Creating Kites as an Ignition for Poetic Writing

To write about something well, it is important to have experience of the subject. Our senior ESOL group were asked to follow a set of instructions closely to make their own kite using supermarket shopping bags. Instructions came in the form of a video clip. Most ESOL students need to hear instructions repeatedly and to have them visually sequenced. The end result of their work would be used to inspire the writing of poetry.

First came the kites:

Here are some of the Haiku poems:

Ryan wrote:

Awesome kites flying

Winding rope around the stick

The kite goes up to sky

Miu wrote:

Spinning to the ground

Patterned blue and beautiful

Kites near the hilltop

Angel wrote

Twisting and turning

Striped colours of blue and pink

Meeting other kites

Anu

Flowing in the wind

Patterns of pink and purple

Passing a rainbow

Jessica

Soaring in the sky

Colourful twirling red kites

I watch my kite fly

Mannet

Circling in the wind

Desirous diamond patterns

My kite reaches clouds

A Perfect Season for Poetry

Aayush and Shaurya share their Leaf Fish and their poems with you.

Sinking and Floating

This post shares the design thinking behind a boat race used to learn more about the concept of floating and sinking. Design thinking and collaboration resulted in rapid growth in vocabulary. Personal questions lead to group questions that promoted higher levels of thinking and a fascination for their subject material.

The students share with you excerpts from their explanations and presentations.

Aaron Wrote:

Why do some things float while others sink?

The experiments we carried out helped us to understand and explain this.

To explain what density and volume have to do with floating we carried out a bread experiment.

We used two slices of bread. One slice was rolled up tightly which pushed the air out and made it denser. The particles were closer together. The other slice was not rolled up, in fact it was flat, so it still had some air in it.  It was less dense. The two slices of bread weighed the same but one took up more space than the other one and had air in it.

So what happened? 

The rolled up piece of bread sank while the flat piece floated.

We found out that the denser an object is, the more space it needs across the water to make sure that the gravitational and buoyancy forces are equal.  

The material an object is made up of (solid, liquid or gas) can determine how dense it will be. Lets look at a sponge.  If you place a sponge on the surface of the water, it will float because it is made up of solid and gas, which makes it less dense (or lighter) than the water. Eventually it will sink because the gas is replaced with water and it becomes denser or heavier than the water it is floating on. So to understand floating you need to you need to think about buoyancy. To be buoyant you need to be lighter than the water you are floating on according to the amount of space the object takes up on the water.

Mohit knew about the Titanic disaster and wanted to think about what really happened. 

Mohit wrote: 

Sinking and Floating 

While people thought that the ship Titanic was unsinkable, it sank. Have you ever wondered why it sank? I will try to tell you by explaining why some things float while others sink.

First you need to learn about buoyancy force. The buoyancy force of water pushes upward. A ship like Titanic was very heavy but the buoyancy force of the water was stronger and could hold Titanic on the surface, well at least until it got a hole in it.

We carried out an experiment with two balloons to better understand about sinking and floating and this thing called buoyancy. One of the balloons was filled with water and the other was filled with air. We saw the smaller balloon with water in it sink because it was denser than the water underneath it. The large balloon with air in it floated on the surface of the water because it took up more space on the surface and it was much lighter.

The last time I went to the swimming pool, I worked out how these forces helped us to float.  I went to the pool and made a starfish and noticed that my feet were sinking. The muscles in my legs are heavy. I noticed that my lungs helped me float. When your lungs are full of air and you relax you will float a lot easier.  The air in your lungs is light and less dense than your muscle. Water is a liquid and its atoms are closer together than air. The closer the atoms are packed together, the denser something is.

Nishita wrote: 

We found that some of the boats we made had better buoyancy than others. My boat came first because it had a cabin and was balanced properly. I had glued a flat plastic plate made out of polystyrene onto the bottom of the hull. It floated better because it was light and covered more space across the water. The flag made my boat move well when the wind caught it.

My boat was buoyant for two reasons. First the materials I used were lighter. Polystyrene is made with hot air. The air is trapped inside the beads of polystyrene when they are cooled. That's why you use polystyrene boards to help you float in the pool. The other thing that helped my boat to float was the space it took up on the pool. The pressure from the water pushing up against my boat was greater than the pressure of my boat pushing down on the water.

The experiments we carried out taught us about buoyancy and density, and we know what atoms are now!

