The Aftermath of Ophelia

In the aftermath of Ophelia storm, as the children came back to preschool, there was a  lot to talk about and to share. The children wanted to talk about what they had seen or heard and many said they were scared  because the wind was "noisy" and because the electricity went off, leaving them in the dark. 

So I went to the storage room and dug up a book I don't use very often called "Feel the wind" by Athur Dorros. 

 Now, the book can be a bit technical at times. So I skipped certain pages, changed the wording and made it as simple and interesting as possible for my 3 to 5 year olds. Then I ask the children a few questions at circle time:  What can the wind do? How can you see when it is a windy day? Answers:

Wind moves the clouds in the sky
Wind can make your clothes dry quick outside on the washing line

Wind makes the wind turbines turn and turn

Wind make our kytes fly high in the sky

Wind make things and people move

Wind can move small things

Wind cannot move rocks and heavy things

To illustrate the last 2 statements, I gathered several items around my home:  pebbles,  feathers, a sheet of paper, a marble, a miniature bale of hay, buttons, pom-poms, wooden blocks and a ball. I brought my hairdryer and plugged it in.  I explained the children that my hairdryer was like the wind: "if I blow my hairdryer on this marble, do you think the wind will be strong enough to move it?" They had to give me predictions first and when they saw what happened, we placed the objects into 2 categories: heavy and light. To tell you the truth, this was such a great experiment!! Every time an object moved, the children giggled and laughed and clapped hands!! It was absolutely brilliant!!  Here are a few photographs of our little experiment:

Next, we talked about the fact that it is a good thing the wind makes the turbines turn as it helps producing electrivity. And I asked them : 

"what works with electricity in your house?"

I should probably have recorded  how many times  "my wii", "my brother's X-Box", "my sister's Playstation" were mentioned!!!!! Children are moving on with the technology. It was exciting to make them realise that practically everything they need and like works with electricity!!!! And Ophelia was the best experience as they had loads to say about it. 

I also asked the kids to tell me how they could see it was a windy day outside. "The trees are moving, the leaves too. And the flowers!! ". Then, we went outside and I asked them to close their eyes. I asked again how they could now tell it was windy. "My hair is blowing!!" and " I can feel it on my cheek". Another child cleverly said "I can hear it!" and another one added "..and I can hear the wind chimes making music too!". 

Harvest time is here!

This week, we took a closer look at our pumpkin patch as we were talking about harvest time. What better way to show the children what harvest is all about but to let them go and harvest our pumpkins?  The children have been introduced to the cycle of life of the pumpkins several weeks ago.  We documenting each process carefully , taking pictures, printing them, gluing them in a book and adding captions depicting the pumpkin life cycle This booklet has been an on-going project and has been on our shelves since mi-September. Each time we brought the children outside to our little garden,  I would ask them to describe what they could see:

 "I can see flowers growing in the pumpkin vines"

5 Autumn Golden leaves high up in the tree!

Another year... another season.. And this is actually my favourite season (I think): Autumn time!! I love the colours, I love the themes.. So I re-introduced all the bits and pieces I use to decorate our classroom every year:

our autumn tree

Our Hedgehog House

We read the Leaf Man story by this week in class. I made the story simple by saying that in every pile of leaves outside hide a leaf man. The wind blows him off across the world sometimes and he meets lots of other animals. I asked the children to recognise as many animals on each page (rabbit, squirrel, fish, turtle, chicken, etc..)

Activities encouraging "Positioning schemas"

We have been observing the children very carefully these past few weeks to identify the schemas  in action in our classroom in order to learn more about each child's personal learning process. 

Schemas are patterns of repeatable behaviour the children use to test out ideas and to make sense of the world around them. Once a schema is identified, it is very important to offer the child appropriate activities which will nurture the patterns allowing the develop and progress of learning. 

After a few weeks of careful observations, it emerged that a group of younger kids in particular shared the same schema called "positioning". The children love lining up toys or placing objects in very specific ways . It does not necessarily follows the logical thinking process  of an adult but it seems to make complete sense to their little minds.  And I dare you to try to "reorganise" everything... Tantrums may follow, tears or screams of frustration. We have observed children positioning, ordering and arranging objects sometimes in very obsessive manners. They sometimes line them up in order of size, colour or shape or texture too. They also love "stacking" activities: cylinders, blocks, lego, cubes, animals on top of each other, books etc... Some of them also like their food to be placed in a certain way on their table mat and they can be very particular about it. Or they may not like if certain type of food is touching. 

Keeping this schema in mind, we had a look in our classroom to make sure the children had enough opportunities to play and learn . Below, are a few of the "Positioning" activities children are presented with or can choose from in our setting. These activities are usually loved by smaller children and though the materials themselves might have a more direct objective (such as counting and representing quantities or matching colours), we let the children in a "positioning" schema use them freely. They just enjoy placing the counters in a certain way. Later, as their learning expand, they will start using them in the way they are meant to. 

This game is supposed to help children learn about following patterns with colours and shapes. Many of them just love stacking the beads onto the rods, following their own design.

Some children also like lining up the crayons. As simple as this. 

This is not the right way to use the Montessori Pink Tower but here again, you need to step back and recognise the child's schema and allow him to test his ideas. Observe the need for lines, order and association in the picture. 

