MI Morning

Our Team decided that a great way to introduce and reinforce the Multiple Intelligences in our rooms would be to have an MI morning. We split our classes into four so the children could complete the activities in different year levelled groups and each teacher had two Multiple Intelligences to design activities for.

My two were Interpersonal Intelligence/Group Smart and Naturalistic Intelligence/Nature Smart.
As an Interpersonal activity, the children had to work in pairs, sitting back to back. Each child had a piece of paper and a pencil. They took turns to draw a picture (using basic shapes), then explain the picture as accurately as possible so their buddy could recreate it on their own paper. This was very interesting; the students quickly realised that in order for this to work, they would need to communicate very clearly with their buddy - especially where Year 5 and 6 students were paired with Year 2s.
For Naturalistic, we went outside to do some cloud watching and then had some discussions in garden areas around the school. Conversations about how and why leaves change colour and how intricate spider's webs are, tied in perfectly with our 'Out of the Ordinary' theme; it made the students realise that things we see daily and may consider 'ordinary' could in fact be extraordinary.

Once the children had engaged in all eight Multiple Intelligences activities, my class and I discussed what they had done in each room they visited. We did some Bus Stopping around our room, recording our ideas then got together again as a class. I had the students decide which two activities were their favourites and then got them to discuss in pairs why they liked these two best. We also talked about the ones we didn't like as much and why - more interesting discussion!
I then introduced the concept of Multiple Intelligences and showed the children cards illustrating all eight. Together we talked about which activity matched each card (they had not previously been told) and matched them up. This prompted comments such as "Oh, I liked that one because maths is my favourite things at school and I like numbers!"

I had wanted to introduce Multiple Intelligences to my class but was initially concerned about the children feeling labelled by the "Smarts" and not fully understanding what these meant. The MI morning provided a perfect opportunity to introduce them and gave context to a seemingly difficult concept for Year 2 students. We refer to them in class regularly now and the children have gained a deeper understanding of themselves as learners. All round success!