Our current study topic is money. This topic was inspired by the children's interest in money. The play money in our dramatic play area is always a very hot item. The children love to play with it. Then a couple of children brought real coins to share for science. They were curious about how coins are made. They added questions to our board: Where does gold come from? What lands have gold underground? How do they get underground to get the gold? How are coins made?
And when we were exploring color last month, a boy was curious how to make the colors silver and gold (his favorite colors). We read a book about silver and gold, and discovered that those colors are also the names of metals that come from the earth. The boy wrote about these discoveries in his science journal. Later, he brought a piece of fool's gold (pyrite) to show his classmates.
We kick off every new project by discussing what the children already know about the topic. I record the children's responses on chart paper. Here is what the children understood about money. Interestingly, students debated about whether houses cost money. Some of the children thought you did have to pay to live in a house, and others thought you didn't. But they all agreed that food and clothes cost money. I announced that I had to pay over $1,000 every month to live in my house. One child in particular was shocked by this. It was quite entertaining!
To begin our exploration of money, I filled the classroom with real coins and dollars to be used with our Montessori works on the shelf. We looked carefully at coins with magnifying glasses, and sorted coins according to their value (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters).
We learned how to recognize different coins without our eyes.
Another work invited children to spin a four-sided top (a dreidel) to race coins to the top of a game board.
We also had a "bank game" for those students who were ready for money math. (I still need to get a photo of this.) Children take turns rolling dice to collect pennies, eventually trading them for larger and larger coins. The first child to earn 50 cents (a gold half dollar) wins the game.
Restaurant props were put in the dramatic play area. The restaurant props included pizzas, baking tools, menus, and clip boards for taking people's orders.
The children enjoyed using money to buy and sell pizza at the restaurant. This police officer is visiting the restaurant and placing his lunch order.
One day at circle time, we watched a YouTube video about how geologists and miners work together to find gold and other metals in the earth and purify them.
In the sand and water table I put sand, sifting tools, earth-moving vehicles, and polished rocks including some fool's gold (pyrite).
The children pretended to be miners searching for gold and other precious metals. Incidentally, they also used the polished stones to make rock art in the sand. I loved this.
All this play prepared the children to investigate the properties of gold and other metals. We read information books about gold, silver, and copper and learned why these metals are so valuable. We learned that metals are valuable because they are both rare and useful. For example, metal is very hard and strong. We tried to break coins but couldn't do it. Even when heated, precious metals can be stretched and shaped into various objects without breaking.
We made a list of things that were made of metal (e.g., batteries, electronics, musical instruments, trophies, jewelry, nails, foil, cans of food, etc.) and compared the properties of different kinds of metal.
We discovered that some metals stick to a magnet, and some don't. (We explored many magnetic toys in our classroom.)
We also discovered that some metals rust, and some don't. (We found a rusty pan in our kitchen.) Then we read about an Egyptian mask made of gold that had belonged to King Tut.
The mask looked the same today as it did thousands of years ago! No wonder gold is so valuable. It never changes; it always stays shiny and beautiful.
We are experimenting with paint and metal at the easel. We added soap to tempura paint to make it stick to aluminum foil. The children are excited to explore this shiny surface with paints and brushes over the next couple of weeks.
Unlike King Tut's shiny gold mask, many of the pennies in our classroom were looking old and tarnished. I asked the children if there was a way we could get our old pennies to look shiny and new again. One child suggested we wash them with soap and water. We tested that idea, but it didn't work. So we did some research. We found out that to clean pennies you need to mix salt and vinegar. We tried it, and it worked!
It took many years for the air to change the color of the copper on our pennies, but we found a chemical that could reverse this change. It was a chemical reaction! And it happened quickly!
We observed that some chemical changes happen slowly (like our pennies changing color over many years). And some chemical changes happen quickly. We experimented with vinegar some more, this time adding soda. When we mixed these two chemicals together, a gas quickly formed (carbon dioxide) causing an explosion! The children thought this experiment was very exciting. We tried mixing other liquids (alcohol, water, oil) and other solids (sugar, salt, flour) but nothing else reacted. Different chemicals really do have different properties! The children recorded observations in their science journals.
