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Lorna Jackson Airline Update

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Airport 126 has been quite a busy space in our classroom over the past few weeks! With flights going to Florida, China, Germany, Australia and beyond, our students have not only adopted particular roles which they felt were important (e.g. ticket agent, flight announcer, pilot, co-pilot, passenger, security guard, flight attendant), but they have truly shown eagerness and enthusiasm towards participating in this new transformed learning space.


Thank you to my wonderful Aunt who is a Travel Agent, for visiting our classroom and teaching us about what travel agents do, what belongs and doesn't belong in a suitcase, and surprising us with luggage tags, ticket holders and our very own airplane model! Your visit sparked lots of conversation around vacations and the steps to take once you arrive at an airport. Many of our students enjoyed sharing their own personal experiences from visiting places around the world and drawing and writing about them.  


This post highlights the student-led advancements within our dramatic play area as we continue to learn more 
about airplanes and airports! 

Here are some of the exciting additions to our learning space:

1. "Role Tags": Students decided that in order for everyone to know what role they are playing, they need a tag (e.g. ticket agent, pilot, co-pilot, etc). These are just simple clip-on plastic tag sleeves whereby students have written down each role.


2. Personal Passports: L.D. mentioned during a mini lesson that he needed a passport in order to go on his trip with his family. That comment led to much excitement as other students were able to make connections to having passports also. To support their idea, my DECE and I created a simple template for them to use. Each student filled out their passport and whenever they visit a new place, they get a sticker inside their passport to symbolize where they've been! It's been a hit!


3. Seat numbers: After reading many books about airplanes during our shared reading and read-aloud time, A.C., I.D., and C.M. decided that it was important for passengers to know what seat to sit in so they created seat numbers for the backs of our chairs. This also made it easier to fill in our Airline tickets!
T.B. (JK) decided to sort the airport word cards
around the carpet based on the first letter of
every word! Students saw and began reading all the
different vocabulary cards and making connections
to our airport! 

4. Luggage Scanner: After sharing A.C.'s creative representation of an "x-ray machine" at the Building and Constructing area to the class, she inspired a few students to make a plan for our giant cardboard box. R.L., T.B., I.D., J.S., and A.C. worked together to draw what they wanted our scanner to look like and what materials we would need to make it work. As a result, black streamers, tape and scissors were used to give it that realistic look! 


5. Security Computer and Checklists: I.D. brought in a book from home to share with the class that was all about airports. She noticed in the middle of the book that there was a picture of a luggage scanner! She also noticed that it needed a computer to see inside the luggage so she decided to create one to add to our airport. Similarly, a small group of SK's came up with the idea to make a checklist of "safe" and "not safe" items so that when luggage goes through the scanner, they can use the computer to check off what they see. Amazing!

This transformation of our dramatic play area has allowed us as educators to integrate, document and assess many curriculum expectations! Below are two short videos of three of our SK students (I.D., A.C., and S.M.) engaged at our ticket counter: 


(I apologize for the video being so small...it was much better quality on iMovie)

Oral Communication
BIG IDEA: Children are effective communicators.
1. Communicate by talking and by listening and speaking to others for a variety of purposes and in a variety of contexts. (1.2, 1.5, 1.7)
4. Communicate in writing, using strategies that are appropriate for beginners (4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5)

Number Sense
NS1.3 Begin to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects
NS1.4 Demonstrate an understanding of the counting concepts of stable order

Stay tuned for another update since we have another surprise visitor coming!

5 comments:

  1. So fun to read about the excitement going on at the airport!

    Your kiddos sound like they are learning a lot through this investigation.

    Kudos to you!
    Kim

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for the kind words Kim!

      I would have to extend the same kudos to you and your class! I've truly enjoyed reading about all your classroom happenings and it sounds like there is a lot of excitement filling up your classroom also! I particularly can relate to your students' fascination with bey blades! My DECE and I have a few SK students who are always eager to create new spinners out of connecting cubes, lego, etc.

      Thanks again for your comment and I look forward to continuing to learn from and with you!

      Sincerely,
      Jocelyn

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  2. Love the luggage scanner - have been wondering how to duplicate it and your students have done a fantastic job. Thanks for sharing it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Maureen,

      Thanks for the comment and for visiting my blog! I'm so glad my students have inspired you on how to recreate a "luggage scanner!" Such bright and innovative minds!

      Thank you for all you do on your blog also! I truly enjoy reading all about your various learning experiences!

      Jocelyn

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  3. I absolutely love what you and your students have done here! Just the other day, I was reading in our Board KinderConference about an airline that a teacher set-up in her room. She had some similar ideas, but you've created some other ones as well. I'm going to share your blog post with her and the other Kindergarten teachers in our Board.

    It's fantastic that this centre was so engaging as well as such a wonderful learning opportunity for students. How do you facilitate play and learning? What strategies can you share? I would love to know more!

    Aviva
    www.weinspirefutures.com

    ReplyDelete

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