Recently in Ross's Updates Category

One major focus in the classroom continues to be on Mama and her babies. The babies are growing bigger by the minute! Over the course of the week, they have grown into their mature white and black coloring - looking more and more like Mama with every passing day and less like their "pinkie" selves from a week ago. Below are some photos showing the babies' changes and the children's interactions/observations of these changes. Also, I have added two stories from the past week. Take a look!

Mama and her babies

As the babies have continued to grow, the children have been closely observing them - making notes and drawing pictures of what they see. One interesting observation made by the children was that all the babies have different spots/patterns on their backs! We have collected these drawings and made a classroom book about Mama and her babies. The changes have been significant during this past week!

And now...their eyes have opened and they have become extremely active in the cage!

STORIES

On Wednesday, Juliet got inspired to make "birthday balloons." She began by drawing circles and adding faces. She decided to make five because, "I'm five so I'm going to make five balloons." Then, Juliet needed to make five strings (the manilla rectangles). While drawing the rectangles and cutting them out, she explained, "Well, I made five balloons so I need five strings to hold on to all the balloons!" After cutting the strings out and taping them to the balloons, she went around the room and told others to come and see, explaining the balloons were for the surprise birthday party she was going to have that day. As children came over, she invited them to join her at the party and shared her balloons with her classmates. This inspired others to make their own party decorations and invitations!

On Thursday, Nigel and Cedrick spent nearly 40 minutes tucked in the cave, working together on what was to become a very elaborate DUPLO structure. During their time building, the teachers overheard many discussions between the boys and watched as the two systematically added and moved each piece until it found its perfect place. This is a great illustration of when given the time, materials, and freedom to truly engage, children are capable of amazing and thoughtful creations.

The main focus of the play this week was travel. There have been numerous destinations as well as participants! The play has created great opportunities for children to work together; talking about where their trip will take them, what they need for the trip, how they'll get there, who will be what character during the travel, and so on! The stories also continue to grow in complexity, as the children revisit storylines from the previous day. Ask your child where they've traveled to or if they've helped get another group to their destination by building a vehicle or transporting the group themselves.

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Mama had her babies! It's been the buzz around the classroom, with many children eager to go in and take a look at Mama's 11 babies! Now you can share in the excitement at home!

The children have been VERY excited to catch a glimpse at the babies, however Mama has been very protective. We have seen them go from having only pink coloring and being extremely tiny to growing slightly larger and developing the black head and stripe (similar to Mama's coloring). We will be taking photos and drawing/record our observations to help document the growth of the babies! It happens fast and the next week should be quite exciting with hopefully more movement as well as the open of the eyes! Ask you child about the changes they're observing with the baby rats, it can lead to some great scientific discussions!

We have also had some fascinating changes happening with the tadpoles! Not only did they get bigger over break, one has sprouted hind legs! Many children have been intrigued by this amazing transformation and continue to check daily to see if there are any new developments! Similar to the baby rats, we will begin photo documenting their growth to compare the changes that take place each week!

Here are a few stories from the past week. As the winter session continues, we hope to add multiple stories each week: highlighting some of the specific vignettes taking place. Some may focus on an individual child, while others with tell the story of a small group of children or a large theme taking place in the classroom. The stories are great opportunities to talk with your child and help them share about the play happening each day!

Our first story shows the "loss" of one of our beloved additions to the classroom: the door. This door for the block area was created in the fall and has been an amazing addition (and catalyst) for MANY great dramatic play stories since it joined our classroom. One day, the door split into two pieces. After trying to think about what we could do, Garrin got the idea of gluing it back together. "We'll put glue all the way along here [pointing to the snapped side of the door], and squeeze it together!" We got some wood glue, some more children, and did exactly that: Garrin glued the edge and then everyone squeezed the pieces together. Quickly, the children got tired and we tried to come up with another solution to keep the door pieces together. Tape! Having the children hold the door in place, pairs of children pulled pieces of duct tape across to hold the door in place. We checked the door after two days and...IT WORKED! The door is back in operation, however only temporarily, as we have plans to make a more permanent repair.

