Saturday 29 November 2014

Multiple intelligences

The geneses:
Last year the team of teachers attended a lecture by two Canadian teachers, Mr Gervais Sirois and Mrs Sylvie Dubé about “Multiple intelligences”. We pointed out our thinking and practice on ourselves first, to be able to transfer this experience to the pupils. Since then, some of us are teaching with this new point of view, especially with children with special needs. The teachers pay special attention to make the pupils use different ways of learning by proposing them different attitudes regarding the 7 types of intelligences.

What do multiple intelligences mean?
I invite you to read the article by Carla Lane from "The Distance Learning Technology Resource”.

Howard Gardner of Harvard has identified seven distinct intelligences. This theory has emerged from recent cognitive research and "documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways," according to Gardner (1991). According to this theory, "we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. Where individuals differ is in the strength of these intelligences - the so-called profile of intelligences -and in the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains."

I invite you to read more about Howard Gardner’s works on Wikipedia or on many other websites. Nowadays most of the teachers are teaching using different ways to help the understanding and learning; but the strength of the method is to combine and to think about all this intelligences to make it easier for the children, especially the ones who resist at “traditional teaching”. When you propose Playmobil to learn a foreign language you use bodily-kinesthetic intelligence by using the body, touching things.

Dominique Mottet – teacher of Sainte Thérèse for pupils with special needs

Friday 28 November 2014

Reading Rods by Learning Resources

Making sentences in English with Reading Rods (Sentence Building) by Learning Resources. 






Miguel Ángel - Primary 3 - Santísima Trinidad School 

Thursday 27 November 2014

LEGO Education LearnToLearn

LearnToLearn comes with the components needed to create 28 identical kits, each containing the same selection of 72 LEGO elements that students use to solve a variety of activities presented in the curriculum pack. Each set of bricks can be housed in the included reusable storage bags and either distributed to each student or kept as a set and pulled out when needed. 

The downloadable curriculum pack contains three getting-started activities, 15 complete activities across five learning areas, and a variety of teacher support materials including classroom management and differentiation tips. LearnToLearn introduces LEGO Education hands-on materials to the elementary classroom in a simple and approachable way, providing an engaging learning experience for teachers and students alike.




You can download the LearnToLearn curriculum pack at:



By Miguel Ángel Martín Mas - Santísima Trinidad School

Happy Thanksgiving Day!


By María Marquina - Nursery school - Santísima Trinidad School

Lego Education MoreToMath

The MoreToMath Core Set 1-2, when used with the MoreToMath Curriculum Pack 1-2, enables students in first and second grade to build and apply the practices of mathematical problem solving. One set contains the LEGO® elements needed for two students at a time. Building materials are delivered in a sturdy plastic storage bin with a sorting tray included for classroom management. Each set contains 520 LEGO bricks, including four 8x8 base plates; two minifigures, Mia and Max; and two LEGO brick separators, as well as, a label sheet for marking the compartments in the sorting tray.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Movember

In this November, the Secondary 4 students paid tribute to the movement MOVEMBER, not only wearing moustaches and the same clothes all together but also working the topic at their English lessons. We read a text and, in pairs, we reduced a few lines into only one, later two groups worked together to reduce it one more time … until we summarized the whole text in only three lines. This type of cooperative learning is called CRYSTALLIZE IT! And it was great fun! We recommend it to you!!






Amaya Fernández. 
Secondary School English teacher.
Santísima Trinidad School

Landscape in autumn

Work in small groups: children in 2nd class with students in 5th class are planning and working together.




They observed the school garden and the surroundings.
-They picked up leaves



They decide the settings and the characters


The woodcutter


The bike riders


The harvest picnic


Walking on a bridge


Horse riding in the forest


A hut in the wood and a lady is cleaning the path from the leaves


Forest sightseeing

Primary school G.Rodari, ICS Ignoto Militi

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Double Digit Addition and Subtraction ( with Lego Bricks)

The following is a post from Becky Spence of This Reading Mama.

I can vividly remember being thoroughly confused in the second grade when it came time to borrow and carry with double digit addition and subtraction. I remember saying over and over again, “I don’t understand why you cross out that number and write that other number. How do I know when to do it?” I simply could not wrap my brain about how it worked. The concept was too abstract and I needed something concrete!

