Branon Farm Field Trip

We had a very fun, if a little cold, field trip out to the Branon's Farm. The whole plan for the trip was for kids to get a look at some winter animal habitats. The kids took a short snowshoe hike (or sled ride) out in the farm field. They were able to find several holes that they suspect rodents have made for their winter homes. We did not find many tracks, except our own that we left with snowshoes.

Beth, who was off getting extra shoes, and Farmer John, met the trekkers in the field with the big John Deere tractor. John had hooked up a hay wagon do that the ride back was a little easier than the trek out. We took a chilly hayride back to the house to gather sleds. Then we headed out across Chester Arthur Road to the field with the sledding hill.

Everyone had a chance to slide down the hill with friends or on their own. The first few times down the hill were a little slow. Once we had made some nice packed down tracks, the sledders picked up speed. We got really good at yelling, "LOOK OUT BELOW!" as we zoomed down the hill. Kids who got a little too cold were able to warm up in the tractor, that stayed parked up on the hill with us.

After we tuckered ourselves out on the sledding hill, we made our way back to the farmhouse to warm up with hot cocoa and snack. Candy had everything ready for us. We also got to meet the bunny rabbit that lives in the house. As we ate and sipped in the warm house, Candy performed the puppet show for winter habitats.

We found out that mice don't hibernate, but they make warm homes under the snow. They try to stay hidden from weasels, who like to eat mice. We also found out that bears don't necessarily sleep all winter. They are dormant. They sleep a lot and don;t eat, but they are sometimes awake in their desn. Especially the females who give birth in late winter and have to care for their cubs in the winter den.

Bee Bots

I've finally finished using the Fudge for Funds money to purchase more technology tools for the classroom. This week, the kids were introduced to Bee Bots. These are programmable robots that look like bees. You can make them move forward, backward, to the left and to the right. For each direction you program in, the Bee Bot moves 15 centimeters. The Alphabet mat the kids are using above has the letters in 15 cm boxes. They can program the Bee Bot to move through the alphabet. They can start on the J and figure out what steps to program to get to the M (or any other letter they choose). They are learning that when they program a turn, the Bee Bot does not move forward--it only turns. That has been the trickiest part of figuring out how to make them move. The kids can randomly program and see where the Bee Bot ends up, or they can purposely try to get from one place on the mat to another. There has been some nice partnering, where one child programs and the other uses the mat to figure out where the Bee Bot will end up.
We have made a few other mats, one with shapes of different colors and one with numbers. There are more ideas coming for using the Bee Bot mats to teach other concepts--mapping, directions, vocabulary, etc.

More Keva Creations

Here are some more Keva block designs built in preschool this week.

Persistence                                                                  Originality

 

Balance

 

Teamwork

Patterning

Today (and last week) for Counting Jar, we worked on patterns. First, I made a three-cube pattern (red-black-white-red-black-white). I passed it around the small group and had each student figure out what the next color would be to keep the pattern going.

Next, I pulled out the Counting Jar pattern, which was blue-yellow-orange-blue-yellow-orange. The kids' job was to copy the pattern exactly and them put their work in their own Counting Jar bag. Then, I had them choose their own colors to make their own patterns. Some kids chose two colors and some chose three.

When everyone had a pattern copy finished, we brought all the bags to closing meeting to check each others' work. As we checked each pattern to make sure it matched the original  blue-yellow-orange, we then added it to the tower. By the end of checking everyone's work, we had a tower that was longer than the width of our meeting rug.

We decided to count the cubes to see how many we had used in out long patter. I showed the kids how to break 10 off at a time. We counted by Towers of 10. We ended up with exactly 90 cubes. We also noticed when we placed the towers of 10 next to each other, we discovered a new pattern. The colors made diagonal lines.

Keva Mania

I wanted to thank all of the parents for their generous holiday gift. I was able to purchase a set of 400 Keva Planks and we have been expanding our building skills in the classroom with them. While the uniform building planks appear unassuming, the creative possibilities with them are unlimited.  I played with them over break and, with a lot of patience, made some of the more challenging structures. I showed these pictures to the class and talked about how some of the buildings took me 5 or 6 tries before I got them to balance and stay standing.

The kids in the class have had some time to explore with them and they have attempted to copy some of the ideas from the pictures in the book that came with the planks. They are learning some principles of how to build solid and strong.

The larger projects, like the tall tower that grew taller than me, foster group participation. A few kids at a time added stories as the tower grew.
We have noticed that block building in general is getting more inventive and creative since we have had the Keva planks in the room.
I am looking forward to the future designs the kids invent.

PIzza! Pizza! Pizza! it's a lots-a lots-a fun

The pizza parlor is looking pretty good. The kids are busy in their chef hats. They are taking orders, talking about favorite ingredients, baking pizzas in the oven ans dividing them into slices. We used hole punches in yellow paper to make cheese for a shaker and we punched red and orange for hot pepper flakes. 

We acted out the story of of The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza as we read the book last week. We've been singing. "Pizza Pizza Pizza!" Here are the words:

Pepperoni and zucchini and a lots of mozzarella

Pepperoni and zucchini and a lots of mozzarella

Pepperoni and zucchini and a lots of mozzarella

Pizza, pizza, pizza it's a lotsa lotsa fun!

Pizza, pizza, pizza it's a lotsa lotsa fun!

Pizza, pizza, pizza it's a lotsa lotsa fun!

We had the same question: Who puts zucchini on pizza? 

We made some English muffin pizza. The kids had a choice of pepperoni or plain cheese. Some chose to just have sauce (no cheese). They tasted great.

Our Wild Selves

     When Kristen Hughes came into the read The Chicken in the Family last week, she shared the website Build Your Wild Self with us. On this webpage, you make a kid who looks like you. You pick you eyes, hair, mouth and clothing.

Once you have an avatar, you can add various animal body parts to build your wild self. When you are done choosing head dressing, arms, legs, bottoms, wings, ears and a background for your wild self, you can print it out.

The site will print the picture and a description of each animal the body parts you chose. for example, we had a, "Lio-wal-ringo-antula-fly-tiger."

Around this entry are some various examples of our wild selves that we made on the site. We decided to use our wild selves to be new name tags in the classroom. Now when the kids use the planning board to choose the area in which they are going to play, they mark it with a picture of their wild selves.