Light travels faster than sound

A wee pedagoo type moment that I’d forgotten to post on Monday…

Working on the science topic with a P1-3 class, I’d given them the task of beginning some Linnaean classification (half remembered from my own 5th and 6th year biology classes!) by sorting a page of animal pictures into groups any way they liked as long as they could say why they’d done it. 

Giving children autonomy in this way is at the very heart of the Curriculum for Excellence - allowing them to be responsible for their own learning and facilitating (yuk, what a word) personalisation and choice. There were pictures of fish, a snail, a cow, various cats (big and small), birds and so forth.

This wasn’t the full set of animals incidentally; and how did the class (in their pairs) sort them? As I said, any way they liked.

So we got one pair putting the hermit crab and the snail together (shells) whilst another put the crab with the frog and the penguin on the basis that they can all live in water whilst putting the snail in with the birds on the basis that “they have less than four legs” (cats, dogs, cows, etc all went in their quadroped pile)

No right or wrong answers. Loads of discussion. A practical activity. A context they could identify with easily and child led assessment via feedback on what they thought of other pairs’ groupings.

Take your pick from any of the boxes you might wish to tick…if you’re that way inclined:

I recognise that we have similarities and differences but are all unique.

HWB 0-47a

By comparing generations of families of humans, plants and animals, I can begin to understand how characteristics are inherited.

SCN 1-14a

I can distinguish between living and non living things. I can sort living things into groups and explain my decisions.

SCN 1-01a

When I engage with others, I know when and how to listen, when to talk, how much to say, when to ask questions and how to respond with respect.

*Responsibility of all

LIT 1-02a

I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in a logical sequence and use words which will be interesting and/or useful for others.

*Responsibility of all

LIT 1-06a