Dragon Study

Halloween festivities launched us into Dragon Study this week! Kids have been organized into several dragon classification groups (Fire, Mountain, Thunder, Lake, Creative, Wind) and travel with their groups to different dragon learning stations based on different types of learning.

At our Linguistic station, two groups have each acted out a play in front of the whole group. One was based on Herb the Vegetarian Dragon and the other was a dramatization of The Tale of Custard the Cowardly Dragon. They have been enjoying trying out different roles while learning to project their voices and remember their lines.

The Musical station has tasked the students to build an instrument that will bring to our ears the voice of a dragon. There are many different types of dragon that they could make a voice for. Some are loud, others are gentle, some are happy, others are serious. Each child plays his/her instrument for the group to see if they can guess which dragon it is the voice of.  We have seen a variety of drums, shakers and stringed instruments so far.

The Intrapersonal station has kids choose a picture of a dragon that they think most embodies their own inner "dragon spirit".  This dragon becomes the cover of their folder and the student then reflects on their choice in a journal, writing about how they share qualities or traits with the dragon of their choosing.

The Kinesthetic station challenges students to shape a dragon out of a thin layer of clay pressed to a board and detailed using toothpicks to make scales, eyes and other features. It is painstaking work to stretch the clay into a shape that resembles a western or eastern dragon. These dragons are shared with the group and then displayed out in the hall.

The Visual/Spatial group works collaboratively to create a habitat for dragons. The group  uses oil pastels to show the environment and its features. Each group must consider and plan what resources will be provided in their habitat to help the dragons sustain life - sources of food and water, space, and shelter. These large scale murals are shared with the rest of the kids and displayed in the hallway.

The Logical/Mathematical station sends our students on an archaeological dig to unearth the bones of dragons hidden under the sand. After very carefully brushing away layers of sand, our scientists retrieve bones and must consider the size and shape of the dragon it may have belonged to. Using clues from a dragon skeleton diagram, they create a visual representation of the complete dragon with the found bone drawn in place. The kids have really enjoyed this investigation!

Our station work will continue next week as we rotate all the groups through each station. Some pictures of artifacts and students creations are below. Behold the dragons!