Question of the Week: What does "proportion" mean?
Starting with a question and discovering the answer through hands-on (and bodies-on!) activities, the Navigators came up with a good answer.
This is what inquiry learning looks like!
The question is asked by the students
and the students discover the answer/answers.
What do you notice when you measure your height and your arm span?
Let's check it out.
They are about the same!
What do you notice when you measure from your hair line to your chin and compare that measurement to your body height?
Our body height is about 5-6 head lengths.
We look at this chart of body proportions and continue to
ponder what the word proportion means.
(We also went on a rabbit trail talking about why our heads
are so big in comparison to our bodies when we are a baby.)
Leonardo, about 500 years ago, also noticed the proportions of the human body.
He drew a picture and wrote about it (backwards, of course),
in one of his many notebooks.
So, we tried it, too!
Enjoy the following Vitruvian Navigators.
Lots of pics, lots of work, lots of fun.
And an answer to the question...
Darth Vader
Gingerbread Person
A panda
Now for the light bulb moment we've been waiting for:
According to one first grade Navigator, the answer to the question "What does proportion mean?" is this:
Proportion is when you compare equal parts or portions to other parts or portions. It's kinda like a fraction. One/fifth of my body is my head. It takes 5 heads to make my body.
We did lots of hard work, worked well together, made some great discoveries about math, made wonderful works of art, and learned a new word. Plus we had fun in the process.
Hey, that reminds us of another great
inventor/scientist/would've-been-an-epic-Seabury student,
Thomas Edison! Here's what he had to say about his work:
First grade in a nut-shell
No comments:
Post a Comment