One of the popular areas where the dyads have blossomed has been at the easel. Many children having been coming together to create collaborative paintings. Here, Juliet and Riley worked on painting a snowman. They negotiated the colors to be used, size/location of the body, and placement of "accessories" such as the hat and face. Others observed this and we're inspired to invite another child to join him/her, painting together and using rich language to create the perfect cooperative masterpiece!

Another exciting story that has developed this week is the addition of "Mama" rat. After a discussion during large group about how one of our rats died while we were on break, the children said they wanted another rat, "because the other is sad now that it's all alone." Upon hearing this, Eva said she had a pet rat that was about to have babies and would let our class take care of her AND her babies once they were born. The children have been very excited for the babies to arrive and they should be here any day!

The first week back, we wanted the children to have the necessary time to reconnect with one another as well as meet/build rapport with the new student teachers. After watching the play during the first week, it was quite clear that the children were comfortable with the new teachers and getting back into the routines, as well as very eager/excited to see one another! The play has been active, and it appears that the children haven't missed a beat! They're picking up right where they left off and continuing to build on play themes each day (both old stories from the fall as well as new stories that have been created since we've been back)

We have also seen the reconnection between specific friendships during the first week. Dyads have been popping up around the room, sharing great ideas about play and supporting many great social/communication skills between the children. We have overheard lots of negotiation about the play themes as well as comprising of ideas in order for the pair to reach their common goal/vision for the play. It's been quite exciting to watch these reconnections take place!

It has been a long break and we're almost ready to come back to school, but before we do, I wanted to give everyone a chance to "meet" our new students teachers for the winter session. Below is a quick introduction from each, but please do stop in and say hello once we come back to school. They are excited to get started as well as meet all of you! (pictured left to right: Jennie, Nadine, and Stephanie)

Jennie Young - Student Teacher
Hello class, my name is Jennifer Young, but you can call me Jennie. I grew up in the Green Bay area of Wisconsin. I moved to the Twin Cities to attend the University of Minnesota and I love it. At home, I have two dogs, Dacota and Snoball, and a cat named Elvis. They all have a lot of hair, and big personalities. In my free time I like to read, watch football, and try new restaurants. I am very excited to meet all of you and see what this new year will bring!

Nadine Cassada - Student Teacher
Hello Families! My name is Nadine Cassada and I live in Plymouth, MN. I enjoy music, movies, and hanging out with my friends and family; but most of all I love working with children! I look forward to all of the fun and learning we will share! So bring on the energy, I will have mine! =)

Stephanie Senum - Student Teacher
My name is Stephanie Senum, and I was born and raised in a small town called Rosemount. I have a wonderful family and great friends. Some of my favorite activities include skating, sledding, camping, and swimming. I have always had a passion for teaching and I am looking forward to putting my teaching skills to use!

Here are a few photos from the short week. True both stories are related to building, but that might have something to do with the excitement that has come about with the addition of the new door in the block area. Also, this has been one of the main hubs were many children have come together: working with one another and reinforcing many important social goals as well as relationships forming in the classroom. The play has only grown in complexity as well as in popularity over the past 9.5 weeks. We will continue to bring opportunities to practice literacy, art, higher-level/critical think skills, as well as other developmental skills into the block area to support the overall developmental growth of all the children involved in the building excitement. However, I assure you great things are happening in other areas of the classroom as well as outside. Unfortunately we didn't capture as many photos in those areas during this short week. ENJOY!

Juliet, Alexis, and Hadley teamed up and created their own houses on a smaller scale, using the unit blocks, peg people, and carpet squares to furnish their homes. They talked with one another and negotiated where the walls should go, the size of each home, and what carpet they wanted inside. It was a great opportunity for the girls to work collaboratively. We also saw their interest in building carry over to the larger scale, hollow block house building.

The addition of the child-sized door to the block area has caused an explosion of new ideas, collaboration, and excitement in the block area. Many children were already working together with building houses, however there always seemed to be an issue with the houses being too short or too crowded. There was also the trouble with having a useable door that didn't disrupt the roof. The teachers thought about creating an actual door to not only help with the previously mentioned problems, they thought it would be an extension to the play and create new play themes while inviting new children to join in the building experience. It has done exactly that. Upon first use of the door, the houses were too small and could only fit a few children. Through discussions with the teachers as well as one another, the children realized they could expand the walls and make room for many children. Ross also told a story at large group to show the limitless possibilities of the door - sharing a story where a magical door led to the jungle, the ocean, and a new gym (that Ross didn't when he was in preschool). All you needed to do was use your imagination and it would appear on the other side. Ask your child about the story: where the door lead to? what were the things within each newly invented space? if they were to use the magic door, where would it take them and what things would they find? We would love to hear their ideas!

