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.

Week in Review: November 2nd-6th

Week in Review: November 2nd-6th

Building Collaboration

Everyday we practice working together. The children are beginning to understand the importance of cooperating and valuing each other's contributions. We were eager to support this learning and allow them to extend on their cooperation skills. Building is an area where collaboration has been successful with many children and still challenging for others. Therefore, we create and implement lessons that foster communication and teamwork. During group time, we told the children we would be working on creating a structure as a class. A platform was laid in the middle of the block area and each child had an opportunity to contribute. We talked about adding our own blocks to the structure while still respecting the existing design. We observed the final products and discussed how we felt proud about what we accomplished as a team. We will continue to foster collaboration in the classroom by offering opportunities for team work and guiding children through the process of working as a group. 
 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

1.       5. Early Learning Expectation: Reasoning-Problem Solving-Reflection. Children demonstrate a growing capacity to make meaning, using one’s habits of mind to find a solution or figure something out.

1.       6. Early Learning Expectation: Participation-Cooperation-Play Networking-Contribution. Demonstrate increasing ability to be together with others, in play or intellectual learning opportunities and/or making positive efforts for the good of all; join a community of learners in person and digitally as appropriate

 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

  7. Early Learning Expectation: Geometry. Children build their visual thinking skills through explorations with shape and the spaces in their classrooms and neighborhoods.

Representing Fall Through Painting

It is beautiful outside! The children have noticed the changes out side and love playing in the leaves on the playground. We wanted to give them a chance to represent their love of fall. We chose to set up an area for painting  near the courtyard. They were able to see a large outside area and represent the shapes and colors they saw while painting on an easel. They noticed different lines in the trees, leaves, sky, and shape of the hill. They painted pictures focusing on the colors of the leaves and sky. Some children added trees to their picture and others were interested in the grass or bushes. We encouraged them to add detail in their work and describe their fall representations. We will continue to explore the changing landscape with our hands, eyes, ears, and bodies. 

         

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.    Early Learning Expectation: Visual Arts. Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through experiences in the visual arts.

1.       1. Early Learning Expectation: Creativity-Imagination-Visualization. Children demonstrate a growing ability to use originality or vision when approaching learning; use imagination, show ability to visualize a solution or new concept.

Experimenting with Dance

At the beginning of the week, we provoked the children's thinking with the "World's Playground" CD and streamers. We noticed how the children change they way they manipulated the stream to match the beat of the song. The children waved their streamers slowly to songs with a slow beat and soft instruments. Songs with a faster tempo and louder instruments (drums, maracas...ect) they would move their streamers quickly. 

Later in the week, we projected videos of different styles of dancing such as ballet, salsa, Irish folk dancing and traditional eastern Indian dance. The videos encouraged the children to explore the different ways to move their body. The ballet video encouraged the children to spin and prance around the carpet, where as the Irish folk dancing inspired the children to kick their feet out in front of them very quickly. 

 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

3. Early Learning Expectation: Movement and Dance. Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through movement and dance experiences.

     4. Early Learning Expectation: Body Control and Activity. Children increase their ability to understand and control their bodies and learn that regular physical activity can enhance their overall physical, social, and mental health.

     5. Early Learning Expectation: Gross Motor Development. Children experience growth in gross motor development and use large muscles to improve a variety of gross motor skills in a variety of both structured and unstructured and planned and spontaneous settings.

Week in Review October 26th-30th

Week in Review: October 26th- 30th 

Exploring the Movement of Water

We provoked the children's thinking with a tower of three pie pans. Each pie pan had a different amount of holes drilled into it. The children explored pouring the water onto each of the levels. They were drawn to the very top pie pan, which had the most amount of holes. Many of the children noticed how quickly the water dripped out of the pie pan onto the second pie pan. They describe the falling water as "rain." Several children used the scoops to collect the water that was dripping through the holes. 

After reviewing the documentation, we found that the children were thinking about how the could collect the water and how the water travels through objects/containers. Ms. Emily our Strategies student provoked the children with sponges, measuring cups and buckets. She posed the question, "How can we fill
up the bucket with water?" The children developed several different strategies for filling the bucket such as submerging the sponge into the water and then squeezing the water out of the sponge and into the bucket. Another strategy the children developed was using the measuring cups to scoop water from the water table into the bucket. 

