Moments in Learning

Today was a busy day!

In addition to our typical daily activities and some garden preparation work, we took a walk to campus and found two hills on which to run.  We have noticed that the children have tried to climb hills on past walks, so today they had a chance to explore hills more purposefully.

There were two hills:

1. The first hill was steeper, but not as long.
2. The second hill was more gradual, but longer.  There were also spinner seed pods on that hill and it was next to the clock tower.

We walked to the first hill and ran up and down.  Some children played “red light green light” on the hill.

Then, we walked to the second hill and ran up and down.  Some children looked at the clock and it chimed for us!  Other children tossed spinner seed pods in the air and watched them twirl down.  Some children even rolled on this hill.

Then, we walked back to our school by taking a “long cut.”  We went past the first hill again to remember what it was like.

When we got back to the room, we asked the children to vote on whether they liked hill #1 (the first hill) or hill #2 (the hill by the clock).  The second hill won with 15 votes.  7 children voted for the first hill.  The reasons for their votes were interesting.

Some of the children who voted for the first hill said they liked it better because:

• It was steeper.
• They played red light, green light there.
• It made them run fast.
• The other hill made him too slow, so they liked this one better.

NOTE: One child did not like the first hill because he fell when he ran on it.

The children who voted for the second hill shared less about this hill, but still shared a few things:

• There was a clock.
• The grass was too wet on the first hill, so they liked this one better.

The children immediately knew that there were more votes for the second hill because the list was longer.  We talked about how there were “more than twice as many votes for the second hill!”  Note that some children did vote twice.  🙂

Here are some of the questions that come up from this:

• Did children feel a need to “justify” their responses for liking the first hill because there were fewer votes for it?  There was more talk about why they liked the first hill better.  Or… was it just the group of children who liked the first hill better?  Do they just want to share more than the other group?
• Did more of the children like the second hill more because it was the second hill they visited and they were more comfortable exploring the second hill after practicing on the first hill?
• Did more of the children like the second hill more because of the clock tower and the seed pods?
• Did their choices really have to do with the speed they ran due to the slope of the hill?
• Why did some children vote for a hill because they didn’t like the other hill?  In these cases, it seemed less about liking the hill for which they voted and more about NOT choosing the hill they did NOT like.

Next week we are walking on Tuesday.  We plan to start on the second hill and end with the first hill to see if it changes the results.  This is non-scientific, of course.  There are different children on Tuesdays and Mondays and some of this could just be the factor of the children.

We also noticed that the children are playing with inclines in our own classroom and outdoor areas in the building areas we provide for them.  Is this the beginning of an investigation of hills, slopes, inclined planes, ramps, etc…?

Hi, everyone!

Today we are doing a little catch up. There was no blog post yesterday, so today you get two photo albums!

Yesterday we went on a walk with the children to the horticulture area and collected natural items. We are planning to use the natural items in our art area and to make a large collage on a piece of palm tree. The children washed the palm tree pieces today!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.582203855172762.1073741874.213823248677493&type=1

We also had a guest reader today: Mary Benard, Vice President of Instructional Services! The children made her “Thank You” drawings and artwork after her visit. To see more about that event, check out this photo album.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.582196591840155.1073741873.213823248677493&type=1

Have a wonderful weekend and we will see you all next week!

– Ms. Amanda, Ms. Giana, Ms. Laura, and Ms. Lisa –

Here are our planning sheets for our classroom and activities.  These begin on September 4 (today!).

Environment Planning -Begins on September 4

Room 4 Planned Possibilities- Begins September 4

This week we are highlighting the science/discovery area in our Environment Planning sheet.  We hope you enjoy seeing what the children are working on in the classroom!

We also updated our classroom routine a bit.  The changes are pretty minor, but here is a new copy for you:

Room 4 Daily Routine-Update

Lastly, check out the photo we posted of Al Taccone reading to the children today!  It was so great having him visit to read Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=581301611929653&set=a.220915221301629.55462.213823248677493&type=1&theater

Have a great day, everyone!

Today the teachers tried inspiring the children in a new way in the open-ended natural materials area.  The Program Specialist sent the teachers a website that had images of “Mandala Art” created with sticks, shells, rocks, etc…  These images were displayed at the open-ended materials table.

To see what happened, view this photo album:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.580896455303502.1073741872.213823248677493&type=1

It was exciting to see the children considering shape and patterns, two things that are important mathematical concepts (geometry and algebraic thinking).

We hope you enjoy seeing what value open-ended materials have for learning!

Today I wanted to highlight something new we have in our manipulatives area.  We are calling it a “container station.”  It has different containers.  Some have lids and some don’t.  Some press on and some screw on and off.  In the “container station,” we also have tongs, spoons, and different natural materials like shells and pebbles.  Baskets are also there for the children.  There is a photo album with photos of what the materials look like here at the below link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.578578602201954.1073741871.213823248677493&type=1

For this blog post, however, we wanted to highlight how children are learning things like science, language, mathematics, fine motor skills, and social skills (e.g., teamwork) while using the materials.  Here is a conversation one of the teachers overheard in this area today:

Child 1: Well, take all this out and close this.

Child 2: We need another jar.  Let’s see if we need another one.  I think we’ll need to add more big ones.

Child 1: We’re gonna need some more and stuff.

Child 2: That’s mine.  That’s mine….

Child 1: She took mine.

Child 2: No, that’s mine, I collected that one.

Child 1: Well, then I’ll take this one.

Child 2: Then we have the same amount.  You have two and I have two.

Child 1: We need to find more collages.  Why do we need more?  I think we’re gonna need more collages.

Child 2: This is all the things.  Ok.  This is all…

Child 1: Where’s the lid?  I need the lid.  I think we got all of them.

Child 2: So, tap tap.  Rocks?  Yeah.  Rocks?  Yeah.

Child 1 and 2: Woah!  Woah!

Child 1: There is a lot.  We have to put everything there.

Child 2: You think we got all of ’em?

Child 1: I think we got all of them.  I don’t think it will work.  Not that.  We’re gonna need all of them.

At this point the children left the area.  Child 2 called to child 1 and asked if they could still do “the collages.”  One of the things the teacher is wondering is if the idea of calling it “collages” is from the fact that sometimes they use those kinds of natural materials to make collages.  Also, it is interesting that they could work out their difficulty with sharing the materials without the teacher helping and they even used mathematics to figure out that they could still have the same amount.  They talked about the size of materials for each of the containers, too, showing an idea of what would and would not fit.  It was exciting to see these two children explore, but almost all of the children have tried out this area of the classroom since we have added it.  We can’t wait to see where our exploration of open-ended materials take us next.  We are also considering prompts the teachers could offer to the children to get them thinking even more deeply about the materials.