As we begin to wrap up the autumn session of the school year (wow...we're almost a third of the way done with the school year!), we want open our focus to include the fostering of higher-level thinking. With a strong social community established in the classroom, we feel we can really begin to challenge the critical thinking skills of the children through richer scientific question asking and hypothesis testing. The photos from this week are meant to reflect of some the ways we facilitating these opportunities.

Large group has become not only a time to sing songs, tell stories, and have fun...it has become a means of proposing questions and challenging the critical thinking skills of the children. One day Rachel brought the magnets from the science table to large group and asked the children what they knew about magnets. The children knew that magnets were things that stuck together, however Rachel challenged them with the question of why the magnets stick together. She also asked what things do magnets stick to, as the children also knew magnets don't stick to everything. One of the most puzzling concepts came about when Rachel faced the north sides of two magnets towards each other on a pencil (look closely at the first photo). As one magnet floated above the other, she challenged the children to get them to stick together. No one could...not even the other teachers. When she turned the top magnet over, they stuck! Although these concepts are very abstract, it is important for children to activities such as these to challenge their thinking and use their brains in new ways. The expectation is not to fully grasp why, but rather fuel the inquisitive mind and pushing the children to think about things in a new way: supporting the many areas of critical/scientific thinking skill development.

We have seen the higher-level thinking (hypothesis creating and testing) taking place in the water table as the children conduct "sink or float" experiments. With a variety of materials to investigate, the children have been overheard talking about whether the objects they were about to place in the water would sink or float. The repetition of the experiments from day to day also reinforced the child's understanding of the concept by consistently yielding the same results (i.e. every time Otto and Helena put the ping pong balls in the water, the floated...every time they put the golf balls in, they sank).

Another area where exploration and inquiry has been taking place is at the science table while the children have been exploring glurch. The children initially explored its properties by touching and stretching the material, however quickly became curious with figuring out how far it could stretch. Children held the glurch in outstretched arms and watch in amazement and wonder as it slowly made its way to the floor. Then, children began pulling it with a partner (as seen in the second photo), resulting in glurch strands longer than 10ft! These interesting discoveries will be leading us into a new focus on measurement as our fall session comes to a close.

We have also been creating small stories and looking at photos from the previous day with the children to help extend their play as well as help them recall what they did the day prior. As you know, house build has been very popular lately. By looking at pictures of the previous day's constructions, the children were more motivated to revisit the play theme as well as add more detail to their structures based off of what they saw in the photos (as exemplified in the last 2 photos with the plethora of "food" options located inside the large hollow blocks).

Here are the week's photo updates. As mentioned last time, I've added a bit more of the back story as well as tried to highlight the developmental support that's accompanying the photos. Let me know what you think of the new format.

As the children have the opportunity to come back to familiar materials and repeat/recreate similar play themes from the day(s) before, the play theme (in this case - block structures) grow in complexity as well as invite more children to combine ideas and work collaboratively.

Here are two photos of an elaborate house structure that involved many children in the classroom working together. Building houses was very popular over the previous few days. This house came about because one of the teachers read a book depicting all the steps needed to build a house (including the internal components: such as plumbing and wiring). The children started building the external structure as they had in the days before, however what made this house unique was everything "inside" the walls. Children began adding small blocks (a.k.a. "pipes") and wires/pipe-cleaners from the art area (a.k.a. "electricity wires") to the insides of the large hollow blocks, making this house complete.

Another area we've seen support with fostering/maintaining social relationships as well as cooperative play has been at the computers. Here Peyton, William, and Hadley work at one computer while Otto and Evan work at the other. Both groups were playing the same game, watching each other and working together to complete the puzzle. As you can see, the end result was quite humorous! This collaboration supports much more than the social relationships/friendships forming in the classroom. It creates fabulous (child-facilitated) opportunities to practice conflict resolution, negotiation, and compromising skills - all important things for young people to learn.

