First, here's a midweek pick-me-up from Frank Sinatra:
I know I was quiet last week. I was recovering from vacation and finding my groove. I've also been crocheting a bit more lately as I've had some ideas from the beach!
So I didn't take many pictures last week. We talked about wheels and how they make cars go. We looked at the differences between a truck and a racecar, then drew a fast car. The students had to tell us why their car was fast and we dictated it.
In art center, we set up mini cars and paint. We encouraged the children to run the cars through the paint and then on the paper. Quite a few of them had qualms about it, probably because we've had other students draw on cars before and they got in trouble. They had fun once they got into it and were crashing into each other in no time. In block center, students set up ramps and had lots of fun jumping cars off of them and seeing how far they could go. It was a great chance for experimentation and changing their environment to test hypotheses (one of the NC Foundations!)
This week, we're studying air and its effect on vehicles. We started to track the weather by letting one student draw the weather on a chart. Science and writing integration for the win! Yesterday, we looked at what the weather had been like the past couple of days and the students drew a picture of what they thought it would be today. Without prompting, we heard some great weather words: "Stormy," "Cloudy." I found a blanket with a map of the US on it, so I'll start filming the students talking about weather with a cardboard microphone.
My favorite activity of the week was turning Dramatic Play into an airport. I found these great signs from the Sparklebox site and put them on some shelves in the center. I printed out boarding passes and put them in their own labeled container. Food was available near a restaurant sign and I had chairs set up nearby for an airplane. The kids loved handing food out to the passengers on the plane, packing their bags, and handing out tickets. I guided the pilots through what pilots would normally say on a flight and let others who wanted to fly be a copilot. The best part is, it took maybe 10 minutes to set up while using resources we already had (bookbags, a hat, and an old pair of headphones).
We're exploring air, too. We blew paint through straws and talked about how the letter "P" makes a puff of air on our hands. Tomorrow, we're going to create boats from styrofoam and paper and set them afloat in the water table.
We have a long weekend this week, so I'll update and share once I get the unit plan up on TpT and TeachersNotebook. I should be able to have some great pictures for you then, too.
Reach for the stars!
--Amy
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