My (Teacher's) Heart is Full....

As I look around my classroom today at all the activities going on and the conversations going on and the fun we are all having, I just keep wondering about how I can do more.   How can I make these experiences more meaningful and beneficial for these kids that parents have entrusted me with?  How can I make that spark happen for each one of them?  How can I make sure they are open and ready for the world when I no longer see them every day?  (All this, keeping in mind that I am only human....sigh.)

This is what was going on as I had these thoughts....

• Art Center--Three children and a visiting teacher worked on recycled art.  They all worked together on ideas about how to do things. 
• Dramatic Play Center--Four children ran the Beauty Shop we have set up there (not all girls, either!).  Some were shampooing, one was adding hair extensions, and another was relaxing in the spa-like atmosphere.
• Light Table--two children were playing with Magna-Tiles, which are so pretty on the light table.  After they built their construction, they got out colored pencils and clipboards and sketched what they had built.
• Computer Center--Two children worked together on a rocket spelling game on the IPad.  They were listening to sounds and associating them with letters.
• Writing--Children came and went to the writing center with me today.  Today they were writing each other's names in their journals.  Each child is an expert at their own name, and checked carefully to be sure others were doing a good job with it.
• Igloo (Quiet Center)--we set up our igloo as a quiet center for two or three children to go and read or write quietly, and most of the children visit there daily at some time or another.  Today, two children gathered up a bunch of quilting stories and asked a college student to read them ALL to them.
• Math Center--I set up an activity where we used tangrams to set up quilt blocks (we are working on a class quilt for a fundraising event, and we are doing a short study on quilts).  We took pictures of the plans and will use them later to make paper quilts replicating the patterns.
• Happy music permeated the room, and here and there, people (teachers AND children) burst out in singing and dancing. 

I hope I never stop wondering how I can do and provide more for these children.

Documentation (by children)...

My class is all about representing what they see these days.  While looking at a book with cutaway pictures of airplanes, a child made this picture (he added the "fire" coming out of the engines).  Pretty amazing....

 



 

Another child watched for a little bit, then decided to find another book about fire trucks and look what he did.

 

 

A third child watched all of this and made his own fire truck, then brought me the picture and asked me to "write the words".  This isn't anything new, but they don't usually ask me to do it without prompting.  This is a perfect example of how children will learn from each other if we can leave them alone for a minute.  You should have heard all the discussion about this part and that part of each of these vehicles!  

 

 

Also, none of these children are what I would call "Enthusiastic Writers".  But once they found something they were interested in, there was no stopping them.

 

 

Next time we were outside, we noticed some really cool plants, and one of my friends told me that the ferns were around when dinosaurs lived (photos below are from our playground, today....).

 



 

 

This was pretty cool, so we brought one in so he could share this information with the class, and then we put these out on the science table for observation.

 

Documenting what they see....

Labeling with the information he had, "These lived when dinosaurs lived."

 

 

Another invitation, this time in the writing center. 

 

In this case, children chose the natural material they wanted to look at closely, and illustrated them.  If they wanted to add labels, we helped with that.

 

 

Again, I can't stress enough how important observation among peers is here.  Not only is the observer learning (look how closely she is watching!), but the writer gets to experience being a leader and feeling like the "teacher".  We always say that we are all learners in our classroom, and this is what we mean.

Valentine's Day Activities and Graphing Fun

We had some fun this week, doing some Valentine's Day activities.  I don't really like to make a huge deal of most holidays, but we do recognize them and try to tailor some of our activities to reflect them. 

We did some graphing using conversation hearts.  I was a little surprised that EVERY child in my class had success with this; it's a pretty advanced concept, but this just proves that children will always surprise you with what they can do.  (Disclaimer: we have done graphing before in our classroom, so this was NOT their first exposure).  First, we sorted the candies into colors, although some of us preferred to leave them in a big pile.  (As we all know, there are many ways to get the same job done.)

 

Next we counted each color and graphed it in the way that made the most sense for each of us.  We could put the hearts in the boxes, make X's or both.

 



 

 

Then the good part...WE GOT TO EAT THEM!

 

 

We did some pretty cool art this week--first was marble rolling in an old heart-shaped candy box.  Put the paper in the box, dip a marble in paint, and roll it all around the box

 

 
 This is what the finished product looks like (still in the box).
 

 

 

We also did some outdoor art, cutting and pasting and drawing from seed catalogs while we were outside playing.

 

 

We decorated Valentine's Bags so our friends have someplace to put all of our valentines.  We spent several days making valentines for our friends, and we had some extra store-bought ones that we signed and passed out.  

 

 

 

We wove some baskets for some fine-motor practice...

 

 

 

We finally finished our IGLOO!  We are using it a quiet reading area for the time being, it's pretty snuggly in there.