After several months of getting to know one another, the children are beginning to cooperate more in their play. Examples of sharing, problem-solving and working toward a common goal are observed daily. This month the marble run was a student favorite. The children collaborated to build a working run and then took turns testing it out.
We also read Duck Rabbit by Amy Krouse Rosenthal as introduction to the sense of sight. The illustrations in the book can be seen as either a duck or a rabbit. It was great to see what the children thought.
The children also explored several I Spy books by Walter Wick and the book Look, Look, Look by Tania Hoban. During our reading of Look, Look, Look I introduced the idea of "turn and talk". Instead of one child answering a question posed to the class, the children turn and face a partner, eye-to-eye and knee-to-knee, and share their ideas. In this way everyone is able to participate and share their thinking.
In small groups we played games focusing on our sense of sight. The first was an I Spy with classroom objects. The children were shown a group of objects and then closed their eyes and one object was removed. They had to guess which object was missing. Another game played was Guess What? The children took turns pressing an object into playdoh and their peers had to guess the object based on its impression.
Our sense of hearing was put into practice as the children played two different bingo games, one with indoor noises and the other with outdoor noises. We also made music with musical instruments. The children played a sound match game in which they had to shake eggs with different materials inside and had to find the two matching eggs.
When introduced to the sense of smell, the children smelled several different scents and then sorted them by scents they like and those they don't.
Embedded within our theme, we focused on the characteristics of nonfiction texts, number recognition, letter recognition, counting, identifying syllables, sorting, and comparing sets using the words more and less.
Dramatic Play:
Transitioning back from Thanksgiving our dramatic play area once again turned to home living where the children were able to cook, clean and take care of babies. This time around, however, we added a new station- ironing, which was a big hit!
Sensory Table:
So much fun, collaboration and experimenting went on at the sensory table. It was filled with water beads. The children first talked about the different textures of the water beads, as well as their sizes. They were able to sort by size and color. In addition, the students tested out different containers to see how many beads they could fit and which held more. I then added a small ramp and we tried out different heights to see which was the best. After some time, we removed the water beads and replaced them with pom-poms. Similar exploration occurred with the new material.
Discovery Center:
Prior to introducing the topic of our 5 senses, we spent some time talking about scientists. As a class, after reading some nonfiction texts, we identified the parts of a scientist and what scientists can do. I connected these ideas with what the children have been doing in the classroom and everyone recognized that they are scientists! We then looked at a variety of different tools that scientists use to explore the world around them and completed several activities using such tools as the balance scale and ruler. This is the start to our Discovery Center which will be home to scientific investigations.
Playdoh Center:
We swapped out our playdoh for Oobleck (cornstarch and water). The neat thing about this substance is that sometimes it feels like a liquid and sometimes a solid. It is soft and squishy, hard, slimy, slick, etc. The children loved getting messy!
Five Sense Museum:
Our dramatic play eventually turned into a museum with several interactive exhibits. The first was a touch wall. The children felt and described different textures on the wall.
Our second exhibit involved sense of smell. The children sniffed smelling bottles and then matched the sent to pictures of common objects such as lemons, perfume, strawberries and cookies.
Perhaps the favorite of all exhibits was the instrument station. The children were able to make music using a variety of instruments. Sometimes they chose songs from the posted song board, but most often they sang what came to mind!
A homemade light table exercised our sense of sight. The children were challenged to build with transparent cups and sticks. They also eventually used Magnatiles as well.
Art Center:
The art center included materials for the children to construct a texture collage.
Mr. Ken:
Mr. Ken is our visiting musician. He comes roughly once a month and it is always a treat! The smiles on the children and their active engagement say it all!
Library:
The children demonstrated their continued collaboration at library where new materials sparked further creativity.
A few shots from the playground!
