sol17-27 How shall we sort?

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.

A container of "whirly twirly lines"

We've been exploring found objects for several days. Today, I wanted to challenge the children to sort the items - to create "collections" of like objects. I've approached this in different ways through the years. Sometimes, I've suggested sorts or even put a few items of a certain type in various containers, just to get the children started. This year, I challenged myself to let the children be a little bit more in control...what would happen if I let them decide what the sort would be? What did they want to collect?

I set out the found objects with several empty containers, as well. I wanted the children to hone in on something special. I invited the children over in small groups and I asked them - Which object do you like best? Which one do you find especially interesting? What do you notice about it?

Then, I nudged them - can you find other objects that are similar to this one?

One container of "long stringy things"; another of  "things that hold things" 

The small groups worked as teams to look through the remaining objects and find ones that fit each other's collections. 

Oh my, did these preschoolers ever amaze me! 

We sorted by 

blue, 

green, 

purple,

metal,

soft,

shiny.

We found all the 

wheels, 

keys,

animals.

brushes.

We collected 

round, rubber things, 

A container of "music things"

long strings,

things with whirly twirly lines, and 

"things that can hold other things" - basically, creating a container of containers. 

My favorite may be the preschooler who put a block in side a can and then shook it, telling me "music! I like music." He proceeded to find things that made noise - tapping his thigh with a spoon, shaking a wheel, holding a pen cap up to his mouth and blowing noises onto it, telling me it was a harmonica. Really pretty funny!

It is so fun and exciting to watch the way children think, and to see how hard they work to accomplish their goals.

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.

Tuesday SOL Let's play with blocks

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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The block building begins quietly, with Mateo and Julian suggesting a wall around the edge of the table, "for the animals." Lately, block-building means animal homes, as well. The children are loving all the small, realistic toy animals we have.

Often they build by themselves, but today I have chosen to build alongside, to see what I can learn about these sweet children and what I can provoke.

I am in the midst of the play,

• soaking in their happiness, energy, focus, and pursuit;
• listening to what interests them, and storing these for future read-alouds and other lesson ideas, what excites them?
• considering ways they might engage with a classmate rather than simply play alongside, fostering team work;
• cultivating friendship skills, ready to offer guidance should conflicts arise, helping them to be together, to be aware of one another and not hurtful; 
• repeating their ideas aloud, often paraphrasing with bigger vocabulary, trying to broaden and deepen their language skills;
• posing questions for more details, building conversational skills, sometimes suggesting ways to build or extend on another's ideas, letting them see what tremendous resources they are to one another;
• fostering their mathematical thinking - they do it instinctively, but I coach the terminology, such as above? behind? near? alongside? between? under? through? next to? and, similarly, there is lots of counting (how many blocks do we need to complete the wall?).

"The blocks go here, all the long way," suggests Mateo.

Me - "Another word for the edge of the table, is perimeter - we are building around the perimeter."

Malcolm, Simona, and Kaelyn join us. Katherine and Ella aren't far behind, and many small hands are at work. It seems as if no sooner than someone builds something, another knocks it down, usually with the expressed delight of the builder. When mistakes are made, the children work together to recreate the original design - or tweak it to be something all new.

"This fits here."

"This is a door."

"A wall will not fall down."

"I am making a house for the zebras."

"We need a house for the dinosaurs. And the sharks."

"Sharks need water."

Block building is fast, impulsive, ever-changing. Things exist for only a moment or two, intentions change, blocks morph from one idea to the next.

Making a wall around the table leads to finding groups of animals…several are searching for all the sea animals, others want the tigers, still others want a zebra area. Julian, Nicky, and Micah create Magna Tile airplanes and "hand-gliders" at a neighboring table, and they jump over to see if these can fly around the blocks. 

A big door is made in the wall, "opening for airplanes."  The next thing we know, many blocks have been hit by airplanes, tumbling to the floor.

