Our Drama Centre has become a hospital. This "Scene" resinates real for some of our children. Recently one of our students has had a new baby, and visited the hospital. Many of our children have gone to the doctors, clinics and hospitals to visit or be a patient.
We have had a lot of babies born at this hospital this week. I call it job security :)
This baby was born. This doctor (her) and nurse (him) were checking if the baby was ok.
Dr. M "She didn't tell me yet what is wrong."
O "well, he didn't ask!"
Dr. L "There's something in her mouth.
Police officer X "She has a cavity."
I love the police officer at the desk of the hospital. These children were putting names into the computer and sending patients to the waiting room.
If we can't get outside, we'll bring the inside in!!
This may look like ordinary play in a bin of snow, but it is so much more. There is so many curriculum goals being accomplished in this inquiry.
The children asked...
"why can't we go outside today?"
C "It's so cold"
S "Ya, it's freezing on my hands."
"Won't the snow melt in here?"
Educator "Do you think the snow will melt in here?"
C "yes because it's warm in here."
(demonstrating an understanding of the natural world. Comparing and order 2 or more objects according to an appropriate measure. cold vs. warm.)
A "is this real snow?"
(participating in environmentally friendly activities in the classroom. State problems and pose questions before investigation.)
M "I made a snow castle. My Auntie showed me how to make it like this."
(Express their thoughts and share experiences.)
(demonstrate the ability to take turns in activities, an awareness of ways of making and keeping friends.)
X "Mine is stuck together. It's like a big ball. It's heavy."
(demonstrating measurement with weight.)
B "look, when I squeeze it in my hand it's stuck together and it melts."
Educator "why is it melting in your hand?"
C "because your hand is warm!"
B "Look Mrs. L, I made this snowflake."
(Select and and use tools, equipment and materials to construct things using the design process.)
L "Can we put snow in these?"
Educator "look up at the window."
All 3 "Wow! Cool!"
A "there's so much snow in there."
M "it's melting in here already."
More the discussion was about how come some snow packs and some doesn't?
"because its not the right kind."
"Sometimes there's not enough."
"It needs to be wet."
The next step...What will happen with a cup of snow in the freezer, and a cup of snow left on the counter till tomorrow?
"They will both melt, cuz the freezers not cold enough."
"This one will melt, and that one will be ice."
We predicted and we observed the following day.We discovered so much!
Here we added a bit of a twist on our PALS lesson. A new game was introduced, a race to what sound?
This game spiralled into an even more exciting game. Sometimes, if you provide the some equipment and let the children run with it, it takes on a whole new meaning.
The children started with cars at the top of the racing tubes. 1, 2 ,3 go! What letter did your car land on? What sound? They cheered for each other and helped one another out.
During play, another friend as asked if they play the letter racing game? Well of course!!!
J "some cars are faster than others."
C "I got a fffffff"
G "Me and C got a tie."
L "I have an idea! Aim for your the first letter in your name."
O " I know, I'll mark the letters. What ever letter has the most, wins!"
"They are going to fast, I can't keep up."
(This amazed me! With no prompts, she made this tally chart with all the letters, she made tally marks under each letter. At the end of the activity, she counted and wrote the number for each letter.)
C "I'll help O keep track of the letters.
Everyone, you have to tell us the letter you land on."
This is an amazing airplane that the group here worked on. It is built from connector straws. It took a lot of trial and error to make it happen.
When I sat down to talk to the children, there was so much dialogue I couldn't keep up with the documenting, so I videoed it instead.
Not only is the flight crew wonderful to watch, but so are the background activities.
I apologize for the annoying adult voice...lol I sound terrible!!!!!
All good things must come to an end. So instead of saying good bye to the plane, the children drew it. This is one example of the design process. He made sure to include all the crews names, since they were all involved. They will use this design as a blueprint to rebuild. There is so many good things happening here, science and technology, arts/drama and social development!!!
I'm looking for a material that the children can use with our large plastic needles. I was thinking something like burlap or mesh. You may have better ideas, I know NOTHING about sewing.
If you have anything you could donate towards our provocation, that would be great.
This is a very exciting day! We purchased a new train set for the classroom.
The children worked very hard figuring out how to assemble it.
They did a great job finding space for their bodies, sharing vehicles and taking turns going around the track.
Here is a glimpse of some of there discussions. Its full of playfunessl and problem solving and self regulation.
Here is a picture of a student retelling the story line using props.
Try this read a-loud of The Three Snowbears.
This is a wonderful story by Jan Brett. The children made connections with the story Goldielocks and the three bears.
We made a chart to compare the similarities and the differences. You can see above, that the children also had fun creating pieces to retell the story on a time line. They discussed what happened in the beginning, the middle and the end of the story.
