Monthly Archives: January 2017

Planning Investigations

15995599_1520870197942436_764328459_nLast week, we had a workshop about planning an investigation which I found really helpful. At the start of the workshop, our groups had to draw a picture of a scientist. This resulted in a handful of very similar images revolving around a middle-aged man with crazy, electrocuted hair wearing a lab jacket and holding a test tube. It really challenged me when the lecturer pointed out how no one had drawn a female scientist or one that was under the age of twelve or disabled or not middle/upper class. It hit me how much the stereotypes of society have infiltrated us all and the message that it sends to children- that they have be a certain kind of person to be a scientist.picture1

Science begins when we start to question our everyday ideas. Iike this diagram of what we can do with children when we are questioning something in class. It follows a constructivist approach, in that we recognise our own misconceptions and intervene to challenge them by setting up a controlled experiment. This will result in the children and I reformulating our ideas and solidifying what we have found in the experiment.

Science experiments practice and develop a lot of different skills; observing, raising questions, predicting and hypothesising, planning and carrying out investigations, measuring, recording, evaluating and communicating. I thought that the planning sheets we used in our experiment were really helpful; planning an investigation can be quite daunting, but when you split it up it is a lot easier! I now feel a lot less nervous about planning an experiment with my pupils, and I plan to use the sheets with my class in the future.

Ten Little Frogs…

In our mathematics and science module we have been looking at how picture books and nursery rhymes can be used to help children develop their understanding of mathematical concepts and language.

The book that I looked at is called ‘One, Two, Three, Four’ by Mary Grice. It is a book compiled of different poems with illustrations by Denis Wrigley. The poem I focused on in it is called ‘Ten Little Frogs’.

I believe that this poem can help children develop their understanding of subtraction. It could be used to give them a visual image of a subtraction question. You could tered-eyed_tre_ll the children the first part of the verse e.g. ‘ten little frogs sitting on a well, one leaned over and down he fell, frogs leap high and frogs leap low’ and then ask them to tell you how many frogs would be left. You could also challenge them by asking them if one came back how many there would then be, getting them to practice their addition skills. Even the mathematical words and concepts ideas of the frogs sitting on the well and how when they fell they fell down are being practiced.

Some of the mathematical language which might be practised are words like ‘subtraction, on, down, high, low, 1-10, total’. You could use toy frogs to act as a prop for the poem and to help the children count how many are left each time. It doesn’t even have to be toy frogs, the idea behind the poem can be adapted for a range of things.