Recently in Amy's Small Groups Category

Dear Parents,

After several meetings that involved moving water in the sensory table, I wanted to extend the children's learning by challenging them to move water from one water table into another. The children used scientific thinking and problem solving skills as they invented many different ways to connect the tubes and funnels together. They were thrilled to see their success.

In order to provide a new and different perspective on moving water I brought the children to the Mississippi River where I wanted to bring awareness to the natural way the river moves. The children noticed the river moved in one direction as it flowed and mentioned the water level, and they were certain it was very deep in the center! The children also had some interesting ideas on where the river stops and collects and were quite curious about the "fluffy stuff" or bubbles, found atop of the water. Their ideas and interests brought awareness to possible new directions for the group, such as creating our own river by the rocks and water pump on the playground.

Sincerely,
Sarah

Dear Parents,

The insect group may officially have to change our name to the bug group! Over the past few weeks the children have continued to investigate insect habitats, and have taken a special interest in pill bugs (or rollie-pollies as the children call them). After seeing many pill bugs on our last insect hunt, the children made predictions about what pill bugs eat, where they live, and why they roll up into balls. We then read a book all about pill bugs, and the children were fascinated by some of the facts they learned. Helping the children expand their thinking, I suggested we make a habitat for the pill bugs so we can observe them in the classroom. Despite turning over logs and thoroughly searching the playground, the wet ground made it difficult for the children find many pill bugs to put in our habitat.

Instead, we made some playdough pill bugs which they added to the habitat.

Next week we are planning a walk around campus to search for more pill bugs to bring back to the classroom!

Sincerely,
Nicole

Hi Families!

Our consideration of ways that photographs are used led to exploration of photography books and the process of book making.

The children chose topics that were very interesting to them to incorporate into their own photography books for their final project--Bennett chose race cars, Piper chose kitties, Michael chose eagles and cars, Nora chose fairies and fairy houses, Alex chose worms, and Jillian chose pregnancy and childbirth. We then looked at the anatomy of photography books: that they have front covers with a title, author's name, and photo; that they have title and dedication pages in the first few pages; that they have a variety of photos and writing about those photos on many more pages; and that at the end there's a picture of the photographer along with information about that person. The children practiced book-making by creating small books with paper and marker.

We have just started the process of collecting pictures for some of the books. The boys decided to work on taking pictures of cars and the girls were working on creating places that they thought fairies would like to be. If you have any pictures at home that might fit within your child's theme, or that they really seem to like (even if they don't fit within the theme), please send them along with them to school and we will weave them into our discussions about photography and storytelling!

Sincerely,

Mina

Group Members: Arthur, Clare, Sarah, David, Sam, and Jonah

Dear Parents
Our insects group is off to a fantastic start! The group developed based on the high interest the children have shown in the insects in our classroom. For our first couple of meetings I have been helping the children expand their knowledge about where insects live. We brainstormed a list of places we could find insects, and then the children and I went on an insect hunt outside. The "insect investigators" found many different insects on our hunt.

I encouraged the children to draw pictures of the insects in their personal insect investigator notebooks and share their findings with each other. While we were on our hunt, I noticed that the children were putting the insects in their investigation kits along with sand, grass, etc.

When I asked them about what they were doing, the children told me they were trying to make the insects happy with things that they like. Because of this, I am planning another trip outside, this time we will take bug catchers so the children can make habitats for the insects that they find. We will then be able to take the insects back into the classroom where we can investigate them further!
Sincerely,
Nicole

Group Members: Holden, Ella, Zachary, Jacob, Quincy, and Augie

Dear Parents,

It is exciting to begin our small group work! The children are extremely enthusiastic about the topic of "water," as they have already shown great interest in our first meeting. Their first experiences were at the water table where it was clear they were fascinated by the variety of ways they could move the water using funnels, tubes, sponges, pitchers and cups.

