project approach Archives - Page 3 of 14

“It’s in the mailbox!”

Posted on October 5, 2015 by forstm

That was the sentence that inspired a creative endeavor today. One of the children had drawn a picture. When I asked her where it went, she said, “It’s in the mailbox!” Hmm….I don’t currently have a mailbox in our room. I mentioned this discrepancy and she suggested that we could make one.

Pull out the boxes. Put out the paint. Find a smock and get ready to create.

The following conversations took place while the children painted:

Mrs. Forst: What do you do with a mailbox?

“Mail can come in it from the mail truck.”

“Then when you come in from your car, you’ll get some mail.”

Mrs. Forst: What is mail?

“Mail is some kinda mail.”

“You have to put something in it, like a person.”

“Mail is paper. It has like pictures and stuff.”

Mrs. Forst: Where does the mail truck come from?

“That’s too hard.”

OK.

Mrs. Forst: How do they get the mail in the truck?

“They open the back and the mail guy puts the mail in.”

Oh, yeah. I forgot that our wee ones are so literal.

Corny Art

Posted on October 2, 2015 by forstm

With our haul of freshly shucked corn, we headed indoors to see what uses we might find. Although I cannot say which (I’m sworn to secrecy), one of the children already tasted the cobs and found them wanting. Edibility out of the question, what DO you do with a large batch of corn ears?
How about [butter] knife handling skills? Everyone needs more practice cutting up their own food. We wondered what strategies the children would use when given this common tool. We witnessed sawing, attempts at slicing and valiant efforts to hack the corn to pieces.

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Of course, there’s painting. I mean, it IS pre-kindergarten. Add a bit of science experimentation, two colors of paint and some ears of corn and you get instant fun with secret learning. We saw patterns, comparisons and new language to describe the wet corn and the paint. A few of the children quickly dispensed with the corn and dove right in and began drawing and mixing with their fingers. P1060625
Finally, we had a few students who chose not to use the paint at all. Rather, they went for a more sculptural approach. Available husk pieces were tied around corn, used for “bedding” and added as shims to hold more vertical structures.

The Money Machine

Posted on September 23, 2015 by forstm

Throughout the school day, Marie and I spend a significant amount of time observing the students’ play. We write anecdotes about what the students are playing and sometimes even the conversations they have with one another. This helps us learn more about the students’ personalities, how they navigate friendships and conflict, and where their interests lie. Once the students have started to get to know one another, you may start to see trends in their play. We then take those trends and find ways to infuse them into our classroom so that we may broaden their understanding and of course implement a ton of learning along the way.

In the past week, we have noticed the students have become more and more interested in money and how it is used, so we decided that we needed a bank. The students started writing lots of numbers on paper for dollars and cutting out little, tiny coins to fill up the cash register. We even voted on a name for the bank. After much consideration and many great ideas (“The Dollar Store” being my favorite) they came up with “The Beautiful Bank”.

Yesterday, we started talking about how you get money from the bank. Many of the students had differing ideas. Some students said that you have to pay for the money, while others said the people at the bank just give it to you. One child said that you have to get money from the “money machine” but wasn’t really sure what that might look like. Several students said it needed a screen and buttons and a place for the money to come out. We decided that we should make a design for the money machine before we try to build it. Below, you will find the students’ ideas for what they think the money machine should look like.

We are excited to see where this topic may take us next!

What’s in an egg?

Posted on April 29, 2015 by forstm

A few days ago, while playing it their secret hiding spot, a few children found a blue egg and quickly raced to show the teachers. Some discussion erupted about what could have hatched from the egg. Many children felt that it was a bird egg, possibly even a Robin’s egg. However, other children hypothesized that it could be something else that hatches from eggs. These are some of their ideas.

With this new curiosity in all things egg-related, we’ve decided delve in deeper to see what new information we might find!

Visiting a Pet Store

Posted on April 15, 2015 by forstm

The visit to the pet store yesterday went perfectly. Well, maybe not perfectly, but we all had fun, found some pets, and behaved ourselves. We had a bit of a wrinkle when 12 hours before our trip we found out Seahorse, Inc. did not have anyone staffed to open the store for our visit. Oops.

(Think quick, Marie.)

Who knew there was another pet shop right next door? What luck! So we changed our plans a bit and went to Burton’s Total Pet instead. When life gives you lemons, right?

Total Pet had exactly what we wanted to see. We inspected the fish tanks, ogled at bunnies, and drooled over a huge, all-inclusive rat cage with two female rats, (Ok, that was just me, but they were cute!) The children were drawn to the Black Lory as it traded very loud squawks with them in a constant chorus of cacophonous noise.

