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Option A: If you have had a chance to teach these lessons, please think about these questions when commenting on your experience with teaching the Shadows and the Sun Lessons.
1.What worked with these lessons (progression, content, reflection)?
2. What was challenging when teaching these lessons?
3. Did your students emerge with an understanding of the course of the sun across the sky during the day? Do they understand why this affects the location they choose for the garden site?
4. Did these activities bring you any surprises?
Then, please read through each of your classmates’ answers and comment on one or two of their answers. There will be a reminder in module 8 to check back on your classmates answers in this forum in case you’re one of the first ones to arrive and comment.
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Option B: If you do not have the opportunity to teach the curriculum directly, please comment on which parts of it worked for you individually.
What engages you in these lessons inasmuch as you’ve been able to practice them yourself?
Did these lessons enable you to find a location for your garden site?
Do you have any new insights about the sun’s course of movement across the sky from your immersion in these activities?
Then, please read through each of your classmates’ answers and comment on one or two of their answers. There will be a reminder in module 8 to check back on your classmates answers in this forum in case you’re one of the first ones to arrive and comment.
Posted by: Heather Clark-Warner, PreK EMES
MARCH 26, 2023 AT 4:53 PMI was not able to try out the shadow lesson this week. I will continue to try and get to this.
I love the idea of playing with shadows in pre-k, they love it too. We are also waiting a bit for our concrete to dry out enough to lay down on. 😉
Our garden location was already chosen prior to this.
It is in full sun until well into the afternoon. My fear is that it may be too sunny and hot.
We will look at this in June and perhaps decide to shift the garden beds or not.
My thought is that it will be just fine. We will just need to make sure we are watering well all through the summer.
The next part to this lesson for my pre-k students is to plant their own seeds in a clear cup. We do this every year in April.
The clear cup allows them to really see the roots taking hold.
We then write a beautiful collaborative book called, The Needs of Seeds.
This will be a part of my final project. I will show you their work then. ;0)
It is a wonderful way to culminate the gardening unit.Today my preschoolers played Shadow Tag! We talked about: What is a shadow? and What creates different shadows? Each student found their own shadow and we played the game. They LOVED it! One of my youngest students was stepping on his own shadow and saying, “Ms. Rachel, I got you!” So, I had to show him where his own shadow was 🙂 This game was a bit trickier for really young preschoolers and/or students with high developmental needs. Shadow play would be better for these students (shadow puppets outside, or using an old projector and a white sheet/wall and making shadows in the classroom).
After playing the game, we looked at 2 garden beds (one is close to the building, and the other is further away). We talked as a group about what would happen if the school cast a shadow on the garden bed next to the school (the plants wouldn’t get enough sunlight and wouldn’t grow well). Then we talked about where a better spot for our garden would be. We have made the executive group decision to officially move our herb bed to a different spot.
Heather, I’m so curious about The Needs of Seeds! I look forward to learning more in June!
We play lots of tag games at recess and shadow tag is one of our favorites ~ my students understand how shadows are cast much bigger than the actual size of their bodies and they love it! We had a brief conversation about where we could plant a garden in our field (even though we have an established garden) for the sake of the activity. Also, we use a flashlight and a globe to show equal day and night (closer to places near the equator). We watched a video too that explains it and students did drawings in their journals and talked about the changing of the seasons and used specific vocabulary. They enjoyed speaking like scientists! Heather, your group was productive ~ preschoolers can really get into games like these that teach specific concepts.
I have played shadow tag with a variety of my PE classes, and it’s always fun to see some of my younger students trying to move away from their own shadows. It’s also interesting to see the shadow lengths change as the day goes on. They had a lot of fun trying to keep their shadows away from each other while stepping on other peoples shadows. We have been noticing where the sun moves and the shadows cast by the building and other structures throughout the day. We have some spots that would be nice for a garden, but thinking that there might be too many shadows cast by the building to provide sunlight. Right now, we are looking at a spot just beyond our playground area that seems to get pretty good light throughout the day.
