C3STREAM Land Designs – Page 50 – (formerly Aura Auro Design)

July 29, 2017August 5, 2017

Scratch with Younger Graders of IsaiAmbalam

I was really concerned when I came to know that I’m going to work with 3rd graders on Scratch on every Saturday. Because this was not the grade and activity I had in the mind. They are the youngest grade we work with. I have no idea about their status on computer skills or familiarity.

Last week I took my first session. Literally, it was horrible. Last week I started my class with Cat movements ( Horizontal and vertical motions only ). But they couldn’t do it. I had to sit and help each child individually. The class was messy, Children were screaming/fighting and I was out of control. So I end my class around 12.00pm that day.

The reason why they couldn’t do was,

They are not familiar with computer that much. They couldn’t handle the mouse and keyboard ( The only time they used computers for playing an addition game).
Whatever I did that day did not attract/interest them. They were not caring for the thing they were asked to make.
There was no goal.

Today, before I start my class (and after the circle time), I asked them to show their favorite addition game. They were really happy to show that game to me. I felt that must be easy to create it scratch. I asked them,”How about making our own games instead of playing with other’s creation. They all gave me a stare for a second and asked will it possible? That’s where I played my role today.

I asked them to arrange the chairs in front of the big monitor and sit. I started with how to use the mouse ( different kinds of mouse clicks, when to use what and how to drag and drop something). Before starting to code, I showed them how to select different sprite and backdrop. They chose a boy as the sprite and swimming pool as the backdrop. The boy has to ask the question. If the user enters a correct answer, he should say good else the boy has to jump into the water and die.

I started coding for their theme step by step. There was pin drop silent. Even the so-called trouble creators were into it and did not disturb the class :-). Once I complete the program, I let it be on the monitor so they can replicate it. They did.

I know that they only replicated the program not created. But they way they did it was amazing. Some of them had few doubts about shrinking the sprite and finding the backdrop. But none of them had doubts about where to get the commands ( I mean, from which block). They were focused and worked towards their wish. This time, I ended (forcefully ) my class at 12.45pm.

July 22, 2017

Makey Makey

9th graders finished their assessment and made a scratch program by setting different sounds to various keys. They played musics by conducting different materials like paper, compass, leaves and some aluminium pieces. They worked as a team and enjoyed a lot. They played drums sound and came up with their own music which made everyone to come and see what they were doing.

July 22, 2017July 22, 2017

Water Level Indicator

In Isai Ambalm school 4th and 5th grader were building a simple circuit to check the water level in their school tank. Initially we started to do it in a water bottle. We used LED to check the water level. Suddenly student started to ask every time we need to watch the LED continuously. Then we started discussing what to do and how to improve. While discussing one student told we can use a buzzer which will indicate us once the tank is full. Then we started using buzzer. When the circuit was completed children took took responsibility to fix it from the tank to the motor box. Children were excited and shared their work. Each one gave their suggestions in a group. Finally all agreed to take the wire from one tree to other till they reached the school tank. The wire that we bought had many knots. One group decided to remove knots from the wire. Some students climbed the tree to tie the wire . Then I climbed the tank and fixed the wire in the tank. Then we turned on the motor and waited for the buzzer to give sound. When the tank got filled the buzzer was giving sound. So the water level indicator works. Teachers and students in our school were excited. It was a good experience to work with children. When the teacher asked many question the student answered correctly and explained the concept properly without mistake.

July 22, 2017

Magic garden

First the class started with how many plants 5th graders wanted to plant in the garden. Then we decided to plant one plant for each foot. The problem started there. Children doesn’t know how much a foot is. Then the conversation went on and the children said that a foot is our foot. Exactly the foot is our foot. A foot is approximately the size of an adult foot. Then the children converted the meter dimensions of the garden they earlier measured into foot.

We went to Botanical garden after that to buy plants. Children were excited and we chose some plants and bought them. Then we came and planted them in the garden.

Each child took different responsibility and planted all the plants. Anitha gave few plants she had.Children also wrote the names of some plant they saw in the Botanical garden.

Planting activity were children took different responsibility

July 22, 2017July 22, 2017

Cubes Rods Plates – 3rd grade

I introduced the Dienes blocks to the 3rd graders to get a sense of ones, tenths and hundreds. Each cube is one, a rod is a ten and plate is a hundred. I asked them the following questions

How many cubes can make a rod?
How many rods can make a plate?
How many plates make a cube?

Then we noticed that the pattern repeats itself : cubes – rods – plates – cubes – rods – plates ….. and that everytime it increases by 10 orders of magnitude.

The children had fun trying to keep the blocks in their hands. Some children were not able to hold it but they all tried.

July 15, 2017July 15, 2017

Kapla

Children were supporting each other while building a design in Kapla and were very concentrated in building it. They were creative and encouraged each other while building it. They had lot of perseverance and patience while doing it and at the same time they enjoyed a lot and were so proud after completing their design.

July 15, 2017July 15, 2017

Building a simple motor:

In Isai Ambalam school we showed Arvind gupta video for the 4^th and 5^th graders. They saw the video and noted down the materials that are needed to build a simple motor. First day they built and it didn’t rotate. They were sad and went back to their class. Second day they watched the video again and they came to know their mistake. They corrected their mistake and the it rotated. Siva and me explained the concept why it is rotating. From my experience when I built it for the first time it didn’t rotate and I didn’t know what was the mistake. Then It rotated. I learnt that I should never give up easily on what I work.

July 15, 2017July 15, 2017

Leaves with 3rd graders

The 3rd grade children of Isai Ambalam School collected different leaves from the school campus. They were able to differentiate the shapes, colour and texture of the leaves. We watched a video on why leaves change yellow in colour. They got to know new words like stem, branch, root, chlorophyll etc.. They were able to draw the different parts of the plant in their notebook after watching the video. We also made made an Herbarium model after collecting green leaves and drying them in their notebook/book

Some of the leaves that the children had collected

July 15, 2017

Multiplication story with 5th Graders

Children learned to say and write multiplication and its two division story. They formed teams and each team presented their stories to the class. Here are the charts made by them.

July 15, 2017

Garden – Filling up with sand

Saturday school already started with disappointment when the hot air balloon again failed to raise up. Then we thought of finishing with what we started. The garden which we built has to be filled with soil to plant plants. It was somewhat time consuming and exhausting to get red soil outside school. Then we looked around the school and found interesting solution.

There were burnt ashes left and decomposed compost from the dry leaves of bamboo trees. We decided to mix Ashes, Sand and Dry leaf compost to fill the garden. The activity started and the children mixed them and almost filled the garden.