The first week we focused on learning about biodiversity! This was a topic that would set students up for learning about the different kinds of life that surround them every day. I was able to incorporate a talking circle outside for this lesson so I will speak more on the introduction to our nature unit within standard 9.
The next topic we learnt about was something students were familiar with, Tree’s!
These books were fantastic sources that got students engaged with the subject which they were already slightly familiar with when they learned about apple tree life cycles earlier in the year. “The Wind and the Trees” was especially poignant because the characters were trees on each side of the page talking with each other and moving through their life cycles so it was able to also connect with what students were learning in LA based on story elements like character. The second story I read on trees was very visual and allowed students to understand the vast diversity of life within a forest, and how trees grow to become something larger than themselves.
This was one of my favourite parts to sum our learning about trees as students created this chart by contributing their ideas on what the larger definition of what forests have, what they are, and what they can do. Students were very engaged with this part of the lesson and many of them had a variety of ideas with every student contributing one or more points to our graph, and I know they would have contributed more if we had not ran out of time that day!
The next topic we looked at was something I was passionate about fungi!
This was one of my favourite lessons to try because I have such a passion for fungi and had already taught kids this subject before when I was working at the YMCA Camp Kanannaq. The book “Humongous Fungus” was also a fantastic resource that I split into two lessons touching on some of the fun and interesting parts of what a fungus is and what they can look like. After the first lesson I explained what a spore print was and how to create one before students were able to pick 2 mushrooms to create their spore print with. Students really enjoyed this part and many of them were excited to see what their print would look like the next day.
I also included a hands on component for these lessons as I got several different kinds of mushrooms, and after learning about aspects of a mushroom (i.e. stem, gills, and cap) I got students to each feel the parts they had just learned about on a real mushroom. While they were doing this part I passed out the covered spore prints so every student could take a peek at their own, as well as the one I had made with some of our more unique but limited mushrooms.