Planning a picnic

It all started with muffins.  "K" wanted to bake muffins for the babies.  

"Z" is mixing batter for cookies, and "K" is putting her muffin tray into the oven in this picture.  But there was a problem!  We didn't have real muffins.  What to do?

We decided to use half and quarter circle blocks from the block area to be muffins.  But now look at this table... only two chairs!  Friend "B" made a high chair for her baby by putting a stool on the chair.  Where would "K" sit?  She had a problem to solve!

Friend "K" did it again!  She decided to use "wall blocks" (cardboard bricks) to make a third chair.  Good thinking!  She tried out three or four blocks to decide which height was best suited for the table.

Could we eat the muffins yet?  No, calamity struck again!  Where would "Z" sit?  And how about Ms. Harmony?  This table was just too small.  Ms. Harmony suggested a picnic and we found the biggest baby blanket to use.  Friend "B" made brick chairs for everyone.  "Z" brought the cookies, and "K" brought the muffins.

NOW, we could have a picnic!  Whew, good problem solving girls!

Mini Masters

The children have really enjoyed working in the Art Area!  One choice was to work with play-doh.  As the children use tools like spatulas, potato mashers, and cookie cutters, you can just imagine these mini sculptors growing up to be one of the greats like DaVinci!  But even if life takes them in a different direction, they strengthened muscles in their hands, made choices about how to manipulate the dough, observed cause and effect, and had fun!

It's Alive!

I planned this small group activity of twigs, polished rocks, and fossils with the idea that it would be about math: spatial awareness, symmetry, straight or curvy lines, patterns, etc.  The discussion turned out quite differently when the children were actually sitting around the table examining rocks and twigs.

Fresh off a week of talking about "Things that Grow," we noticed that the twigs came from a living thing (a tree) because they could grow until they broke off the plant.  All plants like fruits, vegetables, flowers, and trees were living things.  I asked the kids if rocks were living things?

 

Friend "Z" decided that they were not because "They are just hard... and they don't grow!"

 

I gave them one more test to try out in their minds: things that grow can make more... (reproduce).  Apples have seeds to make more ... apples.  Flowers have seeds to make more... flowers.  Dogs have puppies to make more ... dogs.  People have babies to make more... people.  If we can't plant a rock and grow more rocks, then they must not be alive!

But, we did have some tricky rocks in our bowl called "fossils."  Are fossils living things or not?  Fossils were made by something that was once alive, like the body of an insect or animal, tracks or eggs or feces from animals, or plants.  Friend "K" observed that ammonite fossils look like seashells! After the Earth heated and pressed on these animal and plant products, they turned into special rocks called fossils.  Now, they are no longer living things.

Regardless of whether this activity turned into a math or biology lesson doesn't matter.  All of the children were engaged looking at the details of rocks, twigs, and fossils.  They applied prior knowledge of things that grow to our new work with rocks to classify things into living, or non-living, things.  It was excellent work and discussion!

The Beauty and Importance of Role Playing in Preschool

Sometimes play just seems like a waste of time doesn't it?  Especially dress up and acting kind of play.  What is the point of this for kids?  Why do they seem to crave this kind of play, especially during preschool years?

Because... it's actually really important for the child's development!  Give them time for unstructured, socio-dramatic play.  Here's how it helps kids develop and get ready for school:

• Emotional development- this kind of play helps kids become more caring, emotionally aware, and empathetic individuals.  Think about it, if you are pretending to be a cat, you have to know how a cat feels and acts.  You have to demonstrate that knowledge by responding to peers in play, with the same level and type of response as a cat would.  In pretending to be another, you are literally stepping into their shoes and wearing their feelings, activities, and responses.  Children who have opportunities to role-play begin to pay attention to other people's feelings and actions so that they can replicate them accurately in play.
• Behavioral regulation- in tandem with emotional development, children must regulate their behavior to accurately portray who they are pretending to be.  A child who struggles to sit during circle time might be able to sit for minutes on end if his job is to be the lookout on the watchtower!  Behaving "out of character" in play will cause the child's peers to correct or coach the errant child to more accurate play-acting.
• Social development- when receiving coaching from peers, or inherent in the play-plan's progression, children experience opportunities to disagree.  This means they experience opportunities to solve problems, discuss alternative solutions, and brainstorm new ways to develop the characters and plot elements in the story.  Role play with more experienced play partners allows young children to be pulled up the social ladder in growing from parallel play and prolonging collaborative play.
• Cognitive development- creativity and imagination are abundant in this type of play, which are essential skills to have in the future job market!  Furthermore, role play is often symbolic in nature.  If children don't have a phone for example, they could substitute a toy banana or even a block, to represent what they need for the play-plan.  Pretending that one thing represents another is a crucial development for pre-literacy where letters become symbols for sounds that build words.  Planning before play develops executive functioning skills in kids.  Being able to visualize what or who they will be in a plan, the needed materials, the "script" of what will be said and done... is all play-planning that builds the frontal lobe of the brain.  Role play allows children to recall and connect experiences.  Children remember something they have seen, done, or otherwise experienced, and recreate it with peers.