During our meetings I will be asking questions that encourage the children to talk about their thought processes and expand upon their ideas. Their ideas and interests will inform my decisions about possible new directions for the group. The children will have many opportunities to learn from one another, share discoveries, and work toward the goals of: communication, collaboration, creative problem-solving, and scientific thinking

Sincerely,
Sarah

Group Members: Alex, Michael, Jillian, Piper, Nora, and Bennett

Hi Families!

During free-play there were several children expressing an interest in taking pictures with my (Mina's) digital camera so we got together a small group to further explore photography. Piper, Bennett, Jillian, Alex, Nora, and Michael have been exploring this medium more in depth for the past week. We started out by talking about what a photographer does and why people take pictures. The children had many ideas: Piper--"Because people want to see stuff again to show their mom and dad." Michael--"Some photographers take pictures to show the whole world things that they discovered like the water." Jillian--"They want to show people what they saw."

To follow up, the children took a look at different pictures that had been taken in the classroom, on the playground, and on our fieldtrip to the Conservatory and talked about what the person taking the picture may have seen--Where was the picture taken? Who was there? What were they doing? Children then drew out details to the stories they were creating.

The following day we went out with cameras in pairs to begin taking pictures, finding interesting things in the natural environment around the school.

We came back the next day to look at these images and talk about where they were, who took which pictures, and what they were trying to capture. We went back outside to do a scavenger hunt exploring different ways to look at things they've seen many times before--using high and low angles, close up and far perspectives. In the coming weeks we will explore different genres of photography, such as portraiture, that children have expressed an interest in as well as creating a mode to share our photographs and their stories with others.

Sincerely,
Mina

Hi Dinosaur Families!

Over the past two weeks, the dinosaur small group members have continued to expand their knowledge about dinosaurs and the environments in which they lived. The children finished their large dinosaur habitat and had the opportunity to use the dinosaur toys to engage in dramatic play on the landscape they had created. As part of the dinosaur landscape, the children were especially interested in volcanoes. They learned the vocabulary to label the parts of the volcano, and used their bodies to represent the way the eruption occurs. I am sure the children will delight in showing you this! The children also worked on pre-literacy skills by sounding out the initial letter sounds of different types of dinosaurs. The group continues to enjoy singing and moving their bodies as they dance to the "We Are the Dinosaurs" song. The children love this activity and it allows them to express what they have learned about herbivores and carnivores in a way that is meaningful to them.

Sincerely,
Michele

Hello Parents!!

Over these past couple of weeks the snake group has been full of adventure and new experiences. The children loved comparing the different lengths of the largest and shortest snakes in the world. They even used their own bodies to make a human chain to see if they could be as long as the 33ft long anaconda. A week ago Friday, Arthur's dad Pete was kind enough to bring in 3 snakes to share with the group and class. The children got to touch and hold the snakes according to their own comfort level. After meeting Arthur's snakes it became clear that the group was ready to experience more snakes up close and personal. That's when the group decided to take a field trip to the Bell museum of Natural History. There the children got to learn about 4 new snakes, the bull snake, albino king snake, corn snake, and milk snake. During our trip the children watched as the king snake ate a mouse. The children showed excitement and astonishment to see the King snake gulp down the mouse without even chewing. Next week the children are going to become snake experts. They are each going to choose, learn about, and create their own snake. They will share what they know with peers in their group and later the whole class.

Sincerely,
Davida

Hello Families!

The scientists have been busy experimenting day after day. Colored water has been a large focus on our group, and the children show great interest in how they change water by adding different colors to it. Melting, and freezing has been another focus of the group. The children predict what will happen throughout the experiments. We have been bringing snow inside and spraying it with colored water and predicting, will it melt? Will it freeze? The children came up with thoughtful answers such as, "The snow will freeze if we put it outside", and "It will freeze and it will still be in our colors".
The children have been experimenting with many different ways to melt snow, through water, salt, heat, and even using hammers to smash the ice into smaller pieces. Observing cause and effect relationships between the materials and the ice was a large focus of these experiments. The upcoming weeks will provide new experiences with water and solubility as the children add a variety of substances to water to see if they dissolve. Each child made their own data recording book to write about and draw their predictions, and the results of their experiments.

