| Earlier this year we did a unit on Dinosaurs (go back through our blog to refresh your memory on paleontology). During the second semester we are connecting what we are learning now to what we learned earlier this year. One example is our unit on icebergs and glaciers. The children created their own glaciers and icebergs out of the abundance of snow during the January snowstorms. During the process of freezing and melting the snow each day some of the animals they were playing with in the sensory table became frozen in the iceberg. Some of the children made the connection to the dinosaur unit back in November in the following way. Dinosaur bones became trapped in rocks. The Arctic animals they were playing with became trapped in the ice in the sensory table. People who tried to get bones out of the ground or ice are called archaeologist. The children remembered that they were being archaeologist when they started digging the play animals out of the ice in the sensory table. They connected their current play to their past play. This is called LEARNING! And this critical type of learning cannot be achieved without hands-on, child-directed play. You will see more and more play experiences during the second semester that connects current play to past play creating more concrete and long term learning.  |
| These children are excavating, using their tools, chiseling through the frozen ice trying to free the frozen animals from the glaciers. The students are developing fine motor skills, strengthening their hands for proper grip on writing utensils, working together as a team to remove the ice, problem solving how to remove the hard ice without using warm water, how to negotiate space and take turns, using their vocabulary, and most importantly, using their past knowledge learned during our dinosaur unit and applying that knowledge to thier current play in the sensory table. |
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| What animals are frozen in the icy waters? Which ones are mammals? Do they get cold? Why? Why not? What keeps animals from getting cold in the icy water? Make sure you ask good open-ended questions and not just yes and no questions. You might be amazed what the children will teach you! |
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| Now the children wanted to create their own glaciers and icebergs. Needless to say, Ms. Sarah, Ms. Nancy and Ms. Carole Dawn spent a lot of time bringing in snow from outside so our young scientists/meteorologists could create their own glacier. Some of the students even created their own land masses. Maybe we will have to teach the children about places like Iceland and Greenland and put up maps that show cold places like Antartica. |
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| These students created several glaciers and noticed that rivers formed between them. Next they wanted to create boats to navigate between the glaciers. With this activity the students showed an interest and an acuity toward understanding land formations, waterways and how people travel by land and water. This is one of the most critical ways we find out what the children are interested in and how we can create activities that spark their imaginations. |