The water table has also created great opportunities for children to come together and support of social focus. Garrin first discovered that the hand pump's hose could reach into the neighboring funnel. Intrigued by the new creation, Cedrick came over to see what Garrin had done. Garrin explained how he could "...pump the water from the water table into the funnel and then it goes down into the bin." Nora, interested in the new contraption as well, joined the boys and the group worked together to pump the water. New hypotheses were created and tested as the group shared ideas about what else they could do to move the water from the water table to the bin located below.

Dramatic play creates countless opportunities for cooperative play and social support. Here, Alexis and Nora tended to the sick animals in the Animal Hospital. Children continued to stop by with sick puppies, kitties...even a sick tiger and a sick ostrich! A number of fascinating conversations came about during the treating/releasing of the patients that visited the Animal Hospital. Again, this was another great place where children had to talk with one another and compromise about using materials, negotiate who would be the patient and the doctor, as well as resolve conflicts about diagnoses.

Well, we survived pictured day! Truthfully, I'm looking forward to seeing our group photo...it should be an interesting one. I'm amazed they are able to "settle" that many young bodies long enough to snap a photo. Speaking of...here are our "visual updates" from last week. I'm going to start attaching a bit of the story with the photo to help increase conversations at home, as well as help shed more light on the story behind the photograph. As always, if you have any other questions about what's going on, please let me know!

Nigel, Garrin, Oliver (background), and Evan (foreground) discussing the many things being build with the LEGOS
The cave has created many opportunities for children to play cooperatively, as well as help children discover "new" areas of the room! These conversations and collaborative play themes are fostering our ever-growing social community that we are working hard to establish in the classroom this fall

A group diligently planting seeds at the science table.
As the children observed the sprouting of the pumpkin seeds (in the cotton ball pouches), they quickly exclaimed they needed to be put in the dirt so they could "keep growing." A growth chart will be posted in the science area to chart the continual growth of our seedlings

Garrin and Cedrick talking with Stacy about the paper making.
Garrin thought hard about why the paper needed to be chopped up into tiny pieces. He and many others created hypotheses and got to test them with Stacy at the paper making station (And all the paper samples should FINALLY be dry from sitting out over the weekend!)

Nigel and Evan building another elaborate vehicle in the block area.
These two use the small unit blocks as controls, supports, and various engine parts - as you can see in the photo with the smaller blocks inside the larger hollow blocks. Lots of planning and thinking going on!

Cedrick and Helena working together on playing the piano in the music cave.
They showed each other how to make different sounds by pressing different keys as well as played other instruments together

On Thursday we had a visitor from the dance department - Kelsey. She had different movement activities for the children to try that stretched their bodies, and got them moving in creative ways: supporting our focus on teacher-directed activities in the gym. She wrapped up with a favorite song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!

Here are the "Update" photos from the past week. We have seen the dramatic play groups growing in size as the children figure out ways to incorporate others interested in joining the play. It has been exciting to watch the children working collaboratively and helping one another become a part of each other's play themes!

Fun Inside
Here are some photos showing some of the different things taking place in the classroom this week.

Otto and Helena working together to make music on the xylophone

A group of children taking a ride on Evan's "city bus"

Hadley, Nora, Juliet, Alexis, and Riley serving up the "berries" and enjoy a meal together

Oliver and Garrin sharing the "berries" being served in the kitchen

Fun Outside
Regardless of the weather, the children always find ways to have fun outside. With the warming of the temps (slightly) as well as having all the leaves drop from the trees, the children's excitement to explore the playground continues to grow! Here are some photos showing a few of the "new" activities happening on the playground.

Oliver, Garrin, Peyton, and Nigel working together, digging for "dinosaur bones"

The whole has grown in size! Nigel working hard to clear more sand in search of fossils

Helena and Cedrick jumping into the giant leaf pile (while Sarah from Amy's class watches)

Hadley trying out our new rope swing as members of Amy's class look on and wait their turn

Evan intently stirring up a mixture of "witches brew" maybe

It has been an exciting week with many new materials being introduced to the classroom. Here are some photos of all of the different things happening inside (as well as outside) the classroom!

