Cups

Emergent curriculum usually comes from the children, but it can also come from events in the teacher's life. In this case, it came from having too many cups left over after a Girl Scout project last night!  I stacked some during group time and then left them in the block area...it was such a big hit, we had to raid the teacher's lounge for more!  There was counting, patterning, motor control, cooperation, persistance in problem solving, exploring the concepts of more and less, and the use of word endings like big, bigger, biggest...Who knew so much learning could be found in a cup?
 

 

 

 

Rocks

We have a rock expert among the Rainbow Room parents this year!
She told us about many different rock we passed them around.

We had rock choices all around the room!

We painted pet rocks...

We painted rocks with water to see how they change...

We learned that sand used to be rocks...

We touched and talked about more rocks with our expert mom!

 

 

We examined the rocks at the science center...

We've even been using rocks to learn the concepts of more and less with balances and by lining the rocks up in a ice cube tray (like a graph) to see which handful was more.

Child Led Science

After a child used wooden beads on a string to knock down blocks, I decided it was time to get the pendulum out!
 

After many children used chairs to observe the happening outside, I added a look out post in the science center...

(We do have binoculars too!)

Go Dog Go

Miss Jillian was in the play Go Dog Go.  We read the book, made party hats, and played a simple path game to get ready for the play...

We had front row seats!  It was fun to hear "Miss Jillian!"  everytime she came on stage!

 

 

 

Around the Room - December

We painted with toothbrushes...

played with a lot of playdough...

had recycled materials in the block area...

polymer crystals in the tray table...

learned to use the squeeze bottles to mix paint (they di so well at only using a little!)... 

practiced cutting...

and used cuttings to make a collage...

learned "Pat a Cake" and practiced finding the first letter of our names...

and helped Miss Karyn write the morning message!  These are the balloons to tell where the choices will be - I'm also getting help with the first letter of the words!

During Optional Days, we got the plexiglass easel out...