How To Make Duck Soup

This was the book we used for our Friendship Feast in late February.  The children loved this story and we highly recommend it!  It is all about a duck named Max and how his friends help save him from his own soup.  Have the children look at this cover and see how much of the story they can tell you.  This is a great activity for helping them build their long term memory, remembering story details, characters, setting, story sequencing, events, plot and increasing the general love of reading. It helps if you read the book first so you can help them recall the story and the sequence of events.  The following pictures show you how they made their own soup for their Friendship Feast. 

 No ducks were harmed in the making of this soup!





The children cut the potato's with plastic knives after the teachers cut the potato's into smaller pieces.  The children were closely supervised.  This was a great fine motor activity and helped them build the small muscles in their hands that they will need to grasp writing utensils properly so they can form letters and words.





We also did a science experiment with onions.  We cut them on the table and they made us cry!   We talked about the gas that was released into the air when we cut open the onion.  Then we cut the onion under water (we filled up a dish pan with water to do this) and we did not cry.  When you cut an onion under water it diffuses the gas and it does not reach your eyes and your eyes do not get irritated.

 




We took turn adding ingredients.





Everyone adds a little bit of love to the soup.

 

We asked what Max would add to his soup so the children would have to refer back to the book and take previous learning (from the book) and apply it to current learning (making the soup).  This is how long term neural pathways are formed in the brain.  Children need numerous opportunities to reapply previously gained knowledge to current activities for learning to be meaningful and relevant.



Oh-la-la!  The soup!  (They say Oh-la-la in the book so we said it too!)




Watch out MAX!  Don't eat the duck!

 

The children set the table for their friends in the afternoon class and added Ms. Beth's ducks to the soup.  Thank you Ms. Beth for letting us borrow your little ducks.  We thought they were funny.

 



We had children that normally would not even try a vegetable try the soup.  Some loved it, some did not like it, but they all tried it.  We think it was because they got to make it.  They were invested in the process.  The activity was more like an art activity than a cooking activity.   The more involved a child can become in an activity like cooking a new food, the more likely they are to try something new.  We all had a great time with this book, with this activity and with each other.  We hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures and talking with your children about this experience.  Feel free to write down their reflections on these pictures and send them to us in an email or in their backpack so we can add it to their portfolio and use their reflections to help us plan further lessons.



Science Flash Cards | Have Fun Teaching

Science Flash Cards Have Fun Teaching
Just wanted to share a link that I found to a site that has some weather related vocabulary cards that can be printed and used at home to support our science unit. We will be printing these at school and using these in our science center and at circle time to expand vocabulary and explore new science concepts. I hope the new links I post will give you some new tools to use at home with your child(ren). There are many sets of vocabulary cards at this site that you can print and use at home as journal starters, story starters, print two sets for matching games, make a beginning letter sound game, hide the cards and do a seek and find game or play a memory game with the cards. Let us know how you use these cards at home!

Building Snowball

For the past several weeks the AM and PM class have been working on a collaborative group project.  The children wanted to build a snowman "as big as the ceiling".   Well, the ladder would only allow us to build the snowman safely a little over halfway to the ceiling but the children seemed happy enough with that.  The children, under Ms. Nancy's guidance, came up with a plan on how to create this giant snowman.  They wanted to make it out of boxes.  They were asked how to make the boxes tall enough, how to keep them from falling and how to cover the boxes so they looked like a snowman.  Ms. Nancy wrote down all of there answers and made a list for the children.  We then made a donation list for the parents and went to Ms. Rita, the school cook and asked her to save boxes for us.  The parents (you wonderful group of people) started bringing in toilet paper and other materials on the children's list and the building/construction on Snowball began.  This process from start to finish took about three weeks.
As you can tell the children had to work together to stack the boxes.  The needed a ladder to make the boxes taller.  Ms. Nancy took the opportunity to talk to them about Paws Laws and being safe when on a ladder, taking turns (being kind) and holding the ladder for friends (being responsible).  Each child got a turn on the ladder if they wanted it.  The children then had to make sure the boxes would not fall over.  They wanted to tape the boxes together.  They also talked about glueing the boxes but thought tape might work better.  You can also see that the boxes were stacked from biggest to smallest.  Concepts of size, number, stability (basic physics), teamwork, planning, decision making and problem solving were all part of the early stages of this project.  Interest in the early part of the project sometimes took a back seat to the newly fallen snow and for days the boxes sat alone and abandoned.  The nice thing about working with the project approach is that the children are not on a time line to finish a project and can return to it when the interest reemerges.