"These are the forests," says Julian, standing many tall cylindrical blocks together. Almost immediately one falls over, toppling the others like dominoes, and this becomes the new goal - to build and see them fall over. "The forests are breaking!", he squeals with delight, needing to fix them again.

Wesley pops in, followed by Naima, James, and Dmitry. They set about building underneath the table (where many blocks had tumbled). This opens up new possibilities - purposefully getting things stuck in table legs and then trying to get them out. One thing leads to another.

"We need to make an animal hospital for hurt animals," suggests Wesley.

The children build together and by themselves, self-selecting their fun, building both on and under the table, and at a second table nearby. Some stay for many minutes, creating and re-creating, while others land only momentarily, wandering in and out of the area, doing things elsewhere in the room and returning to the block corner for additional fun. They are filled with curiosity and investigation, trial and error -

• which blocks fit inside the arches?
• which tall ones stand, making the best trees?
• how to make a floor?
• how tall can we make it?
• what happens when you drive one block through the others?
• how to make a continuous wall?
• how to make it longer?
• which is biggest?
• how to make a seat or a bed?
• will these balance on top?
• what fits under?
• why is this stuck here? 
• how to get it out?

My note-taking cannot keep up with the story lines…so many snippets …

walls for our house, 
making homes for animals, 
the dinosaur is attacking, 
wind blowing through trees, 
hand glider flying on top of the buildings, 
making axes to chop things down, 
animals getting hurt, 
veterinarians taking care of animals in the hospital, 
a house for me over here, 
this is a city, 
people live here and animals live outside, 
train going through the station, 
this is the airport, 
these are big doors.

It seems as if everyone in the class stops by at one point or another, to check in, to play for a bit. Later, I'll consider who didn't visit and why that might be; but, in the midst of the play, there's no time for such reflection. The play is fast-paced, animated, and involved. I smile as their small bodies move in and around and over me, faster, faster, knock down, rebuild, re-think, new idea, try again, consider this, build, build, build...

They are playing,
they are working,
I am working,
I am playing.

I love the block corner.

SOLSC #23 Thinking about academics

I am posting every day during March as part of the annual "Slice of Life" Challenge for Two Writing Teachers.  Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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To know me is to know that I believe in play, exploration, and social-emotional learning in preschool, opportunities for children to learn and enjoy being together.

Something I often wonder -
Do families realize how much true academic work is happening alongside all this play?
Do they believe that social-emotional learning is emphasized at the expense of academics?

I dare to say that

to emphasize play, exploration, and social-emotional learning 

leads to richer, deeper, stronger early literacy and mathematics learning.

Play is the very best way to teach preschoolers anything and everything!


A moment last week -

a boy, playing with playdough and counting bears, building a large boat for the bears. He calls to me, "Ms. Ingram, look! I have 14 bears on this boat!"

Me - "Fourteen? Wow, that is a lot of bears! How do you know there are 14?"

And he proceeds to count the bears trapped in his playdough boat, one-by-one.

I nudge him further, pointing to index card numerals that I have laid out on the table as a part of this activity,
"Is the numeral 14 here? Which numeral matches how many bears are on your boat?"

He studies these and chooses "10."

I nudge him to count the small dots underneath this numeral -
"Do those dots add up to the same number of bears on your boat? Is it the same total?"

Methodically, slowly, one-by-one, he counts the dots on the 10 card and says,
 "No, that's not right. It is more."
He puts the card down and grabs the "14" - "See, this one, this one is right." Then he counts the dots on the 14 card to be sure.

Me - "Wow. That is a lot of bears! And you are right, that is the numeral 14. You have matched the numeral to your quantity."

"Now I am going to have more bears on my boat!," he declares and begins to throw in additional bears and get back to his play, bears in the boat.

All of this takes a matter of moments.

I have intentionally woven math opportunities into the play. At the beginning of the school year, according to my baseline data, this young child wasn't recognizing any numerals. He was not able to identify quantities for three objects, let alone fourteen.

