Holiday Origami

Okay, okay, so there are only two weeks to go before the blessed winter break. But here’s an idea combining math, vocabulary, research, hands-on, following directions, group work, patterns, and fun: origami!

Each year the American Museum of Natural History in NYC decorates a holiday tree in origami, all origami, over 500 creations on the tree, and this year the theme is Origami, A to Z—all animals, like an A and a Architeuthis, a B and a butterfly, a C and a chimpanzee, and so on.

What fun to find patterns, or make them up (even better) for animals of all sorts, the stranger the better, and cut and fold. No Tree? Put them on a bulletin board in the shape of a tree, or string them around the room.

What great lessons can unfold! On just one search on the Internet for “history of origami for kids” there were 81,000 results. So there’s research, history, taking notes, writing a report, presenting a report. And that leads to so much more. Learning how to follow directions, step-by-step—important to demonstrate. Learning how to make a real crease (pressing thumb nail back and forth), how to make sense of the folds (you’re on your own).

One search on “origami and math” came up with 73,400 results. Who knew? Oh, Teachers, please find the first website I clicked on: Fascinating Folds, The Educational Benefits of Origami. Listed for all to see and for the conscientious teacher’s plan book are wonderful sections on: Behavioral Skills, Cooperative Learning, A Link to Math, Cognitive Development, Multi-Cultural Awareness, and Community Building. What more could teachers, team leaders, department heads, supervisors, principals, superintendents, and board members ask for? Oh, it almost makes me wish I were back teaching again. On second thought, I love writing about this and creating Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms wwww.spigotsciencemag.com five times each year with my colleague, Dr. David Cochran, Spigot's Chief Learning Officer. Yes, we’ve been there in that classroom. I think I’ll get my grandchildren and start folding paper for our tree. What fun!

Valeria Girandola, Editor-in-Chief

Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms

Using Picture Books in the K-12 Science Classroom
Picture books are one of the easiest ways to introduce scientific concepts in the classroom. No matter what the grade level, illustrations and written words bring a real clarity to sometimes intricate concepts. Students introduced to new and exciting ideas or processes through well-written and carefully illustrated books become motivated to want more. Of course, the accomplished teacher practices the performance well beforehand of reading to the class while holding the book up and open so that the pictures are readily visible to all students. The teacher’s voice is dramatic and meaningful. There are pauses to emphasize the accompanying picture complete with important details. There is pacing, separating the concepts as they develop across the pages.
One of my keenest memories is of my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Franz, reading to us in her oh-so- pleasing voice, showing us the pictures, smiling, as we learned. Then in 7th grade, Mrs. Tiffany did the same thing. ( I was fortunate to go to a demonstration elementary school for The College of New Jersey, formerly known as Trenton State Teachers’ College. Both of these teachers, along with many others that crossed my childhood paths, went on to become professors in K-12 education at the cCllege. Their voices and lessons never to be forgotten.)
Preparation is the key .
1. Make friends with the school librarian a week or two ahead of time. Ask her to choose about 3 to 7 books that have colorful illustrations and short content. She can usually get books from the county or other libraries on loan.
2. Skim each book. Prepare a mini book talk. Choose a main idea to use while introducing the book. Tell the children to listen and look for a specific detail of information, or perhaps, an inference.
3. Read with meaning and modulation, pausing with expectation. Pointing out the pictures.
4. Discuss as you go. Make the experience interactive. The book comes alive. It has a whole new personality.
5. When it’s over have the students discuss, then write in their journal ,3 things they learned, liked, or wonder about.
6. Share the journal entries.
This can be done daily with each book or all at once making a book-talk day of the science class. Put the books aside and encourage the students to peruse the books on their own. At the end of the unit have the students choose one of the books and do a short book report on it. In upper grades, do a report on the subject of their favorite picture book.
Integrating science with reading and writing is a powerful way to teach all three subjects. Modeling oral reading and encouraging listening and looking for details in the words and pictures of the book connect science learning with language arts. Powerful, efficient teaching that makes learning stick.

Valeria Girandola, Editor-in-Chief
Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms

See the exciting issue: CHANGING EARTH now at www.spigotsciencemag.com

Our first SPIGOT of the year--all about ENERGY--is now online and ready for kids and classrooms. I was pleased to get a lot of questions about Trickles, the Teaching Guide that accompanies each issue. It wasn't online the first day that our ENERGY issue came out and obviously a lot of people missed it. Trickles is written for the teacher to help make lesson planning and teaching a little bit easier. For each article, Trickles offers vocabulary words, ideas for skill and comprehension lessons, the reading level, and links to the National Standards. It's all in the spirit of "good preparation makes for a good lesson."
With the ENERGY issue, we have begun posting a teaching/learning hint on our Trickles page. The first hint suggests that teachers in lower grades read the higher reading level pieces to the class, discussing and explaining along the way. For instance, the article, "The Great Escape," by NASA writer Tracy McMahan (p.17), has a reading level of 11.5. That means that the sentence length and number of advanced words make it suitable for someone reading on a high school level. However, younger students certainly would love to hear the article read to them. It's about all the energy needed to get people and equipment to the Moon to set up lunar outposts there. A person's listening vocabulary is much higher than his reading vocabulary. Having students listen and discuss with the teacher on a regular basis strengthens the students' recall and listening comprehension skills. In addition, the students will be accessing a lot more information that way too.

Val Girandola, Editor in Chief
Spigot Science Magazine for Kids and Classrooms