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.

1.       2.Early Learning Expectation: Initiative-Engagement-Persistence Attentiveness. Children demonstrate the quality of showing interest in learning; pursue learning independently.

    5. Early Learning Expectation: Reasoning-Problem Solving-Reflection. Children demonstrate a growing capacity to make meaning, using one’s habits of mind to find a solution or figure something out.

Building In Front of  Light Source

Over the past couple of weeks, the children have been experimenting with building in front of a light source. We recently been exploring how we can change our shadow by rearranging the blocks within our structure. Only a few children noticed the connection between the placement of their blocks and the shape/outline of their shadow. Therefore, we decided provoke the children's thinking with a large white board, blocks and expo markers. We asked the children to build in front of the white board and then traced their structure. Many of the children decided to build tall and then outline their structure, while others aligned their blocks near the bottom of the white board. 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met:

1.       5. Early Learning Expectation: Reasoning-Problem Solving-Reflection. Children demonstrate a growing capacity to make meaning, using one’s habits of mind to find a solution or figure something out.

           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.

     7. Early Learning Expectation: Geometry. Children build their visual thinking skills through explorations with shape and the spaces in their classrooms and neighborhoods.

Exploring the Inside of the Pumpkin

During group time, we talked about what we know about pumpkins. Many children stated the physical characteristics of the pumpkins "its a circle", "it's orange", and "there are seeds inside." After our group time discussion we opened the pumpkin and let the children explore the contents. The children describe the inside of the pumpkin as being gooey, slimy, and cold. A few children describe the center as "spaghetti." Some children enjoyed using the tweezers to remove the seeds from the middle of the pumpkin. Many of them counted the seeds as they placed them into the bowl. 

 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met:

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

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

1.  Early Learning Expectation: Classification and Patterns. Children begin to develop skills of recognizing, comparing and classifying objects, relationships, events and patterns in their environment and in everyday life.

Balancing our Bodies

Over the past two weeks, the children have been exploring how they can balance their bodies. When we introduced the balance beam, many children would fall off on either side of the beam. After they became more familiar with the beam, they children started developing different strategies to help them be successful at finishing the whole length of the beam. Some children discovered that they could control their bodies better when they moved slowly across the beam. While other children placed one foot in front of the other, while holding their hands out. 

This week, we provoked the children's thinking with the balance boards. At first, they looked to the teacher for assistance to move back and forth on the board. Many children discovered how the placement of their feet, affected how well they could maneuver on the balance board. Some children used their hands to help them maintain their balance while they were exploring the board. 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

       4. Early Learning Expectation: Body Control and Activity. Children increase their ability to understand and control their bodies and learn that regular physical activity can enhance their overall physical, social, and mental health.

         5. Early Learning Expectation: Gross Motor Development. Children experience growth in gross motor development and use large muscles to improve a variety of gross motor skills in a variety of both structured and unstructured and planned and spontaneous settings.

Highlights from the Halloween Walk

Week In Review October 19th-23rd

Week In Review:  October 19th- 23rd 

Exploring the leaves through painting 

Since the beginning of the semester, the children have been exploring lines, shapes and contours within nature. This week, we focused on representing the leaves with tempra paint. Before we began painting we talked about the shape, color and size of the leaves. Some children explored the leaves by tracing the outside of them with their finger. Other children focused on the shape and color of the leaf. We provoked the children with red, orange, green and yellow paints. We talked about the colors we were going to use to represent the leaves. Some children pointed out that multiple colors make up the composition of the leaf; therefore, they used more than one color to represent the leaf. 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

1. Early Learning Expectation: Visual Arts. Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through experiences in the visual arts.

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

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. 

Collaborative Art Project 

We offered the children wire and beads to work with last week. We observed them threading the beads on carefully and focusing on how to add new beads to their wire. This widespread interest made us wonder how we could use the beads to let each child express themselves further. We provoked the children with wire and offered them a variety of different beads. We asked them to be purposeful about the beads they chose before we added them to the wire. We talked about the different shapes, textures, and colors that made up the beads. These individual bead designs will be hung up to add another creative element to our classroom environment. 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

1. Early Learning Expectation: Visual Arts. Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through experiences in the visual arts.