Math in the preschool classroom is intentional and organic - woven into all we do -
- how many kids are at that table? 
- how many children are absent?
- how many dress ups do we have? who is playing family with you and how many is that?
- what blocks will you use to make that bigger? what can you tell me about your design's shape?
- "let's make a number line for our classroom!"
- what will you do next? what did you do before?
- how can you make a bigger firetruck? how much bigger does it need to be?
- is this the same or different? how is it different? 
- do you see any patterns
- who is first? who is second? 
- how many people are in your picture?
- is she taller or shorter than you?
- will this container hold more sand than your container? or less?
- how many napkins will we need for everyone?

When we allow children the flexibility to choose their own learning,
to play and explore with what interests and excites them, and
have faith in our ability to weave math and literacy into this fun,
I have no doubt that
the academic learning is profuse and genuine.

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(A daily share by preschoolers in their own words)

A Story Collage by Shaan

     This is a story for my Mom. The sun is on top and everyone is warm. Ezra Jack Keats is there and Julian was there and he is jumping on something, a special jump rope. There was a mommy of somebody. The bats fly away and they try to get all the vegetables. When the kids get too sweaty, they go back inside. And they have chocolate milk and Ezra Jack Keats and Julian go to school. Mommy goes to work, she never goes back to school. The End.

SOLSC #9 Coincidence or calculated?

I am posting every day during March as part of the annual "Slice of Life" Challenge for Two Writing Teachers.  Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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Several Big Cats were playing in the sand at the sensory table and talking about "house" -

I am the big sister and you can be the Mommy
Here's the Daddy.
There are two babies with the Mommy.
I live next door to you. I have my own house.

I interjected with a playful question,
How old do you need to be to live in your own house?

Their answers were immediate, one right after another -

"5" said Eloise,
"9" said Lavinia,
"11" said Seymour,
"20-teen" said Jasmine,
"100" said Shaan.

I found myself smiling as I jotted down their responses, thinking it would be a cute note to share with families.

You can see that preschoolers are just beginning to developing number sense; they do not  have a true understanding of time - how long a day or month or year is...what an age might be? [I am flattered on my own birthday when preschoolers will guess my age as in the 20s.]

But as I jotted down their responses, I noticed that this little group of friends had steadily increased their numbers, each guessing higher than the one before.  I find that fascinating.

Coincidence? Or calculated?
How did they happen to do that?

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(A daily share by a preschooler, in their own words)

A Story Collage by Alyja

These are the spots where I live. The three little dots are to have fun. Look – there’s Mommy, Alyja, baby, Daddy. Here’s a spider, walking up the fence. The spider hides right here. That’s for the wild cats to scratch. They say, “Meow! Give me food! Give me food!” The wild cats came to the baby’s ancestors. They didn’t do anything, they’s just wild and they scratch people. They like to eat spiders and spiders like to eat flies. Mommy’s living in a house and I am living in the house next door and Daddy’s holding the baby. Today it is snowing and there’s icicles on top of the roof. The wild cats are going to run away. The spiders are disappeared. The End.

A new school year!

Wow, it is September!

A new school year has begun!

We have had such a happy start,
taking our first steps in building our relationship together.

This means
family photos on display,
sand and shells in the sensory table,
marble painting,
block building,
dress ups and baby dolls,
a bird's nest to explore in the science corner,
learning one another's names,
dancing and singing together,
reading lots of books, and
happy, loving, patient teacher voices.

This new school year began with lots of local press about testing preschoolers. (This article had the audacity to come out on the weekend I moved my baby to college!!!) I have lots of thoughts about this and it is my intention to get these thoughts into this blog this month...but, suffice to say, I'm not terribly concerned about so-called "new" expectations for literacy and math data. 

Early childhood teachers are always observing, always collecting data - on every aspect of a child. We're already doing this, as we work with every child.

Just for starters, during this first week of school, I've already noticed - 

Who knows how to hold a pencil?

Who are my painters? (same fine motor skill at work!)

