Winter Week II brought continued "snow production"
both outdoors and at our art table!
We continued to read and discuss Winter story books, and "snowman" songs were sung daily!
We began the process of making a piñata for our Piñata Party.
We also began rehearsing for our Peace Assembly performance!
Looking Deeper: Exploration and Learning through Play
Let's take a closer look at Story Time.
Over the past two weeks we have read many winter related
story books, with "snowmen" being a recurring theme. While all of the "snowmen" books
have been fictional, they were none the less a wonderful vehicle for teaching
Science! Each book dramatically
described the enthusiastic building of a snow-person, and the inevitable
thawing, melting and transformation of the "snowy friend" into a puddle! Ultimately and happily new snow fell, and the
beloved "snow person" was built anew!
The children have loved hearing multiple readings of Bob
the Snowman by Sylvia Loretan, Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright,
The Snow Child, by Freya Littledale, and Sadie and the Snowman by
Allen Morgan! During the readings we
talked about why snow people melt.
"Because it gets hot!"
We talked about why puddles disappear.
"Because the water goes up into the clouds!" We talked about why it snows again.
"Because it gets cold and the water turns back into snow and falls to the
ground"! After several such discussions,
I introduced the words, "precipitation", "evaporation" and
"condensation". I then routinely
used these words in subsequent discussions.
By week's end, some of the children were able to use these words appropriately,
and nearly all of the children were able to tell me which word meant snow
falling down, water going back into the sky, and water turning back into snow.
These fictional story books were not only the source of
great factual information, they were the catalyst for our doing a little
"experimenting" of our own. On
Thursday, we observed an ice cube and some snow in the classroom. Over the course of the day, we observed and
discussed the melting process, until ultimately, all we saw was water. Then we predicted whether all the water would
evaporate by Friday morning, leaving our purple dishes dry. The children could not wait to have a look at
the dishes upon their arrival and were very excited to see that they were
indeed dry!
A closer look at Story Time reveals the ease and importance
of integrating subject matter (fictional literature and Science) for the children , and of course the excitement of experiential learning!
Have a fun and restful weekend!
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