Early Childhood Education Environmental Inquiry: Puddles of Opportunity. By Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about inquiry lately. In my capacity as the chair of the York Region Nature Collaborative I was invited to take part in a pilot environmental inquiry project with the York Region District School Board, which involves two different full day kindergarten classes. The first experience was in a school located in an urban area with a large population of English language learners. The aim of the pilot was for the children to spend the two whole days outdoors. I wondered on the first day how this experience while wonderful was inquiry? I am not sure how I ended up with this group, as I am not the biggest lover of mini-beasts. I love social media because days later when I was wondering whether these children and their teachers had embarked on an investigation of worms I got an answer to my question. Recycling in Kindergarten. Our recycling inquiry continues!
Here are the reference posters that I talked about in our last recycling blog. These poster are located on our classroom door and students often re-visit to check and/or confirm where things go when they are eating snack or lunch. Students have been working on using the puppet pals app on iPads to develop a public service message about how to recycle. They have choice of background and characters in their video and are responsible for creating the message. The goal of each video is to help people understand how to recycle. Here are a few of the videos that have been created so far! Natural Ornaments for Kids to Make. Salt dough ornaments for the tree. We made salt dough ornaments with our friends Krystal and Maya on Friday.
Then they came back yesterday to paint and decorate them with us. Krystal and I had as much fun as Maia and Maya. This was one of the activities on our advent calendar. Here's how we make salt dough: Mix 4 cups flour with 1 cup salt and 1 1/2 cups cold water. We roll the dough directly onto a sheet of parchment paper, cut our shapes with the cookie cutters, then pull off the excess dough and leaving the ornaments in place on the parchment paper. 15 Fun Science Activities for Kids. We love fun science activities and science experiments.
We have a whole list of fun ways to learn and explore today with your little scientist. These fantastic activities were inspired by Buggy and Buddy. 15 Fun Science Experiments for Kids 1. Build a bridge with two plastic cups and construction paper and test your hypothesis of how many pennies it can hold before the bridge collapses. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Animals in Winter- Hybernation/ Penguins/ Polar Bears. Book Ideas: Over in the Arctic by Marianne Berkes“Over in the Arctic, the snow goose ‘honks’ and the wolf ‘howls.’
Children too will joyfully honk and howl while they count the baby animals and sing to the tune of ‘Over in the Meadow’.” Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming“When Bear notices that winter is nearly here he hurries to tell Snail, after which each animal tells another until finally the already sleeping Bear is awakened in his den with the news.” When it starts to snow by Phillis Gershator“What if it starts to snow. What do you do? Dramatic Play Hot Cocoa Stand. Journey Together Through Full Day Kindergarten. Passionately Curious: Learning in a Reggio Inspired Kindergarten Environment. Mathematically Speaking. Counting Order, Number Recognition and Podcasting As the new school year begins I am thinking about how the common core becomes a part of the work I do each day with my students.
I am thinking about this, but I am also thinking about “how to” create learning opportunities that will help the common core come alive and become enriching and engaging for my students as well. So I started thinking about number recognition, counting order and how the iPad might be helpful. These skills are important and I wanted to think about how I could keep engagement high as well as “how to” provide opportunities for my students to reflect and share what they are learning. At a work station last week some of my mathematicians were putting number cards in counting order. Kindergarten has really been amazing this year! During a share session my students have an opportunity to share not only what they created, but have an opportunity to ask others what they notice! Transforming our Learning Environment into a Space of Possibilities. Mrs. Bergerson's JK/SK Class. KA Blogspot. Hello Families, To reinforce what they have learned about two-dimensional shapes in class, try this activity with your child: Imagine that your backs are drawing boards.
Take turns using a finger to draw shapes on each other's backs. Try to guess the shape that the other person is drawing. Talk about how the different shapes feel like. After drawing a shape on the other person's back, draw the same shape on paper and talk about how the shape looks like. Here's a challenge: Make unusual shapes on your child's back and challenge him or her to draw the same shape on paper! The Importance of Block Play - Journey Into Early Childhood. A journey through play-based learning.