Week in Review October 5th-9th

Week in Review October 5th- 9th

Creating a Pathway with Tunnel Designs

A few weeks ago the children began investigating ramps. Their work began by experimenting with different ramp angles. As they worked with the ramps more, they became more focused on connecting them to make pathways. We noticed their paths becoming longer as we introduced different sized ramps. A new element of the children's investigation has been adding tunnels. Some children have used hollow blocks, curved blocks, and upside down ramp pieces to create different types of tunnel structures. They were interested in the way the ball would keep moving, even underneath the tunnel. The children also noticed how the PVC ramps could fit together to make a different kind of tunnel.

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

• Children build their visual thinking skills through explorations with shape and the spaces in their classrooms and neighborhoods. Begin to build an understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects through the use of words. 
• Observation & Inquiry:  Children begin to participate in simple investigations (e.g., asking questions manipulating materials; anticipating what might happen next; testing their observations to determine why things happen).

Exploring the Garden

We have been exploring the environment within our classroom, but we wanted to give the children the opportunity to explore the outside environment as well. After they worked on representing different flowers and plants through paint, we wanted to show them what different plants looked like when they grew. They used magnifying glasses and observed the shapes, lines, and textures found in nature. Our garden is full of different plants including vegetables, herbs, flowers, and interesting shrubs. We talked with them about what they saw and compared the shapes and lines they observed through their magnifying glasses.

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

•  Observation & Inquiry. Demonstrate curiosity about and interest in their natural environment that leads them to confidently engage in activities related to science.

Constructing Shadows

We began exploring our shadows on the large screen a few weeks ago. We watched as the children discovered how their shadows looked when they moved their bodies or fabric in front of the screen. We wanted to extend on their thinking with this concept. We gave them the opportunity to build in front of the screen to see the shadows their buildings would make. The large blocks they used came in all different shapes that projected in the shadows. Following this interest, we used large flood lights and shone them on the building area. When they created different structures, they observed what kind of shadows they made. We talked about the height of the buildings compared to the shadows and the different shapes we could see.


Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met:

•  Observation & Inquiry: Expand their observational skills (e.g., extending the time they observe, being able to describe and confirm their observations by using a variety of resources).
•  Begin to participate in simple investigations (e.g., asking questions manipulating materials; anticipating what might happen next; testing their observations to determine why things happen). 
• Geometry: Begin to recognize and appreciate geometric shapes in their environment.

Investigating the Gourds 

We wanted to continue the idea of representing natural materials after we finished our sunflower investigation. The children started exploring different gourds. We talked about the shapes, lines, and textures we noticed on the gourds. We offered them clay and gave them the opportunity to sculpt the gourds. They focused on rolling the clay into a ball to form the bottom and worked on how to make the long, thin tops they observed. They noticed the stripes and bumps on the gourds as well. We talked about how we could add those to our sculptures. We will extend on this exploration using different mediums.

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met:

• Visual Arts. Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through experiences in the visual arts.
•  Use their own ideas to draw, paint, mold, and build with a variety of art materials (e.g., paint, clay, wood, materials from nature such as leaves).
•  Begin to show growing awareness and use of artistic elements (e.g., line, shape, color, texture, form).
• Create representations that contain increasing detail.