Pipes Project

Friend "Sandwich" engaged with these pieces of pipe for quite awhile today.  After identifying these new toys in the Toy and Puzzle Area during Greeting Time, he knew exactly what he wanted to do when it was Work Time!  His plan was to go and work with pipes.  He figured out how to connect them on his own.

We talked about how pipes bring water to our homes, like the kitchen sink, bathtubs, toilets, and even the garden hoses.

We used these pictures during Recall Time to invite Friend "Sandwich" to tell his friends about his work.  After completing his pipes project, he said, "Ta-da!  Come take a picture!"  During Recall Time he told us about how this pipe system is for the sprinklers.

Cool engineering brain right?!

Richmond Zoo and Animals from Africa!

It is summer break at Harmony's House, so family-tripping is happenin'!  Toddler "K" and Baby "E" got to go to the zoo and see the REAL animals from Africa that we have been learning about in school.  Epic field trip!  O_O

Flamingo- these flamingoes are actually the South American kind, but Africa has their own variety too!

Fennec fox

Meerkat

 Rhinoceros

Zebra

Ostrich

Giraffe- yes we were really THIS close!  We fed and petted these beautiful animals.  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  Of course what Toddler "K" recalls about the giraffes is that the female peed while we were there.  She said, "Potty outside!  Yes!"

Baby "E" elephant ;)

Pygmy hippopotamus

Please share our adventure with your school friend and see how many animals they can name!

Writing a Plan

Some followers have recently read about how students at Harmony's House make plans prior to play.  One of the other planning methods included "writing a plan."  The children of Harmony's House range in age from two to five.  How does a child, who likely cannot spell or even know many letters, "write a plan?"  Can they?  Yes.  Here's how we do it!

An important pre literacy skill is to be able to hear separate words in a sentence.  So, although most of the students in preschool cannot write words with letters, they do have the fine motor ability to draw a line.  They practice hearing and writing by drawing one line per word as they say it.  In the plan featured above, the child (age 5) wrote one line for "Toy and Puzzle Area."  She then listened to her own words and wrote the first letter that she could hear: 'T' 'a' 'P' and 'A.'"  When she returned to her plan at Recall Time, she added a picture of herself doing the plan in the Toy and Puzzle Area.

Below is a plan written by another school friend (age 3).  He wrote, "Art Area."  Because he cannot write letters yet, he simply drew the lines to represent each word.  Then he added a picture of himself with a paint brush.  When he returned to this picture at Recall Time, he described the colors he used and how they mixed together.  He also detailed his painting method of doing quick sweeps with the brush called "scribble scrabble!  scribble scrabble!"

Here is a sample of another child's plan (age 4):  she drew lines to represent "work with balloons" and Ms. Harmony wrote the words beneath the lines.  She drew the balloons that she wanted to play with.  When she came back to her plan at Recall Time, she colored the balloons, added letters to the "words" that she wrote, and talked about what she did with her friends.

Did she follow her plan?  Absolutely!  And she wrote about it too!

Mapping a Plan

Using a "map" of our school has been a fun way to make plans and do recall recently!  During Planning Time, the children will take turns talking about where they want to go and what they hope to do during Work Time.  Some days the plans described are more detailed than other days.  :)  Ideally, the child will develop language and cognitive abilities to think about and describe a future activity.  They might plan to use specific materials, or work with certain friends.  Sometimes they might choose to go to the Alone Table first.

After they've thought and talked about their ideas, they place their name on the map in the Area that they'd like to visit first.  If a child has chosen the Alone Table, having the name filling up the Area helps other children see that the table is full.  (Most of the Areas in Harmony's House are not limited to a specific number of friends, but the Alone Table by definition is a place where only one friend can work at a time.)

At Recall Time, we come back to the map and check to see if we followed our plans.  We remember what we planned to do first.  Then we move our names to different areas and review what else we did during Work Time.  It is exciting to retrace our steps from the morning and see how friends moved on to new plans.  Hearing ideas about plans from our friends helps us get new ideas to try next time.  We also use this time to remember different ways we solved problems: wanting the same toy as someone else, not having enough materials or the right kind of materials, not having enough time, etc.

These are other favorite Planning/Recall Tools:

• camera (take a "picture" of the work we want to do)
• hula hoop (chant "It's planning time, it's planning time, it's planning time right now!  Where do you work?  Where do you work?  Where do you work and how?" while turning the hula hoop.)
• draw a picture of it
• write it down with letters or words
• talk on the phone
• type it out on a keyboard
• use a computer mouse to click on the Area card
• wear a Planning/Recall hat
• use a puppet
• play a game (whoever gets the next BINGO makes the plan next)
• pick an object (use toys/tools from different Areas to represent each one- the child chooses the object s/he wants to use and describes the plan)

There are SO many ways to get kids talking about what they'd like to do with their time!  It is fun to hear their ideas, and also to see them advance in their abilities to foresee their plans before actually doing them!  And with this Plan-Do-Review sequence that we do EVERY time the kids come to Harmony's House, they begin to develop the habit of working intentionally on plans and remembering how they spent their time.  Working memories and executive functioning are important skills for now and later in school.

