Dollhouse!

Over the winter semester we worked on concepts related to building.  We had two Early Childhood Interns focusing on different concepts related to building - specifically stabilization, shape of a structure, and parts of a structure.

We wanted to create something as a class that combined all of these concepts.  The children have been very excited about bringing in wooden dollhouses to the classroom so we decided to building a group dollhouse using all of the new ideas and concepts we have been working on.

We asked for donations of boxes to our classroom and our families were wonderful about bringing in materials!  We were able to talk about what a house needed, and the children decided on rooms, windows, door, and roof.  We began to design the skeletal structure of the house!

After the exterior shape was created, we had to think of a way to make it more sturdy.  As of right now, we are in the process of applying paper mache to the exterior of the dollhouse.  The children were all very active participants in this process and were excited to see how it changed the house as it hardened. 

We will continue to work on our house and can't wait to see how it turns out!

Candling our ducks

In about a week our ducks should start "pipping" and emerge from their eggs!  We have had the opportunity to "candle" the eggs - meaning we are shining a very bright light into the eggs to see what is inside.  

At the beginning stages of development, a black spot and veins are visible as an egg is candled.  

As the duck grows, more details become visible.

In the next few days of candling, beaks and feet will be showing when we look inside of the eggs.  So far we have about 15 eggs that are showing development, so we are hoping to have several ducklings soon!