One of the images that grabbed me about Playful Learning was the front cover. I know we always say," Don't judge a book by it's cover." But, man, oh, man, what a cover!! It's actually one of my favorite things about this book. I love how it draws and invites you it. That's exactly what art should be to a student or child.
After reading this chapter, I have changed the way that I question my students and my own children. Instead of looking at a drawing and asking "What is it?" change it to "Can you tell me more about your drawing?"
Today was the first day of school, which is also why this post is a tad delayed (sorry!!!), but I found myself questioning my students with "What can you add to your ____?" One of my students (I really wish I had caught the process on film!) started with a big swirl of blue that was her swimming in the pool. Our conversation continued:
Me: Were you in the pool?
S: Yep (adds a stick figure person)
Me: Great! Is your pool inside or outside?
S: Outside
Me: Awesome! What can you add to your picture to let me know that?
S: I know! A sun, and a sky,and ground!
It was simple, two minutes but the effect that it had on my pumpkins paper was fantastic!
I wish I had an awesome freebie to give to everyone, but this one is a toughie which it really is more about how you get your students to discover art through exploration. This year I am adding an art center to my room so that I have an actual spot for the students to explore with stickers, stencils, scissors, glue, etc. Way more than what I did last year of simply putting out too little paper in a rush. Each year we improve for the better with our students!
How do you add in your art time with your class?
Come by Teaching with Grace to check out my blog some time :)
Jennifer
<i><b><a href="http://teaching-with-grace.blogspot.com/">Teaching with Grace</a></b></i>
Showing posts with label playful learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label playful learning. Show all posts
Monday, August 6, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Playful Learning Chapter 6: Growing Globally
Hi, I’m Andrea from No Doubt Learning and I’m so excited to be a part of the Playful Learning Book Study! Having just moved this past month, I found Chapter 6 to be extremely applicable to my kids in getting to know our new surroundings. Kids of all ages will enjoy discovering their surroundings in a new way and making global connections.
My girls were both born with an interest in maps: trail maps, park maps, country maps – you name it. We have a city park map up in the garage and a country map up in our school room, and for fun, each of my girls has a map placemat, which are the highlight conversation of many mealtimes.
Author Mariah Bruehl says it’s natural for kids to be interested in the world! As in the other chapters, she outlines the three stages of learning. My oldest is a kindergartener, so we did two of the first exercises from the book focusing on the home environment (Stage I).
In the first activity, my five-year-old made a three dimensional map of her bedroom. She absolutely loves working with blocks and very much enjoyed adding fabric, doll furniture, and pictures to help map her room.
I took Mariah’s advice and had my daughter build with the blocks inside her room so she could continually check her work. It was really interesting to see her work from the inside out, starting with the bed and bookcase before the room perimeter. She enjoyed adding her stuffed animals (and herself!) to the bed. Taking a picture at the end of the exercise was very satisfying. She was incredibly happy to document her creation.
Second, Mariah outlined a treasure hunt game that both my girls thoroughly enjoyed. My kindergartener created a map for her sister and me to use to find three quarters hidden somewhere in the house. It was so much fun following her map and listening to her give me “warmer” and “colder” verbal cues as I looked for her treasures!
You can see that her first map has three bedrooms from left to right, connected by hallways. Her treasures were hidden in the third bedroom down the hall.
Afterwards, I modeled the map activity by creating a map of the backyard and hid three quarters for my daughter to find. She loved using the map to locate where I had hidden my treasures! In fact, I ended up hiding the treasures multiple times and indicating them on the map with different colored X's!
When we were done, she wanted to create a second treasure hunt in the house for her sister and me, so you can see that her map improved to show bedrooms off of the main hallway and a few pieces of specific furniture in the living room. 
For children at more advanced stages, Mariah has a variety of exercises to extend mapping and global awareness. A few of the exercises include creating a map for a neighborhood puzzle, creating flags for countries and using them for games, creating felt continents from a globe, and reinforcing cardinal directions with longitude and latitude (and checking work with Google Earth).
This chapter holds something for a wide-variety of learning levels to be used in both the home or in a school group. I highly suggest checking the book out to “playfully learn” with your children!
Friday, July 27, 2012
Chapter 4: Scientific Investigations
If there were two words that belong together, it's definitely: children and curious. Children are curious about everything around them in the world. It doesn't matter what age or size, they are always observing and noticing. Plus, they typically are asking questions too. We all know (as teachers or parents) about the infamous 'why' phase that kids go through. I love watching my students and my own kids being curious.
Mariah Bruehl says that there are three stages of children developing as scientific observers.
