Focusing on Literacy

Documentation for the week of February 21-24, 2017

Making Play Dough

On Tuesday, we put last week's play dough out on the discovery table, but it was very dry! We decided to make new play dough together. It was messy work, but very fun. The children realized when it was too wet or too dry, and asked to add either more flour or more water. It was a great science activity! They also asked to add different liquid watercolors. We continued to add colors until the children were satisfied with the result. We added loose parts to the table so that the children could create and build unique projects.

Literacy Trays

We changed up our literacy time this week to feature tray work.

One tray had cards with dots on them. The children counted the dots and then wrote the number in a tray of flour. We added a stake to use as a pencil and a rake to use as an eraser in a way that carries over from our anthropology work. This activity was challenging for most of the children. They worked together to use the numbers on our wall to make the connection between the number of dots and the number symbol that represents them. When Oree began this tray work she said, "That's six dots!" When Morah Mirele told her to draw the number six she said, "But I don't know how." Morah Mirele showed her how to find the number six, and she practiced drawing it in the flour. Soon she was recognizing and drawing all the numbers!

At another tray, we had capital letters on the left side and lowercase letters on the right side. The children worked to match the letters with their pair. It was impressive to see how well they could match letters and recognize which letters were which!

We also had a tray for the children to create words with block letters. There were three letters that could begin the word, one letter in the middle of the word, and two letters that could end the word. There were spots for the children to write each word that they created with the blocks using a dry erase marker. You can see in the pictures how concentrated and focused the children are on this work. Ariel S. was amazed and proud that she was writing real words for the first time!

There were two trays that were available for number recognition work using dice. There was one die that had number symbols, one die that had dots, bricks for the children to build numbers with, and a dry erase board for children to write the number that they were working with. The children would roll one of the dice, match the other die with the first, build the number with the blocks and write the number symbol on the dry erase board. Eliya especially enjoyed this tray activity. Once he mastered it, he worked with Hillel and then Ariel F. to explain to them how to do it. Watching the children teaching and learning with each other was such a great benefit of introducing these tray activities!

At the table, we had space for children to use play dough and letter cards. They used the play dough to outline the letters on the cards. There were both uppercase and lowercase letters on the cards. Ariel F. made a lowercase H with her play dough. When she finished it, she asked her friends if anyone had an uppercase H to make a match.

The literacy trays have helped the children begin to recognize uppercase and lowercase letters and we began working on the sounds that each letter makes. They were truly challenged by these activities at the beginning of the week, and so proud of themselves as they learned how to accomplish the tasks on each tray!

It's not a Birthday without a Crown!

Wednesday was Morah Felicia's birthday! Morah Mirele was walking with Leah and wished Morah Felicia a happy birthday. Leah asked, "How could it be her birthday if she's not wearing a birthday crown?!" She and Morah Mirele went to get paper and supplies set up to make a crown. When the children came in from outside, they began working together to make a beautiful crown for Morah Felicia. After it dried for a while, Morah Felicia visited our classroom and accepted it. She loved it so much!

Dramatic Play

The plan was to create a mishloach manos basket dramatic play area this week in our classroom, but Morah Tara couldn't find the play food anywhere! Fortunately she remembered where she put it before the anthropology lab, so we will make that available next week.

Outside, though, there has been a great deal of dramatic play happening with the large loose parts. The children are very interested in castles, princesses, and other story lines relating to good and evil. They are using materials to create palaces and stealing each other's jewels. It has been great to see the children sorting out their world in this way. 

There area several problems for them to solve as they engage in pretend play. One example was when Bayla realized that there was a bucket near the "jewels." She and Leah filled the bucket up with large rocks and were so excited to take them to the castle, but when they tried to lift the bucket it was way too heavy. They had several solutions that they tried out. First they took rocks out of the bucket, then they asked friends to help them lift the bucket, then they chose to put rocks in their skirts and carry them that way. 

Another challenge in dramatic play like this is deciding what is possible and what happens after they take imaginary actions. For example, when Hillel put his hands in the air and made a shhhhhhh sound, he hoped that Imie would see his "blaster" and move her body backwards as if it was pushing her away. She did not take that action, so together they needed to decide what would happen next. Was his magic blaster broken? Was she so strong that it didn't affect her? These types of minor adjustments to the story that they were telling together continued throughout the week. 