We are still thinking about the properties of different materials and their uses. Recently, a couple of students brought rubber bouncy balls for science. They wanted to know what makes the ball bounce so high. So we read about the properties of rubber and learned that rubber has
elasticity. That is, when rubber is stretched it can return back to its original shape. Elasticity is a property that makes rubber very useful. But how does elasticity help a rubber ball bounce? When a ball hits the floor it smashes or changes shape. As the rubber pops back to its original shape, the movement of the rubber makes the ball bounce.
We are now making a list of things made from rubber (e.g., bubble gum, tires, waterproof boots, many kinds of balls, elastics, rubber ducks, and even earthquake-proof buildings). Like metals, rubber comes from the earth. But it doesn't come from rocks, or underground. Rubber (or latex) comes from trees! We are having fun learning about the many different materials that make up our world.
Here are a few more photos and descriptors of the skills (literacy, math, art) we have been trying to master this past month. As you know, the children begin every school day with a ten minute "reading" time. They look at pictures to figure out what is happening in a story. Then I usually invite three students to share a book, and they tell us what they think the book is about. They can choose a favorite page to show as well.
The children are getting very good at this. Now they are ready to create their own stories. We have studied story books to identify various problems and ways to solve them. We have learned that a good story always has an interesting problem to solve.
So the children were invited to write about a problem and solve it. Inspired by the
Library Mouse and his message that everyone can be an author, the children illustrated a book and dictated the story to me.
We read the stories during snack time over the next couple of weeks. The children tried to guess the author when the story was finished. And the stories were all very enjoyable!
Legos were in the building area this month, along with a periodic table to remind us about nature's building materials. At circle time, we identified gold, silver, copper, the oxygen we breathe, the carbon that builds living things, etc. The Legos in the building area allowed students to play with these new ideas.
Math skills introduced this month included basic subtraction. We learned to subtract with Pete the Cat, removing buttons from a set of four. Check out Pete at this website. The book was definitely a crowd favorite!
Children recorded their button work on paper. When all the buttons were subtracted, the kids drew their belly buttons on the back of the paper (see samples above). Lots of giggles ignited during this work.
We had more fun with buttons when we used them as toppings on play dough pizzas.
Number stamps on the table encouraged children to count their toppings and assign a corresponding number to each pizza.
Here a child squeezes the dough hard to flatten it for pizza making. Working with dough really helps children strengthen their fine motor skills (hand muscles and coordination) in preparation for writing.
Children wrote a list of ingredients for a favorite pizza to be used as a recipe or menu for their pizza restaurant.
And we are still slowly producing our alphabet book. Above is a preview of the children's work.
Lastly, we wrapped up our snow study at the beginning of this month with some painting at the easel. We watched snow falling during a winter storm. Then we tried to capture the journey of a snowflake with paint.
You can see this child using his finger to trace the movement of snow before transferring the motion to his paper.
At an easel, a child's art is not typically representational. Rather, the child's focus is on the sensorial experience of moving the paint. Easel painting is an adventure, and finger paint records the motion of the child's hands.
For many children this was their first encounter with finger paint. You can see this student is cautious and careful at first, using just the tips of his fingers.
Then the palm of his hand meets the paper.
He awakens to the sensorial experience of the wet, slick paint.
He begins moving his hands in circular motions, discovering what happens when the red and blue paint meet. Purple is born!
Both his palms and the backs of his hands are involved now.
Soon he begins moving his whole body to spread paint across the paper.
The feel of the slick paint inspires a dance, a rhythmic, repeated sequence of movements. He stretches his arms up, down, and across.
Finally it is finished. He has connected with his art. And I know he will want to return to the easel again and again.
Thanks for reading. It's been a productive month. Our next study topic will be languages and culture. The winter Olympic games have begun, and many students are hearing a lot about Russia and other places in our world as they watch the athletes compete. We have a student from our school who is traveling to Spain for two weeks, and we have another student who speaks some Spanish already. We will build on the collective experiences of the children as we explore the languages and culture of people around the world.
As always, parents, I invite you to be a part of our learning community. If you have a multicultural experience you would like to share with the children, you are welcome to visit our school and share your knowledge and experiences. If you have a souvenir(s) from a different country, your child can bring it to school and share it with us. This will help us raise our global awareness. Enjoy the Olympic games!
Best,
Teacher April