I also remember how frustrated my teacher got with me. “You just do!” she’d say, with no further explanation. Unfortunately, it took a few months for me to figure it out. But once I actually learned the “why” and “how” behind it, it made total sense.

So, this was the big year. The year I’d have to actually teach this concept to my own second grade son. One thing I knew for certain- I was going to SHOW him how it worked in a concrete manner before I started crossing through numbers and abstractly talking over their heads. Since my second grader loves his LEGO bricks, I incorporated them into this math lesson as they learned about regrouping and borrowing with double digit addition and subtraction. Here is how we did it.

Materials:

- LEGO bricks (square 2×2 size) - We used 10 stacks of 10 Lego bricks and about 10-15 loose pieces, similar to base ten blocks
- Dry erase board and marker


Double Digit Addition with Regrouping


First, I wrote the addition problem on a dry erase board. He used his stacked and loose Lego bricks to build the top number above the faded horizontal line and the bottom number under the line.


Once both numbers were built, he combined the tens and the ones together in one space. Now, he could clearly see that the ones column had more than 9 single pieces of Lego bricks. So he took out 10 loose pieces from the ones side and traded it in for another stack of 10. The new stack of 10 was placed into the tens column. This left the ones column with just one single Lego brick. And the tens side had 8 for a total of 81.

We did this multiple times with Lego bricks over a couple of days until he could do it without assistance. (I made up my own addition problems each time, being sure that it required him to carry or regroup from the ones column. You could also find a workbook page that has these kinds of problems and use them instead.)

Double Digit Subtraction with Borrowing


We did subtraction a little differently because building both numbers out of Lego bricks on the mat can become confusing once it is time to actually subtract. Instead, he built the top number in the equation with his Lego bricks and the bottom number was written below the faded horizontal line with a dry erase marker.


Once the top number had been built, I said something like, “Look in the ones place. The problem is asking me to take 7  away from 2. Since I don’t have enough in the ones place on top, we need to borrow a ten from over here.” He took a stack of ten Lego bricks from the tens column and brought it over to the ones side. He broke the stack of ten apart into 10 loose pieces. Once they were broken apart {with 12 single pieces}, we took away the bottom number from the top number on both the ones and tens side. We spent a couple of days with this routine until I felt he was comfortable doing it with independence.

I loved that my son was able to explain to me WHY it is necessary to borrow and regroup in these problems, something that took me months to verbalize as a young child. Now that the concrete foundation has been dug, I hope that he won’t have the same problem I had when it comes to crossing out those numbers!

Monday 24 November 2014

Milano - Highrise Award 2014

A pair of skyscrapers by Boeri Studio are nearing completion in Milan, featuring as many trees as could be planted in a hectare of forest. “Bosco Metropolitano” metropolitan forest  is the symbol of natural architecture.




 Building "Bosco Metropolitano" with LEGO bricks.





By Marzia Luzzini - ICS Ignoto Militi

Folded paper animals


This book by Fiona Watt is brimming with activities for making all kinds of crafty things. Each activity is explained simply, with clear step-by-step illustrations and a picture or photo of the finished project to aspire to. Using different art and craft techniques, such as drawing, painting, collage, printing, cutting and sticking as well as model making, any child will be inspired to get out the pens, paints, scissors and glue.





By Miguel Ángel - Primary 3 - Santísima Trinidad School

European partners

The six partners from South to North:

Colegio Santísima Trinidad (Salamanca - Spain)

I.C.S. "Ignoto Militi" (Saronno - Italy)

Institution Sainte-Thérèse Les Cordeliers (Clermont Ferrand - France)

Erich Kästner Grundschule (Gera - Germany)

Ynystawe Primary School (Swansea - UK)

Społeczna Szkoła Podstawowa (Byalistok - Poland)


By Valérie Metal - Institution Sainte -Thérèse Les Cordeliers

Numerical Scale

This is a game of reflection which allows children to develop logic and sense of observation. It is perfect to carry out their first mathematical exercises. In the pictures, you can see how they work out different ways to obtain number 10 (2 + 8, 3 + 7, 4 + 6…). 






By Maide - Primary 1 - Santísima Trinidad School