Firetruck Fun

Every year our local fire department pays us a visit.  It is such a privilege to interact directly with our community helpers.

We learned about their clothes and where they sit in the truck.

We learned that the front bumper of the firetruck contains a special hose just for car fires.

We learned about the tools firefighters carry on their truck.

We even had a chance to learn about an ambulance.  These firefighters talked about an ambulance being like a doctor's office on wheels.

All of their supplies are in the cabinets around the walls.

The firefighters rolled out the stretcher so the Bunnies could sit on the benches and walk through from front to back.

This firefighter talked about her stethoscope and how she listens to a patient's heart and lungs.

Some Bunnies preferred to learn about the ambulance from a distance, so they got a very close look at the bed on wheels.

Everyone was very brave and even a few asked questions.  Mostly the Bunnies watched and listened and added to their knowledge of the role of firefighters.

Building Big

I found a cool building toy at a local resale shop for only $4.  Turns out it was really fun!

At first the Bunnies had no idea how to play with these.  There was some sword fighting that was not productive (and dangerous) so Mrs. O'Connor or Mrs. Quinn had to be involved at all times.  We taught them to begin with a square as the base (4 sticks and 4 balls) and from there they could build up and out.

There was a lot of trial and error.  Learning how to get the sticks in the holes of the balls took practice.

Notice the difference from the second picture to the third.  After two days of playing with this toy, the construction became more orderly and purposeful ("Can we get in it?!"  "YES!") 
I suspect when we have this toy again, teachers will still need to be highly involved, but the children will take on more control of the direction of construction.  This is a perfect example of the value of learning through play.

The Flower Shop

During the summer, I visited our children's museum with some specific goals in mind.  I wanted to see what kinds of dramatic play they offered that might be different from what we already offer at school.  I was very excited to discover a flower shop.  I knew we could easily replicate this for school. 

When we talked about plants God made for us, the children had a flower shop in dramatic play.

They had vases, lots of artificial flowers, tissue and pipe cleaners for wrapping flowers and even some little gift enclosure cards.

A flower shop is a business so we had a cash register, of course.  The children were highly interested in the flower shop, so we extended their play to give them chances to make their own flowers.

From our wonderful school closet (room!) of recyclable and consumable materials, the children used little cloth circles intended for a "yo-yo" quilt and pipe cleaners to make their own flowers to sell in the shop.

This flowers shop was a simple way to reinforce our learning about plants and the differences between plants you can eat and plants you cannot eat.

Birds

Birds are fun animals to learn about because there are many, many children's books that feature birds.
The Bunnies really like Owl Babies.  We read the book and had props for acting out the story.  It's always surprising to see the children demonstrate through props how much of the story they retain.

These Bunnies used both fiction and non-fiction bird books with the props.

The children made their own birds by painting with a koosh ball.  The koosh ball makes really cool marks in the paint which look just like feathers.  Then the children added their own bird features such as feathers, eyes and a beak.  We are completely UNconcerned with accuracy.  If a bird has seven eyes and no beak and one feather, we are delighted.  The process of creation is far more important than the product.

These Bunnies began some creative play with bird figures and some tree branches.  Look what they made!!

If I were a bird I would absolutely want to live here!

Ocean Exploration

We spent quite a bit of time learning about the ocean and sea creatures.  It's a topic of high interest and a topic in which most children already have strong working knowledge so they get to build upon their understanding with new experiences.

The Bunnies did some sand art and learned how to handle a squeeze bottle of glue.

They used some non-fiction ocean books to help them identify some sea creature toys we had.

They played a simple Go Fishing game (by Fisher Price) in which they used the fishing pole to catch a fish, and then sorted the fish into the proper boats by matching the color on the underside of each fish.

These guys did something really amazing.  They stretched out half-unit blocks in a long row, and then put one sea creature on each block.  They even sorted them somewhat by putting like animals together.  This may look like simple play, but what I see is much more.  These boys (and others who are not in the picture) sorted by attribute and demonstrated understanding of one to one correspondence.  Both of these skills are crucial for the understanding of math and science.  In addition what they demonstrated was perseverance and collaboration.  They continued to work while others drifted away.  It is so exciting when kids dig in and really play hard.

Sorting by Attribute

It is never to early to introduce math and science concepts.  Sorting by attribute is one of the first skills young children can learn which bridges both math and science.
When we talked about lights in the sky, we had an activity to sort stars by size.  All the stars were basic wood, so the only attribute that differentiated them was size.

Another time we had some little frogs that were different colors.  They were all the same size so the only way to differentiate them was color.

There are many ways to practice sorting at home.  Sorting silverware, socks or other household items is an easy way to practice the concept.  We sometimes take our big bin of animals and sort them by very non-standard attributes such as animals with fur vs. animals with scales, or animals with spots vs. animals with stripes, or animals that have sharp teeth vs. animals that don't have sharp teeth.  Try it at home.

The Globe - Part 2

Here is our globe with land and water.