Over the past few weeks, the children and teachers have been getting to know one another. The teachers observe children carefully to learn about their development and interests. One interest has been a consistent focus throughout the semester: “Structures.”
We have noticed that the children build with many materials in the classroom. In fact, just today, the teachers collected images of all of the different ways in which children were “constructing structures” in our Center:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.584710478255433.1073741876.213823248677493&type=1
We would like to build upon this interest and do a more in-depth exploration of construction in our classroom. A project is something that teachers consider when they plan. We weave all of the different curriculum areas into our projects.
One of the natural reactions for teachers is to ask: “What do we want to do with the children that teach them about structures?” However, for a project to be truly inquiry-based and focused on the children, the first step is to figure out what the children are doing with structures first: “What do the children do with structures and what are they trying to figure out?”
So, we have a “first” that we are going to try out this semester. We are going to create a Google document where you all can share your own observations of what your child does related to construction of structures (or just interest in structures). The teachers can look at this Google document and see what is happening at home. This will help us with our planning. Look for that document link in an email home to you.
Thank you for reading about the beginning stages of our first project!