Feiting's+RL-Connection+page

1. I was visiting the museum the other day and I found there were many dialogues on each exhibition boards telling children the scientific ideas in a simple but very understandable way. This reminds me that when we go to field trips we can use those questions to scaffold children's learning.

(CC: This is actually a very good way to gather ideas and content for your science curriculum. Keep a scrapbook of images like this, and they can be springboard for classroom projects, posters, and topics! Many museums also have teachers or students' guides if you talk to one of their curators. use them as resources for putting together your units)

2. As Allie's presenting her final project, she reminded me the plants in my classroom were dead by the end of this semester, I think this is a good chance to talk about the different environmental conditions that plants need. For example, I have a Kalanchoe and I water it everyday. Then I found it's almost dead until one day Linda read the instruction which says it needs relatively dry environment...Same thing I wonder if my children were watering too much for the classroom plants. Also with this topic we can talk about plants in different seasons as the environment is changing.

3. When I was teaching Naomi how to cook pot stickers, she asked me if we should put water first or oil first, which reminds me when I was learning how to cook, I made a big mess about hot oil and water. As the extension of my "lesson", I think we can talk about how things change state when they meet other things. For example, in winter we can think about what are the things can make snow melt. And in summer, what are the things can make water evaporate? Then do those experiments with children.

4. Many movies are characterized by animals, I think if we can extend them a little bit as learning about animals. For example, as I was watching "The Legend of Guardians", I was wondering "What are the types for all those owls in this movie since they look very different?" Also movies offer information about animals' habitats.

5. I was tutoring a 6-year old girl Chinese every weekend. One day we were in the supermarket, she wanted to buy one box of mixed nuts and one bag of pita chips. But her mom only allowed her to buy one item. She struggled for a while then she asked me how much for each, I showed her how to look at the price label, and she was able to compare the price, finally she chose the cheaper one. (a good shopper!) When we checked out, she was also reading the receipt, when she saw the total number she said that's a lot of money! This reminds me at this age children are figuring out the sense of money and this is also an opportunity to introduce decimals to children.

6. Also about shopping, I went to the outlet then I found there were too many stores while I only need to go several of them. So I went to the directory and arrange the shopping sequence to save time. I think this is also an idea to introduce to children, how to make a proper overall plan. We can study school maps, like which way is closest from our classroom to Gym/playground/music class...etc (use math measuring), we can also study about routines, like which way would save you most time in unpacking/packing?

7. The other day it was my turn to clean our kitchen, so I was checking with Linda how to use the dish washer, then I found there's a big difference about how many dishes you can put in according to the way you arrange them. This reminds me of teaching capacity to children, previously we discussed different containers had same or different capacities, but we can also talk about same containers (like a school backpack) can bear more things if we arrange our stuff properly.

8. About the temperature, I noticed both DC and Boston snowed a few days ago. Today in DC the snow almost melted, while in my impression, the snow in Boston remains a much longer time. I guess if we have children record the weather (temperature, snowy days, the height of accumulated snow or how long it takes to melt your snowman? ) through the winter, and if they can compare the records year by year or with people from different places, there will be interesting findings.

9. The other day I saw a boy playing with hexbugs. Then I was talking with Linda about our worries that children are having less and less opportunities to see real insects. I would put same bugs in my classroom and remind children to compare real and fiction bugs (put science books in that corner too).

10. About the same boy, he is also addicted to all kinds of trains. Many of his Thomas trains have magnetic on two ends. With younger children, I would have them use those trains to introduce magnetic, we can make predictions first, then they can explore the classroom with those trains.