Thinking About our Space

Once again we have re-designed our space to better accommodate our large Brightlinks (which is attached to a cart and laptop). Not only will we now have improved access to our Brightlinks technology, but the new design also offers more open space for building and dramatic play, as well as a more defined space for the arts-have to thank my wonderful colleagues for that one!

This will be my third year in room 1 and since then we have changed the room design five times! Reason being? Well, for us it's all about the functionality and the flow of the space, and not so much for us educators, but for the children. For example, I could have certainly lived with any previous classroom set-ups, but through observation and interacting with the children we were finding the space was just not working for their play. And sometimes this happens. Physical classroom size, number of children, children's interest etc. these are all factors that will influence how your room will look like, and like us, sometimes it takes a few arrangements to get it just right. I do love this most recent new set up; it looks and FEELS inviting. I am so excited to see how the children will take to it come September.

P.S. pics to come

Inspired by the Reggio approach? Interested in some basics on how to set-up your classroom with this approach in mind? Take a peek at this link that I stumbled upon. Hopefully you will be inspired and motivated to perhaps start thinking about getting ready for September.

 http://missreggio.blogspot.ca/2013/05/5-tips-for-setting-up-your-classroom.html

Project-Based Work: The City

In our program the children learn through “project-based work”. Unlike a unit, a project develops more organically. It is often initiated by the children and the educators take into account children’s questions and curiosities about the world around them. Projects are planned to offer choices to children in order to use their skills in a meaningful context and may involve them in different kinds of activity in different groupings. The city project, as many projects do, continued for a long period of time and may venture off in different directions. Projects like this one connect children to their work; they take more ownership and pride in what they are doing. They become more thoughtful about their choices. When working through a project, children will also naturally have to learn appropriate emotional responses to success and failure in themselves and others; a life skill that is not so easily taught! Our project came to a very natural end as the group members decided that they were finally done. I can say with great confidence that this was a rich learning experience that uncovered much of our curriculum in math, language, the arts, science and social and emotional development.   

Here is our journey of our city project:

November

We took a trip to the School of Architecture and downtown Cambridge to extend our skyscraper inquiry

The children began building replicas of buildings they saw on the trip in the classroom

Entire cities were beginning to emerge during play

A giant box was brought in to provoke the children to build with it. They decided to build a city on it

The children negotiated and decided on many things for the city including how to use the box, what should be in the city (i.e., a school, church, library,  playground, a “work”, a store for food and clothing, an airport and houses) and placement of these things within the city

The children explored with colour mixing to get the perfect “sky blue” for the backdrop

After agreeing to use plasticine as a material to use in the city, we researched author and artist Barbra Reid’s plasticine techniques to create clouds

The children decided to make a sun using salt dough. We measured, mixed and moulded salt dough into a sun. We ran into some disappointment when the sun did not dry. We were forced to re-evaluate our plan. We decided to use plasticine!

We researched different buildings in our neighbourhood before we began building them. We looked at shapes and what most buildings have and need.  We also started planning our church and library.

 

 

December/January

December was brief due to the holidays. During these months we started planning, painting and constructing the church and library. Some of our group members changed but the interest was still there, so we pursued! The children decided that they would only use recycled tissue boxes for the buildings…so every time we went through a tissue box at school we would save it. This eventually led to conversations about recycling and the importance of being mindful about and respecting our environment.

 February/March
brought more mapping and the painting of roads, sand and parking spots. As the children continued in their everyday play new ideas for the city emerged. We found some excellent materials to use for a swing set and sandbox for the park.

 

April

April turned out to be the busiest month and oddly enough the closing month for the city project. There seemed to be a resurgence of interest in the city. Many children who were not initially involved in the project began bringing items from elsewhere in the classroom and using the city as a setting for their play. The city group liked this idea and so the city began growing again. Through their play the children realized that the city people needed to be safe, so they built a fire station and a police station. They came to realize that people also like to be entertained, so the children created a restaurant and added animals to the park to create a zoo and aquarium. New materials were once again introduced to keep the interest and thinking alive.   

The Art Show

The grand finale for the city project came when we learned that the public library was hosting a student art show. Students from Monsignor Doyle high school were looking for art pieces made by students from recycled materials. When we passed the news onto the children they were so excited at the prospect of other people enjoying their city. They were especially excited that our city will be going to the city; the same place that we became more familiar with during our trip five months ago! Before being transported we made sure to glue all loose parts down.

A few days later Ms. Silveira visited the library and took pictures of the city at the library. She brought the photos back to school to show the children. The children were beaming with pride and excited to see another child appreciating the city.

