Mr. Jack

Here in Room 132, we are inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. (You can read about the approach here.) In this approach, we believe in 3 "teachers"....the adults, the environment, and the community of children themselves. It's amazing how much the children learn from each other.

Today highlighted the role of students as teachers clearly. Jack's family sent in a craft that he enjoyed doing at home. He brought all the materials and wanted to teach his friends. I pulled him aside and helped him set up the centre. Then he invited three friends over to try it out.



Jack - Today, we're making dinosaurs. So, first you need to paint the plate. I made all these at home so you'll know what to do.

Maya- Jackie's the teacher! Jackie's the teacher!

Mr. Jack took care of his student's needs and was very encouraging. He even gave some descriptive feedback to help his students do a good job.

"Here's a paper so you don't get paint on the table."

Jack- Almost done, Hamish! But you've got to make it all...see like that (points to middle). Do it like that. Maya's doing a good job! Especially the middle. Ari, you too. See how Maya's doing hers? It's good.

Ari- How are you doing it so quick Hamish?

Hamish- Super arm never gives up!

Jack- It's not a race guys!

Jack- You don't have to paint the back, cause you're not going to see it. You're going to fold it. See? You won't see it."

Ari- What are we gonna do after painting?

Jack- Well you put it on the drying rack. Then you're going to put out the other pieces. If your paint isn't dry, I'll call you back in say...20 minutes.

Mr. Jack continued helping the children until it was time to tidy up, which he did himself without being asked.

After the activity, I asked Jack to reflect on his experience as a teacher.

So Jack, what was the best part of being a teacher?

I got to help the kids build things.

What did you teach them?

To make dinosaurs, and to be kind, and to share.

What was the hardest part?

Cleaning up the whole table by myself!

I noticed sometimes everyone wanted help at the same time. How did that feel?

Actually that was the hardest part. Harder than cleaning up. I was like "Can you stop for a sec? You gotta be patient." It was soooo hard when they weren't patient. I can only do one thing and it's hard to do two things at once!

We are so proud of our guest teacher today and his students. They worked hard, learned from each other, and also got a taste of what it's like to be a leader. 

Houses for stuffies

It seems lately that a favourite item to bring in the mystery bag is stuffed animals, or "stuffies" as the children affectionately refer to them. 

The girls in our class now seem to have caught the building fever and have set to work on the carpet building creations for their stuffies.

Today Makenzie, Marley and Isobel spent two entire blocks working on the carpet. First, they built a house for the stuffies. Next, they built a trailer complete with a seatbelt to keep the stuffy nice and safe.

Mixing Colours

After seeing some emerging interest in mixing colours and making new colours, we set out some paint for some exploring... Though there was some conversation surrounding the colours, Ameila said, "that is red, blue, and yellow. They are primary colours" and Maya said, "red and blue make purple." The experience soon changed to mixing all the colours together and painting their hands to make hand prints. 

Blowing up some fun

As children develop, it is important to build the tiny yet essential muscles in the mouth, face and tongue. Babies begin this process soon after birth by suckling, but development can't stop there. Strong oral motor muscles are needed for clear speech. Breath control is essential for signing, exercising, and speaking too.

A great way to do this is working with straws. Both sucking and blowing on straws are good ways to learn fine motor control in the mouth and breath control in the body.

Today we worked on oral motor techniques by using bubble painting. It took a few minutes to get the soap:paint:water ratio right, but it was still lots of messy fun!

It was a challenge to get the breath control just right so the bubbles would go up over the lip of the cup.

An important lesson in breath control: don't blow too hard into a cup of paint!

For more fun oral motor activities, check out our board on Pinterest.

http://www.pinterest.com/MissKRussell/oral-motor-activities/

Kinex provocation

This morning we provided a new provocation. We put out an unfamiliar material and carefully observed to see how the children engaged with it. 

Today's material is Kinex, a building system that allows for open ended exploration and project based learning. The tiny pieces are great for building fine motor control and precision, as well as developing cognitive processes. 

Unsurprisingly, the boys were drawn like magnets. As they started to explore the unfamiliar material, they quickly found their own unique ways of interacting. 

Some explored snapping the pieces together and getting a feel for it. 

Some were drawn to the little robots and went to the doll house. 

Others built a project right away. 

JJ gathered some materials and started to explore on his own, and discovered he could make a windmill powered by his own breath. 

Hudson observed him and tried it too. Already they were communicating ideas. 

Some children brought the Kinex to other centres and inetegrated them into play there, such as Hamish's Kitty Spaceship. 

And Adam's security cameras. 

This afternoon we will continue to explore and try to build projects with a plan, and try to get some of our girl engineers interested!

Mouse in the House!

Last week, I opened up a drawer and found lots of sunflower seed shells, some dried pasta with nibble marks and some tiny little poops. The kids took a quick look, and after hypothesizing the mess was made by a moth, a squirrel, a raccoon, and a bear, we decided we have a mouse in the house.

I cleaned and sanitized the drawer and the children decided to set a trap for the mouse, baited with smarties and pasta.

After a few days, no luck. Nolan designed and built a trap out of sticks.

Just in case the traps were successful, the children wanted to have a mouse house ready for our guest. Katy helped them brainstorm a list of things the mouse would like.

Hunter took the lead on making it a reality. He even added branches from outside to make him feel at home and for climbing.

Isobel and Maddy designed some furniture for the little guy too.

The children are continuing to learn by engaging in the project. To them, this is real-life and authentic learning, making them excited and engaged. They're learning to plan, to work together, and to show empathy for another creature.

Designing and Engineering

Some of our girls brought in dolls from home, and were a bit embarrassed they were naked. I put out some tissue paper, tape and scissors, and suddenly they were fashion designers. 

Brynlee: we are making dresses and skirts to dress up the dolls. 

Marley: Do you like her dress? I made it. 

Maddy: I'm making the bed for the dolls. Marley, can you test to see if it's big enough for the doll? 

Marley: it's too small. Her head is hanging off. I'll make a pillow. Now it's perfect! 

Maddy: Let's make a whole house!

It's lovely to see our girls thinking as designers, engineers and problem solvers! They are learning all about working together, solving problems, and using their fine motor and measurement skills. They are thinking in three dimensions, improving spatial and visual skills as they play. 

Happy Love Day

Our Valentine's party was a success! The children have been working on their valentines for a few weeks, and the work continued on the big day.

As part of our learning goal "We are learning how numbers work," we have a success criteria of "I can guess amounts." We put our some jars full of candies and made guesses.

After we counted, Maya was so shockingly accurate, we asked her to give us some lotto numbers!!

We did some measuring and pouring with pink and red rice.

And made an ooey gooey mess with cornstartch and water.

And of course, we delivered and opened valentines. Thank you to Mrs. Pottle for helping out with the deliveries!

Thank you to the parents for their hard work at home getting the valentine's ready for the big day. We also appreciate the food donations for the snack table. Hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day!