Tuesday SOL: What could be more fun?

I am participating in the
Tuesday Slice of Life.
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

I am delighted to be on spring break and, thus, I will keep this slice short and sweet! 

Last week, our school celebrated "intersession," where our students work in mixed-age small groups on different topics over several days. My small group was comprised of nine students, a mix of preschoolers through kindergarteners, and we built forts outdoors. 

Our supplies were simple: old sheets and cloths, one water-resistant tarp for our floor, sticks, twine, clothespins, rubber bands, and a couple of really cool clamps. Each day, we built a big fort in a different location around our school and then sat inside, reading books and eating snacks. What could be more fun? Here are the highlights: 

• Hearing and seeing children's imagination run free - they created 'campfires' out of sticks and imagined a warm fire, they fought off invisible monsters, and they spontaneously shared stories about escaping, hiding, surviving...what if no one could see us? what would it be like to stay out all night? what if we lived here for real? It was so fun to hear their imaginative ideas. 

• Seeing the mixed-ages play together seamlessly, kindergarteners helping younger ones (reading books aloud! that was very exciting!), preschoolers playing along and keeping up with the older children, working hard to be 'equals.' 

• One day, we had a light rain - but we sat protected under our roof of sheets, all cozied in together, enjoying books and telling stories. 

It was a very special few days of fun times outdoors, creating together. 

sol17-7 What if we relived the story with blocks?

I am participating in the
Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC).
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day of March 2017. 

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

I read the sweet book The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton and the block center became transformed...preschoolers made the story come alive.

Right after we read the book, one student was building with blocks and she built a small house. 

I said, "Oh, is that The Little House? The one in the story we just read?" She said "Yes! And now we need a city!" Several children started pitching in, building around the little house.

The first blocks were pretty intentional, with the goal being high buildings around the house and a bridge on top of the house.

More children became interested and the creating went in many different directions - making a zoo, a metro train, "my" house, a railroad track, a playground, more tall buildings...

Children added more and more details, more and more ideas, more and more blocks. 

Everyone worked together. No one took apart another's work, they simply scavenged for additional blocks and created something new for the city. The Little House became forgotten. The new goals were as varied as the children building - what if we built a city around us? Let's fit inside our city! What if we built a super tall house? The tallest house in the world? What if this city was only for animals, no people? Let's make animal families. What if we used all the little blocks, too? What if?

I have always loved this classic story. My students do, too.

SOLSC #12 What should our world look like?

During the month of March, I am participating in
the Slice of Life Story Challenge.
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for thirty-one days. My slices will be primarily about teaching preschoolers.

Check out the Two Writing Teachers website for many more reflections on teaching.

 

A note from a colleague, who lucked into a peer observation in my room on Friday morning, when we were having an absolutely delightful morning:

"Thanks for having me! I love the warm learning environment, and all the wonderful play, magic and love in this classroom."

Building with Magna Tiles

The zoo

Fridays really are the best day of the week, and yesterday's was above and beyond. The children's play has been replicating their city lives, and I watched a virtual city arise in our classroom - with some fantastical, magical, fictional details thrown in the mix. We dragged the cardboard castle and house to the carpet where we build with blocks and I suspect this was the catalyst for the city that grew all around it. Magna Tiles and small cars were used on one table, where focused builders created "lines of houses with parking garages" (rowhouses, to my eye) and a batcave (Batman has to be nearby) and a big store for shopping. There was a fervent attempt to make roads, but these would be broken up and changed into new structures. From the table to the floor, there were ramps leading to "a super highway, where the cars go really really fast and crash and go again." On the carpet, children worked very hard and patiently to create  a large, detailed zoo. In the sensory table, they worked with sand and gems and pronounced it "a cake-making place, I mean a bakery!" Over by the large windows, I found two preschoolers lying on cloths, and they explained they were at the beach. 

