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

Slideshow design personalized with Smilebox

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...

Personalize your own digital slideshow

Wind....

We have the opportunity to participate in a large-scale "mega project" on wind studies, in cooperation with a school in Hawaii and other schools around the world. I've begun introducing the concept of wind to the children, trying to get an understanding of how they think of the concept "wind". Here are a few video clips from today...

Art Class...

Just a peek at what is going on in art class these days....

Our painting is still very much hands on! Even the older kids (in fact, especially the older kids!) enjoy really getting into the process. This is a huge difference from the beginning of the class when most of the older kids came into class with the idea that they had to create something in order for it to be considered "art". I see a lot more open exploration now, and I love it even though it's messy! I think it is important for children to have a chance to openly explore a medium before moving into represntational work, a lot of times they miss this step.

It's not all mess making though, when they come up with an idea they can really get down to work! These girls found various containers in our recycling bin they could trace to make circles. One, apparently drawing inspiration from the recent olympic games, entitled her work "Olympic Circles". They were very serious and engaged about this work, and obviously had a product in mind--but it was still very much child initiated and child directed.

Our favorite part of class, hands down (or usually, to be more accurate, elbows up) is open studio time, where each child has the chance to work on their own or with self selected partners with any of the mediums available in the classroom. Here we have children working with recyclables, clay, glue, and scissors. The work they come up with is amazing. Many ask me how I can keep kids busy for 1 1/2 hours--the better question is how can I give the kids enough opportunity to work on their ideas and still have time to clean up! I think they could go at this all day if I let them...

More to come!

Why Play?

I've been scanning youtube lately and have come across a few videos I think explain why I focus on a play-based curriculum, attempting to create what is known in the early childhood community as a "developmentally appropriate practice"...these films explain some of the basic concepts

Developmentally Appropriate Early Childhood Environments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-h4IHIqkcc&feature=related

All They Do is Play...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Kan48OftU&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktz_28vP_Jo&feature=channel

Transcribe: Observations on Fixing the Road, 11-5-2009

On a walk to see the horses we observed a work crew working on road repairs. One of the men was using a torch to put fire on the road. One of the children in the class was enthralled by this process...here are his ideas! What does this conversation tell you about this child's thinking? How do the questions I asked add or detract from his thought processes? Where could I have gone from here? (as it turns out they were more interested in bikes than the road repairs when they got back to school so it didn't go anywhere...)

A visit to the horses...

More to come....maybe, just trying to get some photos up so I have something to blog about!

Provocation....What is "Hands On Learning?"

This was a sign displayed prominantly at the check out counter at a local grocery store. The "work samples" shown include ditto matching sheets and standardized spelling tests. It made me wonder exactly what educators consider "hands on" learning.

How about this activity? The learning objective was to count the pumpkin seeds as he glued them on the pumpkin...

What about writing our reading words for the week on the whiteboard? Does your opinion change if you know this activity was child initiated?

Do Montessori cylinder blocks and other dydactic learning materials count as "hands on" learning?

Are we getting closer to "hands on" now?

What about "full body on" learning? Does that count?

Questions to Consider:

What is it that makes learning hands on?

Does the definition of hands on change as children grow and develop?

What ages do better with hands on learning?

How does hands on learning work in your classroom?
What challenges do you face in presenting 'hands on' activities?

Chime in by leaving a comment or drop me an e-mail at hapythoughtslearningcenter@yahoo.com

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Utah Early Childhood Conference

Random note....

Mountainland CCR&R 801-863-8220

Utah Child Care Conference registration is *not* available until next week. So don't register early, because I really REALLY want to get into the good classes this year. But if you do register early you can do so on the following site:

www.utahearlychildhoodconference.com

Discovery Gateway

Photos from our field trip...

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d5455314d5441314e7a4d3d0d0a&blogview=true

Hands-on art experiences, as usual....this is a combination of shaving cream and about three different colors of paint in mass...

The older class has been studying Leonardo da Vinci's inventions, our classes combined to work together with a box of "just about everything"...B really got into this activity and has been working for several days on a "robot".


Tracks in the snow kept E. engaged outside as he followed them trying to find out where they led and figure out what type of animal made them!

This is a unique use for tape that I've never seen before....a limbo rope! This has actually been a great activity for cooperation, because it requires at least two children to hold the tape and several more to play the "game", which is tricky....because it's sticky!

The kids love making popsicles, we do this at least once a week! They don't seem to care about the fact that it is below freezing outside...though N. consistently points out that in cold weather we should have hot chocolate instead. So we make that as well on a regular basis!

Another check in...

Don't know if any parents are reading this, but just to throw some pictures out there...

Miss Phelps had a birthday this week, and L. wanted to get into the action by decorating her car. I wasn't sure how Miss Phelps would feel about that, so I let her decorate my car instead. Have to say I was thankful when I was wandering around lost in the parking lot at 10:00 at night--can't miss a car covered in tape!

P. is working on learning how to ride a two-wheeler. Despite the snow, the kids still love riding bikes on the driveway. I, on the other hand, can not WAIT to go inside. They may be able to tolerate 12 degree weather....but I'm still not a fan!

The blog has apparently decided it can't handle any more photos for now...I'm going to try a new program a friend suggested, we'll see how it works!

Check In...

Working together in small groups exploring wire as a medium...


We made personal mini-pizzas, each child got to make their own...

L. returned to an activity that has been a favorite, it was initially intented to be "musical shakers", but now has morphed into simply filling a plastic cup with various collage materials, and covering the top with plastic wrap held on by an elastic band. Not sure what, exactly, it is intended to be, but it doesn't particularly matter....it's the process that is important, not the product.