Observe and Record
Observe and Record (Peacefulwarrior93, iStockphoto)
Observe and Record encourages students to use all of their senses to gather information about the world around them and to record their observations to support further learning.
Why use it?
- To help students gather information about the world around them.
- To encourage students to record the information gathered in a way that can be used to support further learning.
Tips for success
- Students come to school knowing a lot about their senses and how they are used. Take time to determine students’ prior knowledge and build on it.
- Create a word wall of descriptive words that can be used to describe objects, materials and events.
How do I use it?
- Before using this strategy, introduce its purpose to the students and model what it looks like and sounds like.
- Use language related to the five senses and provide opportunities for students to see how we use our senses to experience and learn about our world.
- Invite students to identify the different kinds of information that they were able to contribute from each of their senses.
- Invite students to contribute their ideas about each of the senses (e.g., identify the body parts related to each of the five senses).
- Provide opportunities for students to make purposeful observations about an object or event in their environment and identify the senses used to make the observations.
- Create a class chart recording their observations for each of the five senses.
- Have students identify the different kinds of information that they were able to contribute from each of their senses.
- Encourage students to use appropriate vocabulary to describe their observations.
- Co-construct ways of recording information gathered through observations.
Variations
- Have students make observations of something with one sense “blocked” (e.g., make observations of a rainy day with their eyes closed, of an announcement on the P.A. with headphones on, a cooking experience with nose plugs on) and discuss how people who do not have the use of one or more of their senses rely on their other senses to get information (e.g., how does a blind person recognize what something looks like?). Discuss how this information can be recorded (e.g., how someone without their sight records information).
Related Skills