R.H. chose art center one day and scavenged through our box of recyclables to begin the construction of his plane. His dedication and hard work inspired others to join the art center to make their own planes. Over the course of a few days, R.H. and others filled the art center to make their planes. Since R.H. had started earlier, he completed his plane and moved on to making a spaceship. When other children finished their planes, they wanted to make spaceships. This is exactly how trends start. Little R.H., a trend setter at the age of four.
Below are the questions that were asked:
Convergent Thinking Questions
o How many students walk to school?
o How many students take a car to school?
o How many students take boats to school?
o How many students take strollers to school?
o How many students take an airplane to school?
o How many students take the bus to school?
o How does _____________ travel to school?
o Which way do most students use to get to school?
Divergent Thinking Questions
o What do you notice about our bar graph?
o Why do some children take the car to school instead of walking?
o How come no one takes a plane, train, or boat to school?
o Where are some places we go to where we may need to take a plane?
o Where are some places we go to where we may need to take a train?
o Where are some places we go to where we may need to take a boat?
The convergent thinking questions were very important for students to practice the language. I encourage our kids to answer in full sentences. If a student is unsure, I would model the sentence for them to repeat.
I soon realized that we could have easily used a tree map instead of the bar graph. I used this opportunity to convert our bar graph into a tree map. This allowed us to get rid of certain information on the bar graph that wasn't needed, such as the number of students that take a boat, plane, or train to school. These maps and graphs could always be used as an activity to ask questions as a morning activity.
I had trouble finding a way to introduce the bridge map to my students. This was a great chance to do so. I created flash cards of different community workers and the vehicles they used to travel when they're working. During our discussion, the bridge map was introduced to the students. Our relating factor was how each community worker travels by. We spent a considerable amount of time discussing and learning about the vehicles community workers use to travel.