Getting In Motion

The Super Kids have been busy after the holiday break!  Getting back into the routine of school was a bit challenging for all of us, but we’ve hit a groove.  Everyone was excited to share what they did over their break and see their friends again.

This month has been all about established our background knowledge for working towards our school’s exhibition.  Every year in March our school has an exhibition to share our learning with our families and the community.  The final product is wonderful, but the process is the real adventure.  I’m always amazed at the questions my students ask that drive our learning. We’re off to a great start.  Our big idea is exploring circus’,carnivals, and showmanship. This big idea will encompasses all of the curriculum. I know that sounds a bit daunting, but my kids are so excited!

Our first step is to explore the science curriculum of forces and motion.  We need know how things and people move?  Where do you go when you need to explore push and pull?  The playground of course!  It was a Monday morning when I surprised the class and told them to put their outside gear back on after morning meeting.  We headed outside with a motion mission.  When you play on the different equipment outside, do you use a push or a pull force? Ok…it’s January in Winnipeg.  How are we going to be scientists with clipboard in the snow?  We took our papers in ziploc bags on our clipboards and used whiteboard makers.  If we dropped them in the snow it was no big deal. 🙂

       

Balance is important when you’re a performer, but it also is a math and science concept.  We started exploring balance with balance centers.  Jenga, Twister, balance games from the gym, and math balances were rotated through to get a better concept of what balance is and what it feels like.

       

Indoor recess helped us balance our bodies with cosmic kids yoga.

 

America’s Got Talent has some excellent examples of balance in their acts.  The Super Kids were fascinated with these two brother’s audition!

Have you read the book ” The Man Who Walked Between The Towers” by Mordicai Gerstein? The book tells the story of a tight rope walker who walked between the twin towers in New York City many years ago.  As adults we know what the twin towers are and what happened there.  This wasn’t the focus and I didn’t talk about that.  We focused on the unbelievable balancing act the man did.  The kids thought his punishment of entertaining kids in the park was an interesting twist at the end.

Could we walk on a tight rope?  We borrowed some gym equipment to find out.

 

Alexander Calder was an artist best known for creating mobiles and stabiles. He used materials such as wire and different kinds of metal to create his balanced structures. 

 

After learning more about him by reading Sandy’s Circus, we discovered that he loved circus’, created his own out of wire, and shared it with audiences.

Could we make our own stabiles?  It took some time and patience, but we did.

     

Did you know the concept of performing has been documented all the way back to cave art!  Our class took a closer look at cave art from Egypt.  People shared their stories by drawing, carving, and painting on caves.

We examined how people were drawn and how they showed movement.  Then it was our turn to make our own cave mural. First the “cave wall” had to be made using sponges and mixing colours.

Next, the students posed for each other showing different positions that the kids felt showed movement, dance, or acrobatics.  One student posed and the other drew using circles and ovals. Then it was time to put our figures on our mural.

   

   

I challenged my student to create a 3D Egyptian pyramids using straw and connects.  Some might have gotten a bit carried away. 🙂

 

Stay tuned as we continue our adventure!