Doctors getting ready for work

The piece de resistance of the city - from my perspective - was the veterinarian hospital. Preschoolers collected all of the stuffed animals in the classroom and created the many beds for the sick animals in the shelving of the dramatic play stove, refrigerator, sink. For some reason, this really made me chuckle. They had toy stethoscopes, medicine, and shots to dispense. Preschool writers were employed to make signs, asking me how to spell 'veterinarian.' (I regret that I did not take a photo of the hospital warning sign they dreamed up, with help from teachers on individual words - "Don't take animal before they fix it") There was a great deal of work. One harried doctor exclaimed, "We're having trouble with the animals, they don't like the medicine."

Can you see the animals in this stove hospital?

The entire morning was good medicine for me, as I watched preschoolers immersed in play, working so beautifully with one another, showing flexibility, imagination, and joy.

SOLSC #10 How high is the tower?

During the month of March, I am participating in
the Slice of Life Story Challenge.
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for thirty-one days. My slices will be primarily about teaching preschoolers.

Check out the Two Writing Teachers website for many more reflections on teaching.

Aaron's first words as he entered class:

Maybe we can build a tower again today?

We continue to work like engineers in the Big Cats. Our latest obsession is towers. How tall a tower could we build? Could we build a tower that reached the ceiling? What height would it be if we did that? Is it taller than Ms. Ingram?  We set to work. What should we make it out of? How will we make it stable? Why is it so wobbly? 

As the children investigated, I was deep in the play with them. I was guiding on the side, ensuring that the space stayed safe as they moved quickly from big wooden blocks to smaller materials, such as Magna Tiles and littler blocks. When the play became a little frenzied, we set new rules. At one point, the children collected many chairs, surrounding the tower to allow them to reach higher up on the tower, and they jumped on chairs quickly, two and three children struggling for the same space. I intervened, stopping the play momentarily, and we talked about how engineers always work in a safe environment, that we needed to ensure workplace safety. At another point, the Magna Tiles came crashing down and the children went in pursuit of more stuff - again, I reminded them of workplace safety and they cleaned up all the Magna Tile 'debris' before adding in new, heavier blocks. I reminded the preschoolers that engineers move slowly and cautiously, thinking things through. I  introduced new words as they worked, for example, helping them see the 'bottom' as the structure's foundation, its base. I find that the preschoolers are like sponges with vocabulary, especially when it comes at them in the midst of something they have personally chosen to discover. 

The only teacher directed rule I imposed was that we could not use wood blocks past the children's shoulder height - they needed to find other lighter building materials after that. I suppose I could have let them discover cause and effect with the wood blocks, but engineers often wear hard hats and we have none. 

Basically, we just built and built and built. 

When we gathered later for whole group, the children shared their challenges with the tower building:

"We couldn't get the Magna Tiles to build"

"It keeps falling, falling falling."

"We used wood and sometimes we knocked them and that hurt."

"We used boxes."

"They got too high but not to the ceiling"

"It needs to be stronger."

"Maybe if we used bricks, it won't keep falling."

Yes, we had a tower of fun!

Tuesday SOL Why are they always in the block corner?

This is a Tuesday "Slice of Life" for Two Writing Teachers. Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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After winter break, I added ramps (and balls, cars, tunnels) to the block corner. This area has become a favorite activity for the children. We take over the large blue carpet - creating roads, race tracks, jumps, and more. It is a very busy area, with children doing lots of different things, all at once, all together, excitedly adding, changing, and eliminating features with abandon. 

At our January family conferences, several families noted that they didn't have to read my daily note to find out what their child was doing...they KNEW their child was ALWAYS in the block corner. 

Blocks and ramps are such a learning-rich area of my classroom this year. I am amazed by the work being done here.

How to make the learning obvious to families?

How to respect the play? 

How to help families see the beauty in this daily focus? 

What is the learning? 

Let's look at some photos and consider.

Somehow, everybody fits in the block corner. The children work together, always making room for one another.  There are many hands at work, many bodies moving closely side by side, and, somehow, staying aware of one another in the midst of all the motion. 

The children have both space and time to explore cause and effect, what works, what needs to change, what can be fixed, what will happen. 

