Documentation Panels from Winter 2016

Winter 2016

What’s Up in the classroom

Investigation with Ms. Ancinec:

While learning about the children's interests in the classroom I couldn't help but notice an interest in building and movement shown by the class as a whole. The children were actively learning about Adam with Mrs. Roy in the art studio. Who is Adam? A wooden human figurine They were learning about how to change flat objects into 3D shapes. I wanted to expand the children's thinking about 3D shapes.  My first implementation was creating those shapes from flat craft sticks.  While building, the children were focused on making their shape sturdy in order for it to stand up. From the thought of creating a sturdy structure we began investigating sturdy in multiple functions. We have made sturdy stacks using tweezers and sponges, as well as blocks and cups. We have now expanded the concept of sturdy into developing a sturdy classroom community focusing on our problem solving  and team working skills.  To continue our investigations we will include the thought of sturdy while moving into exploring: sorting, storytelling, problem solving and balancing. 
 

Standards being met:

K-2-ETS1-2 Develop 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.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.4.B Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.OA.A.2 Solve addition and subtraction word problems, and add and subtract within 10, e.g., by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.
K – P3.1.1 Identify classroom issues.
K – P3.1.2 Use simple graphs to explain information about a classroom issue.
K – P3.1.3 Compare their viewpoint about a classroom issue with the viewpoint of another person.

Home connection:

A great way to connect your child's current classroom investigations is by building with different materials at home. Materials such as plastic cups, sponges, or anything stack-able would be a connection to our sturdy investigation. Feel free to share your building explorations with us!  

Another connection would be problem solving with your child. If a problem arises at home you can ask your child for their thoughts on how to solve it. This could be something like a disagreement or not being able to find a puzzle piece.

Documentation Panels from Curriculum Night Fall 2015

Curriculum Night December 2nd...please join us!

A Note from the Interns:

When a store bought spider web frame was placed in the courtyard, the children were fascinated by not only the spiders, but also by the webs they created. We chose to focus on the construction and design process of spider webs. We used our observations to build lessons aligned with the Common Core State Standards and the Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations for Kindergarten.

Some of the standards that were used:
K – C2.0.3 Describe fair ways for groups to make decisions.
L.OL.00.11 Identify that living things have basic needs.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.MD.A.2 Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has "more of"/"less of" the attribute, and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter.
Through the use of different mediums including string, paper, pencils, paint,cloth,and yarn, the children furthered their knowledge of design and construction.

Weaving webs:



“It’s a wacky, wacky, web!” -Sully

Geo-board webs:



“Making a square spider web.” -Fouad


Painting a web:




For construction and design, the children watched a time lapse video of a spider constructing a web. Spiders start constructing their webs first from the outside building a frame, then go inward, working in a circular design until completed. By using the yarn and geoboards the children were able to make the connection between design and construction.

What’s next?

The children will continue learning about design and construction by designing a math game together, creating a fill-in-the-blank story. In these lessons they will collaborate to accomplish the tasks. By working on building a boat the children will practice design and construction skills. Tracking motion by painting using movement will guide the children to considering how designs are created. We are excited to see where these next provocations will take us into the children’s thinking.

Thank you,

Ms. Gravelle and Ms. Hight



Families: 

Please take a minute to reflect on the day-to-day examples of construction and design that you see, whether it be outside or inside or anywhere. Materials you may have in your recycle bin at home are welcome donations to our classroom. The children use these materials for constructing towers and also in building our boats. Lastly, Curriculum night is December 2nd from 5-6:30. This is a hands on, open-house experience of what the children have been learning in our classroom. Everyone in your family, as well as extended family and friends, are welcome to participate.

2015 / 2016

What’s Up in the classroom

Fall 2015

We are off to a great start! What a vibrant group of children compose our classroom community. We are in the process of creating an community sculpture where each child is making their own bead out of clay. This part is being led by our studio teacher, Ms. Stine (soon to be Mrs. Roy after her wedding this weekend). The children have been working with her to build skills with planning, drawing, editing and making a clay bead.

The children are learning the routines well and beginning to form friendships. We have been exploring slats, spiders, balance, and many other concepts. We have been practicing writing, reading, adding, and many other skills. Here is what is up with spiders:

Prediction drawing artist’s statements 9-9-15
This is the big web and it’s shaped like a circle.  The lines are where [the spider] sticks on to. It’s very sticky.  It’s very, very fragile”   - Ben  (4.06)	“They try to eat insects to be healthy and strong.  The insects try to get to their home, but they get stuck.” - Sully (5.09)	“That’s the spider.” - Ryan (4.09) “What will the spider do in the web?” - Mrs. McAuliffe “Crawl on it. Catch flies like a frog.”  - Ryan (4.09)

Drawing a prediction of what the spider web will look like.

