Experiencing the season of fall.In recent blog posts, we have shared some of our classroom experiences focused on expanding our understanding of and appreciation for the current season. It's evident that for the Brown Room children, fall means LEAVES. Children have collected leaves, researched their colors, explored their textures, and observed the changes that occur in the leaves throughout the season. Often, when diving deeper into a research topic, a teacher will invite a small group of children to gather together and engage in discussion about the shared interest. This is an opportunity for the children to share their existing knowledge with one another, ask questions, make hypotheses, debate, test theories, etc. The following document includes dialogue between Betsy, Elizabeth, Noah, William and Sam during a recent small group conversation that took place outside on the front lawn: When reflecting on this conversation, we noticed that the children were inclined to describe the season using all of their senses. They noticed changes occurring in what they could see (color), what they could feel (temperature, wind), what they could hear (wind, leaves), and even what they could smell. Betsy: It's like boom, vroom ,vroom, vroom. Oh! It’s like the cars. William: I hear wind and cars. Betsy: It’s like this… zoom, boom, vroom! It’s like the plane. (plane flying overhead when she says this) Noah: Wind sounds like blows! (blows out air) Betsy: It’s like a plane flying. So many leaves is blowing! - Noah The children have demonstrated a strong understanding of the connection between wind and the falling leaves that they observe during this season. Witnessing the falling leaves is both joyful and fascinating! Stay tuned for future posts about how we have expanded upon this interest in wind, leaves, and their movements! Bringing "Home Research" into the classroom... The children loved sharing their leaf collections with one another in the classroom. We have since used these leaves for many different classroom explorations including categorization, collage, print making, drawing, painting, and more. The following videos and images are from a small group experience where Betsy, Benji, Elizabeth, Graham, and Harry joined in sharing their leaf collections with one another.
Having leaves be a part of the daily experience in the classroom has led to such exciting, thoughtful, and joyous interactions and experiences. Our friends are clearly enjoying their continued research!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2024
Categories |