The next stage of the project involved covering the boxes with something to make it look like a basic snowman.  The children talked about painting the boxes.  They also talked about paper mache, but due to wheat allergies in the classroom that was not an option.  Ms. Nancy told them about using watered down glue and shredded recycled paper.  Using recycled paper was a good way to be kind to the environment and take care of the planet.  The children started with paper mache and them moved on to using toilet paper to wrap around the boxes.  They also used some leftover cotton batting we had left over from a holiday craft we did.  They were really good at wanting to use left over materials and wanted to recycle things that had been used in previous projects so they could Be Kind and Be Responsible.  We really do try to reinforce Paws Laws in all of our lesson plans and in our daily interactions with the children.  We hope you are still using the phrases Be Safe, Be Kind, and Be Responsible at home.


In previous posts you have seen that we have been reading the book Snowballs.  The children made the connection between that book and the snowman they were building.  We had been talking about the kind of art used to make the pictures in the book.  The type of art in the book is called collage (many of the children remember this and if you ask them at home they will tell you what collage is).  They wanted to use the collage technique to decorate their snowman.  They also wanted to use as many recycled items from around the classroom and from past projects as possible.  We undecorated the holiday tree and used many of those items when decorating the snowman.




The children wanted to use the book as a reference while creating their snowman.  They were referring back to the book for information.  This is exactly how research is done.  The children are developing the skills needed for researching for writing papers and reports in their elementary, secondary and collage careers.  This skill will follow them into their professional careers as well.  It was amazing to see them make this connection that they could use a book they were reading as a tool to help them create something new.  Bravo!

These two children work together to create Snowballs face.  One child added eyeglasses to the snowman because he had eyeglasses.  It was very interesting watching how the children made their decisions on how Snowball was going to be decorated, what materials were going to be used to create each feature and who was going to embellish what part of the snowman.  Sometimes two friends would want to do the same thing at the same time and we would stand back and watch them use their problem solving and social language skills to work through the problem.  Only a few times did the teachers have to step in and guide the children through a particularly difficult conversation.

The children used a variety of collage materials to create different body parts for Snowball.  Here they are using crinkle paper and plastic gloves to makes hands.

The AM class decorated on side of Snowball and the PM class decorated the opposite side of Snowball.  Here you can see the AM side of Snowball.  They said they thought their side kind of looked like Spot in the book Snowballs because Spot the Dog snowman had lots of buttons and their snowman had lots of round spots on him.

Here is the PM side of Snowball.  He has glasses and hands that can hold a cup of hot chocolate.  He is also decorated with lots of snowflakes and beads. 

The Family Fun Fair was held last weekend and the book fair was open.  The classrooms were asked to bring down a display if they had one based on a favorite book.  We were not planning on having a display but the children just happened to come up with this project on their own.  We had to find a way to get Snowball down to the book fair.  The children thought that moving him in a wagon would be the safest way to get him all the way down to the other part of the building.  They had to use teamwork to get Snowball safely through the doorways and down the ramp way to Conference Room C.  The children did a great job working together to get Snowball safely to his destination.