Sincerely,
Megan

Hello Families!

The scientists have been busy experimenting day after day. Colored water has been a large focus on our group, and the children show great interest in how they change water by adding different colors to it. Melting, and freezing has been another focus of the group. The children predict what will happen throughout the experiments. We have been bringing snow inside and spraying it with colored water and predicting, will it melt? Will it freeze? The children came up with thoughtful answers such as, "The snow will freeze if we put it outside", and "It will freeze and it will still be in our colors".
The children have been experimenting with many different ways to melt snow, through water, salt, heat, and even using hammers to smash the ice into smaller pieces. Observing cause and effect relationships between the materials and the ice was a large focus of these experiments. The upcoming weeks will provide new experiences with water and solubility as the children add a variety of substances to water to see if they dissolve. Each child made their own data recording book to write about and draw their predictions, and the results of their experiments.

Sincerely,
Megan

Alex, Clare, Mike, Arthur, Sarah, and Holden have been investigating reptiles. This topic was chosen because a lot of the children seemed to be interested in the rubber snakes we had in the animal cave. Our group will be focusing on discovering what it means to be a reptile and we will compare differences between various reptiles. To get as sense of which reptiles interested them, and to find out more about what they already know about reptiles, the children began by talking about, and drawing pictures of reptiles. Next, the children had the chance to examine real, but dead, reptiles using magnifying glasses. They noticed that some of the reptiles had sharp teeth and claws, while others had hard shells and no legs. During a reptile hunt that emphasized comparing differences among reptiles, I noticed that all of the children seemed to be drawn to snakes, because out of all the reptiles they are the only ones that have no legs. During this week we decided to explore snakes further. To connect to our classroom curriculum on life cycles and the children's interest in eggs, I decided to start our snake focus by showing a video clip of snakes hatching from eggs. After watching the movie the children were curious about what other snakes looked like, so I got out the snake books and gave the children a chance to examine the different snakes. As they were examining the snakes I noticed that they all seemed to be interested in how long some of the snakes were. So next time we are going to talk about the largest and smallest snakes in the world.

Hello families! I am so excited to be a scientist with Jillian, Piper, Nora, Ella, Zachary, and Augie. We have chosen to look specifically at water and how we can change and manipulate it. Water is everywhere in the world and has many different forms which will help the children explore many scientific concepts. Through conversation and carefully chosen questions, I will help guide the children towards forming their own theories and conclusions about all of the experiments we will be engaging in. The children are learning how to predict what will happen to the water as we change it. They are currently observing the different effects colors have on water, and how snow changes into water. They carefully carried their melted snow out to the playground to see how long it will take for it to turn to ice. We will continue to look into the water cycle and how we can be scientists by changing and manipulating the water in many different ways. I look forward to keeping in touch in the following weeks!

Hi Everyone! Our dinosaur small group is off to an exciting start! I (Michele) am facilitating this small group and our "dinosaur team" includes Bennett, David, Jacob, Jonah, and Sam. The dinosaur group was developed based on the member's high interest and enthusiasm in this topic. We also are building off our recent field trip to The Raptor Center. That is right - Did you know that dinosaurs are also considered raptors? You can ask your child to explain why this is true. So far I have been helping to expand the children's knowledge of the reasons dinosaurs were deadly and dangerous, as this is particularly interesting to the children. They are also in the process of creating a dinosaur habitat including volcanoes and other land and water features. In addition, we are working on community building, which includes listening to each other and working together collaboratively, sharing ideas and learning from one another. The children are sharing their personal knowledge of dinosaurs and they are also kind enough to help me correctly pronounce many of the dinosaur names!

Over the past two weeks, the children have expressed an increasing interest in stories about animals. Initially, we focused on nonfiction. The children were especially intrigued by the life cycle of frogs and other animals that are born from eggs. As time progressed, the children expressed an interest in fictional stories about animals. Recently they have been constructing a story of their own. The children have shared many ideas, which I recorded into a list. As facilitator, I am helping the children work together to put their ideas into a collaborative story.

