London Bridge is not falling down in this classroom!

What a fun week it's been! Our engineering/bridge building week commenced and the children were beyond excited to create their own bridges.  Take a peek into the classroom and you will see a sea of bridges across the cubby tops! 

Before the construction began, the children were introduced to some great vocabulary words including span, footings, deck, arch and anchors to name a few.  All of these words came in handy when the children began to construct their bridges.  We also discussed several different types of bridges including simple bridges, continuous bridges and cantilever bridges.  The children quickly ran off to the block area to begin using the blocks to build bridges and roadways.  

The bridge construction project began with the question, "If there is a river in our path, how can we construct a sturdy bridge that will help people/cars/trains/animals to get to the other side without getting wet? We presented the children with a variety of wooden pieces including colorful toothpicks, coffee stirrers, picks and small popsicle sticks plus marshmallows that acted as connectors.  After a few trial and error bridges, we found that it was a good idea to begin with a set of four triangles made of marshmallow connectors and toothpicks.  After the triangles were constructed, the children found it easier to build their bridges, the triangles made a great foundation!  It was so amazing to hear the children apply their new knowledge of bridge vocabulary while constructing their bridges!

As the week progressed, we read a few great stories about bridges including one of my all time favorites, "Iggy Peck, Architect" by Andrea Beaty, "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" by Paul Galdone and "Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing" by April Jones Prince.  The book, "Bridges are to Cross" by Philomen Sturges and Giles Laroche gave the children great inspiration for their bridges!

Mary Beth also had several bridge demonstrations to further our bridge explorations: 

Load and Force: The question we investigated was, where should we place the supports to hold the most weight - sponge and block experiment

Arch Support: How can we make this piece of printer paper strong enough to hold lots of blocks? The children were amazed!

Suspension: A string was gently tied to a child's wrist and elbows.  The string ran up across the top of the child's head to show how  cables (the string) can hold up a bridge.  

Bridge studies will continue into next week and we will introduce a springtime unit discussing the equinox and how it relates to the seasons.  Did you know the equinox occurs twice a year (March and September) and on these two days, daytime and nighttime are of equal duration?! I learn something new everyday thanks to our wonderful preschool teachers! 

Important Dates and Reminders:

April 1: April tuition due

April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break
April 24: April gathering at Rising Storm Training Academy

May 11-12: Picture Day! More info to come soon!
May 21: May gathering at the Stone Zoo

Check out the pictures from this week!

A chain of simple and continuous bridges in the block area!

Check out these fancy bridges that also have arches!

Beginning bridge construction

Creating a deck!

Completed bridge pictures coming soon! 

Have a great spring weekend everyone!

Joanna

Bouquets, Booby Traps, Bridges, Oh My!

What a great week it's been! We began the week with Picasso and his painting, "Bouquet of Peace." The painting is a picture of two hands holding a bouquet of flowers.  To begin the lesson, we discussed what the words realistic and abstract mean. As a class, we looked at many of Picasso's paintings and decided if they were realistic (looking like a photograph or picture on an iPhone) or abstract (something that doesn't look real).  Before diving right into, "Bouquet of Peace," I asked the children if they thought Picasso was holding the flowers with his two hands or if he was giving them to someone else.  If you look closely, two right hands are holding the flowers, therefore, Picasso must have been given them to someone.  The children were asked who they give flowers to and why.  Many children said they give their flowers to a parent or grandparent.  One little boy said he gave flowers to his sister for her dance recital!  The children were invited to the table in pairs.  The children practiced following direction skills as they began to draw the flowers.  After the bouquet was drawn, each child put a painted hand print on both drawings to show the flowers being given to a friend.  Come on in and check out our bulletin board.  I will try to get names on the front of each piece of art early next week.

Thursday was St. Patrick's Day.  In honor of the holiday, the children came up with the idea to make booby traps to try and catch the leprechauns! Our classroom was full of booby traps after just 20 minutes! Everyone wanted to try and catch a leprechaun! After free play was over, we gathered as a group to find out more about these traps.  It was so much fun to hear how the traps worked and how they were going to trap the leprechaun.  Here are a few of the explanations on the traps:

"The leprechaun will go inside, he will find the shiny spot.  Then I will trap him and I will shake the pot of gold out of him!"

"The leprechaun will go into the box.  I will shut the lid and tape it closed.  I will open the other end and the pot of gold will slide right out! No lunch for leprechaun [clap!] DONE!"

"My trap is in the middle of the floor. I will be at the other end.  Once the leprechaun is inside, I will pull the chain to catch him!" (picture below)

No leprechauns yet, but we'll keep the traps up for the weekend!  We also had a green themed snack - cucumbers, green apples and, of course, lucky charms! And tried a rainbow experiment on the science table.

