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!

Ducks!

Hello!

We are very excited to say that we have a new adventure this semester.  Room 8, Room 2, and Room 7 have ordered some duck eggs!  They are in an incubator right now and in the next few weeks we are hoping that we have some that hatch!  We have shared the news with the children and they are very excited!  After they hatch, we will keep them in our school for a couple of weeks before they go to their new home (one of our former teachers has an enclosure and pond and will be keeping them on her property).

We have 4 different types of eggs so it will be very neat to see how many hatch and if we notice any differences right away in the appearance as the eggs mature and the ducklings hatch and grow.

Inspirations for Week of the Young Child

These are some inspirations for our Week of the Young Child from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Monday- Music Monday

NAEYC’s 2019 WOYC™ kicks off with Music Monday on April 8! When children sing, dance, and listen to music, they develop their language and early literacy skills while being active and encouraging movement.

Tuesday- Tasty Tuesday

On April 9, focus on healthy eating and fitness at home and school with Tasty Tuesday! This fun, food-themed day is about more than just cheese and crackers. Cooking together connects math with literacy skills, science, and more. With the rise in childhood obesity, you can encourage healthy nutrition and fitness habits at home and in the classroom.

Wednesday- Working Together

NAEYC’s 2019 WOYC™ rolls along on April 10 with Work Together Wednesday! When children build together they explore math and science concepts and develop their social and early literacy skills. Children can use any building material—from a fort of branches on the playground to a block city in the classroom, or a hideaway made from couch pillows at home.

Thursday- Artsy Thursday

NAEYC’s WOYC™ continues on April 11 with Artsy Thursday. Children develop creativity, social skills and fine motor skills with open-ended art projects where they can make choices, use their imaginations, and create with their hands. On Artsy Thursday celebrate the joy and learning children experience when engaged in creative art making. Use any materials—from crayons to paint, clay to crafts!

Friday- Family Friday

WOYC™ wraps up with Family Friday on April 12. Engaging and celebrating families is at the heart of supporting our youngest learners. NAEYC applauds family members’ role as young children’s first and most important teachers.

Researching Robots

Construction project

The teachers have been talking and since there is such a huge interest in construction- we would like to offer the children the chance to construct a more permanent structure. We are thinking of constructing a dollhouse of our own- starting with cardboard and making it stronger with paper mache.

To help us with this- we would like to put the word out that we want to start collecting cardboard boxes and tubes. Anything from empty (and clean) food boxes to empty cardboard tubes. If you have anything to donate, please bring it in!

Classroom Update

This semester we have noticed that the children are much more comfortable with the classroom routine, with each other, and with classroom practices.  At the beginning of the school year, there was a large interest in the kitchen, dress up, and movement.  This term the focus has shifted quite a bit. 

The children have shown a huge interest in building, shapes, construction, and creating connections.  We noticed right away that the block area was a huge area of interest after getting back from winter break.  They were creating structures, and building tall.  This posed a problem sometimes when their structures were falling down – so we talked a lot about stability and helping things to stay up when building.  Ms. Kat has brought the incline slide into the classroom as a building surface for the children.  She is currently exploring with them which types of blocks are easier to build with when their building surface is tilted.  The children utilize a variety of problem solving strategies to get their structures to stabilize on the angled slide and we have noticed that they have a preference as they build with the types of blocks they will use – because they know those blocks are more stable on an angled surface.  We want to continue exploring the surface of the incline – if that changes in texture will their structures change?  Will the angle of the incline impact their building?

Ms. Sharesse noticed that as the children built, they started to talk about different shapes in their structures.  She began introducing them to different types of structures to see if they could pick out the shapes that created the structures.  They spoke extensively about the ideas of “tall”, “short”, “wide”, and “long.” The children then focused a lot more in depth about shapes and where they could be found in their everyday life.  The children began creating with shapes – using them not only in the context of building but in collaging as well.  What types of shapes are used for creation?  How will this continue to factor into making structures?

We would like to work with the children to figure out if there is a type of permanent structure (house, castle, roads, trains) that we could create in our classroom specifically intertwining all of the above mentioned concepts.  How will the children use what we have been talking about together to create a common goal?

Ms. Carrie and Ms. Hailey are also beginning to implement lessons in the classroom working on robots and clay respectively.  Ms. Carrie would like to see what the children know about robots, what they know about more “unconventional” robots (i.e. not transformers) and what the purpose of different robots might be.  Ms. Hailey has noticed that the children have been engaging with clay and making imprints.  She recently had a provocation of snake photos out with the clay to see how the children would react.  She noticed that the molding of the clay was something they practiced, but the children were more interested in the patterns and designs on the snakes – how might they start to represent that with clay?

As always, we will continue to keep you updated through ClassDojo, blog updates, and conversations!  Please let us know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns!