School Pond Inspires

The paper presents the consolidation of the learning material in a different way - with a combination of a nature's classroom, information and communication technology and re-creation. Content of the sixth grade was covered: parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb), word formation, fiction and nonfiction (an advertisement, a poem, a comic, a riddle). The objectives of the school lessons were movement in the fresh air, exploring the school surroundings, repetition of parts of the speech and word formation, using information and communication technologies to make a written product. The guided school work was divided into four school hours. We spent the first hour in the classroom in nature. In the school environment next to the school pond the students were first divided into five groups and given instructions for work. Each group received one of the five worksheets, where student wrote words related to the pond, its immediate surroundings and its inhabitants. When groups finished their work, they moved to another station and continue to solve the following worksheets. Each group repeated activities so many times that it solved all the tasks. The second and third lesson were spent in the computer classes where students recreated what they have earned about pond and its inhabitants. The students continued their work in five groups. Each group got its worksheet with instruction. They had to write the text from the selected words using different computer programs (Microsoft Word, Storybird, MakeBeliefComix, Snipping Tool…). Groups selected different texts: an advertisement, a poem, a comic, a riddle. The fourth hour was dedicated to the presentation of products that were created during computer lessons. Groups presented their task, workflow and final results. The work was carried out according to the plans, and all the goals were achieved. The combination of a changed learning environment and the use of active learning methods for work, as well as the possibility of integrating different disciplines, have proved to be very effective, especially in terms of students' motivation, creativity and autonomy.