The Enormous Turnip

Click on the link below to read about this writing session with the year 2s.

https://padlet.com/cyberfio/zysrgsmwg7x

Catch the Drop Workshops

The aim of the workshops was to raise awareness about the importance of water conservation.  The students rotated from a drama workshop, to a writing workshop and finally to an art workshop to explore this theme in depth.  

The Science / Writing Workshop

During this workshop, the students were presented with gravel, sand, coffee filters and spit plastic bottles.  They were to plan, design and build a water filter to clean stale water in a bottle. 

 

The students were not shown how to create the filter, but had to think of a solution on their own.  Then they tested their filter by pouring murky water in it, which was expected to come out clean.

 

At the end of this inquiry-based activity, the students wrote down a set of instructions explaining how they had created the water filter.

 

The Drama Workshop

 

Ms. Marvic Refalo, an EcoSkola representative, started with a brief explanation about water conservation in the past.  She then moved on to a slip-screen activity, where students were grouped into four, and where each group was presented with a situation e.g. having a bath.  Two of the students had to mime how that situation was executed in the past, and the other two had to mime how it is carried out today.  The rest of the class attempted to figure out the situation as expressed through acting.

The Art Workshop

Mr. Anthony Vella, HOD Art and Design, initiated the workshop by explaining the importance of conserving water in every way possible.   Following this discussion, the children were invited to express these ideas in drawings of their own. 

Inquiry Based Writing

The Instruction Writing Framework was presented, but rather than having the students follow instructions to create an end product, this session promoted a top-down approach to writing, in that the students were asked to create the product first, and then to describe the process of its creation after. 

Students were asked to design, label and create a robot from recycled material, and then to described the steps taken in the process.  A model reminded them about the use of the imperative in instruction writing.