“Roly-Polies are crustaceans!” John Darwin (5.00) 

and other “bug” conversations in our classroom

The children’s interest in “bugs” prompted us to install a spider web frame.  Prior to installing the spider frame in our courtyard, the children drew predictions of what the web would look like.  Drawing provided the children with the means to say what they may not be able to define or articulate with vocabulary, but certainly understood as capable observers, communicators, and thinkers. It also was a means of expressing their knowledge. The prediction drawing garnered mostly comments that revolved around the idea of food, indicating prior knowledge about the purpose of a spider’s web.  After checking the frame for several days with no evidence of a web, the children found other webs in our courtyard.  Upon seeing the incredibly large size of the webs in the courtyard, Mohamed (5.02) explained why there wasn’t a web in our frame as he concluded, “The frame is tiny so they build it over here.”  

The next set of drawings are based on actual observations the children made of webs in the courtyard.  In these drawings we see much more detail.  Using drawing as a means to observe, the children drew what they saw.  Often children’s drawing serves as the language to articulate what the children cannot say with words.  Likewise, drawing serves as a stimulus for  seeing concepts they had yet to consider.  This is the case with Norah and Ian’s drawings where the anchor threads of the web were observed and documented.  These drawings also served as a catalyst for conversation and a guide to further exploration. So now we will investigate how spiders construct webs.  Additionally, properties of connection, strength and effects of light may be explored as we consider other comments like Emi’s (4.04), “It’s kinda hard to see if it blends in with the sunlight.”  The background spider Alex (5.08) drew shows many details about the parts of a spider and we look forward to studying classification concepts, especially of happy spiders!

Observing spider webs and recording by drawing

Observation drawing artist’s statements 9-25-15
“So it doesn’t blow away in the wind.”   - Ian (5.04)	“The frame is tiny so they build it over here.” -Mohamed (5.02)	“It’s stuck to the building and stuck to the bush.  It’s a big web.”   -  Norah (5.06)

 Our Playground

We are in the process of updating our playground.  The children really want monkey bars.  Here is the list of reasons we need monkey bars according to them.  Their logic is quite compelling.
There’s a lot people climbing on things they shouldn’t climb on. Ben L.
Can we please have the monkey bars? Lily
We need the monkey bars to exercise our bodies. Violet
Monkey bars get you energy. Danica
Well, the monkey bars will really, really make us stronger. Ian
Thank you. Natalia
When we get strong we can lift things even heavier. Luke
We have to be so strong so we can get muscles and grow up. Ryan
We need monkey bars because they are very exciting. Nathan
We need monkey bars because they are so big. Mohamed
Monkey bars will make us stronger. Ben S.
We will live a long life if we can use our muscles. Alex

Thinking about where to put monkey bars by building a model.

 

What’s Up in the classroom

March 2015

CAMPING STORE: Since our families have brought in camping supplies the children designed the camping store layout and organized the shelving. We have made labels for our shelves, barcodes, and price tags for each item. Reasoning and exchanging skills are in full effect! The children have thoughtfully put an amount on each item, for example, a large hammock should cost more than one water bottle. The students created name tags, to express they are workers in the store rather than a customer.  Many students were interested in store hours and created a clock to tell when the store is closed or open for business. Some have even began advertising and encouraging other students to come buy supplies.  We are continuing to discuss coins and bills. While the children have expressed knowledge about the idea of going to a store, you can further their thinking by having conversations with your child when you’re at the store. Look for store signs to direct you to where you would find an item.  Discuss where you found the cost of the item and have them read the numbers. Talk about different jobs throughout the store: stocker, cashier, etc. The children are excited about camping and just waiting for the weather to warm up to take their camping knowledge back outdoors! Until then we have brought the outdoors in, as we are representing night sky motions through dance.  

Counting money in exchange for supplies at the camping store.

Slats: The thinking that began in the fall continues to thrive.  While the children have ironed out concepts about connection and stability, they continue to challenge themselves as new features are added.  For instance, they are working to develop “switches” where the marble changes track.  A part of this is to have the marble “jump” onto another slat or into something at the end.  They are also figuring out how to get sound into the motion by having the marble roll into, onto, and through metal objects.  All of these challenges are developing their problem solving skills and giving them opportunities to develop mathematical thinking as they measure distances and plan for sequence.  In order to solve social logistics, the children have identified all the roles necessary to accomplish a slat goal.  We now have nametags to identify who is doing each job.  While everyone wants to be the “launcher”, no one can launch if there is not a “planner”, “builder”, or “fixer”.  Another thread of thinking the children continue to follow is regarding turns.  Watching a video of a previous kindergarten class inspired the idea to achieve more than 10 turns. The children are determined to get the marble to make “twenty turns” in one launch.  They are on their way as they have developed a theory that “the one before has to be one more” in regard to how tall the slat base is built.  This thinking is provoking problem solving and many science concepts regarding motion and ricocheting (“bump”).

