October 15th, 2020

POD A

This morning at our meeting, the whole group revisited the small group conversations from Tuesday about the veins in leaves. The main theories are: veins give the leaf structure/shape,  provide the leaf water, and are involved in the growth process. It was a very thoughtful discussion. The children are improving in their abilities to listen to another's ideas and feel comfortable sharing different ideas. The focus here is not "the answer" - it's  thinking, hypothesizing, discussing - the process of the learning, not the outcome.

The follow-up to this discussion was a materials experience. All the children took a turn drawing a leaf or two and watercoloring it. Again the focus was on the process: taking time to observe and work slowly and carefully. The end results are FANTASTIC! Materials experiences support children's thinking and learning. Today's work will probably not be the only time they represent leaves/veins. 

POD B

The store continues to flourish with activity! Today's play made direct connections to both literacy and numeracy. Fletcher's ice cream play led to him writing the words ice cream for the classroom documentation. Oliver's play incorporated counting and the concept of time, Olivia and Grace's play led to concepts of sorting, shape exploration and one-to-one correspondence.

Fletcher built a huge ice cream cone. 
He said, “Two vanillas on ice cream.”  Then he added to the top, saying, “This is a big cherry and a blueberry.”
Fletcher then wrote “Ice Cream” so that we could add to our documentation panel about the store.


Oliver used a “blender”. 
He said, “Beep beep beep, ding ding.  Now it’s milkshake.  When it counts to five, it’s all done.  One two three four five six seven eight, you press eight buttons.”
Oliver then said, “Taste this, it’s smoothie.  This is a micro-scan, it will turn it cold.  Do you love it cold?”
He also drew a label for the jar meant for blue candy, calling it, “Blueberry Mac and Cheese."

When Grace and Olivia came to the store, they helped us add labels to the jars so that we can sort the candy we want to sell.  Since the candy is usually fruit-themed, Olivia said, “strawberry” and Grace said, “honeydew.” 
Grace drew a strawberry with a triangular shape.
Then Olivia said, “How bout we make a rainbow one of those?”  She made a label with three stripes of paper.  Then she filled it with candy that corresponded to those particular colors.  She said to herself, “Now I need orange… purple… and blue.” 

(Fletcher's ice cream cone with Grace's strawberry label)