Our bear counters are a favourite. We use them with the wooden grid to associate numbers and quantities or to categorise them by size or colour. But children make their own rules, placing the bears in the way they like. 

The Montessori Brown stairs is often used by little ones in a "positioning" schema. Here, it has actually been used correctly but the little girl decided to use other material and is placing them on top of the stairs in a manner that allows her to problem-solve, question, predict, imagine, speculate and develop independent choices as she was making decisions in an area she was familiar with.

Blocks can be lined up, stacked up. We have coloured blocks and natural colour blocks. Children use them to build anything. They sometimes choose to place them in a certain order that make sense to them, mixing them up with other blocks or other materials. It may seem random to you but the fact is that children use that type of play to develop a methodical, systematic and logical collection of information through heir senses and their movement. 








Here are a few more examples of classical positioning schema:

 

                   

We also use our sensorial table as an invitation for "positioning". Last week, keen on creating further experiences, I filled our table with all sorts: wooden dice, plastic letters and numbers, bear counters, plastic counters, wooden beads, etc... I place a sorting wooden tray on the opposite side of the bin and let the magic begin. The children were immediately attracted to the activity. I didn't give them any directions but let them explore the possibilities themselves. Some recognised the potential for categorising or sorting. The younger children enjoyed choosing a place for each item, deciding on placing one or two or more items together, on top, beside etc... 

What else do you do in your classroom to support the "Positioning" schema?

Scaffloding preschoolers' early writing skills

Providing young children with rich writing/drawing experiences lays good foundations for literacy learning. Scaffolding preschoolers' early writing skills is of paramount importance. But the diversity of skill levels can sometimes present a challenge. Some children are still at the stage of scribbling while others are drawing neat pictures from their imagination. Some are still colouring or drawing while others have started making "signs" or formed "letters". So what could I do to encourage my children, support their development level and shape their learning experiences? I took a step back and observed the children in my classroom. One little girl, one day, was playing with a small Montessori numeral rod a wooden box turned upside down. She told me she was drawing! And it hit me. Diversifying writing materials as often and as much possible was a must. Crayons, paint, markers, chalk are a great start but what about the canvas? It doesn't always have to be paper or card. Just gather materials, present it to the children and let them use their imagination. Let them use the materials whichever way they want without preconceived ideas or expectations. Then the possibilities are endless, really, and so are the learning experiences.

10 timid Little Ghosts - Props

We have been reading 10 Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O'Connell for the past 2 weeks in the classroom. The children love this story. I guess the story has mesmerised them because it represents everything scary about Halloween: witch, ghosts, cats, rats, vampires, skeletons etc.. It is spooky without being frightening and it got their attention straight away. The rhyming and repetitive prose is catchy and easy  to memorise making it fun, while the illustrations are really colourful and detailed. 

Naming clouds...

As we were berry picking the other day, a little boy stood quite still in the middle of the field, looking up to the sky. I asked him what he was looking at. He said he could see a funny cloud shape in the sky. I looked up and asked him what it was shaped as. He simply said it looked like a big marshmallow!! Other children joined in when they saw us and we all had a game of "guess what my cloud looks like"! We saw dogs, circles, superheroes etc...Imagination had no limit. The following day, at circle time, I showed the following video to the children. It is based on a book called "it looks like spilt milk" by Charles G. Shaw. The children loved it as it was an extension of what we had done the day before. 

We are going on a bear Hunt

One of the children's favourite books in our classroom is We are going on a Bear Hunt. They love the chanting rhyming tone of the text, the pictures, the repetitive and therefore predictive actions.. So we often use this story to introduce our topic on bear and hibernation. Here are a few examples of our classroom's activities based around the book.

Language /Communication:  Using props 

At circle time, once the children were familiar to the story, we introduced the props to add another twist to the story telling experience. 

                     

The Hundreds Languages of Fabric

Two years ago, we have introduced the Reggio Emilia approach into our classroom and our curriculum. I didn't really know if it would work.. It has! Don't get me wrong, I am still learning and there are many errors along the way. Things I thought would be a great hit among the children turned out to be an "epic failure" (as my own children would say!). Activities that never really appealed to me became so so popular... It has left me baffled at times. The main thing is not to have any preconceived idea, I guess. Try everything and you will eventually get there. 
What I can say now, is that you will notice centres of interest. And I assume that these interests will differ or evolve from year to year as new groups of children pass through your door or as children grow older (never a dull moment in teaching!). So far, thanks to the Reggio inspired teaching method we are using, two interests have emerged from the children, one being a serious love of glue and the other being an equally intense love for fabric. I took these two interests and planned possibilities and provocations.

Children have developed new skills since September and used many different media to communicate their understandings of the world around them, their emotions etc.. As an adult, we may not always get "it". I often see Mams winking at me when their child show them proudly the "blob" they painted earlier on. Mams may ask "what is it honey?". And the child gets frustrated and sighs, explaining what he tried to convey on paper. I taught many parents to comment on the composition of the painting or the colours used when they are not sure what it is representing. The child usually automatically forwards a clue of what it is but his feelings have been saved and he/ she feels valued by the praise they received. Children are quite good at using many "languages" to express themselves. The possibilities for dialogue are endless then, as long as we (teachers and parents) provide them with appropriate tools and means. And I believe that it is my privilege as an early years teacher to support the children who come through my door in discovering, appreciating and mastering the different "languages" available to express themselves and convey their ideas.