Moments in Learning

Here are our plans for the week: Teacher Planning Document 10-14-13

Enjoy!

Here are some of the highlights from Room 4 the past few days.

We read a new story about friendship:

This book is a Muskogee tale about two groups: the birds (those with wings) and the animals (those with teeth).  They want to play a game of ball and a bat wants to join them.  The bat is not accepted in the bird group, but the animals accept the bat.  The bat ends up winning the ball game for the animals because he can fly.  He decides a penalty for the birds: to leave the land for half of the year each year.

Some of the children said things like, “If I were a bird, I would let the bat be on my team” and “that’s not nice!”  The friendship and acceptance discussion may have made an impact.  Later on a child was playing alone and another child invited her to join him to play!

This book related to language/literacy development and social/emotional development.

However, the children also did some neat things with funnels, tubes, scoops, water, and a bucket.  The children problem-solved together to get the water from the table to the bucket and even back into the sensory table.  They learned some science concepts in a hands-on way and definitely used cognitive skills in the process to hypothesize about what would work and act upon their observations.

Here are some photos of that activity:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.597488410310973.1073741890.213823248677493&type=1

The children also learned about music notation today and yesterday.  They got to hear quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes played while they counted and patted their legs to the rhythm of 1-2-3-4.  Afterwards, the children were invited to write their own music.  This activity gave children some practice with math skills (counting and even fractions!).  The children also used their motor skills with this activity (and the scoops/water activity) when patting their legs and scooping and pouring.

Here are some photos of the music notation activity:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.597486670311147.1073741889.213823248677493&type=1

The children also made a neat sand structure outdoors today.  This definitely relates to our structures project!  You can see the careful patterns and spacing set up: plates on one side and sand castles on another with a river between them.  Each sand castle had a leaf in the top, too!  It is so much fun seeing what the children do when given materials to explore.

Lastly, some of the children predicted what might happen to a potato when it is put in water.  This is inquiry!  To see their responses, click on the link below.  Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=597982250261589&set=a.220915221301629.55462.213823248677493&type=1&theater

Dear Families:

A child in Room 4 was talking about making a scarecrow for our garden. We thought we might make a child-size scarecrow and an adult size scarecrow. We like this idea, but need some donations to make this happen. There is a sign-up list near the sign in book for Room 4. If you have any questions, please let us know! Learning how to build a scarecrow could connect with our structures project, too. There’s a process to follow and a frame to build, so it could inspire some other creations in our classroom, perhaps.

We would like donations by October 16 (Wednesday), if possible, so we can get started.

Thank you for your participation in our classroom.

Sincerely, The Room 4 Teachers

Yesterday the teachers met and planned some new things for next week.  We are excited about the changes in the classroom and the activities coming up.

Environment Planning -10-4-13

Teacher Planning Document 10-7-13