continuing with plants

We studied pictures of different plants and made scultpures to represent plants. 

Angry Birds Obsession

I have one student who is very into the Angry Birds game right now.  Several other children have played the game and are following his lead.  They began by building the pig houses in the block center and using other blocks to knock them over.    I brought in 2 baby gyms (I don't know what they are called!) to extend their play.  I let them decide what needed to be used to knock down the structures they had built.  They are currently in a trial and error mode of experimentation.  They have already decided that yarn isn't strong enough so we have switched to shoe strings.  I'm anxious to see where this interest will take us in scientific exploration.  I plan to add in some catapults later to extend what they are using to knock down the pig houses.  I'm excited to announce that last Friday our preschool classrooms each received an iPad!  We will be using the iPad and iPods to let them explore the actual game with technology.  This may give them ideas of things we need to add in the block center for their reenactments.

This is the message board that spurred the interest in our room.  Notice the catapult at the left with the bird and the dots outlining the trajectory of the bird as it flies toward the pig house!

Our first attempt to use yarn to hold the blocks on the swing.  The kids taped the string on (after I knotted it around) so it wouldn't slide off the block.

The second attempt using the shoe string instead of yarn.

Trying it out to knock down a pig house!  We're gonna have to go back to the drawing board for something heavier to knock down the hollow blocks.

Seeds and plants...the beginning

This study is starting based on my students' interest in the seeds we took from our class pumpkin. Prior to visiting the pumpkin patch we graphed our predictions of how pumpkins grow (on a vine, in the ground, or in a tree). This idea is from More Than Counting: Whole Math Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten by Sally Moomaw and Brenda Hieronymus (pumpkin growing prediction chart, pg 184). On a side note, I highly recommend all books in their series!

 

On the hayride from the pumpkin patch, we discussed how our pumpkins actually grew (Did we have to dig them up? Did we pick them from a tree?, etc). The next morning back at school we revisited our graph again to confirm what we saw and how pumpkins actually grow. We predicted what was inside our class pumpkins and then cut them open to see if we were right.



We saved the seeds, planning to plant some and cook some. We read It's Pumpkin Time and planted our seeds in window boxes. The seeds we'd saved to cook molded so we tasted some I bought at Walmart. We have been observing our seeds and watering them daily. On days 16 and 17 we documented the changes we were observing. We will do this again on days 28 and 29 and periodically as our seedlings continue to grow and change.

Since the kids were so interested in our seeds, I wanted to further tap into that area of life science. We read Jack and the Beanstalk and each child selected a 'magic' bean to plant in a Baggie with a damp paper towel. We have hung these in our classroom window so we can observe exactly how the seed changes into a sprout. The kids drew a picture of what they thought would happen with their magic beans.

Currently, I am planning how we can capitalize on their interests with comparing different types of seeds and exploring indoor horticulture by growing pineapple, avocado, onions, etc. Check back to see where this project takes us!

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I am designing this blog to document what's going on in my classroom and to share ideas with other early childhood educators. I love to search websites and blogs for ideas for my classroom and I hope you will add this blog to your list of those you follow.