Friday, January 8, 2016

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a great way for children to share ideas and information. This week we had a couple of brainstorming sessions. 

Session 1

The children came up with a list of people around the school they wanted to do "Something Special" for; the list was quite extensive. Next, they brainstormed things that they could do for these people. The ideas included: making cards, baking bread or cupcakes or muffins, and making Art. To narrow things down, I wrote 4 names from the list on pieces of paper, folded them up and passed one name to each table. The children's task was to decide as a group what they wanted to do, get the materials they needed and figure out who was going to do what. 

This group created "something special" for Shan.
They made a big envelope filled with paper airplanes
These children made small 3-D houses for Kim.
This group made a New Year card for Rachel.

Megan got a Happy New Year card from this group.

Session 2

The next brainstorming session was to see what our class knows about "Systems", our current School-Wide Theme.  The children found it very difficult to articulate what a system is, but one child said a system was when things work together.  Many children thought of examples of systems: a sound system, Henry Ford's assembly line, a water piping system, the system of blood carrying oxygen through your body...
We talked about the roads in our country. What would have happened if each State had their own road system that didn't connect to the system in the next state.  You would not be able to travel by car from one state to another.

There will be many more discussions and projects in the coming months to explore the topic of "systems".  Stay tuned.







No comments: