Here are a few of the letters and activities we enjoyed during the month of January:
Letter J
Friends collaged letter J using Jewels. It was lovely how each child patiently took their own time to fill up their letters with all sorts of different colored and shaped jewels. They also remembered how we had created the "jewel land" long ago, so we revisited that memory together.
Friends also explored the science of light refraction and saw the rainbow shadows of jewels reflecting on the white paper when they held the flashlight in a particular angle...
Friends got busy talking a lot about J for Jelly beans based on what we did with our jelly bean experiment and painting recently. They made their own jelly bean jars and counted how many jelly beans were in it. They made pretend soup out of it, and used it a variety of sensory ways.
Letter Z
Friends collaged the letter Z into a zebra and focused a lot on the pattern of stripes.
This allowed them to practice the skill of cutting and placing the stripes in a pattern. Some friends suggested we also put in eyes and make a tail out of yarn which further extended the project in creating an entire zebra look!
We also make Zucchini bread that week and friends got a chance to do some preparation, follow a recipe, and finally bake.
Letter K
Friends collaged their letter using Kale. We talked a lot about the different parts of plants we can eat, and we learned that from some plants we could eat their seeds, flowers, roots, stem, and/or leaves. We can't always eat all of a single plant, but there is a wide variety of choices. The concept of growing came in from this discussion and children wanted to learn more about how food grows. We talked about it, but saved the more extensive projects for our upcoming G week!
That week Teacher Rosemary came in with some Kelp that she found at the beach early in the morning while walking her dog. It was a total sensory exploration by the children and even the teachers. (We "city kids" had never seen kelp that big!)
Flashlights, magnifying glasses, funnels, and pouring cups were brought out to explore the kelp to the fullest. The kelp was with a big heavy root. Children imagined the ocean life in it and were making up stories about fishes and sea creature that might have lived in it. They also said that the kelp came from billion of meters under the ocean! (We'll work on distance measurements another day...) Some were truly expecting to see some creatures stuck in the tiny holes in the dense roots of the kelp. Unfortunately after all the super investigations we couldn't find any creatures. However, children did find sand, tiny rocks and gravel, and more tiny roots floating around!
Friends found a hole in the middle of the roots where our funnel fit exactly. They poured water to check what would happen and predicted that the kelp will soak it away!
The girls observed that the mouth of the kelp was totally like a funnel and wanted to see what would happen if we poured water in there. We promised them to try that experiment outside.
Sme friends thought that it was a long long water snake!
Later, we did some still life painting and friends painted the kelp they each uniquely saw it!
Some friends explored the way the paint colors changed under a flashlight. The bold water colors looked lovely with light shining on it!
Oh, I forgot to mention that friends named it KELPIE. We added two eyes to the head of the kelp and took a picture of all of us with the kelp!
Next we headed outside to measure the kelp and to check what would happen if we poured water through its mouth!
Pouring water through the hose in the funnel-like mouth of the kelp...
The water stopped where the tail of the kelp had dried. After cutting the dried part we saw that water actually streamed out...yea! Friends exclaimed that their prediction was right about water coming out from the other end of the kelp...
We also made fruit Kabobs for letter K. The friends got to create their patterns and customize it the way they wanted. They also loved chopping fruits further into smaller pieces, practicing their fine motor and safe knife skills...
Friends also enjoyed making kites. That day, it was Makarsankranti, the day of kite flying in Indian culture. I introduced children to that festival and everybody showed enthusiasm in making kites for themselves...
The fun of SCIENCE!
We performed a couple of fun experiments and friends always love to learn the reasons why this or that happened. Science is just perfect for our inquisitive souls. They make predictions and test them out and then learn from observation.
Balloon Experiment...
Learning about air, floating properties, and finding ways to pop the balloon easily. Also exploring the level of sound from the balloon pop when placed at different distances from the audience!
We drew a face on the inflated balloon and tried different materials that children gather from around the classroom to pop the balloon...
After the balloon popped the print got shrunk and slightly embossed...it was cool for friends to check how it looks and feels...
Repeating the experiment at a closer distance...
Later, friends did balloon painting and printing...
S said that she was a magician since she turned her red balloon into rainbow balloon...
L said that her balloon looks like the planet earth....
Friends decided to give their balloons a bath and enjoyed washing them in the sink feeling the slimy textured paint run off....
They carefully dried their balloons and further explored them in sink and float, static electricity, or simply playing a game of keeping the balloon afloat!
Friends also explored the concept of absorption and blotting when they dripped water paint over a paper table cloth. Soon they observed the colors blending and formation of veins. They said that the veins look exactly like the ones in our bodies. Lot of discussion about what veins do came into the picture. (Blue Room has been doing a lot with the human body this month and last month, so this has been an ongoing topic of conversation among all our children.)
Soon they decided to move the project on the floor to make room for other friends who were super interested to join in too!
We also enjoyed shaving cream and water color exploration, which is a perpetual favorite!
We also explored reflection and light with flashlights. Friends observed that when the flashlight was moved away from the door, the image that looked like a big flower and when moved closer to the door, the image got smaller until it disappeared. We asked them to pay close attention to it and try to reason why it happened. Some friends said it's magic, some said because it was dark, some said I don't know. As a result, we read a little bit about the science behind this from the internet and many friends understood that it was both the distance and amount of light that together caused such a play to take place...
Well, with all that said, there is so much learning happening every moment to support out children's growth in all developmental domains. I love their enthusiasm to come to school everyday awaiting to try out something new or simply brush up their existing skills. I have seen them grow as independent problem solvers, make more informed choices, and learn how to thrive in this interactive and busy social environment!
Love you kiddos!
Keep seeing you'll around,
Hugs,
Teacher Rashida.
