Reggio-Inspired Mathematics

Resources for Outdoor Classroom Day - May 21 2020

One of the principles that has been a focus of our project together is finding ways to connect mathematics to community, culture and place. Seeing and experiencing mathematics in the word around us, mathematics as a way to understand ourselves and the world and mathematics as connected to other areas of learning and personal interests is all about mathematics in relationship. Seeing, experiencing, and connecting mathematics to the outdoors, as we connect to the land and to place, has been our focus during this school year.

As we think ahead to Outdoor Classroom Day on May 21 and supporting families in finding ways to connect to the outdoors (even from inside), the following are a few resources. 

This is the official Outdoor Classroom Day website, which is a global initiative held twice a year. There are resources on the website, and a place for you to register your class/school for this spring's event. This year's focus will be on Playful Nature - connecting to the natural world from your backyard, balcony or out your window.

https://outdoorclassroomday.com

 

Because not all of our students are able to get outside this year, we also want to be mindful of ways that students can connect with the natural world, often just outside their window. The following is a Math at Home mini-poster created for families in my school district.

A pdf version to share with families can be found here:  Download SD38_ Math at Home-Window.

The following are two interdisciplinary projects connected the outdoors and indoors - growing things and shadows. 

Pdf versions to share can be found here:

Download SD38_Project - Shadows

Download SD38_Project - Growing_Things

I connected with Anita Foster from the UK after seeing her  "through my window" mini-posters shared on Twitter. She kindly shared them with me to share here and mentioned they will be posted to the Outdoor Classroom Day website soon - and I will link to that once that is available. 

Download 1 - view from my window

Download 2 - memory test

Download 3 - outdoor symphony

Download 4 - Cloud Watching

Here is her contact info:

Anita Foster 

School Grounds and Outdoor Learning Trainer and Facilitator

Raising attainment and improving engagement  

http://www.schoolgroundsnortheast.co.uk

 

Other resources with ideas for connecting mathematics and the outdoors include:

Juliet Robertson's book Messy Maths and her website HERE

Muddy Faces website HERE

Claire Warden and Mindstretchers HERE

And if you are not yet following Liz McCaw @LizMcCaw1 and Alex King @waterywonder on twitter, please do! They are two of our colleagues from BC School District #68 (Nanaimo-Ladysmith) that will hopefully be contributing to our provincial project!

 

I look forward to seeing and hearing how you participate in Outdoor Classroom Day this year!

~Janice

 

 

 

 

cross-district meeting: May 6 2020

Due to not being able to meet in person, we had a Zoom session with about 30 educators from eight districts join us at 3pm on May 6 via Zoom to share, reflect on the year and think ahead to next year.

We shared some of the things we had been doing that were bringing us joy in our work and how we could help others to see and spread joy during this time. The following is the Joy slide that inspired our "breakout room" discussions.

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A theme that came up throughout our sharing was the idea of CONNECT. That it was connecting with our students and connections to people and places that was bringing us joy during this time. Sharon spoke of the joy she and her students were feeling in being connected from home-to-home. In order to help students feel connected to special places in their community, Sarah shared how she has been doing some of her read aloud from places around her school and community. There was a also a sense of joy in realizing this whole experience has created awareness in families about what math is and how it can be experienced at home. 

 

A few district resources were shared:

Lauren MacLean from Coquitlam has created a series of getting outside videos, linking math and the outdoors including patterns and mapping. They are not yet posted to a website but can be accessed through here twitter account:

https://twitter.com/lkmaclean

Angela Meredith from Burnaby mentioned the collaboration between StrongStart educators ad Kindergarten teachers at Forest Grove Elementary:

https://sd41blogs.ca/forestgrove-strongstart/​

(scroll through to read posts about Wandering Wednesdays)

Many teachers mentioned the Walking Curriculum by Gillian, Judson, SFU prof, as something have been drawing from for their weekly plans for families. The book can be found at some local bookstores and through amazon.ca.

 

At the end of our hour together, we thought ahead to next year and used the polling feature on Zoom to do a quick anonymous vote about an area of focus for next year.

The poll results were:

So we will as a group focus on storytelling and math (although of course there's great possibilities to intersect, the outdoors, story and math!).

We brainstormed several ideas for this year's version of Outdoor Classroom Day and will share those in another blog post soon!

Take care everyone...we look forward to continuing the conversation on various platforms - Twitter and Instagram and this blog, until we can meet again face to face.

~Janice