Lastly, we wrapped up the week with the introduction of our engineering unit about bridges.  The children were introduced to the different types of bridges including a foot bridge, car bridge, draw bridge, etc.  Next week we will continue these studies and the children will have the opportunity to build their own strong bridges!  If you drive through Boston this weekend, don't forget to point out the very famous cable-stayed bridge, the Zakim Bridge! And there is also the Tobin Bridge, a cantilever truss bridge, if you are traveling on route 1!

Important Dates and Reminders:

March 19: March Gathering at Chikki Plaza, 10am tomorrow!

April 1: April Tuition Due

April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break

May 11-12: Picture Day! More info to come in a few weeks

Check out the pictures from this week:

"Bouquet of Peace" in progress!

A few of the completed masterpieces.  The different colored hands represent giving the flowers to a friend.

More bouquets!

Creating the leprechaun booby traps!

And another trap...

And another trap!

So much learning packed into this week! I hope to see you all at Chikki Plaza tomorrow, March 19th, at 10am!

Joanna

"This is just like a video game!"

No, we don't have video games at school!  That is what one little guy said to describe a painting project with magnets (love the language from these kiddos!).  This month is full of some super cool curriculum topics.  Last week was Dr. Seuss week, this week was magnet week, next week is artist of the month (Pablo Picasso) and an introduction to engineering and bridge building explorations! 

We began this week by asking the children to share their knowledge on magnets.  Many of the children mentioned their refrigerators at home and the fun magnets that stick to them.  The discussion continued with the question, "why do magnets stick?" This question brought us to the vocabulary words attract and force.  If a magnets sticks to an object, or is attracted to an object, that object must have iron, nickel or cobalt in it.  Not all metal is created equal, therefore, only metal with these properties will be magnetic. Magnet week naturally presented several magnet experiments. As an introduction to magnets, the children were asked to go on a magnet hunt and search the classroom for magnetic items that attracted our magnet.  The hunt was very successful and everyone was able to locate magnetic items that attract in our classroom such as the screw in the cubbies, the door frame and the table legs, just to name a few.  

As the week progressed, the children had many opportunities to explore with magnets.  They were given several items from the classroom including fabric, plastic and metal and were asked to find out what was magnetic and what was not.  The children experimented with the strength of our classroom magnets and discovered that the long green magnet was stronger then the U-shaped red magnet by seeing how many paperclips would stick to it's surface.   Magnet painting was also a blast! See our pictures below for more examples of activities from the week!

What's Up Next?
We will begin next week exploring Pablo Picasso's masterpiece, variously titled, "Hands with Flowers," "Bouquet of Peace," and Flowers and Hands" to name a few.  I love "Bouquet of Peace" because it incorporates some great vocabulary! Towards the end of the week, the children will be introduced to the amazing world of architecture and bridge building!

Important Dates and Reminders:

March 19: March Gathering at Chikki Plaza! Check your Evite for more info and to RSVP

April 1: April Tuition Due

April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break

May 11-12: Picture Day! More info to come in a few weeks

Some pictures from this week:

Designing pictures with Magnets

Developing visual matching skills with Magnetic Match Rings 

Finding out what is magnetic and what is not

Exploring a magnet's strength

It's almost spring! Loose parts are being added to the playground again!

The girls discovered rain water coming from the gutter. They used the water to wash down the outdoor paint board

Magnet painting! The children used the magnet stick to move around the small magnet above to blend colors and push the paint around.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! It's definitely going to feel like spring!

Joanna

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

It is a very fun school tradition to celebrate Dr Seuss' Birthday on March 2nd!  Dr. Seuss has so many great stories that we turned his birthday into a week long celebration.  The children enjoyed hearing his silly stories and, naturally, we introduced the children to rhyming words.  "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham" were the perfect compliment to this topic.  In addition to rhyming words, the children practiced their scissor and patterning skills while making a Cat in the Hat, hat! The Lorax inspired us to make Truffula trees and we came up with a great list of green foods we do not like to eat, inspired by the story, "Green Eggs and Ham!" And I promise you, after listing out food such as brussel sprouts, peas and pickles, in the wise words of Dr. Seuss, we reminded the children even if you don't like these foods, "Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may [like them], I say."

In honor of Dr. Seuss, Mary Beth's music and movement class warmed up to songs from Seussical the Musical. And after reading "The Foot Book", the class discovered that that between them, we had 50 feet! So we all made a long 50 foot creature that scooted around the classroom using all 50 feet!  

It was a silly week full of rhymes, oddly colored foods and lots and lots of feet!

What's Up Next?
With Dr. Seuss week coming to a close, we will begin explorations with magnets! Stay tuned for experiments and discoveries!

Important Dates and Reminders:

March 19: March Gathering at Chikki Plaza! Check your Evite for more info and to RSVP
April 1: April Tuition Due
April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break
May 11-12: Picture Day! More info to come in a few weeks

Some pictures from this week:

The 50-footed creature!

The Cat in the Hat and his toy vacuum made of K'nex

The children came up with a long list of rhyming words!

Truffula Trees!

Have a great weekend!
Joanna