and help their community?
How can we use those characteristics to build norms and practices for our classroom?
Students will narrow down their research to highlight 4-5 stand-out animal communities that will become the focus of our two main final products. But for now, we are focused on the research and learning as much about animal communities as possible!
Project Launch- Challenge Day from Waffles and PeeWee
On Monday morning, we came into the classroom and had a letter waiting for us from Waffles and PeeWee, our classroom stuffed animal pets! Apparently, they have been watching our class this whole time! Since we are studying animals like them, they wanted to help us kick off our project. Here is what part of their letter said:
We have a challenge day set up for you. Today, you will work together as a class to complete each challenge activity that we have created for you. You will find letters from us around the classroom all day long that will tell you about your next challenge activity. Some activities may seem easy, and some might seem really hard. With each challenge activity, remember to always care for each other and persevere to reach your goals.
So, you know that in this project you are studying animals, but you don’t know why. By the end of the day, you will be able to answer this question! We made a mystery sentence puzzle, and each time you complete a challenge activity together, you will get some of the pieces to the puzzle. By the end of the day, you will have all of the pieces to the puzzle and can answer the mystery about your animal project.
1. Who is in our class? - A series of challenges where students had to organize themselves into groups and orders without talking! (ex. Line up in alphabetical order by your last name)
2. Hula Hoop games - We went outside to do three different small group and whole group challenges that all had to do with moving hula hoops in different ways
3. Mystery Sentence Puzzle - Each student had a word to the three-sentence puzzle. The students had to work together to organize the words into the correct order to complete the sentences.
The purpose of the challenge day was to work together in our class community, like animals work together to help their communities. Although it was not always easy, we did it! The children were problem solving, using kind words of encouragement, and persevering when the tasks became difficult. Most importantly, I saw students smiling and having fun working together!
The day prompted us to start a running list of group norms that we will continue revisit throughout our project: What helps us when we do group work? Here are a few of the observations we added to the list from our day:
We all worked together - Jonathan
Be nice, by saying kind words - Jocelyn
We are focused on the group plan - Casey
We are all persevering - Stella C
We worked together at the same place and the same time - Ella
If someone messes up, don't yell at them - Lily
Fill people's buckets. - Stella H.
Along with this, we started making our class definition of community. The students had a strong understand for what a community looks like, but we are working to understand what communities feel like. How do we animals act in their communities? How do we act in our communities?
Making observations like a researcher
This project requires a lot of research! We got right to work with talking about what it means to observe, and how to take notes. We made a class vocabulary page about common words and phrases we will frequently use when observing and taking notes. We practiced observing still objects in the classroom, and pictures of animals. Then we practiced observing moving objects by watching a video about an elephant community.
Field work! The Safari Park
Our first fieldwork of the year was a huge success! Students walked great lengths around the park to observe and record detailed observations, and most importantly, had fun exploring animal communities with their friends. Thank you to all who volunteered to make the day so wonderful :)
At the Safari Park, we took notes on animal behaviors and traits we observed while on the tram and while walking around the park. We particularly looked for observations that helped us answer these four questions:
- do the animals take care of each other?
- How do the animals communicate with each other?
- How do the animals move in a group?
- Do you notice any interesting or special characteristics about this animal community?
Back at school, we compiled our safari park notes to get a broader picture of what we saw. Students worked in groups to create a reflection web, and then reflected individually about one interesting observation they made while watching the animals. Here is some of the data we collected from the experience:
"Gorillas communicates with their hands." - Lea
"The Male lion protects the group." - Bryan
"The Flamingos stand on one leg and the flamingos went in a group." - Stella C.
"The oldest girl elephant is the leader of the group." - Aidan
" I saw that the baby giraffes stick together in a group." - Sofia
" Tigers roar to say that this is my territory stay back!" - Josiah
" The rattle snake rattled his tail to communicate." - Brandon
Here are some pictures from the week!