Heather – I love that you’re going to plant in clear cups for the students to see the roots below the soil – such a wonderful visual for the students! Roberta – what a great idea to use a flashlight and a globe to demonstrate sunlight and shadows!
Janna- It sounds like playing shadow tag with your PE classes is always enjoyable, especially watching the younger students interact with their own shadows. It’s fascinating to see the changing lengths of shadows throughout the day and observing how the sun moves and casts shadows on the building and other structures. Considering a garden spot beyond the playground area with good sunlight seems like a great idea, as long as the building doesn’t cast too many shadows in that location.
For my class, we used an app online to look at our sun and find the best options to place or school tea garden. THe app was
SunCalc. It tracks the trajectory of the sun from sunrise to sunset with the SunCalc App. It is a user-friendly garden app that helps gardeners and farmers find viable sites to plant their crops based on the hours of sun needed for them to grow to their best potential.Janna- It sounds like playing shadow tag with your PE classes is always enjoyable, especially watching the younger students interact with their own shadows. It’s fascinating to see the changing lengths of shadows throughout the day and observing how the sun moves and casts shadows on the building and other structures. Considering a garden spot beyond the playground area with good sunlight seems like a great idea, as long as the building doesn’t cast too many shadows in that location.
For my class, we used an app online to look at our sun and find the best options to place or school tea garden. THe app was
SunCalc. It tracks the trajectory of the sun from sunrise to sunset with the SunCalc App. It is a user-friendly garden app that helps gardeners and farmers find viable sites to plant their crops based on the hours of sun needed for them to grow to their best potential.I did not have a chance to play shadow tag this year with my students but during COVID times, this was a big a hit. It was a game in which the kids didn’t have to touch each other and it added science skills through observation, and learning about the sun, and the earth’s movement.
Amanda, that app SunCalc sounds very interesting. I’ll have to check that out! Thanks for sharing!
Heather, your fear was right! Our garden beds are in a spot that will get full sun all day, and it proved to be too hot and sunny for some of our sprouts! We will have to see how the rest of our garden survives over the summer. We will definitely need a plan for a hose, maybe the watering can approach didn’t get the soil wet enough?My grandson is only 2 so we modified this exploration greatly and scaled it down. As we play outside, We have been noticing our shadows, watching them move as we move – raising our hands up to the sky and swaying like trees, dancing, hopping. We walk around and I will point to different shadows in the yard. While waking around I noted that a spot I had originally intended on putting some additional raised beds for the herbs gets a lot of afternoon sun yet also a lot of morning shade because it is closer to the house. Im now thinking of how I might incorporate the entire back yard that includes our large Medicine Wheel. I got a book “The Medicine Wheel Garden: Creating Sacred Space for Healing, Celebration and Tranquility. Written by E Barrie Kavasch.” My “Sensory Garden” research is also morphing into this now too. I am imaging this is more of a thought process for now during this course and my husband and I will be evolving our land over time. Im really loving how the different aspects are flowing together.
I enjoy reading the lesson plans provided in the curriculum and they flow really well. I also notice that as I have aged and retired, I am greatly enjoying the shift in my life to not feeling as though I am teaching. I feel more ‘in relationship’, less formal and more relaxed time with my grandson where knowledge is woven into our everyday experiences with each other. I am learning with and from him as well, co-creation and discovery.
Side note: at 2 years old he is LOVING helping me to make tea. I purchased a glass tea pot so we can watch the tea steep and see the water change color. We see the tea soak up the water and infuse with the heat. I put the loose tea in small glass jars that Jackson can manage. He opens the jar and puts the tea in the pot, he helps me pour the water and he says “hot, hot”. As it steeps we sing or hum together. He does his best to help me pour the cup of tea. We feel the steam on our face, we small it with a deep inhale and then we practice a long exhale by having him blow on the tea to cool it down. At different times of the day he will look at me and say “Tea, Tea?” and we go make tea. He is so young and I am so amazed at how this ritual is forming between us. It’s so precious to me. To me, this ritual and routine between Jackson and I and the tea, is what has made this course so fulfilling for me. Thank you.
1.What worked with these lessons (progression, content, reflection)?
