As mentioned in a previous post, the first graders come to science on Day 5 to work on some important science skills such as observing, sorting, graphing, measuring and comparing. In this week’s IE activity the first graders are discussing and demonstrating ways that scientists communicate with each other.
There are many ways that scientist communicate with each other. The first graders mentioned that they can write to each other, talk to each other in person or on the phone. They mentioned that some even text message or email. What they forgot to mention that drawing is also a form of communication. Scientists always draw what they observe with labels and with details. Drawings can help tell other scientists what the experiment looks like, what the animal or plant looks like or even show how equipment or a process works.
In their activity today, the students worked on communicating to me about how different animals move. They picked one animals for walking and running, one for swimming, one for flying and one for crawling. Their task was to draw a WOW picture of these animals using helpful information cards that had a picture and habitat of the animal.
What’s a WOW picture you ask? Well, I explained that when drawing for communication it is important to have lots of details, accurate coloring and neatness so that others can understand. I can not take credit for this idea as I found it on Pinterest (thank you Pinterest and Mrs. Terhune). Check out her blog for more ideas on charts and rubrics.
Here’s what I created using her example.
