Ramps and Angles

Last week the children were working towards figuring out why the cars moved down a ramp propped up on a shelf but the cars did not move as easily down a ramp that was placed much lower to the ground.  Many of the children while using the ramp placed near the ground ended up pushing their cars down on their own and pushed the cars all the way along the ramp.  I think the children were pushing the cars all the way along the ramps because they felt like the cars should move all the way down the ramp like they do on the higher elevated ramp.  I’m not sure at that point they were making the connection between the movement of the car and the angle of the ramp.

This week we propped up the lower elevated ramp a little bit to see if the children noticed a difference in how the cars moved down the ramp.  Initially, some of the children tried to push the cars down the ramp again, but then began to notice the cars moving on their own.  Some of the children looked surprised to see the car moving down on its own.  For weeks we have left the lower ramp at the same elevation so I think the children expected that the car would perform the same way, even if the angle was changed.

A few of the children attempted to change the angle of the ramp again, possibly trying to alter the results as the car moved down the ramp.  Most of the children realized physically pushing the car down wasn’t necessary.

I am interested to see what will happen this week – to build off this interest in the angles I would like to increase the angle of the higher ramp now.  I am curious to see if the children begin to comment on how the cars move down the ramp or notice that the distance of movement is greater with a higher elevated ramp.

Newsletter from our interns

Hello Families,

I’m Ms. Swift, an intern student at The University of Michigan-Dearborn. I’m working collaboratively with Mrs. Stone and Ms. Jones in your children’s classroom for the fall 2014 semester. Our goal is for each of our students to experience a rich educational environment. This school year, our classroom’s big idea is movement and motion. Through traditional lesson plans and inquiry work, the children have been exploring, sound through movement. Children, were given the opportunity to use musical instruments to explore sound, while simultaneously using imagery (children viewed live images of themselves on a television screen), as a result some children have connected vision to movement.

Next, I began to wonder, “What does sound in motion look like?” During, a finger-painting exploration, I observed a student, represent “sound in motion”. To illustrate, she, places both of her hands in the finger paint, then she moves both hands across the paper, while using a swaying motion. She sings, “The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish all through the town.” The children appear to be very interested in sound, movement and motion, therefore we will continue to explore the concept of “sound in motion”.

Furthermore, most of what children learn and do requires coordination of multiple systems that mediate production of speech, efficient limb and whole body movements, as well as dexterous movement of hand and fingers. As early childhood teachers, we measure cognitive development in young children, through their behavior and actions, specifically their motor output and verbal out. Considering, our students age group, it is appropriate practice to engage children’s learning through sensorimotor activities. The developmentally appropriate activities we are using in our classroom, will aid in identifying your child’s current level of sensorimotor abilities, so further development of those types of skills (fine motor, vision, hearing, gross motor and cognition) can be sought after through the planning and implementation of future lessons.

 In our classroom, we have posted a communication board. Please feel free to share your thoughts, ideas or any observations you’ve witnessed your child partake in at home, as it relates to movement and motion. In the future, I look forward to discussing your thoughts about your child’s interests, in reference to our classroom’s big idea.

Thank you,

Ms. Nicole Swift

Hello Families,

                I just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself and the work I have been doing in the classroom. My name is Kelsey and I am interning this semester with Catie and Julianna. I am pleased to be working with in the classroom with Catie and Julianna and all of the children. I have enjoyed my time in the classroom thus far. I have been working with the children on movement and motion objects. We are focusing on how we can impact the movement of objects with our own bodies and also making those movements visible to us. This seems to be of interest to all of the children within the classroom as it is a main idea that Catie and Julianna are also exploring with the children. I have been working on exploring visible motion with children by using mediums like paint and crayons to track their movements. Recently we explored the movements of cars by placing paint on the tires of the cars. Throughout the semester I will be working with the children on tracking their movements and making them visible.  You will be able to see the work and explorations we have been doing at Curriculum Night which is November 12^th after school.

I look forward to an amazing semester and seeing everyone at Curriculum Night.

Thank you,

Kelsey Hadyniak

Movement and Angles

Over the past few weeks in the classroom the children have been very focused on the idea of motion and movement.  We decided to break this large idea into several smaller threads to explore more specifically with the children throughout the week.

I decided to look at angles with the children and how various aspects of angles can have an impact on how objects (specifically cars) move down the ramps.  We started off by bringing in large gutters into the classroom that the children could use as ramps.  We initially explored how cars moved down the gutters when the two gutters were at two different angles.

The children were very excited to see their cars roll down the ramps.  After that, I wanted to see how the children would react if there were obstacles placed on the ramps for the children.  I taped bumps onto the ramp sand bubble wrap onto the ramps as obstacles for the children to figure out strategies to.  The children were very frustrated when their cars would get stuck on the way down the ramps and began to utilize different strategies to get their cars down.  Some of the children tried to tilt the ramps while others just tried pushing the cars past the obstacles with their hands and fingers.

Some of the children also tried to change the angles of the lower inclined gutter to see if that would help the cars to go down the ramps easier.  Since the children began exploring with the angles of the gutters on their own, I wanted to explore this with them further in subsequent weeks.  It will be interesting to see if the children notice the connection with the angle of the ramps and the distance and speed of the cars moving down the ramps.

October 2014

Dear Families,

It’s hard to believe October is already here!  We have been transitioning to school, exploring the classroom, and really getting to know what is interesting to the children.  We are going to be exploring the concept of Motion with the children this semester.  We are starting to break the children into learning groups depending on where we see their interests lie.  Each learning group will be documented and the documentation will be posted for families to see.  We are also constantly adding to our web of thinking at the front of the classroom which expands on the ideas we are exploring with the children.