Who loves to count?

Who echoes me when I count?

Who notices the letters on the pages of our books? 

Who enjoys looking at books?

Who do I hear repeating our stories aloud?

Who follows directions?

Who "freezes" when the music stops?

Who moves about assuredly, knowing where their body is in space?

Who bumps into others, moving hastily?

Who answers questions?

Who speaks up?

Who holds hands with classmates?

Who comforts another?

I know I have a classroom rich with early literacy and math opportunities. Simultaneously, I am fostering every child's social emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Play-based, exploratory preschools help ensure that all this happens, for every child.

As my son says, "It's all good!"

We have so much fun learning ahead! Here's to the new school year!!

Is it time for the Three Little Pigs?

Yes, the Three Little Pigs is one of my favorite engineering stories.  I believe this is my ninth year of sharing this particular lesson with little ones - and it continues to rock!

The preschoolers were challenged to design and build a house using only cardboard recyclables.  Because this was engineering - and not simply an opportunity to create a sculpture - each cardboard house was subjected to a test:  could the Big Bad Wolf blow the house over?  Much to the delight of the children, the Big Bad Wolf was a blowdryer.

Here's what the children built:

(Anya)

(Reia)

(Saadiq)

(Arlando)

(Ebony)

(Sarah Lydia)

(Ferdinand)

(Nolan)

(Dillon)

(Harper)

(Zoe)

(Charles)

(Ben)

(Sayid)

(Soren)

(Jamie)

(Sophie)

(Ellington)

(Jack)

(Lukas)

(Emma)

(Bella)

My favorite "nuggets" from this year's Three Little Pigs engineering effort, in no particular order:

• I closed the book midway through, with my traditional "engineering story" pronouncement ("We are closing the book because we have a problem to fix - what is the problem?") and the children squealed - "Ms. Ingram, you can't close the book!  The wolf is going to blow the house down!"  [Me - "You are right!  That is the problem!  The wolf is going to blow the house down.  We need to build a house that he cannot blow down."  The children were mesmerized.]
• The delight on children's faces as they worked freely with the tape, scissors, and cardboard, designing as they pleased.
• Watching children become totally transfixed by adding details to their projects, only to have them cover up - or undo - these details in the final product.
• Children working together, helping one another cut tape and hold pieces onto their projects.
• Overhearing Jack and Arlando talking about the engineering cycle, as they woke up from their naps (Jack - "I really like to find the problem, which is step one, you know, and I like to build, which is step three."  Arlando - "Well, there are five steps in engineering. I saw it on the board.")
• Sophie deciding that she was no longer going to make a house for the pig, but "something pretty that I like."
• The excitement as we tested each of the projects, re-living the script "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in!" , "Not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin!" and then the blowdryer turning on, trying to blow over the house.
• The stunned looks and quiet classroom when several projects failed - and the children's great ideas for their classmates on how to improve their projects ("it needs more at the bottom," "you need to add more pieces").   For me, one of the most important aspects of this playful engineering is that it provides children a safe and fun way to learn from failure.
• Children asking to get the recyclables and tape out again so that they could add more details to their projects and try the test again.  
• Dillon asking his Mom, at pick up, if he could use her blowdryer when he got home....
• Overhearing the children repeat the story, over and over, to one another, for the next couple of days, voicing and acting the different parts.

We'll do lots more engineering this year, but this was a grand kickoff! These children are thinking like engineers....




*****
I always feel as if I should share "credits" for this engineering curricula:

All the engineering exploration that I do with preschoolers began with:

Fall 2003 NAEYC Conference, Chicago, Illinois

Workshop on “Children’s Engineering,” led by Vince Walencik and Liz Kendall of Montclair StateUniversity, New Jersey

Here's an interesting tidbit - Vince Walencik and Liz Kendall said that New Jersey required their early childhood teachers to take a technology and engineering course for children...

I wonder if that is still true?

I wonder why that isn't true everywhere?