Our group continues to explore a variety of materials and art mediums. Most recently, the children were introduced to glurch, which is a mixture of glue and liquid starch. When looking at the glurch through their individual plastic bags, many of them guessed that it was playdough. Once they opened their bags, they were surprised to find something quite different and were very excited and intrigued with the new texture. As the children squished the glurch between their fingers, they described its characteristics: "It feels sticky!" "It smells like glue!" "It feels like glue!" The children also used the glurch to create symbolic representations such as a jumprope, snake, hotdog, and pancake. They discovered that they could manipulate their glurch in different ways by cutting it with scissors and using their hands to stretch it wide, roll it long, and make imprints in it. While the children are engaging in these hands-on experiences, my role is to foster a sense of togetherness by facilitating conversation and play. I also choose materials and activities that will promote opportunities to practice important social skills and prosocial behaviors such as sharing, turn taking, and helping each other.

In the music small group, we have been learning about all different aspects of music. After making box guitars, we decided that we wanted to compare them to real guitars. The children really loved the guitars. We also had out drums, and when we played together, Sam noticed that we were a little bit like a band. This led us to learning more about bands and being rock stars. We made a stage out of hollow blocks, because when were talking we figured out that bands usually performed for people on stages. After making our stage we dressed up like rock stars by wearing sunglasses, ties, feather boas, and vests. We put it all together by grabbing some instruments and playing along to some music while we pretended to perform on our stage. We noticed that we had been doing a lot of dancing on our stage, so next we decided that we should learn a little bit about dancing. Then we listened to some music and danced along, some of the music told us how to move our bodies, and some of it we were able to make up our own dancing. Next, we will be going back to learn more about rhythm and how everything we have learned thus far connects to it.

The sensory/creative group includes: Bennett, Arthur, David, Clare, Ella, and Sarah. Since these are some of the youngest children in the classroom, we are working on forming a sense of togetherness and making connections with each other as a small group. So far, the children have been engaged in sensory activities like playing with playdough and painting, both activities that promote social interaction. The children have been working together on their creations, helping each other, sharing materials, talking to each other about their work, sharing ideas, and exploring and manipulating materials as a group. As our group meetings progress, we will continue to explore different types of art which will eventually lead to a group art project.

Our group members are Jonah, Jacob, Nora, Jillian, Piper, and Holden. Although we have only had a few meetings, the children are excited to learn more about the animals that they already love, and have expressed interest in learning about unfamiliar animals. We spent the first two days of small groups looking through various animal books, and very quickly, the children expressed interest in animals that live in the water and animal babies. On Wednesday, we observed Lead Teacher Ross's classroom animals, which are a crayfish, two rats, and hissing cockroaches. The children had the opportunity to feed the rats and the cockroaches, and witnessed the cockroaches fighting. Aside from studying animals, we have also discussed that part of this experience is learning what it means to be in a small group. The children will help guide the direction of the learning based on their interests and curiosities. They will follow teacher directed activities at times and have plenty of opportunities to share ideas and practice conversational turn taking. I am very excited to work closely with the children in our group, and I can not wait to see where their ideas take us!

Augie, Mike, Sam, and Alex are in the music small group. So far they have been learning about some different percussion instruments and the part that they contribute in music: rhythm. During our first meeting the children played drums, maracas, rhythm sticks, and a tambourine. They were especially taken with the rhythm sticks. We used them to tap out the beat to a song we had learned earlier that day. During the second meeting, Amy and the children figured out that if you add different amounts of water to glass jars they make different pitched sounds when tapped. At our most recent meeting, the children made shaker instruments. The children had the choice of putting corks, buttons, popcorn, or wood shavings into their cups, and then figured out which ones made louder or softer sounds. The children really liked making their own instruments and have been interested in guitars, so next time we will try making box guitars, and talk about how a guitar contributes to a band. By making different instruments the children can see more clearly how a certain instrument produces a variety of sounds. Throughout this group experience the children will experience both the creative and scientific/mathematical elements of music.