Group time to solve the problem of getting the marble to turn.

 Garden:  2-4-6-8! Meet me at the garden gate!!  We have been dreaming about the garden by building models and perusing garden books and studying our amaryllis. 

Using the garden map to make a model of our garden.

Last week in the garden, the children found the thyme poking through the snow.  This week we found lots of rabbit dung...stay tuned!

We look forward to sharing all of the details with you at the program exhibit on April 8th.

Thanks, as always, for sharing your child with us!!

We wish you a sunny and splendid spring!

Aubrey Smith and Cyndi McAuliffe

Notes from the interns:

Mr. Brown:

During this semester, the children have shown a keen interest in exploring roles in various settings. The interest first stemmed from performing a story we read together called The Soup Opera. In this story, a problem arises and various characters come together to resolve the issue. This theme has continued in much of our exploration throughout the semester.

The children have been exploring roles in much of their everyday explorations. Roles have popped up in numerous areas such as dramatic play. With dramatic play, the children have been exploring roles with planning on what to build, who is the builder, what costumes to use and what characters they wish to explore in their new setting. Most recently the children have been writing letters to family members and as well as each other. The purpose is for children to explore the role of being a writer, as well as a reader. The children have been writing letters to children in the classroom and keeping in mind as a writer who will be reading them. The purpose is to write to a wide variety of audiences.

As this exploration continues, we will focus on the perspectives of people who will read our letters and how roles fit into the delivery of letters. We will be writing to family, previous teachers, and fellow classmates. We have been designing maps of our classroom and school to aid us in the successful delivery of our letters. We hope to create mail boxes for the respective classrooms that will be utilized to each classroom’s needs. The children will have to design and construct the mail boxes by looking at the physical and logistical perspectives of the children in each of the classrooms.

                With the children writing letters, this exploration coincides with early childhood standards by strengthening the children’s writing through drawing, dictation, and teacher support. Roles play a vital aspect in early childhood standards by working together through positive support to solve classroom goals.

              We encourage families to extend the children’s exploration in writing letters or postcards to the classroom. If your child sees you writing or mailing a letter, tell them why you are sending the letter and how the letter will be mailed. We wish for the children to see how much is involved in mailing letters locally, even internationally!

Ms. Smart:

                Throughout the duration of this semester, the children have shown an interest in art and the process of representation. This interest was first brought to my attention during a group project that focused on recreating experiences at the beach or painting what they thought of when they heard the words such as ocean, water, and shells.   The children took to this project fairly quickly, adding images of sea life, a beach, and water. What was even more intriguing about their representation was the details they chose to include. Some animals were painted over to give depth to the painting, representing the animals being underwater. Along with that, many of the animals were painted from a front profile view though the beach and water suggested an aerial view.

                To continue working with the children’s misconceptions about representation and build on their current interest with recreating, we then moved on to exploring different perspectives and times of representation in art. Pablo Picasso’s Three Musicians was investigated due to the way the artist represented people by shapes rather than the typical form of representation. An aerial view of a city was also analyzed. This brought focal points to the attention of the children and provoked their imagination into what else the painting could possibly represent.

                Most recently, the children have begun focusing on Zulie, parrot who is housed at the Early Childhood Education Center. While exploring the shapes and angles seen when observing Zulie, the children have begun creating their own representation through drawing.

From here, we plan to continue exploring perspectives within drawings and move our explorations to representing our ideas with various materials in a 3D manner. This will provoke the children to think about perspective and the process involved in developing a piece of art moving from a 2D representation, to a 3D representation. Stacking materials, problem solving how to stick materials together, and collaboration are some components that will also be included within our explorations.

                We encourage families to participate in this exploration by extending this learning within the home! Tours of famous artists work such as Picasso, Van Gogh, and Seurat are a few examples of artists who create representations of everyday things but do so in a different and interesting way. These artists work can be viewed at the Detroit Institute of Arts but also online through their virtual tours! Along with explorations of 2D representations, working with clay, play dough, or other materials to create a 3D representation instills problem solving and spatial skills necessary for development! 

            As we move along through this semester, we also encourage you to attend our upcoming Curriculum Night. This will take place on Wednesday, April 8th. On this night, you will have the opportunity to explore all the hard work of the children throughout the semester. We look forward to seeing you!

Hooray for the first day!!

We had a successful first week, meeting new friends and catching up with familiar faces. We gathered around the calendar for our first group times, singing silly songs to learn each other’s names before exploring different investigations around the room. The children made their cubbie tags, spun tops, built with pentominos, worked together on puzzles, 

examined our classroom red worms and a sunflower from our garden with various science tools

before heading outside to investigate the garden.





The dramatic play area was very popular! Children imagined cooking vegetable soup, constructing homes for their animals,  and building a camp fire which brought many students attention to fire safety as they dressed up as fire fighters.