Sep 13, 2015

Perseverance and Rock Holder Task

It's that time of year again when I introduce the word Perseverance. As part of the Rock Investigation, I use the Rock Holder activity to see which students persevere and which have difficulty. I want students to always try their best and in grade two some really don't know to do that. By introducing perseverance, my goal is to get students to keep trying until they are successful with their task. We revisit tasks and discuss how they could be improved. As I've been this year, "You're never done!" A student actually repeated this to another when he said he was done. You could see the grin on his face as he was saying it to another boy. 

The Rock Holder task involves this:
• They are only allowed one piece of paper
• No glue, tape or staples
• The rock holder must be stable. Should support a rock either by itself or with one hand. 
• I'm watching to see who can persevere and what questions they are asking me. 
This task is possible for grade 2's to accomplish with some perseverance. 
Here's what my students came up with this year.