Author: Lita Zalāne, elementary school teacher
School: Jaunsilava Primary School
I chose to implement learning scenario “Nature in Spring” because it was April – mid spring. I used this activity to get to know my future students, who will join Grade 1 in autumn. I wanted us to get to know each other better and feel more secure. In this lesson they learned about science, design and technology and visual arts. The lessons were implemented in the classroom setting. The students were 6-7 years old. This was their first introduction to the digital heritage of art and science.
The Learning Scenario is very good and extensive, so I made a few changes. 1. we didn’t take pictures of the flowers outdoors. 2.The children didn’t work in groups. 3.We didn’t delve deep into nature protection.
We started with the topic of spring flowers. We found out which flowers bloom in the garden in spring. Tulips were the most familiar to the children. We looked at pictures in calendars, on Google and Europeana. We learnt the names of other spring flowers. We folded paper tulips and made a flower bed with tulips. We listened to a spring song from the learning scenario script. The children enjoyed it a lot.
In the lesson I asked a question – is spring just flowers and warm weather? What else is there in spring? The flowers we see, but what can we hear?
Different answers followed. Finally, the students said we could hear birds. Then I asked.” Do you know what migratory birds are?” We watched YouTube videos about migratory birds and bird calls. The children liked the storks – white and black. Some had never even heard about the black stork. These birds do not live together but far apart. Then we came up with the idea of bringing these birds together for a stork gathering in our tulip garden. Some of the children made white storks, some made black storks. We hope that both storks will be able to talk to each other, because we learned that each one speaks its own language!
The children were happy to be involved in doing creative exercises. Some of them had difficulties with cutting paper and doing origami. Finally, they enjoyed the result.
I am delighted to have discovered Europeana and Teaching with Europeana. It is a great source of ideas and material for my work. I will definitely try to use some of the Learning Scenarios in the future. Thank you!
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario? Nature in spring created by Nada Peretić
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CC0 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Art Museum of Estonia.