Children who are "kindergarten-ready" can regulate themselves emotionally and behaviorally.  The most successful kids in school are often the ones who can form positive relationships with other students and teachers.  Children who understand symbols, have a working memory, and can connect ideas/experiences are children who are ready to learn more advanced academic skills.  So... give role playing its due!  This is a great way to help children develop and prepare for school at the same time!

A Place of Caring

This month an all-time favorite building material was added to the Toy and Puzzle Area: Magnetiles! These were combined with the loose parts from March (CareBears, rainbow cubes, fabric squares, and cotton balls) to create an elaborate plan with bears, beds, breakfasts, birthday parties, cookies, and more!  The beauty of open-ended magnetiles is that they can be used to build anything, helping to develop creativity, fine motor skills, spatial awareness, story telling, and concentration.

Some of our bears woke up with colds, and they had to go back to bed to rest.  Some of the bears gathered for magic cloud or rainbow food.  Using magnetiles, a kitchen with a sink an oven was built to wash and bake cookies.

Friend "B" enjoyed painting.  This is a regular plan for her.  She enjoys seeing the colors mix on the paper, and observe the brush strokes of different sized brushes.  She also worked to dress up TinkerBell at the updated Alone Table.

Finally, the girls moved to plans in the House Area.  Specifically, they took turns being parents and doctors.  Not only did they use medical tools to diagnose and treat the babies' illnesses, but they used a notepad and pencil to record notes and write prescriptions!  Friend "Z" is interested in letters and reading, so she sounded out words like "Sally" and "Cold" and recorded those words.

Too soon, Work Time was done.  Students and teacher were satisfied with the hard work that was done in cooperative play today, both in the Doctor's Office and in building the CareBears Bed 'n Breakfast.  Can't wait for next week!

School is in the House! (Harmony's House)

We had a great first week learning about ourselves and others!  Our Small Group work this week included reading Faces by Sue Clark and examining our facial features in the mirror.  We talked about the various colors we could see, feelings we could communicate, and parts of our faces.  Friend "Z" observed that she had to turn her face sideways to see her ears, because not all of our parts are on the front of our faces.

Then we were given a blank face, and markers, pasta, wiki-sticks, jewels, googly eyes, and feathers to make our faces with art.

Here is our class collection of portraits!  The children used the materials creatively, using wiki-sticks to make curly or poky hair, pasta or feathers to make mouths, jewels to make eyes, etc.  Some children chose to use googly eyes and sorted through the eyes to find two that matched.  Each child decided on only having two eyes in their artwork because that was what they noticed in the mirror.

 

It is important to make note of the child's words and efforts during their table time in order to document the learning that happened.  The amount of focus, fine motor skills, creativity, and language used during this activity was important and exciting!

During Work Time, the children worked on plans of their own choosing.  Friend K worked on balancing bears of multiple sizes.  She experimented with putting different sizes and different amounts of bears in the scale buckets to see which was heavier.

We also used CareBears, fabric and cotton balls to make bear beds, and worked many puzzles, lacing beads, and Gears in the Toy and Puzzle Area.

Then we moved onto plans in the House Area and Block Area.  Babies needed bathing, doctoring, and dressing!  Roads were built, tools were used, and Little People vans were loaded with passengers.

We finished up by chatting on telephones to report what our favorite part of the day was.  We read a book about how wonderful we are as individuals, not like anyone else!  Then we played a game where we heard various animal or environmental sounds, and practiced listening, and then saying what we heard.  Using our ears is an important part of being a good friend and participating in the classroom.

Updates to Lesson Plans and Menus

Don't forget, you can find new lesson plans and menu updates on the Forms tab at the top of the Blog!  A copy is also posted on the Parent Bulletin Board in Harmony's House.

The Place of Creation- Art Area

Welcome to the Art Area in Harmony's House!  Generally speaking, art areas and explore tables are best housed on flooring that can easily be cleaned up: no rugs or carpet!  So, the Art Area is logically set up in the kitchen of my home.  Children can put on smocks, paint, and then move their paintings to the drying racks easily.  They can use either table to sit down for drawing, cutting, gluing, play-doh sculpting and more.

 Let's take a closer look at what is on the shelves.  Some of these items are long-term residents; they will be here year around.  Markers and crayons for writing, drawing, and coloring are some examples of staples that are always in the art area.  Q-tips, cotton balls, ribbons, and streamers, however, get rotated out and replaced with other materials dependent on the children's interests, skill levels, and themes.

Glue and scissors will always be accessible in the art area unless the average age of the class is very young.  Tape, stickers, craft sticks, and jewels are new additions to the art area this month.

To keep children interested in working in the Art Area, it is important to rotate the open-ended materials to inspire greater curiosity and drive for exploration.  It is also important to diversify the materials to emphasize different aspects of fine motor development: writing, squeezing, cutting, smashing, building, peeling, tracing, etc.

And there you have it... an awesome Art Area ready for kids to come and enjoy.