Weeks in Review November 9th- 20th

Understanding the Parts of Our Face

A few weeks ago the children started exploring how to create their self-portraits. Some children looked into small mirrors and drew what they saw. When we saw how they were interested in the different parts of themselves, we decided to continue the exploration. Ms. Dash invited them to look at each other through a clear pane and try to draw their partners.  We encouraged them to think about each part of their partner's face and body while drawing. We noticed their interest focusing on their own bodies and chose to pursue that idea further  We provoked the children with full-length mirrors and markers. They looked into the mirrors and drew the parts of their body they noticed. Many children focused on how to create their faces and where to attach arms and legs. We saw that many children represented different parts of their face with dots and lines. We wanted to give them the skills to add more detail to their face drawings. We started by doing a group time about faces. We had felt pieces for each part of the face and the class worked together to assemble the face. They problem solved and helped each other to make sure the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth were all where they belonged. After this group time, we gave the children their own face pieces to work with. They were given a variety of eyes, ears, mouths, and noses cut from pictures in magazines. These real life pictures of the face pieces allowed them to understand each part of their own face better. We have been working on how to arrange the pieces on paper to create a face.

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

             1.Early Learning Expectation: Understanding of Self. Children develop and exhibit a healthy sense of self.

  1.Early Learning Expectation: Observation and Inquiry. Children develop positive attitudes and gain knowledge about science through observation and active play.

     6. Early Learning Expectation: Fine Motor Development. Children experience growth in fine motor development and use small muscles to improve a variety of fine motor skills both in structured and unstructured settings.

Writing Letters to Families

We often see children in the classroom drawing pictures for their families. We always encourage them to add details to their drawings and sometimes even add the letters in their name. Since the children cared so much about this idea, we wanted to help them write more purposeful letters to their families. We started by having a discussion at group time. The children in this classroom mostly communicate through pictures as we are still working on different letters and sounds. Because of this we focused on communicating through purposeful pictures and we encouraged them to try adding some letters as well, especially the ones in their name. The class agreed that they had to do their best work and add important details to their letters. After group time, the children used paper and pencil to write to their families. They enjoyed drawing shapes, sometimes faces, and some added letters like "M" for mom or "D" for dad. When we revisited letter writing, we offered the children blank cards, envelopes, and black pens to encourage more thoughtful work. We noticed more detailed pictures and and more motivation for writing different letters.

 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met:

     6. Early Learning Expectation: Fine Motor Development. Children experience growth in fine motor development and use small muscles to improve a variety of fine motor skills both in structured and unstructured settings.

1     2. Early Learning Expectation: Writing Skills. Children begin to develop writing skills to communicate and express themselves effectively for a variety of purposes.

              6. Early Learning Expectation: Positive Attitudes about Literacy. Children develop positive attitudes about themselves as literate beings — as readers, writers, speakers, viewers, and listeners.

The Three Little Pigs

Our class is very interested in pretend play and filling different roles. They often assign themselves and others roles to take on when they are pretending. We wanted to give them more of a base for this idea. During group time, we read The Three Little Pigs and talked about what each character in the story did. After group time, we noticed that the children wanted to be the wolf, or one of the three little piggies. Many of the children would discuss the sequence of events in the story and incorporate those events into their role playing. 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met:

   7. Early Learning Expectation: Positive Activity. Children participate in activities that encourage self-motivation, emphasize cooperation, and minimize competition.

1.      6. Early Learning Expectation: People and Their Environment. Children increase their understanding of the relationship between people and their environment and begin to recognize the importance of taking care of the resources in their environment.

1.     6. Early Learning Expectation: Positive Attitudes about Literacy. Children develop positive attitudes about themselves as literate beings — as readers, writers, speakers, viewers, and listeners.

Animal Habitats 

Last week, we were exploring how to create a water habitat for the animals. We provoked the children's thinking with the water table, sea animals, rocks, shells and bark. The children used the animals to explore the materials in the water table. Some children pushed the rocks and shells to ones side of the water table, as if it was a beach. Other children used the materials as a resting place for their animals. 

This week we experimented creating a habitat for land animals. During group time, the children watched a short video discussing different environments and the animals that lived in them. The class talked about how we could think about each animal's needs while creating their habitat. To extend this idea, we provoked their thinking with tree blocks, green carpet squares and plastic animals. Many children used the tree blocks to create a vertical structure and then placed their animal on top. Some of them incorporated rocks, pine cones, and bark pieces into their habitats as well. 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met:

1.       1.Early Learning Expectation: Observation and Inquiry. Children develop positive attitudes and gain      knowledge about science through observation and active play.

2.      2. Early Learning Expectation: Living and Non-living Things. Children show a beginning awareness        of scientific knowledge related to living and non-living things.

3.      3. Early Learning Expectation: Knowledge about the Earth. Children show a beginning awareness of        scientific knowledge related to the earth.