Though there were ebbs and flows in the process (which always do occur in project work) I feel confident in saying that the children were proud of the final piece. The city now sits in our classroom as a piece of artwork to be admired by all visitors to the class.

 

 

 

Going Green for Kayla: Celebrating Lungs

On April 5th our entire community wore green to remember a very special girl, Kayla Baker, who received a new lung after years of awaiting a transplant. Since our children have been so intrigued with the human body they were naturally very connected to young Kayla's story.

The chiildren had many questions about Kayla:

"Why is Kayla's lungs sick?"
"Can she die?"
"Did God give her, her new lung?"
"How will she get the new lung in her body?"

As a class we had a very honest and intimate conversation about Kayla's story and we tried our best to answer thier complex questions.

The children, I feel, developed a sense of empathy towards Kayla-it was wonderful to see their support and hear the loving and kind words they had for her on this day. It was a beautiful day...one of the most memberable of my career for sure.

Thank you room 1 JK/SK

M.R and T.F find out how many children have worn green.

 

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Explroring the Human Body: Part I

The inspiration for exploration can be found anywhere. In early March, one of our SKs brought in a project that his older sister (a student in grade 5) had completed. This project was based on the body and skeletal system. Our group had not yet shown any interest in this exciting topic so we encouraged him to share this project with the class. Needless to say, this student-centred provocation got us thinking and wondering about our bones, our organs, body parts and functions and what happens when one of these parts of ours no longer works or functions.

Here are some of the investigations we have taken part in thus far.



We offered the class a thought provoking question. The red writing beneath the message, "We can count them" was a JKs idea. The red numbers above are our estimations.



The children agreed that we would need an x-ray to see the bones in our bodies. They decided that they could instead count the bones of our skeleton puzzle. Since this puzzle is very close to the size of the children, they thought the number of bones would be accurate.

The children made a chart to record their counting.



When the children were satisfied and confident that they had counted all the bones-many were surprised to find just how many little bones made up the hand-we wondered how many bones there were altogether. Together we wrote a addition number sentence and became overwhelmed when trying to add. Luckily, one of our JKs suggested that we track our counting on a 100's chart. What a perfect tool to help us!

As the children tracked their adding by coloring dots a time, they realized that there would not be enough number son the chart! We had more bones than numbers (we had 101 bones). S.H. (JK) suggested that we "squeeze in" a red dot after number 100 to show 101.
Great thinking!

 

In DRAMATIC play we've been observing a lot of "Doctor" play and hearing lots of stories of broken bones and ways in which to heal or cure our broken and ill bodies.

 

 

 



Two SK girls have set up a "doctor bed" for Mrs. L (our ECE in for Mrs. Clarkson who is on mat. leave). Mrs. L has broken her hand. The "Doctors" have used an x-ray to see that it has been broken and have suggested that Mrs. L rest, take medicine and put a cast on her hand.

 





 

During a Listening to Reading session, we read a book about a little girl who goes to the doctor. Before reading the children shared their experiences with doctors: "When I go I get a lollipop," "The doctor puts paper on the chair before I sit.", "He gives me medication." Some children talked about their experiences with dentists mentioning that "A dentist is a doctor for your teeth." It was agreed that all types of doctors are friendly, helpful and very important people in our community. 

 

 

 



 

 

After reading I.V (SK) shared with us that his younger sister was born without ears and explained that she had to do an operation "in her head" to put in a hearing aid. Of course this lead to MANY questions regarding how his sister might hear things in our world, etc...thus began a deeper exploration into our bodies.

 

As a provocation, we brought in a featureless mannequin head to see how the children might react to it (I know, it's a bit freaky!) Many were concerned that the mannequin couldn't do anything because it had no eyes, ears or body.  Many were confused about the gender...might it be a boy or girl...apparently hair was the deciding factor of that one; "boys have short hair and girls have long hair" was the children's thinking. I asked what might we want to add to the mannequin  first ...can you guess what they wanted?  EARS! Thus began our exploration into the ear.



The small group of children began examining the shape and contour of ears by studying a partner's ear and trying to represent it on paper through sketching.



Next we chose a material to work with. The children wanted plasticine and chose brown

as they are interested in creating a person with brown skin. They were encouraged to look at their drawings and create a model of an ear. Here G.P chose a tool to help her with the details.



 

The students have worked to added eyes as well...please stay tuned for that post!

A Piece of Cake: A Room 1 Baking Experience

In planning our room 1 “wedding party”, the children agreed that we would need to celebrate with a cake. A few days prior to the event, we gathered the ingredients and tools we needed for baking. Cooking offers children a variety of learning experiences. It's a practical way to teach kids basic life skills, as well as academic skills involving reading, science and math. Here is what we uncovered during the baking of our wedding cake.

We made observations and predicted change and talked about the purpose of each ingredient. We practiced our sequencing skills and procedural talk by following the steps of the recipe. We also explored with math as we compared the sizes of cups and spoons and counted and measured the ingredients.

As we incorporated the ingredients we carefully used our fine motor skills to gently pour them into the bowl.

Our senses came into good use as we explored the ingredients. This experience encouraged us to use our eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue! Some of us really liked the smell of cocoa best and others thought the vanilla smelt like cookies.

We made emotional connections with our friends by sharing personal stories of baking, at home, with our families.

We explored the safety involved in baking; reading the labels, being aware of our surroundings as to not spill or break anything and using oven mitts when touching something hot coming out of the oven.

We used our imagination and language skills to think about what our mixture reminded us of and came up with new words to describe it. Julius called the cocoa, “brown snow.”

Baking also boosted our self-confidence. There was a great sense of pride and accomplishment when the children assisted in cleaning our baking tools. It was wonderful to see the children using their collaboration skills to ice our finished product.

So, how was the learning from this experience made visible? Well, in one of our sensory bins we purposefully placed the same materials we used for baking. Using these materials with the “magic sand” (flour mixed with baby oil) the children were observed re-creating the baking experience using newly learned, and more precise language. For example we heard:

“Now I am going to add one cup of oil”

“I am going to add cocoa to make it chocolate.”

“First I mix it, then I put it into the oven” (procedural talk)

This was one of my favourite experiences this year. Such great learning and such wonderful memories.

Spinners

Spinners: An Investigation in Physics
By observing and exploring the world using all their senses, and by interacting with their classmates, children begin to connect their prior knowledge and experience with their experiences in new contexts. In our program, the focus for any investigation is drawn from what is familiar to children in their daily lives. Thus became our mini investigation on spinners.

“Spinners” became an interest in late December as Ayden was observed over a few days spinning our math beads. Small groups of students began “spinning” as well-we had to capitalize on this obvious interest.

I asked Ayden about this activity and he said he was playing Beyblades. “Oh, of course! What a great idea.” I replied. Then I asked how Beyblades work. “When you put power in it, it goes fast…188 blade power!” Ayden then went on to spin his Beyblade with his fingers and seemed impressed with it’s speed, but then he started to blow on it. “What are you doing now?” I asked. He replied, “When you blow on it, it goes faster.” It’s obvious that Ayden has had much experience with moving things or “spinners” and somewhere along the way he has also learned that wind is a form of power . This was an impressive application of his knowledge.

What Makes Objects Spin?
Finding 1: Objects Spin Better on Smooth Surfaces
I was interested in hearing some of the student’s theories on spinning to see what they knew and where their theories might take them.  It was agreed upon that round or “circle” items roll and move well on smooth surfaces (we did a few tests on carpet, tile, and tables). The carpet was deemed to have a “bumpy texture” and the items would “bump off”.

Finding 2: Other Objects Make Moving Objects Slow Down or Stop
When Ayden and his friends started spinning their spinners together they noticed that when the beads collided they would slow down. Ayden referred to this as his “guy dying”.

Finding 2: Circle and Pointy Objects Spin Best
I asked Ayden and the group, “What types of objects spin?” When explaining the bead, Ayden and the group agreed that circle beads spun best. We tried some cubed beads and they spun too! “How we do explain that?!” I asked. “You have to flip it on it’s side and it spins super fast!” Ayden positioned the bead on it’s pointy end and watched it spin. A few other boys mentioned that it’s important to use “the tip”, “the edge” or the “pointy part” because that is how they have seen Beyblades work in the past.

Finding 3: Heavy Objects Spin “Better” and Longer
A few days following the initial spinner discovery, Ayden and Joshua were observed using some unusual objects as spinners. The boys were using a kettle and a pan from our dramatic play centre for spinning. They discussed how they made great spinners because they were round in shape and that they had a pointy edge. What the boys also added was that the pan was full of rubber bugs which made it “heavier”. They tried spinning it with and without the bugs and came to the conclusion that the heavier version worked best.

Extending Our Spinners Investigation: Creating a Beyblade Game
A few weeks passed and spinners came back into the picture. The addition of our handmade light table ignited the idea of creating an “arena” for a Beyblade game.  At first the game seemed pretty unorganized and very open ended. With some guidance from Ms. Silveira Ethan and Logan collaborated together to create a game with rules that they and others could enjoy. The boys also included score keeping in their play-a wonderful addition of mathematical thinking.

It’s so incredible how a scientific investigation can extend and become something else that is so valuable, diverse and rich in learning.