Around the room

Abe, Hadley, Ella, and William exploring the possible habitats for the animals at the water table

Abe, Juliet, and Elizabeth balancing as many things as they can on the scale, seeing how much weight they can stack before the pile tips

Juliet illustrating her version of "Where the Wild Things Are" after she and Elizabeth worked together dictating the story

Alexis and Evan taking a ride in Nigel's plane

A photo of Abe's systematically arranged "dump truck"

Garrin discussing his findings with Angela and Riley

Nora digging in and exploring the insides of the turban squash and zucchini

Oliver, Helena, and Nigel working together to fill the boat with leaves

Children looking at a ladybug that Amy found as well as a shot of the ever-growing sprawl of leaves on our playground

Children playing with the leaves and enjoying the last few days of autumn

Our field trip to the mailbox
With the excitement of sending mail/letters to one another in the classroom, the teachers decided to set up an opportunity for the children to send themselves a REAL postcard in the mail. It should have been delivered to your home on Thursday or Friday (with a picture of your child on one side and a drawing on the other). If you did not receive the postcard or it did not have the photo on one side, let the teachers know and we'll print another picture for you and your child.

William putting his postcard in the mailbox while the children wait for their turn

Nora's turn putting her postcard in the mailbox

More photos from around the room
Here are some more photos showing the happenings around the room after our excitement from Monday's snow day! They have been saved as a smaller file size, so hopefully the pages should load faster. Please let me know if you notice a difference in the loading speed of the updates!

Otto and William playing in the habitat cave

Hadley and Garrin discussing their findings at the science table

Alexis, Estelle, and Hadley studying the rats and recording their observations

Cooking with Eva

Eva and her son Aidan came in and made graham crackers with the children...they were a HIT!

Riley, Hadley, and Ella rolling the dough flat

William adding the final touches to the graham crackers before they go into the oven

Usually the updates come later in the week, but today was an exciting day with the addition of a new classmate, playing parachute in the gym, and (of course) the accumulating snowfall. Here are some photos to help spark conversations about the day, or supply visuals for the stories your child may be sharing about what happened at school today!

Fun with the parachute: many children working together to make "popcorn"

Snow on October 12...a strong possibility when you live in Minne-snow-ta

Ella, Riley, and Elizabeth investigating the accumulating snowfall

Evan trekking through the snow-covered "meadow"

Garrin got the idea to make a snowball and turn it into a giant snowball; here's the midpoint

Garrin's end result from "lots of pushing!" (from a snowball the size of a baseball)

Talking about school with your child is fun for you and your child! One of their favorite topics to talk about is their teachers. Here is some information to help you get to know us as we get to know all of you!
(pictured left to right: Stacy, Elizabeth, Rachel, Ross)

Stacy Kranig - Student Teacher
Hello Families! My name is Stacy Schaaf Kranig. I am from South Minneapolis.
In my free time I enjoy music, film, art, cooking, traveling, yoga and
football. I have two puppies named Sonny and Chewie. I am greatly looking
forward to getting to know you all during my time in Ross' class.

Elizabeth Argo - Student Teacher
Hello, I'm Elizabeth. I've lived in Minnesota all my life. I currently
live in St. Paul with my Beta fish named Phineas. I like spending time
outdoors, learning about other cultures, and traveling anywhere/everywhere.
I'm excited for the adventures that this semester will bring!

Rachel Harris - Student Teacher
My name is Rachel Harris. I was born in Tucson, AZ but grew up in
Rochester, MN. I moved to the cities for college at the U of M. I have a
bachelor's degree in Child Psychology and am now working on my master's in
early childhood special education. In my free time I love to do arts and
crafts, such as scrap booking. I also am really enjoying planning my
wedding which will happen next June!

Ross Thompson - Lead Teacher
Hello everyone! I'm very excited to be back for another fantastic year at the Lab School. This is my 6th year of being a part of the Lab School Team, and my 3rd year as the 5-day morning teacher. I'm a true Twin City-ian, growing up in the northwest suburbs and living in scattered areas of Minneapolis and St Paul while attending the U of M. I received my undergraduate and master's degrees here at the university, both in early childhood education. I love finding/listening to new music, making/seeing art, spending time outdoors, working on the seemingly never-ending to-do list that accompanies owning a new home, riding my bike (which I do nearly every day to and from work), as well as practicing yoga. I've also recently started to develop a bit of a green thumb, and would love to chat/share tips about plants and gardening!