Wed, April 11

This week we watched a few videos of different students in classrooms doing more hands-on activities.  My favorite video that we had to watch was the Signs of Spring video.  In this video, the students were doing a hands-on activity in which they made observations and researched different signs of spring.  This was a great project for them to learn about season change and gave them a real-life hands-on experience through the way that they conducted all the research.  They did different things like look at different resources in stations with groups in the classroom, as well as got to actually go outside and measure mounds of snow that were melting due to spring time that was approaching.  I am a big advocate for kids doing more independent learning and taking a more hands-on approach.  I really think that kids will learn more through actually physically doing something.  I also think that kids tend to learn more when they are more independent and the teacher acts more as a guide.  I think that this activity with the students studying the signs of spring is a great activity for kids to be more physically involved and independent.  The children seem to have more fun as well, being outside and being able to conduct their own research.