During October, we've worked with learning to name forest animals and various ways that they are getting ready for winter. This Alone Table plan was a super way to help us remember which animals live in our local forests and develop understanding of size as well! The Russian Doll style of toy challenged the school friends to put the animals in size order to correctly nest them.
We also mixed yellow with red paint to make orange. Even basic art experiences like this are amazing to young children, which supports the idea that art does not need to be complicated to be educational and fun!
This day the children decided to stack the log blocks as high as they could go before they toppled! Ms. Harmony supported this play by describing the blocks that they were choosing to use: large or small, heavy or light, flat or round, etc. as the children experimented with the best way to build. At key opportunities, she would ask questions like, "So when we put the heavier blocks on top, the tower fell. What should we change?" or "What happens if you turn this Y-shaped log upside down?" The children did the work, did the thinking, and worked through the trial and error experience. Not only did they develop greater understanding for gravity, balance, and weight, but also they were challenged to sustain attention and tolerate frustration as they practiced the scientific process of identifying a problem, having an idea to solve it, testing it, and reflecting on the results.
Did you know that some of the animals are better climbers than others? After building the tower, the soft toy animals like Fox, Deer, Bear, Raccoon, and Mountain Lion pretended to climb the tower that the children made. Ms. Harmony voiced Deer and asked the children to help her solve the problem of reaching the top since Deer wasn't great at climbing trees. Deer is good at running and jumping. The school friends built stairs for Deer so she could play too, although it's fun to pretend that Deer can fly too. ;)
Happy Halloween is in the Explore Table! We've stacked pumpkins, made skeleton stories, studied the movements of slinkies, filled cauldrons with beans and eyeballs, and SO MUCH MORE. This is such a fun way to talk about the things we see at Halloween time. :)
All in all, the children have certainly been BUSY! It's so fun to build on THEIR ideas and see them learn through play.