There were also times of accidents where children got hurt for real in their pretend play. When Leah was grabbing Lucy's ankle as Lucy was escaping from jail, Lucy tripped and scraped her knee. She got upset and told Leah that she had made an unsafe choice. Morah Tara prompted Leah to find a way to make it better. When Leah asked Lucy how she could make it better, Lucy told her that she could say that she was sorry and get Lucy a flower. Leah followed Lucy's instructions right away, and they were both able to continue playing together.

Next week we will explore Purim!

Rainbow Class Tinker Lab

Documentation for the week of February 13-16, 2017

Our friends have been showing a lot of interest in building with loose parts and creating unique experiences for themselves through their building projects so we chose to bring in a lot of materials this week for the children to build with and explore.

Paper Clips, Screws, and Magnets

In one area of the classroom, we had a tray of paper clips and a tray of screws. We added magnets to the table as well. Imie chose to make art pieces using the magnets, screws, and paperclips. Her pieces looked a lot like bicycle wheels. She saved each one by placing them on a shelf in the dramatic play area. She also chose to draw a picture of one of her pieces of art. This shows continuity from our anthropology work where the children drew illustrations of our artifacts and what they thought they might have looked like when they were whole pieces of pottery.

Hillel discovered that he could make chains with the paperclips. He worked for a while creating one long chain. He realized it was taller than him. Later, he used his chain to create a gate between the block shelf and the dramatic play shelf. Eliya and Bayla joined him, after a while, to make more chains and use them to make gates throughout our classroom.

Construction Building and Exploration

We had a lot of new supplies in our construction areas this week. Ariel S. chose to create a helicopter with some straws and paper tubes. Her friends soon joined her to create similar structures.

Oree and Eliya chose to build a tower for their Shopkins. This work continued throughout the week. They had complex plans of where each Shopkins should go and a story about how they were interacting with each other. They worked hard to make sure they placed them carefully on their towers and were aware of their bodies so that they didn't knock the Shopkins down.

On Wednesday, our friends discovered that they could take balance boards to a new level with a hard cardboard tube underneath a large plank. What stood out the most about their process, was their negotiation of taking turns. In the morning, Hillel and Ariel S. decided that they would each have a 100 minute turn. Later in the day, Ariel F., Imie, Lucy, and Bayla created a whole system with their chairs to keep the order of turn taking that they planned. It took a few tries for them to place their chairs "correctly." Once they did, they negotiated whether they should move to the first chair in the line as they waited or if they should stay in their own chair until it was their turn. They were extremely capable of talking about their ideas and listening to each other throughout the process. There was no yelling or physical fighting as they found a solution that met all of their needs. It was so great to watch!

Fine Motor Challenges

There were cutting strips out for the children to use this week too. Black pieces of paper with white chalk lines were on the art cart. There were varying levels of difficulty on the strips. Some strips had straight lines, some were wavy, and some had complex patterns to cut. Lucy was the first one to try to cut along the white lines. She was very successful at even the most challenging cutting strips! Bayla and Ariel S. were both extremely successful at this work too. Morah Tara hadn't realized that their cutting skills were so excellent! It was very exciting to see their expertise at this task.

We had play dough and play eggs on the discovery table this week. Originally, the plan was to use the play dough to build with the eggs, since it would be a more challenging way to build, but the children took this work in a different direction. They chose to open the eggs up and place play dough inside of them. They filled some eggs all the way, and they placed tiny balls of play dough in other eggs. Later in the week, they brought scissors to the table and began cutting the play dough. They came up with strategies on how best to cut the play dough and negotiated with each other how to take turns with the scissors and acquire more scissors so that they did not need to take turns.

Typewriter Exploration

We put the typewriter on the writing table this week. Ariel F. and Lucy chose to take turns spelling each other's names. Hillel and Leah chose to type everyone's name in the class on the typewriter.

Outdoor Environment Work

There was also a lot of building, discovery, and using old materials in new ways outside this week! Lucy chose to use two hula hoops to walk around on. The Peach Room let us help them create bird feeders with bagels, sunflower seed butter, and bird seed. We enjoyed Jump Bunch with hula hoops and stretchy bands. There was dramatic play involving a restaurant that served soup in metal bowls where Lucy was the head chef. The children continued building and flying to new places on their ship of loose parts at the bottom of the hill.

Next week, we will begin learning about Purim. Enjoy your extended weekend! See you on Tuesday!