Every year, the Middle School has an Experiential Learning Week or ELW as we call it. Teachers plan activities outside the classroom for students to explore and learn. This year, I helped plan the 6th grade ELW.
On Monday, we went to the Schneiderhof museum where the last occupant, Berte Schneider died in 1989 at 91 years old. She was living in the house alone without electricity and modern conveniences and still making her linzen torte and schnaps! The house was built in 1696 in Kirchhausern where I happen to cycle by all the time! I am attaching a link if you are interested in seeing more! It is in German so use Google Chrome if you need it in English. :)
We had two tour guides, one to lead a German group and one to lead our English speaking group with our English translator. We made rolls and churned butter, saw her barn, the workshop, and talked about what kids would have been doing to help our their parents. Not much time for playing! We tasted some fresh buttermilk as well! Refreshing! O even had time to make a daisy chain!
On Tuesday, we went to the Art Factory in Kandern to explore some elements of art. Rick and Mary-Beth were our instructors along with friends of theirs. We had three groups of students and they visited three stations for 45 minutes each. One station was creating a color wheel with Nilla wafers and colored frosting. I am including the link to the Art Factory in case you want to know more!
Another station was painting with Rick. The students started out by painting lines on half of their paper and talking about patterns evolving. When they moved to a piece of board, they were to look around for an inspirational piece to paint.
The last station was pottery and Mary-Beth instructed the students in making a clay whistle. Students really seemed to enjoy their morning and all the hands on activities set up for them to explore!
After eating lunch outside the Art Factory, we hiked through town up to the Grillplatz to do our outdoor education with some dads in our class! We had a similar structure and did three activities for 45 minutes each. One station was orienteering. Mr. Kooiman showed the students how to use a compass with a map and set them off to find three points in the area as a group. Some students picked this up rather quickly and some struggled. It was interesting to see how the groups chose to work together or not. ;)
Mr. Ziersch showed the students how to make a fire with a fire starter, kindling and logs. When the fire got going, they came to me to make some stick bread. Students cooked their stick bread over the fire and received more instruction about putting a fire out from Mr. Ziersch as they ate their bread.
The third station was setting up a tent. Mr. Mansfield talked to students about how to pick a spot for setting up the tent, laying it out, putting in the stakes, and setting it up. When they got it up, he coached them on how to bring it down and put it away. Great fun!
From the Art Factory in the morning and all the fun outdoor activities and using our brains to orient ourselves with a compass, kids were pretty tired by the end of the day!
On Wednesday, we went to the middle school to work on a STEM project: creating balloon cars! Students were given instructions and let loose to create their cars. When their car was ready, they went to a racing station in the hall to time their car's performance and write down data. Then, they came back to the classroom to create a Google slide presentation that included data, video of car, and pictures of the car and the creators. We had some time left at the end, so we also made chocolate chip cookies!
On Friday, we traveled about 20 minutes to Augusta Raurica which is outside of Basel, Switzerland. Students were split into four groups and had a scavenger hunt of questions to answer as they perused through some pretty awesome Roman ruins!
Here is a video I put together of our week of learning outside the classroom! Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment