Barbre Park

With all of the talk about maps we just knew we had to follow one.  These smart Birch friends know the routes we take to all of our usual spaces.  But what would happen when we headed out on a NEW adventure?

We divided into two groups and headed out for our new adventure!

Our map tells us to go out the front door of our school.  

But where do we go after that?

"This way." AD

But wait.  What is this?  This group's map tells them to go out a different door!  What will happen?  Can we go different routes and still end up the same place?

"We are this way.  We need to go this way and turn." JB     "I see train tracks!  We are going to cross the train tracks!" ESE

You are both noticing important things that our maps tell us.  You are noticing the direction we need to go, and ESE, you are noticing important landmarks along our route.

And guess what?  JA you noticed the very same train tracks on the map your group was using!  Are we going to the same place?  Will our maps connect?

Our group figured out that the words on our route told us what streets we needed to be on.  We headed down Jefferson towards where the map told us we would find Lockwood.

Found it!  We are on the right path!

The other group headed down Grey towards Lockwood.  

Found it!

But...they discovered a bit of a confusion!

As they stood trying to figure out what way to turn

JA you excitedly pointed and declared "This way!"

Wait, how do you know to go that way?  Your friend MT has the map, and you aren't looking at it.

"The arrow tells me!" JA

OH!  You are noticing a marking on the sidewalk.  Are we following the arrows on the sidewalk or are we following the map?

Hey!  What is that in the distance?  It's the other group!  We found one another!  Our maps do take us to the same place!

Now that we are together are our maps the same?  Yes!

"That way! That's the way to the train tracks." ESE

k

With every intersection we approached we consulted our map and decided which way to turn.

We made it!  We are at Barbre Park!

We explored, collected, discovered, ran, laughed, and connected.  It was a great adventure!

It's California!

"This is California" AD

That's how it all started.  A morning filled with deep discovery; noticings between a few friends  It was intended as an open-ended time before our "real" work began.  Your teachers hadn't placed supporting materials or even presented a "big question" But it became evident that our work was going to go on despite...or maybe because of those absences.

It was a moment in time that could have easily been overlooked in the busyness of a morning.  But because of the importance of slowing down and noticing as teacher-investigators, it wasn't overlooked.

You are telling me something about this map.  What do you know? I wondered

"This is California.  I've been to California." AD   You have?  Guess what?  I've been to California too!

You were showing me a specific symbol on the map.  And then you noticed the same symbol on a different part of the map.  They are different sizes, and you noticed that right away.

"This is another California.  This is the little California and this is the big California." AD

"This is a soccer game." ESE

Ahh, you are looking at the same symbol as your friend AD but you are telling me something different.  Hmmm...

"It's so big!" CW

You're right, CW.  The lines look SO big when you use the magnifying glass.  What else do you notice on the map?

"This is the water.  I've been to California so I'm sure." AD

That is water?  How do you know?

"It's blue." AD

You're telling me blue on a map means water?  Are there any other places where there is a water on our map?

"There's lots of little tiny waters all over the map." AD

As is so often the case when friends work alongside one another, their discoveries spark new noticings for each other.

"I found a line of water." ESE

A "line" of water?  Wow.  So, are all of the blue waters different somehow?

"This one is big big water.  It's the lake.  And all of the little waters are the splashes from where people played and the water splashed out.  And that one is the line of water." AD

Oh my goodness.  AD you made your teacher smile with your theory.  You are absolutely right that these marks of blue have different meanings.  And that blue is DEFINITELY big, big water!

After spending so much time talking about the water, we began to notice the other marks on the map.

"Where does this red line take us?" ESE

"It takes us to CALIFORNIA!" AD

"Oh no!  I'm trapped.  That's okay.  I can turn on this line.  I can go on the red lines and black lines."

You are following the lines on the map.  I wonder if you can figure out how to get from you over to CW on the map?  What lines would you follow?

It was tricky trying to visualize a spot to get to.  You teacher had an idea!  

We found tiny triangle stickers and we each put one on the map.

That was all it took!  How can we get from my triangle to your triangle?  How can I get to the next one?

With each path we discovered we had choices about where to turn!

Should we go this way or that way?  Forward or backwards?

We began navigating between places making decisions that were the best...or not!

These friends are figuring out how to read a map!

With all of these new found map skills what should we do?  The rain was the perfect excuse to push further into our map reading!

We found this map.  What do you notice?

"There are squares (RM)... and rectangles (DM)." 

"There are words." JI

What do all of these squares mean?

"They tell us what room we are going in." MT

How can we figure out what room is which?  How can we tell?

"Because the collaboratory is big!" RM

You are noticing the size of the square.

"This one is the gym.  It's SO big!" EM

"This one is the biggest." DM

Can we use these squares to find our way around the school?

"You can picture the size of them.  Picture it in your brain." RM

"We should draw the names." CG

With our new found discovery we headed out into the school to label our maps.

Here is a sneak peak of our work!

Do you have any maps in your home that we could use?

Maps from the zoo, an amusement park, a state park, a campground?  Maps from your place of business?  The Birch investigators would love to have them!

Thank you, families for helping our learning come to life.

Map building

 

Maps and Lines

Familiar invitations, but with a twist!

Can you make map lines with playdough?

Can you build a map of our school with these materials?

What would our friends do?

It was a challenge to begin thinking in a new way.

Some friends sat down and immediately started building.  I heard,

"This is my house." and "This is my sissy's playroom.", and "This is the ninja course."

Hmmm...where is your house in our school?

Is your sissy's playroom in our school?
Where is the ninja course in our school?

This opened up great conversation among the children and I.  What do we notice about our school?

We are building a map of our SCHOOL, what should you put in your map?

"This is the place where those spray bottles are.  And now I'm going to build the sink" CF

"This is the carpet right there."

"This side is cold water and this is hot.  It's the sink!"

"This is the fish tank in that room.  You know, I'll show you when we pass it."

"YES!  It's a circle for the sand pit!"

Your map has parts of our entire school, the inside and the outside!

How do we get from the inside to the outside on your map?

"This is the map of our school!" EM

"That's the sand and that's the slide.

"That' the rock wall.  You climb up here and you juuuuuuump!"

EM your map showed me the boundary of our school and then the playscape.

"This is the cave.  I'm going to build it." RM

"I'm thinking in my mind what else.  Oh!  the rocks!"

RM your map showed me great details of a part of our school.  I can see exactly where your map is telling me!

I'm going to make a whole new map.

"This is the tunnel and the climbing wall." CF

"These are the bricks."

Oh, it sounds like you are building the OUTSIDE of our school!

"These are the doors I come in."

I love the way you showed me how they open wide!  I know exactly what doors you are talking about.

You showed me all the doors and all of the spaces you were creating.  You built a map of the outside of our school walls, and then you started adding the outside spaces to it.

"This is the door., this is that place."

Oh!  You are building a map of the inside of our classroom.  If this is the safe space, what is this part here?

"The light table!  And that carpet.  I'm working on making this space."

MT built our classroom.  AD build the outside walls.  Is your map the inside or the outside, CW?

"Outside."

What outside part is it?

"Hillside."

I can see all the hills in your building!  What else is on the hillside that you can add to toyour map?

LB, you stacked triangle after triangle and told me a story about trying again and again, trying your hardest.  I told you it reminded me of the giant blue blocks in the collaoratory.

"Nope.  It's the blocks in the gym."

Ah!  I know what blocks you're talking about!

And then you added one more piece and told me

"I connected our maps!" LB

Wow!  You made a map of one space in our school, and AD made a map of another space and then you connected them together to create one BIG map!  That's amazing!

JL you and I talked for a long time about what it looks like to create a map of our school.

We noticed together what we have in our classroom.

"toys" JL

We do have a lot of materials in our room, you're right.  What else do you notice that is on our classroom?

"The light table, and the small world."JL

Yes!  I notice a lot of big things too,  We talked about the tables in our room and you decided to use tiny cubes to add them to your map.  At first you lined them all up next to one another along the top of your wall.  I noticed out loud how the table in our room are all spread out.  Kiss that smart brain, you figured out that your map tables needed to be moved too!

"This is the door to the playscape." JI

We had great work happening inside today!

Check out the collages below to catch a glimpse of some other work we did!