Snow What Fun!

Our first day of the 2019 Spring Session was super fun!  For Small Group, we put together a floor puzzle of polar animals.  Then we used magnifying glasses to notice which animals lived at the North Pole and South Pole.  Did you know that penguins only live in the southern hemisphere?  We used the floor puzzle, the wall map, and a globe to look at North and South poles, and to talk about the animals found there.

Some of the awesome dialogue about this activity included where the light was coming from when they used the magnifying glasses.  We noticed that wherever we moved the glass, a small spot of light followed.  The magnifying glass was catching the light from the room and shining it onto the puzzle.  We also observed that the magnifying glasses have a "small bump" that makes things look extra big!  These powers of observation really helped us notice where different animals live on the map.

Work Time was filled with creativity and fun as well!  Friend "S" used popsicle sticks and a paper towel tube together.  She poked holes in the tube with a pair of scissors.

Friend "B" and Toddler "K" connected a bunch of vehicle pop-blocks and measured each other.  When you connect all of the pop-blocks, it's the same height as friend "B!"

The Explore Table was full of South Pole discoveries!  The styrofoam packing peanuts are in the shape of the letter 'S' for "snow" and "south."  They make a great noise when you crunch them up, and are so much fun to toss and shower the penguins with snow!  The baby penguins are small enough to hide under the styrofoam too, so we had to sift through it all to find them.  The ping pong balls were "snowballs" or "eggs" depending on the plan.

Friend "S" worked at the Alone Table to connect Squigs to the mirror.  Friend "B" also did this plan and talked about it at Recall Time.  She mentioned that when they stick together they sound like"squish."  :D

There were so many other things that the school friends worked on while they were here!  Ms. Harmony will have to share those photos in a later post.  We don't want to overwhelm our readers with too much awesome-ness!

To finish up our day, we read a book about penguins and noticed that they had very short legs.  We tried out what it would be like to walk with super short legs by tying a bandanna around our ankles on going on a Penguin Parade.  :)  It was not a very fast way to get around.  We also pretended to sled on our bellies, hop, and swim like penguins to find a faster way to travel!

P.S.  Our sweet Baby Buddies had their own class downstairs and practiced taking naps and doing floor time.  :)  Baby "E" and Baby "E" are about one week apart.  How fun they get to play together while big sisters are learning and playing upstairs!

Harvest Shenanigans

Sorry parents for the delay in Blog posts from last week!  We had some internet issues that needed to be resolved over the course of a few days.  But I still got pictures of these cool kiddos working hard at Harmony's House!

On Thursday we did some neat art that was also a sensory experience.  Each child was given a bubble wrap cut out shaped like corn-on-the-cob.  We have been talking about Fall time being a busy time at the farms because farmers are working to harvest all the remaining fruits and vegetables before Winter comes.  The bubble wrap "corn" was super bumpy to paint on and the children remarked how funny it was under their brushes.  They were given red, brown, and yellow paint.  Not every corn cob is yellow you know!  They were encouraged to paint their corn in the way they liked.

After the bubble wrap was printed and declared "done," the children pressed a paper down on top of the bubble wrap to make the print.  These are the results!

Preschool children can learn to make "Concept Maps" or "Idea Webs" that connect ideas.  For Circle Time, we created this web to review all of the concepts we have talked about in the past few weeks related to Fall.  We also used the web to anticipate what we might be learning next about Halloween! The children chimed in with lots of ideas which Ms. Harmony represented with both pictures and words.

Recall Time

"It's Recall Time!  It's Recall Time!  It's Recall Time right now!  Where did you work?  Where did you work?  Where did you work and how?"

During Recall Time, the friends choose one plan that they remember working on and really enjoying. We also use this time of day to remember problems we encountered, and how they were solved.  We can also remember the process of how we accomplished something, like setting up tracks, doing art, or building a structure.  We practice listening to our friends before responding or asking questions.

This part of the day works our mental muscles to remember details, practice language, and social skills.  Sometimes we also draw pictures of what we worked on as well to practice visual representation.

Last week, these are the plans that our school friends chose to remember and draw.  Friend "H" worked really hard to line up wooden ramps and send balls down the tracks.  He especially likes to include the tubes for the balls to make tunnels.

 

Friend "K" chose to recall her Block Area plan where she found the princesses and furniture she wanted to use and arranged it in the castle.  Some of the furniture pieces did not fit in the rooms she wanted and so she had to rearrange things or choose different furniture to accomplish her plan.  During Recall, she was able to remember all of the princesses that she chose for the castle.