Our trip to the Outdoor Education Center

The mosquitos and cooler temperatures couldn't keep us down! We enjoyed a great day at the Outdoor Education Center earlier this week. 

 

We explored insects

 We explored nature through our sense of touch by looking for things that were fluffy, smooth, scratchy, soft, rough, and prickly.

 And through our sense of sight, by trying to match natural objects to paint chips.

We made butterfly collages with found objects.

 We had a cookout for lunch 

And smores for dessert!

We investigated the pond

Rethinking the classROOM

- Children learn best when experiences are tangible and directly related to their lives.

- Opportunities for inquiry and provocations are plentiful when related to the natural world. 

- Children need more, and love, time outside!

Our outdoor experiences are a fundamental part of our program and for this reason our classroom extends beyond four walls. We have extended outdoor time each morning, we encourage the children to bring in interesting objects from nature, and we often go to the woods for various learning opportunities. 
Today we enjoyed our outdoor classroom by bringing some of our indoor centers out!

Building towers and castles

Painting with fly swatters

The water table became a car wash

Paying for the car wash

Building day for FABULOUS FRIDAY!!

Though every day in kindergarten is pretty fabulous, we have FABULOUS FRIDAYS!! every week where we do something extra special such as making pizza or having a pajama day. This past Friday we had a building day. We pulled out a variety of different building materials and let the children create. They worked on their constructions for two hours! The children were problem solving, using team work, staying on task, and being creative. Many chose to write about what they had made and at the end we had a gallery walk to look at and discuss everyone's creations. It is amazing the learning that emerges when you provide uninterrupted large blocks of time and engaging materials. 

Building with the Marble Works

 Building with the Straws and Connectors

 Building with Magneatos and Jumbo Legos

 

Building with the Locktagons

M.F wrote, " I made a flying car. I made a car. I made a bike. I made a snowplow."

 

Exploring Natural Processes

What do plants need to grow?

How do birds make nests?

What better way to explore these questions than to make them happen with our own hands?

Ask your Warsaw Kinder about how these experiences help them think about plants and animals. Talking about their experiences deepens their understanding!

When children have a say in their learning......

S.B brought in some pieces of foam and wooden skewers he thought the class would like to use to make things with. 

We set up a space for the materials and during our Investigations time several children made various creations. 

E.M., M.D., and R.F. made a cat (complete with a food and water dish).

R.H. made a tractor. But this wasn't just any tractor, it was "a dirty, old, rusty tractor" (what great descriptive language!)

S.B. and J.T made hockey sticks and a puck (and of course they had to try them out!)

When it was time for recess S.B wanted to keep working on his fish. We asked him what he would need outside to keep working and helped him set up his outdoor workspace. 

    

This activity supported the math geometry curriculum of constructing three-dimensional structures using a variety of materials. The students presented their creations to the class. Some chose to write about them. We had rich discussions with the students about what kind of design problems they ran into in making their creations (i.e. the legs of the cat kept falling off) and what different strategies they used to solve the problem. We were also able to assess the different types of planning strategies used by the children (i.e. some looked at the pieces of foam and decided what the shapes reminded them of, others came up with a plan first and then cut the foam pieces accordingly). All of this rich learning came out of student interest. Mrs. Bell and I had not planned on this center, but we adjusted our plans to make space for this learning. This is a great example of the learning that can take place when children feel that their ideas are important and will be respected and listened to.

Happy Mother's Day!

Each child brought in one of their baby shoes. We then planted pansies for our moms in them.

 

 

 

We also made these pictures. The kids wrote, "I love you to the moon and back" on the bottom. Another great idea from pinterest!

 

 

Welcome!

This is our first post and with so much great learning going on in our room, it was hard to know what to talk about first!

For families, Mrs. Bell and I want this blog to be a spot to showcase all of the students' learning and for parents to have a better understanding of what their child is experiencing at school. We are hoping that this blog will be a jumping off point for many great conversations at home. 

For fellow educators, we offer this blog as a window into what goes on in a Full Day Kindergarten classroom. Our program is rooted in the philosophies of Reggio Emilia and Environmental Inquiry. We are inspired every day by what we see and hear. We hope you too are inspired!

- Mrs. Seddon and Mrs. Bell

So let's get started!

Next week we begin fundraising for our year end trip. We will be selling Freezies and lemonade for the month of May. Today Mrs. Bell and I presented the children with the following problem, "We need to know what kind of lemonade to buy, yellow or pink, for our sales next week. How can we figure out what kind to get?" The children decided that we should survey the students in each class. 

Those students interested in conducting the survey went to the classes in groups of three. One person read the question.
 

 One person counted the number of people.

  
And the third person recorded the tally marks.

As a whole group we then looked at our results and added all the classes together using tens, fives, and ones.

Yellow lemonade got 53 votes. Pink lemonade got 93 votes. Looks like we will be selling pink lemonade next week!