Experiments and Design are used to help students understand the concepts of 'Sinking and Floating'

Our senior ESOL group of students spent much of Term One studying the concept of "Sinking and Floating'. There were a number of alternative ways of taking this study, as it was the height of the swimming season and many of the students were relatively new to formal swimming lessons. One question needed to be answered - how did they manage to float on the surface of the water?

Using a SOLO Taxonomy approach each student was asked to write down what they knew about sinking and floating. Results: a)heavy things sink b)light things float c)ships can float d)lots of things can float e)air helps things to float

Naturally, 'why and how' questions formed the next part of the journey. One of our students wanted to discuss the journey of the 'Titanic', a supposedly unsinkable ship. Mohit knew that the Titanic had hit an iceberg and sank. They shared two books and video footage relating to this disaster. All students wanted to understand the science behind how such a large ship had managed to float in the first place. A lot of scientific study would open the way for the development and understanding of academic language that would then be tested in a final design process. What a wonderful term of study. There was a lot of discussion, many experiments enabled students to predict, observe and make conclusions. Technology including video footage and a full design process helped to unlock understanding and therefore application of the concepts being studied. Finally the students presented their research and explanation of floating and sinking to a peer group that had a strong interest in science.

Arsh wrote: This explanation is based on an experiment we did. Our group made boats that we were allowed to float in the school pool. When we put our boats in the water my boat sank. Do you know why? It was because my sail was too tall and top heavy. My boat tipped onto its side and filled up with water. The water was too heavy and my boat did not occupy enough space on the surface of the water. Aaron’s boat won. His boat was upside down in the water, but it floated. When it capsized, some air trapped itself between the boat and the water. It made the boat more buoyant than mine. I did not trap any air in my boat so it was much heavier even though it took up the same space on the water as Aarons. So what we learned was that when you think of buoyancy, you have to know that it has something to do with the weight of something (how light or heavy it is) and how well the buoyancy force of the water allows it to float.

Sakshi’s Explanation of Floating and Sinking At ESOL we have been doing a lot of experiments to find out whether things are buoyant or not. I am going to tell you why some things float, while others sink. If you are to float on water, you need to have lots of air in your lungs. You also need to take up more space on the water. There are two forces that have to be equal. If the buoyancy force (the upward force) is equal to the gravitational force (downward force) you can float. If the gravitational force is greater on the water, you will sink. Now I will talk about the experiment we did to find out what helped something to float. We made our own boat to see if it would float or sink. Nishita’s and my boat floated really well. The things that made my boat float better than the boys was that it took up more space on the water and it was made out of lighter things, like polystyrene, foil and icecream sticks. My boat had a cabin that was covered in foil, so air was trapped inside it. That made it even lighter on the water. So to float we have to think about the space we take up on the water and the weight pushing down on it. If the weight of the boat is greater than the water, it will sink.

Floating and Sinking

There is a lot of vocabulary that we take for granted when we talk about swimming. In New Zealand, we foster water safety by providing students with formal swimming lessons. Confidence in the water can save lives. This term the students have been experimenting to find out why some things float while others sink. They have been learning about the 3 States of Matter and how the properties of each impact on the ability to float. Experiments provided opportunities to introduce rich scientific language. Some of these words included: (heavier, flotation, lungs, submerge, volume, weight, atoms, solids, liquids, gases, density) Experiments enable the students to predict and question. Their first-hand experience will provide the language needed for writing. This vocabulary can be included in a written report or explanation. We will include some of the student's writing at a later stage.

Getting to Know our New Students

Moving to a new school is difficult at the best of times. Packing up and moving to a new country and culture is even more daunting. With such a diverse ESOL community at St Albans School, our new students enjoy the diversity and level of first language support. In this photo, a group of ESOL students are introduced to our new arrivals.

WELCOME to the 'St Albans ESOL Blog' for 2016

How wonderful it was to see so many ESOL families at school last week. It is always reassuring to meet with the teachers who work with your children during the school day, particularly for families who have recently immigrated to New Zealand. We welcome you all to our school community and look forward to working with you. These sites may provide you with helpful information and assistance should you need an interpreter. This is a general site designed to support migrant families. https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/living-in-nz/english-language/learning-english This site will provide you with support should you need an interpreter. http://ethniccommunities.govt.nz//story/how-language-line-works