3. Early Learning Expectation: Classification and Patterns. Children begin to develop skills of recognizing, comparing and classifying objects, relationships, events and patterns in their environment and in everyday life.

4. Early Learning Expectation: Counting and Cardinality. Children extend their understanding of numbers and their relationship to one another and things in the environment.

5. Early Learning Expectation: Aesthetic Appreciation. Children develop rich and rewarding aesthetic lives.

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.

Creating a Pathway 

The children have been following this idea of creating different pathways. We are trying to think of new ways to help them expand on their play. We noticed them trying to create turns in their paths, but the pathway materials such as PVC pipes, cardboard tubes, and ramps were all straight. We decided to try connecting marble mazes. We noticed the children interested in the different lines, curves, shapes, and turns the marble mazes had to offer. While creating different pathways, they engaged their problem solving skills by figuring out how to get the marble all the way down their path. We saw some children learning to work together and collaborate on their pathways. 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality Met: 

1. Early Learning Expectation: Creativity-Imagination-Visualization. Children demonstrate a growing ability to use originality or vision when approaching learning; use imagination, show ability to visualize a solution or new concept.

2. Early Learning Expectation: Initiative-Engagement-Persistence Attentiveness. Children demonstrate the quality of showing interest in learning; pursue learning independently.

5. Early Learning Expectation: Reasoning-Problem Solving-Reflection. Children demonstrate a growing capacity to make meaning, using one’s habits of mind to find a solution or figure something out.

Week in Review October 12th-16th

Week in Review October 12th-16th

Investigating Gourds

Last week, we used the clay as a medium to guide our gourd exploration. The children used the clay to represent the size, shape and texture of the gourds. After becoming familiar with the shapes and lines they saw, we gave them the opportunity to draw the gourds. They were interested in representing the shape of the gourd and especially the lines and bumps they observed. Some children focused on drawing the shape of the gourd, while other children wanted to represent the texture of the gourds with a series of small ovals and circles.

After the children represented the gourds through drawing, we started working on adding color to their pictures. We talked about what colors they saw on the gourds and how they would add those colors to their representation. Some children focused on creating the stripes they saw on the gourds in their own painting. Some were more interested in representing the bumpy texture of the gourd. Others tried to create both designs in their picture. We talked about the different details they could add through shape, line, and color.

During group time, we asked the children "What do you think the inside of the gourd looks like?" Many of the children thought it would look like a pumpkin, or that there would be seeds in the center. We opened the gourds up and used the tweezers and magnifying glasses to explore what was in the center of our gourds. The children used great descriptive words to describe the center such as "sticky, wet, seeds and stringy."

 

Exploring Leaves

Exploring lines through nature has been an ongoing thread with the children lately. Their work with sunflowers and gourds inspired a new exploration of leaves. Many children have noticed new things going on outside during the season change. We wanted to give them the opportunity to explore the different leaves they were finding. First, they used magnifying glasses to observe the leaves on the light table. The light helped to distinguish different lines and shapes within the leaves and the children used magnifying glasses to observe them.

We wanted to continue investigating the lines and shapes within the leaves, so we introduced the idea of rubbing over the leaves with crayon on paper. The children could see and understand how the designs of the leaves looked in a different way. Their interest in these designs lead us to create a collage for the window. The children went outside searching for the leaves they like the most. By hanging this collaborative collage on the window, we can observe the lines and shapes within the leaves when the sunlight shines through them.

Experimenting with the Movement of Water

The children showed an interest in how the water traveled through the bottomless bottles  (bottles with holes). We wanted to strengthen the children's ideas about how water can travel through pathways, so we introduced the water table, plexi glass grid, funnels and plastic tubing. We tinted the water purple, so the children could so how the route the water took through the tubing. Many children noticed that the more water they poured into the funnel the better their chance of the water exiting from the other side of the tubing. Some children experimented with manipulating the tubing to move the water out of the tube. 

Continuing Our Work with Shadows

Last week, we focused on how we could create and manipulate shadows by building in front of a light source. Many of the children identified the different shapes that made up the shadows. To strengthen their understanding of shadows we taped a large piece of paper on the floor. We had the children build on top of the paper and then trace their shadows with a pencil. Some children were interested in tracing the shape of their shadow, while other children wanted to trace the base of their structure.