A consensus arose and we decided to purchase one beta fish and three fiddler crabs. If you haven’t already stopped in to see our new pets, you are welcome to do so.

We will be voting on names for our new friends later today. Wonder what silliness we can come up with?

Drawing Spring Nigh

Posted on April 7, 2015 by forstm

The warmer weather has finally arrived. Last week, I was attempting to lure the warm front out direction through the power of suggestion. After a very cold weekend camping in the snow with my family, I bought some potted flowers for our classroom. I think the sight of their vibrant color gave me the illusion of warmth. In all honesty, I just wanted a little bit of proof that Spring had truly arrived. 040215_9581

For the next few days, our room had a heavenly smell. Luckily, none of the children presented any symptoms of allergies. They took delight in noticing the small changes within the flowers each day. A few children took it upon themselves to draw the flowers. Some began drawing and then drifted away to find a new focus. At least two students sat and drew variations on the same flower for over 30 minutes.

Now, as the weather finally warms up and our class flowers begin wilting, we look forward to finding native flowers along our Northbound Trail and within our fields.

Opera Interactive (and a surprise connection!)

Posted on March 12, 2015 by forstm

This morning a Pittsburgh Opera ensemble joined North Hills Campus students for an adventure exploring opera. This is an annual presentation that mixes improvisation, opera, world languages, and story telling. The actors come prepared with a trunk full of props and a bucket full of topic ideas. The children choose a story plot randomly and then choose two arias for each singer to perform. The students pick the arias based on the emotions they think will fit best with the story. At the end, the new show is put together and performed for the students.

And now for the topic for today’s show….

(drum roll, please)

The Family Pet

No, really. I swear I didn’t put that piece of paper in their jar of choices. It gets even better. The actors (without any coaching from me or the class) began referring to the “setting” as a Pet Shop. Now, I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but the Pre-K built a pet shop in our classroom two days ago. Our children were so completely connected with the opera ensemble! I wonder if we’ll see any singing in our class pet store?

Two Kittens are Born

Posted on February 24, 2015 by forstm

With so much kitten play going on, we decided to learn a little bit more about cats. Yesterday we read an older book, Two Kittens are Born, by Betty Schilling. The children were listening to discover anything new about cats and kittens. They had some poignant questions and were very mature about the sometimes delicate nature of kitten birth and rearing. We didn’t go into graphic detail, but I wanted to make sure that I answered their questions truthfully and without embarrassment.

Q&A with a Veterinarian

Posted on January 30, 2015 by forstm

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to have an animal expert, Dr. Steve Gross, join our class to answer some questions about what it is like to work in an animal hospital. Here are a few of the questions they asked.

Where do you work?

What do you feed the animals?

How much do you work?

What do you do for the animals?

What kind of animals do you help?

What medicines do you give?

How do you give shots?

Do animals ever jump on you?

Do the animals get covered up with a blanket?

What room do the animals go in?

Do the animals have to stay over night?

We learned that veterinarians take care of animals in many of the same ways that doctors take care of people. They even use some of the same medicines. We also learned that animals hate shots just as much as we do, or possibly more! Animals also have specific doctors for checks ups, surgery, and can specialize in different parts of the body just like people doctors do. The biggest difference between animals and humans is that people can tell you what is wrong, while animals cannot. Sometimes it takes some investigating to find out what is wrong with the animal before they can be treated.

We also learned that some veterinarians work in a doctor’s office or emergency room while other vets do house calls. Vets will visit animals at their home if there are many animals that need checked, if the animal is too big to visit the office, or if the owner is not able to drive their pet to their check-up.

The excitement surrounding animals hospitals and veterinarians is continually growing. The students have discussed how they can take care of animals and have relished the opportunity to tell their own pet shenanigan stories. We are very excited to learn more about our furry (and sometimes not so furry) friends and those that take care of them.

How a research topic is born

Posted on January 21, 2015 by forstm

Yesterday our Spanish teacher, Senora Sewald, came by for a visit shortly after we completed our house. The children explained that many animals had been inside and had tummy aches. Senora Sewald suggested that the building might actually be a hospital….Zoooooooommmmmm!

The next thing we knew we were practicing saying “doctor,” “patient” and “my [body part here]” feels icky. She taught them a song about visiting the doctor and what you say when you are feeling all better. Today, they are still talking about the hospital. I see a new direction in our future.

The video below was taken at the end of the lesson as the class exited the hospital.