How to get an older child to write more...

There is an older 4 year old boy in class who is not a big writer. He is very interested in dragons. So today, he came up to me and asked me "Do we have an animal book making work?" Well at the moment we don't, unfortunately - because this would be a great opportunity for him to write. A little later he asked me again. I had recently bought a children's picture dictionary for those times when a child asks "How do you draw a ..." or when they want to know more about something. So I gave that to him so that he could at least look up a dragon and see the picture. He decided to make a 'parts of the dragon' book. He got bunches of paper and pencils and proceeded to draw a dragon. We then talked about how, if he's making a 'parts-of' book that he needed to make more pages for each of the parts. He made the head on one page, and the body on another. He started to write the words head and body on his two pages, by listening to the sounds phonetically. He wanted to keep going but unfortunately it was our outside time so he decided to save his work. It's amazing how going with their interests can really spark something inside of the child. Sometimes it might not be something we consider "appropriate" or "Montessori" but I would bet Maria Montessori would feel that following the child is more important in these instances. I forgot to take a picture of his work, will try and do that on Monday to post!

A great problem solving moment...

My favorite moments in the classroom are when a group of children problem solve together and I am invisible to them.

Today there was a great example of: perseverance, thinking things through and problem solving. There were 3 boys doing a stamping story work ("The Cat on the Mat"). This is where they read the story and use stamps to re-create it. The goat, for one of the boys, would not stamp completely on the paper. He persevered and kept re-stamping it to no avail. So the other two kept brain-storming what he could do differently to get it to work. After many tries of different ideas (keeping it on the pad longer, moving it around on the pad more, etc) and one of the other boy's getting theirs to work, they figured out the best way. We tend to forget how important problem solving and discovery is for the children - many times feeling like we have to provide the answer. This was a great reminder for me to let them discover and problem solve and to not jump in unless asked!

I'm back and Spring is in the air?

It's been awhile since I have blogged. Life took over. The 2010/2011 school year has been flying by, the children have settled in quickly and as usual they are so much fun to observe and be around. We have been talking about Antarctica. We do this every year, and almost didn't this year but it is such a fun continent to talk about my assistant and I couldn't resist! Right now we have various works out for the continent: a penguin balancing game (store bought) which we added dice to so they roll the die to figure out how many penguins to add; penguin tonging, making a sand map of Antarctica, a stamping work on a map (polar bears - in the Arctic, penguins in Antarctica). We also have a 'Penguins of the World' book making work. A few years ago I had purchased a penguin toob that has various types of penguins (there are around 17 different types!). I picked out 5 different types: Rockhopper, Emperor, Little Blue, Chinstrap, and African. I then found some great photos of each type to show the children.

At circle, we talked about how all penguins live south of the Equator and the uniqueness of each one and where they live. The children could then make a book. I used an outline of a regular penguin and the children could color it in and add the details needed (i.e. for a Rockhopper they could add the feathers on top of the head, for the Emperor they could add the orange and yellow around the bottom of the head, African penguins have pink coloring above the eyes etc.). For some reason the children really enjoy Little Blue the most. I will post a picture of the work soon.

We have had a very cold winter for our area but recently it's been warming up and feels like Spring. Here is a photo of a Spring work we did a few years ago when talking about flowers. It was an object to picture matching work. Enjoy and think Spring! (Update - here are a couple of photos of the "Penguins of the World" book making work.)

Spring time

Flowers have been a big part of our classroom recently.  There are windows all along the east side of our room and recently all of the Cherry trees were in bloom.  They looked like snow all over the trees.  This was a flower work - I got this idea from online.  You take tissue paper squares and fold them over the end of a pencil and then glue them on paper to make flowers.  It is very cute.    Here are some the children did...

We have many bugs (and other critters) in our room now.  Our Ootheca (praying mantis egg case) just hatched.  We have hundreds of baby praying mantises now.  It hatched during circle when I was walking around showing the Ootheca.  It happened so fast.   We are now feeding them aphids.   We will let most of them go and keep a few to watch grow.   We have bullfrog tadpoles.  One has his hind and forelegs now.  The children are very excited about that.  We have the mealworms, red wrigglers, and just recently let go the ladybugs.  Another latest addition are the silkworms.  They are eating the Mulberry leaves like crazy.  

Another work I put out was Moon sand with a Spring twist.   I added cut up egg cartons, small fake flowers, bugs, etc. to make a garden.  The children would put the moonsand in the carton, like dirt and add the flowers and make a garden in the sand.  It was a popular work.    

It's almost time for conferences so the next few weeks will be busy!

Shell Sand Pouring

During my internship I created this work.  Actually my two sons created this work.  I was working on my synthesis and they happened to be in the same room playing with shells.  At one point I looked over and one of them was pouring sand back and forth between two shells.  It was such an "ah-ha" moment!  A new pouring work.  We tried it in class and it was a hit.  It helps to find the right shells.  The two shells shown here worked well for the pouring.  It teaches the child to be more delicate and careful with their pouring.  

Forest combined with Geology

I tried to create works for my synthesis in all or most areas of the classroom.  My son, Max, was way into Geology at the time and his interest was contagious.  So I wanted to make a forest geology work.  This is a matching work.   In the first picture, in the back row -  is a bottled stick with tree sap, next to that is a piece of a tree, and next to that is pine needles.  You match these to their fossilized counterparts (amber, fossilized wood, and a plant fossil).   Another option was a container of maple syrup for the sap (see next photo).   I would love to do something with a petrified forest sometime!  Oh well, this makes for a good segue into fossils.

Alien Bug

I found this bug in my driveway, the poor fellow was already deceased.  The only other bug I have found this big was a Locust.  This was not a Locust.  I took it to school to show the children and many of them commented on how smelly it was.  Sure enough I looked online and it is a Jerusalem Cricket.   It's not really a cricket.  They live in the dirt and eat plant roots.  They are smelly (so it's not from the decay) and have strong mandibles for eating roots and digging.   They drum their abdomens against the ground as a mating call.  Way Cool!  The children are very interested in bugs and insects in our class.  They include our classroom critters, the mealworms and the red wrigglers, in our good morning song - it's very sweet.  They always remind me if I forget to sing good morning to the bugs.  It's nice to see them not squeamish as I remember being as a child.  That's why I think it's important for me to model respectfulness and not be squeamish (though with spiders that is harder for me!).  I am not happy with the quality of the photo of the Jerusalem Cricket - will try and take another picture during the day time.

On another note we are starting to talk about Antarctica in class.  We have been talking about how it is the coldest and windiest continent.  Amazingly it is also the driest.  The reason there is so much snow is that the snow stays - it doesn't melt.  So soon, during circle, we are going to watch shaved ice (no access to snow here in our part of California) melt and show ice that is kept cold stays the same.    Brrrrr.