Our Visible Thinking Routine for the last 2 weeks have been centred on the Olympics.In the 1-2s we have continued GENERATE SORT CONNECT ELABORATE with a focus on Sports and the Olympics as part of our inquiry into how countries get along.

GENERATE  First we generated our ideas by having the children think different kinds of sports and brainstorming their ideas and drawings onto paper. We then brought all the class together and put all their ideas on a large anchor chart.

SORT   Our next lesson was where we came together to put all the sports we had on the chart into groups. Children worked together to sort their sports out.

CONNECT. Now was the time to make connections. What are our groups and what relates them to each other? Groups are connected together in many ways but we leaned towards types of sports played at the Olympics and from there we looked at water sports , team sports etc. The students came up with many different connections. Of course some sports could be in two groups which leads to the idea of Venn Diagrams.

ELABORATE  Students were asked to focus on the Olympics and Sports and elaborate on one area. They used iPads and laptops to research working in teams of two (or three) They  then presented their work to other students in the grade. Students looked at many different areas including sports, sports persons and even the Olympic Torch itself

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