Making Sense of What I See & Hear
How:
Expose your child to a variety of visual and oral text to provoke thinking and conversation. One great visual thinking strategy is: SEE THINK WONDER. Ask your child:
What do you see?
What do you think about that?
What does it make you wonder?
Resources to get you started:
18 Best Podcasts for Kids in Elementary, Middle and High School
What's Going on in this Picture? Images from The New York Times
Use See Think Wonder thinking as you explore animals, works of art and other interesting things
What do you see?
What do you think about that?
What does it make you wonder?
Go on a virtual field trip: Smithsonian National Zoo
Watch the elephants or lions or pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo:
National Zoo live webcams and download a packet of educational activities you can do at home with the animal cams. Write about what you see, think, and wonder.
Visit a Famous Art Museum
Visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum or the Louvre in Paris.
Follow up by talking, writing and sketching what you see, think and wonder about. Choose a famous painting and create a copycat piece of art. Write about how it makes you feel. Research the artist.
Why:
Children are exposed to text beyond physical print. Engaging in conversation facilitates thinking beyond one perspective and deepens understanding as students think carefully about why something looks/sounds the way it does or is the way it is.