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. 

Building on a Slant

Week of 5/19/14

            This week I had the floor mirror elevated on a few ramp blocks so that it was slanted. There were small wooden blocks and the mirror blocks to build with on the slanted mirror. I was curious as to how they would react when the blocks would begin to slide down the mirror. What strategies would they use to keep their structures from falling or moving?

            Nathan had placed a block at the top of the mirror and then watched it begin to slide downwards. The block stopped. Nathan then used his hand to push the block further down the mirror. He repeated this process again with the other block. It appeared that Nathan was exploring why the block was moving on its own and seemed curious as to why it stopped. Connor stacked four blocks vertically on top of one another near the top of the mirror where it was the highest elevation. He added the fourth block when they fell. Connor attempted this again, but now he had the blocks stacked horizontally on top of one another. He added the fourth block and they did not fall. Braden used a bridge block that was bigger than the other blocks and placed it on the mirror in the middle. He then stacked two smaller blocks on top. The tower did not fall. I’m curious if Braden knew that the bigger block would create more stability for his tower or if he just liked that block because it was a bridge.

            The sliding of the blocks as the children built their structures seemed to create a challenge to keep their towers from falling. They have started use building strategies to attempt to keep their towers from falling. I wonder what they will do if they built their structures on a lazy Susan? How will they keep it from falling down? What building strategies will they use? Will the children use the same ones or think of new ways to balance them?

            

Spinning Light

Spinning Light

Week of 5/19/14

Catie Stone & Charlene Hughes

            The children have been exploring the Lazy Susan and how objects move when they spin it. I wanted the children to explore how they could balance or keep the different materials from falling off of the Lazy Susan when it was spun. This week we used light spheres on the Lazy Susan where the children were excited about watching the lights spin on the Lazy Susan. I wanted to see how the children would keep the lights from falling off while the Lazy Susan was spinning.

            Ali had first placed one light sphere on the Lazy Susan and then spun it. The light fell off. Ali had laughed and retrieved the light and placed two more lights on the Lazy Susan. He had one light in the middle and the other two closer to the edge. Ali spun the Lazy Susan and two lights fall off, the one in the middle had stayed. “Ali, why didn’t that light fall off?” I had asked. Ali then placed the two lights that had fallen next to the light that was still in the middle of the Lazy Susan. Jad had been spinning the Lazy Susan repeatedly with the several lights on it. Each time he had spun it, all of the lights would fall off. Abby had placed a few lights in a plastic container and was shaking it. Jad had watched Abby and then found a container and placed the lights that were on the Lazy Susan inside the container. Jad then placed the container in the center of the Lazy Susan with the lights inside. Jad spun it and the lights did not move. I think Jad had been getting frustrated when the lights repeatedly fell off the Lazy Susan. He seemed to have been inspired by what he saw Abby do and it worked!

            We have been exploring the Lazy Susan and how to balance objects while they are spinning on it. What if it was the objects themselves spinning? How would they keep the objects from falling? What will they do to balance a spinning object on a stationary surface?

Balance While Spinning

Week of 5/12/14

Catie Stone & Charlene Hughes

            This week we used wooden beads that were different sizes and different shapes. Some were rounded, some were cylinders and others were square shaped. I was curious to see how the children would explore them on the lazy susan and how they will choose to use them.

            At first, the children would place a round bead in the center and then spin the lazy susan. The bead would fall off. They were very excited about this and began to add two then three beads at a time. When they would spin the lazy susan, some beads would fall off, others would not. Jad looked at me and said, “No fall!” I think he was confused as to why others would fall and some would not. Casey discovered that when he stacked the beads in the middle of the lazy susan that when it spun, it was still standing. Abby was most interested in the spinning motion of the lazy susan. Reed would spin it fast and Abby would stare at close and say, “Round and Round.”

            There are two strong interests in this investigation. One is how the beads react when the lazy susan is spun and the other is how the lazy susan moves and at what speed. I would like to use the light spheres next week and see how the children use them since they are all the same shape and size. How will they balance them when the lazy susan is spinning? Will the children discover new ways that they move?

            

Balance While Building

Week of 5/12/14

Catie Stone & Charlene Hughes

            We were building on a board that was elevated last week. This week I had them use an even thinner building platform, a yard stick. This created more of a challenge for the children to build on because the platform was so thin. It was elevated between two wooden blocks, but was adjustable and removable.

            At first, the children would build on the yard stick and see how tall they build until the tower fell down. Connor would keep building higher and higher and testing the point in which his tower would fall. He was able to stack 8 blocks high on the yard stick. Braden seemed to be interested in stacking blocks that were the same. It appeared that he had this theory that different shaped blocks would stack different or balance different. He first used cylinder blocks and stacked three until they fell. Then used rectangle blocks and lastly, square blocks. Casey discovered that he could remove the yardstick from the blocks and placed one side of the yardstick on top of the wooden block with the other end still connected. This created a ramp. He then picked up a block and placed it on the yardstick. The block began to slide down.

            I am curious as to how the children would balance their building while on a slanted surface. Will their structures still be building upwards or will they explore new ways to build to prevent it from falling?