Grade 1 Sharing the Planet Unit
We kicked off the unit "Sharing the Planet" by contemplating over the content of a plausible story with the title The Sad Paper-man:
We moved on to the provocation phase where we watched parts of the movie The Lorax and had a discussion after every striking moment. Even though, children insisted on finishing the movie, I set up a rule that reading the book should happen prior to watching the movie.When asked: "how watching a movie differs from reading a book?" children were unanimous: "when watching a movie, the picture is dynamic whereas when reading, the picture is static." I did take the opportunity to point out that watching the movie makes us lazy consumers of already created pictures. In comparison, reading the book lets us set our own stage in our mind and create our own colorful and dynamic scenes. And here is the evidence:
Along these lines, we looked at pictures from my trip to Singapore: Gardens by the Bay, sustainable art light installations as part of i Light Marina Bay 2014, Eco-friendly installations at Changi Airport, to tease our imagination. Children are asked to imagine an utopian planet where everything is made out of steel and plastic.
Children's questions: What would be our food if everything is made out of plastic? Would we also turn into plastic?
Children were particularly impressed by the above image, reaching the conclusion that if we do not preserve our environment, and in particular our trees, we would have our vegetation locked behind thick walls and we would be allowed to have just a glimpse of them through a tiny window.
As a natural extension of the wisdom of the Lorax, the most appropriate niche to work on turned out to be student's Listening Skills. By quoting the Lorax and attributing importance to his words "I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues" I encouraged exploration of the question: "What would it feel like if you were a tree and had no capacity to talk?" For this purpose, children need to collect as an evidence as many as possible things we get from trees and make up a collage. They also need to address the general community and share their feelings as a tree. Since they cannot talk, they need to write down their memos, to be communicated by the Lorax on their behalf.
In order to experience for themselves a world without products made from trees and as a result realize how dependent we are on finite natural resources, kids had to imagine and write down ("for the trees have no tongues"), without the use of products made from trees, what it would be like to be a tree.
Kids ended up talking about money and how people destroy the trees out of greed and desire to possess unnecessary belongings. This was a great opportunity to mention the words of Muhammad who warned us to live in this world as travelers or strangers, meaning pack lightly:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took me by the shoulder and said, “Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a wayfarer.” And Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say, “In the evening do not expect [to live until] the morning, and in the morning do not expect [to live until] the evening. Take [advantage of] your health before times of sickness, and [take advantage of] your life before your death.”
During our next class, we went outside on a mission: uncovering the secret of the trees.
Children had to select a tree and get to know this tree by studying its leaves, bark, and branches. They needed to use their senses: touch the tree with their eyes closed, break the leaves and smell them, listen to the sounds the tree makes.
They also needed to give the tree a name; to see if it bears fruits or nuts. They needed to check if there are any hiding places in the tree. Students could create their own coded message and leave it in the tree (eventually, fold them very well and hide them behind the leaves)
Great was the astonishment of the last group of kids who were supposed to hide their messages but instead discover the secret messages of their 'predecessors'.
Kids may collect natural objects for their potential magic quality and attach a story to them for everything we see has a story.
We needed one more exercise, celebrating trees. Kids were assigned the task of collecting as many parts of trees (things that have fallen naturally) as they could; arrange their collection, play with it, hang it, attach a story to it, study the shapes, do drawings, hang things from branches.
Kids were also asked: "Pretend you were a tree. What would you do?" I would split my branches and use them to play music.
10-day spring break is ahead of us! What a great opportunity to sign a formal agreement that during our break time we promise to abstain from using one thing, made of a finite natural resource, and find a way to replace it in our daily life.
When we got back from vacation, I used some of the pictures, taken on my travels, to organize a picture browsing activity with the ultimate aim of promoting imaginative thinking. The images were related to out theme and were accompanied by thought-provoking questions.
The discussion with students from one of the three classes always revolved around the idea that trees have families and friends. After some brainstorming, the kids reached the conclusion that animals are some of the trees' friends. We, in the role of care-takers of mother nature, want to help trees make more friends. The questions was: How? How to attract more animals near the tree? The answer: bird/ squirrel feeder!
The final part of the unit requires from students to take on the role of the guardians of the trees, fighting to care for the earth and attempting to teach others to do the same. They needed to be concise and convincing when using their most powerful weapon - their ability to communicate - in an effort to defend the trees from me, the Once-ler.
To be continued...
What made the paper-man sad? What was his missing? Where did the paper-man used to live? Who used to be his family mebers and friends?
Answers range from: "The paper-man fell off the paper planet and was feeling lonely on the Earth" to "The Paper-man misses his home because he has to move to another home with his dad."