I see children developing the greatest attitudes for learning - daring to try new approaches, to consider new ideas, to take a risk on a new path. 

They work so closely with classmates, listening and considering others' ideas and opinions.

They laugh at mistakes, screech with joy at surprise endings, and repeat, repeat, repeat their work until they get it right. Yes, this is persistence!

Working with balls and ramps, children become so engrossed and focused that they often continue working entirely by themselves…just to see if it will work this one time!

We have so many sizes of blocks and a variety of pieces to be used as ramps. I am continually surprised and delighted by the novel designs the children create.

I love how the children work together - calling out to one another, supporting, and assisting. 

I am so appreciative of how much time we are able to devote to centers, allowing the children to "go deep" in their building, creating complex designs. Centers are at least one hour each day and several days a week they last ninety minutes or more.

The design of ramps is moving, fluid, active work - ideal work for preschoolers. How does Bev Bos put it? - "If it is in their hearts and hands, it is in their heads." This is work that children are curious about, craving to know more about…this is where real learning happens.

The children show tremendous focus, another excellent academic disposition.

When I work alongside the children, I am gleaning so much extraordinary data: mathematical skills of spatial awareness, measurement, and some numeracy; cognitive skills of attention span, using materials in new ways, and recall/memory of earlier designs; literacy and language skills of dialogue and storytelling; social emotional skills of taking turns, working with others, and sharing materials.

Many friendships have grown through this play; I see children seek each other out, to repeat something they have done before, or to invite another to try something new. We have very few discipline issues in the block corner. I think that one of the reasons why is that there are ample materials, able to be used in so many different ways.

The conversations - the back and forth - are fast-paced and constant. With teachers as "guides on the side," listening and taking notes, sometimes instigating and provoking language, I know their vocabulary and fluency is growing through this play.

Look at the inexpensive materials we are using! Leftover trim moulding from household construction, strong cardboard packaging pieces, plastic bed supports…all these add to our ramps play! I love that children are learning to look at things in all new ways…to create something out of nothing.

The work is both temporary and long-term…there are so many different ramps every day, nothing lasts very long, and, yet, over and over and over again, we practice and build.

The children are filled with questions - how fast will it go? will it make it in the container? what happens if I move this? how do I get over this bump? did you see that?!!

Yes, I am amazed by their work in the block corner.

Is there joy in the alley?

This is a "make lemonade from lemons" post.

Our school's location this year includes no outdoor playground.  But, we do have an alley!

There is an alley between our school and the high school next door.  There is construction at one end of the alley, as a new YMCA is created, rendering the alley a virtual dead-end.

Our principal negotiated with the high school to close off the alley during the school day and use it as a play space.  Now, at different times of the day, students are using it.

Every morning our food truck arrives.  (Here we are, headed out for a walk, just as the lunch truck arrives.)

After the food truck comes, it is time to play in the alley. The first classroom outside gets to close the gate at the end of the alley, so that no trucks visit during playtime.  

(If a truck delivery must occur, we have all practiced getting our children quickly onto the adjacent sidewalk.)  

You'd be amazed at how much fun the long, open alley space can be.  Especially when you have been cooped up inside.  Let the children run!

When we go to the alley, there is plenty to do. We have hoola-hoops, chalk, and bubbles ready to go. The most fun of all comes from the new "Imagination Playground" blocks that our school purchased. These large, durable, yet lightweight blocks are stored in two enormous bins near our alley door, allowing us to make a playground every day...and pack it up and bring it inside when our outdoor session is over.

I wish I had a time-lapse camera to show you the daily transformation of the alley...here are four photos that give you a small taste of the fun....

When a class heads to the alley to play, the children all carry a block or two outside...

Bleak, you say?  No, it really is not!  I am amazed at how fabulous this "found space" has become. This flexible building system fosters teamwork, competence, gross motor skill, exploration, imagination, and joy! Every day, something new is created.

For the Big Cats, with a classroom alongside the alley, there has always been plenty to see.  And now, when it is our outdoor play time, there is always plenty to do!