Stage 1: Typically young children are found in this stage. They are very curious about everything! Mariah recommends lots of hands-on activities and explorations. This could be anything from letting them go outside with a magnifying glass to actually taking apart found objects like a flower or acorn. I love to point out different insects to my kids (except for ants... I'm allergic and keep my distance :) )! This summer, we have followed praying mantises, cicadas, and a walking stick. My son thought that they were so awesome! Taking your child to the library to "research" their newest interests. It's important for their discoveries to be linked to the real world. Children in the stage benefit the most when they are learning how their discoveries apply to them.
Stage 2: According to Mariah, stage 2 "is marked by a child's ability to notice, talk about, and document the finer points of the natural world." Depending on which scale you use, this would be Application/Applying on Bloom's or a Level 2 for DOK. (Check out the difference here.) Children in this stage take their observations and collections to new levels by beginning to classify, question, and draw conclusions. You can begin having your child or students form hypothesises and go through the general steps of the scientific method (question, hypothesis, experiment, draw conclusion).
Stage 3: Children at this stage are very comfortable with the process of exploring their environment as creating self-initiated experiments or discoveries. Mariah explains that two of the main characteristics of this stage are the students wanting to name objects and record discoveries. When Mariah's two children reached this stage, she introduced science notebooks to her girls. She made sure that they were accessible at all times but never, ever forced the girls to use them. To encourage them to name the objects, she showed them how to use field guides and made sure that they were always around for her girls to use as well.
How does this work in my classroom?
I love that I do many of these things in my own classroom as well. Kindergarteners are in stage 2 at the beginning of the year and slowly progress into stage 3 as the year goes on. Mariah Bruehl includes some awesome ideas for activities to encourage science investigations. I especially love the terrarium idea! I will definitely be doing something similar to this this year!
Here is another great idea for you to use this year!
from Flickr
While discussing living and non-living, take the students outside with hula hoops (either enough for each student or split them into groups to share. Provide the students with magnifying glasses, recording sheets, pencils/markers/crayons/etc., clip boards, and let them dive in!
I have the students observe and draw what they see in the circle. Then they can discuss what is living and what is non-living. I've created several sheets that you can pick and choose from. They can be put into a science notebook, projected, etc... However best fits your class/kids and your needs!
<a title="View Living Nonliving Packet on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/100824960/Living-Nonliving-Packet" style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;">Living Nonliving Packet</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/100824960/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-2bm3ovr5exlql353194q" data-auto-height="true" data-aspect-ratio="0.772727272727273" scrolling="no" id="doc_83311" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Please come and visit me over at Teaching with Grace! I'd love to have more visitors and maybe a comment or two. I love reading comments from visitors!
Mariah Bruehl says that there are three stages of children developing as scientific observers.
Stage 1: Typically young children are found in this stage. They are very curious about everything! Mariah recommends lots of hands-on activities and explorations. This could be anything from letting them go outside with a magnifying glass to actually taking apart found objects like a flower or acorn. I love to point out different insects to my kids (except for ants... I'm allergic and keep my distance :) )! This summer, we have followed praying mantises, cicadas, and a walking stick. My son thought that they were so awesome! Taking your child to the library to "research" their newest interests. It's important for their discoveries to be linked to the real world. Children in the stage benefit the most when they are learning how their discoveries apply to them.
Stage 2: According to Mariah, stage 2 "is marked by a child's ability to notice, talk about, and document the finer points of the natural world." Depending on which scale you use, this would be Application/Applying on Bloom's or a Level 2 for DOK. (Check out the difference here.) Children in this stage take their observations and collections to new levels by beginning to classify, question, and draw conclusions. You can begin having your child or students form hypothesises and go through the general steps of the scientific method (question, hypothesis, experiment, draw conclusion).
Stage 3: Children at this stage are very comfortable with the process of exploring their environment as creating self-initiated experiments or discoveries. Mariah explains that two of the main characteristics of this stage are the students wanting to name objects and record discoveries. When Mariah's two children reached this stage, she introduced science notebooks to her girls. She made sure that they were accessible at all times but never, ever forced the girls to use them. To encourage them to name the objects, she showed them how to use field guides and made sure that they were always around for her girls to use as well.
How does this work in my classroom?
I love that I do many of these things in my own classroom as well. Kindergarteners are in stage 2 at the beginning of the year and slowly progress into stage 3 as the year goes on. Mariah Bruehl includes some awesome ideas for activities to encourage science investigations. I especially love the terrarium idea! I will definitely be doing something similar to this this year!
Here is another great idea for you to use this year!
from Flickr
While discussing living and non-living, take the students outside with hula hoops (either enough for each student or split them into groups to share. Provide the students with magnifying glasses, recording sheets, pencils/markers/crayons/etc., clip boards, and let them dive in!
I have the students observe and draw what they see in the circle. Then they can discuss what is living and what is non-living. I've created several sheets that you can pick and choose from. They can be put into a science notebook, projected, etc... However best fits your class/kids and your needs!