We moved on to the provocation phase where we watched parts of the movie The Lorax and had a discussion after every striking moment. Even though, children insisted on finishing the movie, I set up a rule that reading the book should happen prior to watching the movie.When asked: "how watching a movie differs from reading a book?" children were unanimous: "when watching a movie, the picture is dynamic whereas when reading, the picture is static." I did take the opportunity to point out that watching the movie makes us lazy consumers of already created pictures. In comparison, reading the book lets us set our own stage in our mind and create our own colorful and dynamic scenes. And here is the evidence:
All the three available books in the library are on loan.
Along these lines, we looked at pictures from my trip to Singapore: Gardens by the Bay, sustainable art light installations as part of i Light Marina Bay 2014, Eco-friendly installations at Changi Airport, to tease our imagination. Children are asked to imagine an utopian planet where everything is made out of steel and plastic.
Children's questions: What would be our food if everything is made out of plastic? Would we also turn into plastic?
Art installation at Changi Airport's restroom
As a natural extension of the wisdom of the Lorax, the most appropriate niche to work on turned out to be student's Listening Skills. By quoting the Lorax and attributing importance to his words "I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues" I encouraged exploration of the question: "What would it feel like if you were a tree and had no capacity to talk?" For this purpose, children need to collect as an evidence as many as possible things we get from trees and make up a collage. They also need to address the general community and share their feelings as a tree. Since they cannot talk, they need to write down their memos, to be communicated by the Lorax on their behalf.
In order to experience for themselves a world without products made from trees and as a result realize how dependent we are on finite natural resources, kids had to imagine and write down ("for the trees have no tongues"), without the use of products made from trees, what it would be like to be a tree.
The kids collected 5 things per category that are made of trees.
Contemplating in silence ("for the trees have no tongues") over what to use as a writing utensil and where to place their message of how they would feel as a tree.
Slowly the kids found the medium and what to use as a writing tool
Some more followed...
till everyone gathered in front of the whiteboard and started projecting their feelings as a tree...
G1 A
the task becomes harder but not impossible: 6 products by category
"I feel..."
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took me by the shoulder and said, “Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a wayfarer.” And Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say, “In the evening do not expect [to live until] the morning, and in the morning do not expect [to live until] the evening. Take [advantage of] your health before times of sickness, and [take advantage of] your life before your death.”
During our next class, we went outside on a mission: uncovering the secret of the trees.
One of the kids compared the tree to a deer and concluded that trees have the shape of animals. Another student decided that the movement of the trees is way they communicate. G1A
Some of the kids noticed that a few of the trees have single eye carved on their bark and concluded that trees have the capacity to see. Trees have families and friends. If we get closer to them we can hear a sound that tells us if they are happy or sad. G1B
Based on the colors, that's a letter left by the Lorax
We needed one more exercise, celebrating trees. Kids were assigned the task of collecting as many parts of trees (things that have fallen naturally) as they could; arrange their collection, play with it, hang it, attach a story to it, study the shapes, do drawings, hang things from branches.
Kids were also asked: "Pretend you were a tree. What would you do?" I would split my branches and use them to play music.
10-day spring break is ahead of us! What a great opportunity to sign a formal agreement that during our break time we promise to abstain from using one thing, made of a finite natural resource, and find a way to replace it in our daily life.
When we got back from vacation, I used some of the pictures, taken on my travels, to organize a picture browsing activity with the ultimate aim of promoting imaginative thinking. The images were related to out theme and were accompanied by thought-provoking questions.
What if trees could hide their shadows when they feel in danger from people?
What if trees could talk? What would they say to the buildings?
What if trees could remember and refuse to serve their purpose when turned into a product?
What if trees were communicating with us via secret messages hidden among their leaves?
What if, as a precautionary measure, trees were locked behind thick walls?
What if plants could grow out of everything?
What if tree shadows could move and run away when trees are scared? What if shadows could invade and shelter in our buildings?
To invoke imaginative thoughts: what if that's the way to read the tree's mind or what it wants to tell us; its secret message to humanity
The discussion with students from one of the three classes always revolved around the idea that trees have families and friends. After some brainstorming, the kids reached the conclusion that animals are some of the trees' friends. We, in the role of care-takers of mother nature, want to help trees make more friends. The questions was: How? How to attract more animals near the tree? The answer: bird/ squirrel feeder!
The final part of the unit requires from students to take on the role of the guardians of the trees, fighting to care for the earth and attempting to teach others to do the same. They needed to be concise and convincing when using their most powerful weapon - their ability to communicate - in an effort to defend the trees from me, the Once-ler.
To be continued...
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