The Chicke Playground

The children have two loves recently. 
1.  The chickens. 
2.  The block area. 
They have managed to marry the two into a wonderful invention/creation called "The Chickie Playground".  These future architects plan out and build wonderful structures designed to entertain, exercise and delight the chickens (and the children!). 

This adventure started out by one child saying they wanted to build her chick a "home".  Like any good idea it grew from there.  After some discussion (including the teachers having to explain why the two story pretend firehouse was not a good idea to put the baby chicks into and use as a house) the group decided that building something where the chicks could stay close to the ground and couldn't get hurt would be safer.  After all, we do have to follow PAWS LAWS to be Safe, be Responsible and be Kind.  Thus, the idea of a playground was hatched!

The children use a variety of materials to build the playground.  The chick begins to explore!

The children have to use problem solving skills to figure out how to keep the chicks safe (so they cannot build the structure too high).  They also have to make the structure stable so nothing will fall on the chicks.  They also want to keep the chicks inside the structure and on the mat (the chicks do poop and we have to keep everything sanitized) so their previous lessons on perimeter and area came in handy and were put into practical use.

The children sit back and observe how the chick navigates through the playground and they talk about what is working and what they want to do differently when they build the next structure.

The children used a variety of mathematical concepts during this project such as figuring out hiegth and width so the chicks could climb up and walk across sections of the structure.  They had to know how long and how wide to build parts of the playground.  They also needed to estimate how many blocks they would need, what shapes the blocks would need to be and how tall each of the blocks were (measurement concepts) to create different levels.

The children worked on their social skills by working together as a group to create a single structure that would hold several chicks.  This required cooperation, teamwork and preplanning.  This also required them to work on negotiation skills and conflict management when different ideas were in opposition.  They worked together to mesh different ideas into one cohesive idea that all of the children agreed on and created.  Imagine what type of future employees, managers and innovators they will be when they grow up and begin their careers!

Making a Dinosaur World

The children decided to create a total 3-D world for the dinosaurs in the block area.  They started by painting the sky and the grass on paper to place onto the walls.  The children worked as a class to create the scenery.  They studied books in the library area and did research by studying the dinosaurs habitats (yes, ask them about habitats) and they talked about what they would like to add to their dinosaur worlds habitat.

Creating the sky

The next thing the children wanted the dinosaurs to have were trees.  You wonderful parents sent in paper towel rolls and crepe paper.  We set out paint, Popsicle sticks and tissue paper and let the children create. We also found some plastic plants and cut them up so the children could use those to create foliage for the herbivores to eat.

 

One child using his imagination to create this wonderful tree for the dinosaurs

A dinosaurs habitat.  The children painted Styrofoam blue for lake water and another piece of Styrofoam green for land to graze on.  You can see rocks and shells that the children have used to add to the habitat.  The children are able to stick the plastic plants into the Styrofoam to create multiple habitats. 

Look closely, this dinosaur has laid an egg!  Actually the egg is one we found at the dollar store that came with tools for excavating what is inside the egg.  What is inside the egg?  Dinosaur bones!

The children became very interested in dinosaur eggs after finding out that dinosaurs came from eggs.  Some of the children wanted to create a nest so the mother dinosaurs could lay their baby eggs.

Watch out, the T-Rex is coming to get you!