Get ready to dive into the deep blue sea with our PK students!
In January, PK3 and PK4 students embarked on a journey to explore the marine world and its incredible ecosystem and above all, they learned about the importance of protecting our oceans.
Dive In to Learn How Preschoolers Discovered the Marine World
- Students participated in projects such as writing a story about fabulous marine creatures. The Maud Fontenoy Foundation proposed this project, and it aims to encourage the public to protect the marine ecosystem.
- Another project proposed by the Fondation de la Mer, “Plastic arts for the ocean,” invites students to create works from used plastic materials. It aims to raise awareness of how plastic pollution endangers all forms of marine animal and plant life, with severe consequences for human societies.
- Finally, some classes created an ocean diorama during their co-teaching Science class.
Exploring Marine Conservation through Project-Based Learning:
In Lorelei’s PreK-4 class over the last few months, her students embarked on a journey to explore the marine world and its incredible ecosystem and above all, to learn about the importance of protecting our oceans.
Her class participated in the Maud Fontenoy Foundation challenge. This year the theme of the challenge was to “Create a story about fabulous marine creatures and make it into a video.” In parallel to the Maud Fontenoy Foundation contest, the children also participated in the contest organized by the AEFE in partnership with the ‘Fondation de la Mer’ where they had to create a work of art from recycled materials (the famous fresco!).
To make the film, the class used the ocean fresco as the setting. The class then positioned & photographed the different characters (sea creatures made of recycled materials), and used the iMovie software to assemble the images and add the recorded voices of the children.
Next, they set about writing the story. They used the tales (contes) about “hiking”, because they are the type of stories they read most often in the classroom. These tales allow non-French-speaking students to understand the meaning of the vocabulary used and to reapply them themselves. They decided to use two stories that are well known to the students, “Roule Galette” by Father Castor and “Petit Poisson blanc” by Guido Van Genechten. That’s how the story of the tin can rolling in the ocean was born!
Immersing Preschoolers in Marine Life with a Field Trip
All PK classes in Jersey City and Hoboken warped up all this learning with a real-life immersive experience in the marine world. Our little budding scientists visited the New York Aquarium. They were “comme des poissons dans l’eau”!