Here is Snowball, safely sitting outside the book fair.  There was a contest for the best display.  Families that attended the Family Fun Fair last Saturday voted and Snowball created by the AM and PM children in room 411 won.  They will have a new train table and trains to play with in their classroom next week.  they will pass it on to other classrooms when they are done playing with it, but it was a nice honor to know that their creativity, teamwork and love of reading and art helped them to create a snowman that brought happiness to all that see him (and to know that he will not melt even when the sun finally does come out!).

SNOWBALLS and collage art

This is the book we are focusing on in class right now. 

In your newsletter you saw some examples of collage artwork done by the children and their families inspired by this book.  I am including a few of the pages from this book as an example of collage art as illustration.  The children LOVE this story because of the illustrations.  If you can, borrow this book from the library and read it with your child.  Actually, your child could probably read it to you!  Here are some of the pages from the book.

Below are examples of some of the art work that has already been brought in and shared with the class.

 

     These are a few examples of some of the art work that has been done so far by some of the students and their families at home.  We hope everyone will bring their snow person (or snow cat, or snow dog, or snow dragon, it doesn't matter) to school no latter than February 4th, 2011 which is next Friday.  We will be taking pictures of each child's art work.  They will printed off in color and placed into page protectors.  The children will write the stories for their illustration and each story will be compiled into one big book for our library.  This will be the wrap up project for our snow unit.  We really appreciate your support on this project!  Keep checking back for more information.



Drawing Dinosaurs

After snack while we are waiting for everyone to finish the children are encouraged to either draw in their journals or read books.  This child decided to do both.  I found her in library area on the sofa with the dinosaur dictionary on her lap with her journal open with her pencil busily moving across her paper.



Ms. Carole Dawn, "What are you drawing?"
Ashley, "A stegosaurus."
Ms. Carole Dawn, "Cool.  How do you know it is a stegosaurus?"
Ashley, "Because it has spines on its back, see?  Look in the book Ms. Carole Dawn, it looks just like the stegosaurus in the book.  Let me show you."
Ms. Carole Dawn after looking at the picture of the stegosaurus that Ashley showed her in the book, "You are right, stegosauruses do have spines on their backs!"
Ashley smiles at Ms. Carole Dawn like Ms. Carole Dawn is about the dumbest teacher that has ever lived.  Ms. Carole Dawn smiles like Ashley is about the smartest preschooler that ever lived!



Dino Learning

In these pictures the students are using the felt board to reenact some of the dinosaur stories they have been reading in the library area. 

Ms. Christine working with students on prepositional words.  It is important to work on concepts such as on, off, in, behind, around, under, on top, bottom and through with children.  These prepositions and concepts are the building blocks of descriptive language and we spend a lot of time working those descriptive words into the children's vocabulary and daily projects throughout our curriculum.



Ms. Sarah gets to learn all about a pterodactyl from one of the student's during small group time. The children are getting really good at learning how to research using the books in the classroom library and taking the books to other areas to expand their knowledge.





Construction Journals

Sometimes in education what is called a "teachable moment" happens.  This is when something that is not in the lesson plan happens and you jump on it!  This happened one day when construction workers had to come and tear up part of the parking lot to fix a water main break.  The workers came and the bull dozers came and the kids were totally involved, interested and full of questions.  Ms. Sarah and Ms. Nancy were ready to take the kids and their writing journals down to the big glass doors and let the kids document the experience.  This was a Thursday morning so not all of the kids were there that day, so if you didn't get to hear about the experience it was a one day only deal.  We hope these pictures help show you how to take advantage of a teachable moment.  Always keep a notebook and some markers or crayons in the car (we pick up spiral bound notebooks and washable markers when back to school items go on clearance).  Keep them in a back pack so you can grab them.  We also have had the kids decorate their journals.  The teachers have their journals too.  We all write in them together almost everyday.  Grab them when you go to the park, when you go to McDonalds, or anyplace!  You will be very suprised to see how much they observe and record.  This is great practice for science skills (observation, recording data), art (drawing, line, perspective) and writing (documentation, scribbling, dictation, writing letters and words).