Room 6

 December 2020 This semester has flown by. The children have been busy exploring fall and observing and studying insects. Pumpkins During the month of October we explored many of the aspects of autumn, including collecting and exploring multi-colored leaves on the light table, observing, painting and cutting open the pumpkin and drawing gourds.  Throughout the month of October, the children had opportunities to explore the pumpkins and the gourds using various materials. We read a story which described how pumpkins grow and this gave us the chance to talk about some new vocabulary words. Then, the children drew pictures of the pumpkins with the teachers encouraging them to include details. At a whole group meeting, the children were asked to predict what was inside the pumpkin. After cutting open the pumpkin, the children helped scoop out the seeds. Through the pumpkin exploration, the children strengthened language and writing skills, enhanced their vocabulary and began to fo...

Our Artist Study Continues: The children continue to be interested in different types of art and painting. During the fall semester we focused on Joan Miro and created art in his style. The next artist we began to explore was Wassily Kandinsky who is well-known for paintings which contain a variety of shapes.   Looking at art for inspiration                         We discussed how we thought the paintings were created and how we could make something similar. The children were very interested in the first painting and thought it looked like "space and planets." Since the children were very excited about the painting on the black background we decided to focus our next art experience on creating our own paintings in a similar style. We talked about what we could use to make the shapes and how the artist was able to put so many colors together without the colors getting mixed up. One of the child...

Kindness As children grow in their social interactions, they are making decisions about who to play with and developing friendships with other children. These friendships may be brief or remain long-term. The children in room 6 are learning how to relate to other children through sharing, role playing and turn taking. While the children in the classroom are showing preferences for specific playmates, it is important to make sure children are not being excluding from play with their classmates. In recent weeks we have been talking with the children about what it means to be kind.  Here are two of the books we have read in class:   The children are familiar with the term being a "bucket-filler." We have talked about "bucket-fillers" being kind and helpful. They also know that hurtful or mean actions are considered "bucket-dipping." We have also made a chart of kind and unkind behaviors. As we read each behavior the children decided whether it ...

Our Artist Study: Joan Miro This semester the children have been interested in drawing and painting. One of the ways we can extend the children's learning and thinking about drawing and painting is by introducing them to different artists and a variety of art styles. During group time, I introduced the children to the art of Joan Miro. We discussed what the children saw in the painting and how they think the art was made. The children noticed the cross-hatch marks and named them "stars" or "snowflakes." We also discussed how Miro used color. In one painting the background is painted, in the others the color is in the design. Our next step was to have the children practice drawing the types of lines they saw in the paintings. As the children drew, we discussed how to make the various lines and how to incorporate different types of lines together, such as a straight line and a swirl. As the children practiced drawing, we gave their lines names. For inst...

Fall Explorations The children have enjoyed exploring the autumn changes through all their senses. We have explored a variety of leaves on the light table to really see the details in the leaves. The children noticed similarities among the leaves (color, shape, size) and also recognized the differences between the leaves. One of the children mentioned, "This one has bumps (the oak leaf) and this one is kinda spiky (the maple leaf)!" The children enjoyed going on a nature hunt in the playground and found many signs of fall including fallen leaves, chipmunks, birds, pinecones and spiderwebs. We investigated how the pumpkin felt, both the inside and the outside. The children drew pictures of the pumpkin before we cut it open. We also predicted what might be inside the pumpkin. While some of the children knew there were seeds inside, some of the children suggested "Birds" or "Toys." Brandon says, "I don't hear anything inside the pumpk...