This week we...

Finished our kindergarten unit on money by going to the store to buy treats!

Made cookies, practicing measuring and sequencing skills and having fun in the process (more on that to come).

Continued working on basic math skills including counting, addition, and subtraction.



Explored the idea of wind and how it makes things move...

Wind Sounds

As we came in from our outside play I invited the children to stop and observe what sounds they could hear. They noticed the birds, then noticed there was another sound but couldn't identify what it was, though they did mimic the sound (it was probably water in the nearby ditch as well as wind). When we joined together as a group I gave the children pinwheels and invited them to explore with them, they noted that they were able to make their own wind. They started talking about the different sounds, and I invited them to each record their own wind and name it.
These recordings were simply made on my cell phone, no high tech requirements there. We watched them using windows media player, and the kids were excited to notice the designs on the screen seemed to coordinate with their wind sounds. This brought us back to the animations online, which we watched again this time focusing on the sounds of the wind as well as the animations. L. noticed the storm wind sounded like scissors and another wind sounded like a snake.

Painting wind...

Wind pictures

Monsters Slide Show

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Provocation: Collaborative Play

Following are some video clips of cooperative/collaborative play between two children in my class, B (5) and L (4). This clip was taken on 11-15-09, about six weeks into the school year. These two particular children had not engaged in cooperative play together, as previously there had been a split between two boys (B & E) and two girls (K & N), with L primarily wandering.

Provocation: What are the inherent traits of cooperative/collaborative play? How do you encourage this type of play in your classroom? How do you deal with "subgrouping" between certain children?

Observations from Clip #1:

Negotiation- L says, "I need a big one" and B tells her "It will not fit there." They negotiate on how many blocks are needed before it is considered "finished". L was allowed to act as the lead, "This is the door....this can be a castle"

Observations from Clip #2:

I love the excitement in their voices & their body language, especially when L. mimics B rubbing his hands together. B builds on L's earlier comment, "It's a car castle". The two work together to find a solution when the car does not fit. B knows how to access resources, "We need people..." B shows excellent self regulation when the "car castle" falls down, "It's okay, we can still make it."

Observations from Clip #3

B becomes more directive, but there is still negotiation..."No, they can not go there. But they can go..." L. doesn't hesitate to make her ideas known, but does not object when B disregards them. L expresses a desire to share her work, "I want to show my mom this". B shows an understanding of a basic selecting game, "Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish..." and count to 10.

N. was an onlooker throughout this entire activity, how could she have been encouraged to join their play?

Discovery Gateway pictures...

Last month we took a trip to the Discovery Gateway museum with the kids, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures! I'm playing around with SmileBox, so I hope this works...

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