<a title="View Living Nonliving Packet on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/100824960/Living-Nonliving-Packet" style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;">Living Nonliving Packet</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/100824960/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-2bm3ovr5exlql353194q" data-auto-height="true" data-aspect-ratio="0.772727272727273" scrolling="no" id="doc_83311" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Please come and visit me over at Teaching with Grace! I'd love to have more visitors and maybe a comment or two. I love reading comments from visitors!
Friday, July 20, 2012
Chapter 2: The Joy of Reading
Hi, Friends! I'm Tanya Dwyer from Mrs. Dwyer's A+ Firsties. I appreciate having this opportunity to share with you today. Thanks so much, Heather!
Chapter 2 was an enlightening read for me! As a 1st grade teacher, I spend my days instilling a joy of reading in little ones. Interestingly enough, the joy that I have for teaching this subject hasn't related as well to my own son. He loves numbers! He absolutely LOVES them! He reads because he has to, but NOT because he wants to. So, I thought completing an activity from this chapter would help to shed a little light on the joy of reading for him.
The author, Mariah Bruehl, states that there are 4 developmental stages of reading.
(1)Children begin reading by enjoying listening to favorite picture books being read to them, then move on to (2) reciting memorized stories. Next, something magical happens! (3)The vocabulary a they have developed from being read to combines with their knowledge of letters and sounds for them to begin reading on their own! (4)Last, but not least, children begin moving into different levels of reading.
As children are becoming independent readers it is critical that they are exposed to "good fit" books. These are books that are at their appropriate reading level. When looking for a "good fit" book consider books that have:
After talking with my son, DJ, about reading books that are a good fit for him, he chose which of the activities that supported this chapter he would like to do. He chose Collecting Words.
We chose two magazines and a notebook with one of his favorite characters on the cover. Then, he cut out words of his choosing. When he was done, I asked him to categorize the words into groups. He could choose to group them however, he liked....long words, short words, things he loves....
He chose to sort them by color. After grouping the words by color, he circled each group and labeled them. Now, he has a new collection of words, he can go back to and read that he may use to create his own stories!
Before going to bed, we also made sure he had a brand new bin for his "good fit" books and a cuddly friend to share them with! He's in that magical stage where everything has come together. He may not love reading like he adores math but he IS reading. Best of all....now, I get to enjoy listening!
Thanks so much for letting me spend this time with you! Please click the picture of the "Good Fit Books" poster to grab a copy for yourself!
~Mrs. Dwyer
Chapter 2 was an enlightening read for me! As a 1st grade teacher, I spend my days instilling a joy of reading in little ones. Interestingly enough, the joy that I have for teaching this subject hasn't related as well to my own son. He loves numbers! He absolutely LOVES them! He reads because he has to, but NOT because he wants to. So, I thought completing an activity from this chapter would help to shed a little light on the joy of reading for him.
The author, Mariah Bruehl, states that there are 4 developmental stages of reading.
(1)Children begin reading by enjoying listening to favorite picture books being read to them, then move on to (2) reciting memorized stories. Next, something magical happens! (3)The vocabulary a they have developed from being read to combines with their knowledge of letters and sounds for them to begin reading on their own! (4)Last, but not least, children begin moving into different levels of reading.
As children are becoming independent readers it is critical that they are exposed to "good fit" books. These are books that are at their appropriate reading level. When looking for a "good fit" book consider books that have:
- Text that accurately coincides with the illustrations
- Text that contains simple words that are a part of your child's everyday vocabulary
- Text that is repetitive and predictable
- Pages with no more than one or two sentences each
After talking with my son, DJ, about reading books that are a good fit for him, he chose which of the activities that supported this chapter he would like to do. He chose Collecting Words.
We chose two magazines and a notebook with one of his favorite characters on the cover. Then, he cut out words of his choosing. When he was done, I asked him to categorize the words into groups. He could choose to group them however, he liked....long words, short words, things he loves....
He chose to sort them by color. After grouping the words by color, he circled each group and labeled them. Now, he has a new collection of words, he can go back to and read that he may use to create his own stories!
Before going to bed, we also made sure he had a brand new bin for his "good fit" books and a cuddly friend to share them with! He's in that magical stage where everything has come together. He may not love reading like he adores math but he IS reading. Best of all....now, I get to enjoy listening!
Thanks so much for letting me spend this time with you! Please click the picture of the "Good Fit Books" poster to grab a copy for yourself!
~Mrs. Dwyer
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Playful Learning Spaces eCourse Giveaway!
Playful Learning Spaces eCourse Giveaway
6 course, online, self-paced eCourse. $125 value!
It will guide you through the process for setting up playful learning spaces. The class will cover
organization, storage, and selecting materials for different ages and stages of child development.
organization, storage, and selecting materials for different ages and stages of child development.
Your access never expires and you can watch when you want to, no schedules to follow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)