Our playground was covered with snow still and we do not have any black top areas in which I can use chalk right now. We have mud, lots and lots of mud. And since we are getting 12-18 inches of snow, it seems recording this lesson may take some time. I do have conversations about shadows inside the classroom as we have many windows that allow light to stream in and allows shadow play at certain times. My school garden has already been determined and this year we will have stand up planters as opposed to the wooden beds we had last year. Perhaps I can choose a certain corner of the garden as one side is closer to the tree line than others. Since the entire school shares the garden I am sure we can figure something out. I will evaluate during transplanting time. Some of the seedlings will come home with me as my position was eliminated and I will not return to my current school next year at this point. The kids LOVED watching their been seeds germinate in the baggies. We had many thoughts about why some were faster than others and whether the amount of sun streaming in the windows mattered.2. What was challenging when teaching these lessons? Snow. Snow is my outdoor challenge right now. I was so inspired and motivated with the faux spring and now this dumping of snow has taken its toll on my excitement (lol)
3. Did your students emerge with an understanding of the course of the sun across the sky during the day? Do they understand why this affects the location they choose for the garden site? We stood at the garden site and noted where the sun was. We also were looking at the school site for the upcoming eclipse which is adjacent to the garden site.
4. Did these activities bring you any surprises? I didn’t have any surprises but the kids are totally loving all the planting and caring for their young seedlings.
Oh no Veronica! I was wondering if the snow would get in the way of engaging with these lessons at the schools. Sounds like you made the best of it though. I bet I have a lot of similar questions as your students when observing the sprouting. I also wonder why some of the seeds are sprouting and yet others are still empty. Its all a mystery on this fun learning curve! Enjoy the eclipse with your class, I bet the kids are getting so excited by it Enjoy!
We enjoyed an engaging all school assembly on the Friday prior to the eclipse. One of my students is fortunate enough to have both parents that are scientists and one who works for NASA! We were able to enjoy physical models of how the shadows work during the eclipse. We had fun in the classroom with flashlights experimenting with light and shadows too. We also did finally get outside on one of the days prior to the big storm and look around to notice how the trees shadowed various portions of the school yard. We also used that day as a chance to “adopt a bud” on 4 different trees to watch in the future.
I am catching up here. I don’t have a class to do these lessons with.
I love the ideas of these lessons to get kids reflectively thinking about the why we would or would not plant in certain places and about the sun.
I have two raised beds that I believe I will be transforming into my own herbal tea garden this year.
They used to be full sun, but the neighbors trees are a bit of a problem. Hoping that as I baby my starts along and monitor them this transition to the boxes that I have historically used for annuals will work.
Love that you can relax and feel naturally in relationship with your grand.
Meanwhile, I am really catching up because I wanted the chance to teach these lessons or at least converse with my students about shadows and our tea garden site. I am really devoted to making this garden be a garden that caters to our senses. Now that I have my classroom back and I was able to teach these lessons, or at least talk with my 3rd graders about it, I am ready to respond.
Today, I was able to take the class out, sit in a circle near our big beautiful apple tree in full blossoms. It was 12:45pm. Our side of the building is NE/E facing. WE get sun most of the day but full sun from sunrise till about 2:30 when the sun starts to dip to the other side of the building and shade our side. Our building is just a single story so we don’t end up with too much shade except along the edge of the building. As we sat down to talk about the shade cast from the sun, I asked questions that led me to understand what they already knew. As I expected, they were quite knowledgeable about how the sun worked. They knew where it rose and where it set. We continued to talk about a good location for our tea garden. After our discussion I was able to introduce the game of shadow Tag. Our only problem was that there were now no shadows because the sun was behind a cloud. I introduced the concept of the game anyway in hopes that soon I would be able to look out and see that the sun was back out and I could let them go play. Just as we were lining up to go inside out the sun popped and off they went to play.
I was mostly surprised about how the children ages 8 and 9 struggled with the concept of how to play. Their shadows were behind them mostly. One student caught on really quickly of how to keep his body between him and the tagger. I suspect we will try again on a brighter day, maybe when the day is earlier so that we can really have a good go of it on our side of the building.
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