The children have been enjoying pretend play, building, and working at the table with their hands. I like this photo because it shows where each child initially chose to play on the first day of school. It tells me something about the children's interests and personalities.
Picnic props were in the dramatic play area this week, including beach
towels, a picnic basket, a cooler, and picnic food. The children enjoyed
many a pretend picnic together.
Post office props were out so children could pretend to mail postcards to people and tell them about their picnic at the beach.
One student asked for a piece of paper so she could mail an invitation
to a beach party. Her invitation is a great example of emergent writing. And it underscores how important dramatic play is for children. Here dramatic play is helping a child develop literacy skills.
After two weeks of working with the magnet blocks, our first 3D structure was created. Until now children had sorted the blocks by shape making stacks, built flat designs, or very basic 3D shapes. But I was especially pleased yesterday when three of the boys invited me to come see the "aquarium" they had built using the sea animals in the classroom. What progress they had made!
I praised their cooperation. We only have so many magnets, but look what you can build when you work together!
Later, one child wanted to test how sturdy the structure was. He asked to
use a "pickle" from the garden. He wanted to see what would win, the
pickle or the magnets.
He was delighted to discover that his structure
was sturdy enough to hold the pickle (really a cucumber). I suggested he try building a structure sturdy enough for a zucchini! And he did!
The first thing he did was measure the zucchini to know how big the structure needed to be. It was 3 squares long. I was witnessing math skills develop, as well as planning and problem-solving. I was a happy teacher.
After the initial excitement of the first week of school began to wear off, some of the boys shared a moment of quiet work at the table (self-initiated). The children seem very comfortable with each other already.
At the art table this month children are learning to use basic art tools. They were invited to use scissors to cut strips of paper and form a mosaic fish.
A lesson learned here was that work takes time and persistence to finish. The goal was to cover all the white space; children were given two days to complete the task. The photo above shows how far they got on the first day.
Here are the finished works of art, after children put each fish in their ocean (blue paper). The child below was especially happy with his work. Notice
how he meticulously made stripes with the different colors to complete a
"rainbow" fish. We read the story "Rainbow Fish" the next day during
group circle time.
The following week, we compared the book Rainbow Fish (about a fish and a wise octopus) to an information book about an octopus. (We are learning that we read books for enjoyment and also for information.) We read about octopus creature powers (adaptations).
After reading the information book, we began making a model of an octopus. And we had our first lesson in how to use a paint brush. The children were taught to dip, catch the drip, then paint. Also to keep the hairs on the brush straight, choosing short or long brush strokes to make different textures.
The information book told us what an octopus eats: clams, scallops, and other shelled sea animals. After a meal, the octopus discards the shells outside his den creating an "octopus garden". The children used seashells to create octopus gardens of their own.
The children were invited to choose a number card and make a garden with that number of shells in it. The children enjoyed looking closely at the shells with magnifying glasses. Some children also sorted the shells to make a graph on their mat.
We practiced counting octopus arms and writing the numbers 1-8.
A child doing shark work. A child using the shark basket can measure a shark tooth, play a shark matching game, or make a shark book.
Many of the questions the children have put up on our question board have to do with how fish and other sea animals breathe under water. The children started to notice that some sea animals have blow holes and some don't. Fish and sharks have gills, but whales and dolphins don't. How does an octopus breathe? Does it have gills or lungs? A fish counting activity reflects this thinking. Children counted fish "bubbles" on a large floor mat.
We used our lungs to make bubbles full of air just like the fish.
We used our lungs to blow blocks off of our tower. We have powerful lungs!
The children have been enjoying time outdoors every day. A highlight for me was a five senses nature walk we took through the backyard. We found things we could observe with each of our five senses.
We are watching pumpkins grow in our school garden.The children check on them every day.
The children have worked hard in the garden, pulling up green bean plants and making room for new pea plants. This was a lesson in cooperation.
We got ready to plant our peas by writing our names on garden sticks. The children are learning to write their names using lower case letters.
Next we counted exactly 20 pea seeds into a cup. Each child got to plant exactly 20 seeds in a row. They labeled their row of seeds with their garden stick.
They take turns each school day using watering cans to water their seeds.
Sincerely,
Teacher April