Our communication board is also at the front of the classroom.  Please feel free to share your ideas of what you are noticing at home with regards to movement and your child.  We will try to make sure we are continuing some of the concepts you are seeing at home.

October 29^th is a Wednesday and will be our Halloween Walk at school.  This will take place from 4-5pm that afternoon.  Parents are encouraged to participate and everyone is welcome, even those children not signed up for the Wednesday session.  If your child attends school that day and you would like to attend, please bring your child’s costume and you can sign them out of the room at 4 to go on the walk.  If you are unable to attend but your child comes to school on Wednesdays, you can pack a costume in your child’s backpack.

If your child does not attend school Wednesdays please bring your child dressed and ready for the walk.  Because of the size of our classroom, we are asking that if children are not attending school that day they not come back to the classroom to prevent overcrowding.  We will try to make sure we see everyone on the walk or in the hallway!  Donations of treats to pass out will be welcomed at the front desk in the weeks leading up to the walk.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Catie Stone & Julianna Jones

Welcome to School!

Dear Families,

            Welcome to a new school year!  Mrs. Stone and Ms. Jones will be your child’s teacher this year.  We wanted to welcome you to the classroom and make you aware of some of the things that will be taking place at the start of the school year.

            We are excited to get to know the new children starting in our classroom and hope they are excited to start school!  We have lots of new materials in the classroom for the children and hope that this will make for an easy transition to the room.  Transitions can be difficult at the beginning of the school year until the children get accustomed to the routine.  We recommend parents establish a drop off routine with their child at the beginning of the year.  A consistent routine helps the child transition easier to the classroom.  When first arriving, your child will have a cubby to put backpacks and personal belongings into.  Lunches for children staying all day should be given to an adult to put into the refrigerator.  Please remember to sign your child in for the day.  We ask that children wash hands in our bathroom with their parents when they come into the room.  The children are then welcome to come and explore the materials around the room.  When parents are ready to leave, be very matter of fact and remember to say, “goodbye” to your child.  This helps the child to know you are confident in leaving them with their teachers in the classroom.  If your child cries we will do our best to engage them in activities around the room, sing with them, and console them until they are ready to explore.  You are welcome to call the front desk to check on your child throughout the day and at pick up time we will be honest with you about how your child’s day went.  We are excited to get the children used to school and can’t wait to get to know them individually.

            We wanted to make parents aware that there are several allergies in our classroom this year.  For this reason, we ask that breakfast and snack from home be finished before your child enters the classroom.  We want to ensure the safety of all of our children, so thank you for keeping our children healthy.  Lunches from home for full day children will be stored in the refrigerator.  Snacks made at school have each child’s allergies taken into consideration when preparing.

            We have a few things still on our wish for the classroom this year.  If you are able to bring in any of these items, we would appreciate it!  We are interested in: white icicle lights to hang inside, non-toxic indoor plants, packaging materials (bubble wrap, Styrofoam peanuts, etc).

            Again, we are looking forward to getting to know the children and can’t wait for the school year to begin.  If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to ask!

Catie Stone & Julianna Jones

Tumble Mat

            Over the course of last semester and this semester, the children have been working on their bodies and how to balance them.  This is very important at their age because they are gaining a lot of body awareness and learning that they have control over how their bodies move.  We wanted to offer the children multiple opportunities to explore that this term as it if something they are still very curious about.

            Last time, the children had the opportunity to walk on the balance beam.  This was a good way to see how their strategies would chance depending on how comfortable they were on the beam and with their own body movements.  We saw a range of strategies used by the children.

            To continue this with the children, we brought a tumble mat into the classroom.  This gave the children the opportunity to practice their balancing in a different way.  We first looked at videos of gymnasts performing floor routines and talked about how they were moving their bodies. 

            The children loved this and began to try some different ways of manipulating their own bodies.  We saw some of the yoga poses that the children had worked on last semester incorporated with some new moves that might have been inspired by the gymnastics we were talking about.

            Throughout this experience we were able to see lots of new ways of moving on the part of the children and they were able to watch and each other and challenge each other.  We are going to bring in the shadow screen next week so the children can watch their bodies and the bodies of the other children as they move about.

Balance of Weight

            The children have been using the wind tunnel that we created with the fan and clear plastic lamination.  Previously, the children were using pieces of Styrofoam to see how they would respond if the sizes of the pieces were different.  The children noticed that the smaller pieces flew higher than the larger pieces did.

            We wanted to offer the children a new material to try in the wind tunnel.  I chose Tin Foil because I wanted a material that could be manipulated easier and something that the children could have more control over as they used it with the fan.

            We started off by using large flat pieces of foil and we talked about it as a group.  We looked at what happened when large pieces were put into the fan and the children tried to base their predictions off of their previous experience with Styrofoam and feathers.  They were really surprised when they saw the long flat piece of foil fly up.

            After that we explored the foil in small groups.  The children at first used the large flat pieces and were commenting on how the foil flew up.  Once they began using it more, the foil became crinkled and smaller.   A few of the children noticed a change in the height of the foil as it flew.  I’m not sure if they made the connection between the change in the shape of the foil and the flying, but they noticed that some pieces did not fly as high as other pieces.

            We are going to look at foil in different shapes next week to see if the children make those connections with how the foil flies.  I want to see if the children really do make those connections between the shape of the foil and the flight patterns of the foil in a specific shape.