We look forward to exploring what the children have been exploring together so you can join in the thinking!
Notes from the interns:
Hello Families,
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| Working on a design for a maze |
I have enjoyed working with your child twice a week. We have learned a lot over the past two months from each other. It’s been great getting to know each of the children and I look forward to learning more about each of them throughout the rest of the semester. I have done a lot of hands on activities with the children, which have included building of different structures.
The first two weeks I was in the classroom, the children worked on building mazes out of different materials each time. I decided to have the children draw a design of a maze they would like to build on another day based off the different ways they had made the mazes before. Casey had made a path in his maze design, so I had a class discussion about what a path is and we talked about where we see paths every day.
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| Exploring how to build a path and move through it |
After our discussion about paths, I had them add a path to their drawing of a maze and add anything else they might also want. We practiced building a path and the children were able to drive cars through the path. Some of the students decided to crawl and walk through the path instead. Some of the children had added a bridge to their maze design. We then explored building bridges. My plan is for the children to explore the different parts a maze might have.
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| Working together to build a bridge out of blocks |
During these activities, the children are developing a simple sketch, drawing or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem. Throughout these explorations, the children will be using team work while building and creating things. One way you can participate in the children’s exploration could be sending in any pictures you might have of yourself or your child at different structures you have visited. For example, the Mackinac Bridge. I would like to invite you to the Curriculum Night at the Early Childhood Education Center on April 12th from 4:30pm to 6pm. I look forward to seeing you there and telling you more about the explorations we are working on. ~Ms. Hanton
Exploring the World of Frogs!
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| Drawing a picture of the frog jumping |
Since the beginning of my internship. I have watched the children very closely and discovered that they love animals. In the classroom, there’s a pet shrimp. Being an animal enthusiast as well I decided it would be a great idea to introduce my frogs Fred and Ed to the children. The children started with observing the two tree frogs. From there the children have been wonderful scientists. The students used observation to gather information about the frogs. They wanted to know where the frogs live, what they eat, and how they stick to the wall.Students wondered why the frogs were not in water. It came as a surprise that these frogs live in trees. The children also use the materials around them to make predictions regarding the frogs. They noticed pictures of worms and crickets. Learning that the frogs eat mealworms and crickets; they had the opportunity to feed the frogs mealworms and watch how the frogs ate. Many of these are coming up because of their interest in the frogs. Students also had the opportunity to draw what they saw.
We were interested that the tree frogs did not live in the pond. We decided it would be a great idea to build a tree frog habitat for Fred and Ed to stay in while being in the kindergarten classroom. In the classroom the students had a red worm colony. They enjoyed being able to compare mealworms and red worms. Mealworms evolve to become black beetles. The students were shocked to find out that these worms don’t turn into butterflies but black beetles. Toward the end of our discussion we built a habitat for the mealworms using oats for bedding and slices of potatoes for food/water source.
Exploring mealworms
After learning about habitats, the students were wondering who the tree frogs neighbors are. In this lesson, the students learned about the ecosystem. The frogs' ecosystem was being destroyed by natural disasters and by humans. They learned that when people cut down trees to build homes they are destroying the frogs' habitat. Lastly, they learned about the food chain and what creatures eat frogs. The students used a computer to navigate a website that taught the ecosystem and had a game that the children can play which taught them about the food chain.
We would like to welcome you to our curriculum night to further discuss what we have been doing in our class.The Early Childhood Curriculum Night will be at the ECEC on April 12 from 4:30-6 p.m. Hope to see all of you there!!! ~Mrs. Ahmad
Classroom Explorations:
As we were building tall, the children were “decorating” the buildings . We started calling this building with details. They used everything they could find in the block area to add to their building. We introduced the book Arches to Zigzags: An Architecture ABC. This book helped to identify architecture vocabulary. We read the book a few pages at a time. Then the children built incorporating the details corresponding to the new vocabulary.
We have become the experts about many creatures this year. Worms and frogs have been of great interest this term. We have even been teaching the toddlers in Room 2 about worms!
The children have shown an interest in music and musical instruments. We have explored drums, auto harps, piano, and bells, in addition to rhythm instruments. While they were using these instruments the children were creating performances. We asked the children, "What do you need for a Performance?" They responded with:
Stage- we built a stage out of the blocks for the people to stand.
Lights- we added different colored lights to shine down on the stage.
They continue to add components to the performance area as well as to their musicality.
We look forward to sharing all of their learning with you and are grateful you have chosen to share your children with us!! +Peace, Cyndi and Suzette (Mrs. McAuliffe and Ms. Zoia)
