Tuesday, November 30, 2010

End of the Month

Leonardo conceived of many inventions that he never saw come to fruition. One of these was a parachute. As a finale to our month with Leonardo, we made parachutes out of recycled plastic bags, with clothes pin people holding onto them. After attaching the "people" to the "parachutes", the hallway filled with floating bags and squeals of delight.
















At the end of the month I also like to spend time with the children reflecting on what they learned. One reflecting activity I often do is have the children sit with me, one on one, and tell me what they remember, as I type what they say. This helps the children realize what they have learned. It helps my understanding of what things were most memorable as well as what information or misinformation they may have acquired during the month. One humorous examples of a misunderstanding about Leonardo was: "He died now. He was born in 1984." When you are 5 years old, 1984 must seem as much like ancient history as 1452.

In their reflecting, I asked the children to surmise if they think they would have liked to meet Leonardo and why. Here are a few of the insightful responses.

I would have liked to have met Leonardo because:
"he could tell me how to make some of the things he invented."
"I would like to see his pictures."
"he was interested in nature."
"because my favorite animal is horses."
And:
"I'm not sure if I would have liked him because I don't know if he was interested in sports."

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