As I spend my mornings in the classrooms, the children are gracious enough to welcome me into their play and activities, eager to show off what they are working on.
In the Picassos’ room, the children were continuing their investigation of tubes. This week, they were invited to explore an extra large tube on the carpet. As the tube laid on the carpet, the children attempted to push several cars through. Because the tube was flat, the cars made it half-way into the tube before becoming stuck. This then prompted the children to try and figure out why the cars were stuck and how to get them unstuck. Many attempts were made to climb into the tube to retrieve the cars. When that didn’t work, attempts were made to roll the tube. What a great source of problem solving!
In the Mozarts’ room, I was able to observe the children as they made pudding. The children were actively engaged in executing the instructions from the recipe. As they looked at the recipe, they worked with their teachers to determine how many cups of each ingredient they needed and in what order the ingredients should be added. They decided to add fruit to their pudding and instead of throwing large pieces of fruit in each cup, the children were given plastic butter knives to chop up their own fruit. What a great example of sequencing and fine motor skills growth!
In the Shakespeares’ room, I watched as the children became fully engaged in creating elaborate block structures. As they worked, the children spent time problem solving where each block should go and how to make each block fit within the scope of the other blocks. This thinking really stretched their spatial reasoning which is helping prepare their mathematical brain. As dismissal time approached, I watched the children place their structure next to a sign that read “under construction”. What a great way to encourage long term thinking!
In the Amigos’ room, the children were busy creating with recycled materials. They were using recycled materials to build with in the building area as well as to create open-ended, freely chosen, sculptures in the arts area. As they worked, the children were engaged in critical thinking as they determined which material would be the best material to use for certain design choices. The children would also often look to their peers for advice and help in problem solving. What a great way to build several critical thinking skills at once!