PBL: The Five Elements of Nature — Air

Date: 9th to 16th January 2023.
Participants: Aarush, Adrived, Arya, Dhriya, Divit, Hazzel, Joshua, Khanish, Maryam, Mehar (Agarwal), Meher (Bhuwaniya), Moksh, Neyansh, Nitara, Parth, Rishit, Ruhani, Shannaya, Shivansh, Shivanshika, Shivanyaa, Taanush, Vaanya, Viraj, Yuvaan (Bhopalka), and Yuvaan (Mehra).
Facilitators: Auindrilla, Apala, Drishti, Sanmoyee, Sonai, and Priyanka.
Tags: stem, pbl, nature, exploration, five elements

After the success of the Christmas Carnival, Arth Hours is back in a new year with a new project called The Five Elements of Nature!
At Arth we believe that children have a special bond with nature, which is strengthened when they have the chance to play and interact with it. As educators, we were looking for a way to introduce our children to the wonders of nature in a way that provoked their curiosity and creativity. The theory of the five elements has its roots in classical philosophy and mythology, and interprets nature as being composed of five fundamental constituents — Air, Water, Earth, Fire and Space. This theory has had widespread influence across different cultural fields, including art, dance, music, and drama. Inspired by this theory, the Arth Hours Team designed a project that pays homage to the Five Elements through art and play, but also incorporates exciting opportunity for STEM-related inquiry. Keep reading to know about our Arthlings’ adventures while exploring the first element, Air!

9th January, Day 1

Opening
The rainbow parachute was the obvious choice for an ‘airy’ movement opening! The children gathered round the parachute to whip it up and down, and up and down. The children also explored the underside of the parachute, which billowed upwards when it was filled with air.

Work Time
Work Time was packed with Air-inspired activities. In the Pretend and Play corner, the children were greeted by the silhouette of an aeroplane stuck on the floor. They were also provided with their own boarding passes, which they filled in with their names and destinations. The aeroplane was piloted by Arya, Shivansh, Rishit, and Yuvaan (Bhopalka), who took Sanmoyee Didi the passenger on a grand tour!
Continuing on the theme of air travel, the invite at the Light Table was ‘Build your airplane’. Viraj designed an airport by putting a small triangle shape inside a larger box shape.
At the Art table the children experimented with straw painting. They moved, spread and mixed tempera paints on a canvas by blowing air through straws. Arya used the power of air to mix the colour purple!

Large Group
For the teacher-led Large Group, the educators planned an activity through which the children could experience air firsthand. The children began by practising how to blow air in and out. This learning came in handy when each child was presented with their own wooden flute!
The children discovered that they could make noise by blowing into their flutes… very, very loud noise. Very soon, the children’s enthusiastic flute-playing drowned out every other sound in the classroom, including the voices of the educators.

By the end of Day 1, the educators realized that they needed to give the children a little more introduction to the Five Elements before they could begin their exploration. They decided that the best way to facilitate this introduction was by incorporating the elements into Work Time, and a Large Group circuit, a format that has been used many times before in class!

11th January, day 2

Opening
On Day 2 the children levelled up their parachute practice with felt balls. Colourful balls were thrown into the centre of the parachute, which the children tried to control with their movements. They manoeuvred the parachute to make the balls roll around and jump up in the air! By the end of the exercise, all the felt balls had escaped the parachute… But the children jumped in and cleaned up!

Work Time
The aeroplane from Day 1 made its return to the Pretend and Play area, much to Shivansh’s excitement. Arya, Rishit, Shivansh and others took the ‘Indigo’ plane on various adventures, including a landing on water, and in the jungle!
Straw painting was also continued in the Art area, but with the added challenge of an incomplete drawing! Nitara, Mehar (Agarwal), Meher (Bhuwaniya) and others used straws to blow air and paint.
The theme at the Light Table was ‘Build things that can fly’. Viraj made a rocket with a defined head and body. Parth made a rocket which had Magna Tiles hidden inside.
The children were invited to build their own boats in the Construction area.

Pilots Shivansh and Rishit take Sanmoyee Didi for a ride!

Large Group
The educators began the Large Group by showing the children a project roadmap, to help them visualize the Five Elements unit plan.
Building on this introduction, the educators engaged the children in a fun game of Charades! Each educator had dressed up as a different element, and gave the children clues so they could guess their identity. The Arthlings watched, listened, and shot their shot by shouting out the answer!

Next the class geared up for a Five Elements circuit. Each element was represented by a different task in the obstacle course. First came Air, where the children had to blow and topple over a tower of paper cups. At the Water station the children poured water from one bottle to another using a funnel. At the Fire station, participants had to complete a Fire picture puzzle, then blow out a candle. The children dug out stones from a tray of soil at the Earth station, then finished at the Space station where they identified missing objects in a space puzzle.

13th January, Day 3

Opening
Parachute play continued on Day 3 with another addition. The children used their movements to guide an inflatable football across the rainbow canvas!

The Arthlings use their movements to control a football.

Work Time
A new set of air-related invites greeted the children at Work Time. While the children were invited to make a bird at the Light Table, they were given props to be birds in the Pretend and Play area! Yuvaan (Mehra) chose red and orange scarves for his bird avatar, and Shivansh and Maryam tried on bird beaks.
At the Art table, Yuvaan (Bhopalka), Shivanyaa, Meher (Bhuwaniya) and others tried making paper planes. Some of the Arthlings decided to test out their paper planes in class for Samir Bhaiya to record!

The Arthlings construct at the Light Table.

Large Group
In the Large Group activity, the children got to see Air in action in a simple science experiment. A table fan was placed on a table in front of the children and switched on. The Arthlings watched as a piece of paper was put on the table… and it flew away! Continuing from this demonstration, the educators brought more items to the table, including wooden blocks, rocks, a piece of ribbon, a leaf, and a felt ball. For each object, the children guessed if the object would fly away or not! It was observed that some items behaved a little differently in front of the fan — a tall wooden block fell over, and a felt ball rolled away. The children recorded their observations on a worksheet by circling the pictures of the items that flew away.

Educators point the fan at a wooden grapat…

16th January, Day 4

Opening
The final day of Air week kicked off with more parachute play. Felt balls were added to spice up the routine!

Work Time
The children were welcomed by even more air-related invites at Work Time. The Arthlings were prompted to make a windmill at the Light Table. Meanwhile, at the Pretend and Play area, the children designed masks and dressed up as super-people. This merged with a grand game of chor-police, played by Aarush, Hazzel, Shivansh and others. Auindrilla Didi the thief was rescued from the slide-jail by Nitara and Super-Yuvaan (Mehra).
The children made paper fans at the Art table. Although the method used by Drishti Didi involved accordion-folding the paper, many Arthlings improvised by rolling the paper instead!

Large Group
In Large Group the children got to experience the magic of flight firsthand. Sonai Didi introduced them to Charlie the aeroplane who had a huge body, a tail like a bird, and two wings! They were invited to transform into aeroplanes and join Charlie on his journey from Kolkata to Delhi through various obstacles. Starting with takeoff, the children flew over a block-mountain, through the scarf-clouds, across a green grassland, and over the ocean. They then waved goodbye to a bird and touched down on a runway.
For Step 2 the children made paper aeroplanes of their own. Flight testing took place right after!

The aeroplane flies over grasslands and seas!

Join us next week, when we return to explore the second element — Water!