Wind Week I is the first of two Science-based weeks that
provided the children with multiple opportunities daily to explore and
experiment with the concept of Wind. We began with a group conversation that yielded our working definition; wind is air that is moving. Next, we began exploring our own wind power, and that of a hand made and electric fan. Then, as the photos illustrate, we continued moving air and creating wind all week long!
We blew our wind through a straw and predicted which objects we would be able to move off the block.
We used our wind power to move colored water, and in the process we created new colors!
We brought our wind theme to the art table as we made kites and created straw paintings with Brittani.
Perhaps the most fun of all was using our wind power to blow bubbles at the water table all week long!
Happy Birthday to Evan who turned four years old and celebrated with us on Monday!
Thank you to Evan's dad and his sister, Laurel for coming in as Guest Readers as part of the birthday celebration.
Looking Deeper:
Exploration and Learning through Play
Let's take a closer look at the practice of "drawing on
the children's prior knowledge" as a vehicle for building an understanding
of new concepts.
Drawing on a child's
prior knowledge is an excellent teaching technique for building an
understanding of new concepts. As our
school year has progressed and we have moved through our various themes the
children have routinely used information
to develop concepts. This was very
evident during our Doctor Theme as the children were able to both comprehend
and explain in basic terms the function of their brain, heart and lungs. This week, we "drew on that prior
knowledge" as we began our conversation about "Wind". As I mentioned, we began with the working
definition; wind is air that is moving.
That definition was illustrated and made concrete to the children when
they actually moved air and created wind in a variety of ways. We began with our breath. I asked the
children; "Who remembers what part of our body breathes air in and out?" They were all able to draw on their prior
knowledge and respond, "our lungs!"
I continued; "Let's take
some air from the room, put it in our lungs, then move it very fast out of our
mouths and see if we can make some wind!"
The children were excited to do so.
The next step was to see if we could move things with the "wind
power" created by our lungs and breath.
We began with pinwheels, and then moved on to a wide variety of other
objects throughout the week. Drawing on
the children's prior knowledge to begin our study of wind, enabled them to
transfer an understood concept about their lungs and use it to illustrate an
abstract concept such as wind in very concrete way. An exercise such as this not only gives
evidence of learning, but it also expands upon and gives an important function
to that learning. Furthermore, it
expands the depth, breadth and creativity of the children's higher level
thinking skills!
Have a fun and restful weekend!
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