Discovery learning: Take 2

Last week in Grade 1, we tried out something new.  Discovery tubs were a big hit and both students and teachers learned a lot!  This week, Miss Dyck and I made a few changes.  For one, we decided to set up four tubs instead of three to make more "spaces" available and avoid "traffic jams" when there were students ready to change tubs and no spots available at the other tubs.

This week's tubs are shown below and also pinned on My Discovery Tubs board.

Discovery Tub Contents:

Book collection related to the seasons

Seasons cards showing seasonal pictures

Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter labels

Construction paper cut into cards

Magazines for cutting

Students at this tub could: sort the pre-made card by seasons, play seasons concentration game, cut and paste to create new cards.    

Questions to ask:  Why did you sort this card here?  How do you know that picture belongs in ____________?  What season does your card show? 

Discovery Tub Contents:

Toothpicks

Mini marshmallows

Sample 3D object created from toothpicks and marshmallows

Optional: label cards depicting 3D objects and 2D shapes

Students at this tub might: create 2D shapes or 3D objects, create a unique design or model (ie: one of my students designed a model of a catapult)

Questions to ask:  What shape/object have you created?  What shape are its faces?   How many vertices does it have?  How many faces does it have?

 

Discovery Tub Contents:

tangram sets

tangram puzzles 

paper for tracing new designs

Students at this tub might: solve pre-printed puzzles or design new puzzles by tracing around their own arrangement of tangrams

Questions to ask:  Where does this piece go?  Is that in the right place?  Does this piece go here?

 

Discovery Tub Contents:

Copies of nets for 3D objects such as cube, prism and pyramid

Model of a 3D object created from the net

Students at this tube may cut out nets and create a 3D object, create multiple objects and put them together (ie: a pyramid stacked on a cube) or cut out 2D shapes they recognize in the nets.  

Questions to ask:  What object/shape did you create?  How can you put it together to make a ___________?  Where should you fold the paper?  What will it look like when you are done?