Feb19

Must haves—flashlights, mirrors, and sunshine.

Sometimes as a teacher leads an activity, a student verbalizes all the observations and new questions that were hoped for, making one think, “Was this child coached to say these things, or am I really eliciting all this learning!?” I like to believe that the other children are also thinking what this one child is saying, but they are across the circle, or shyer, or faster to move on to the next thing, so I don’t get to hear their thoughts.

What I heard:   

“When you shine it [the flashlight beam] over the light it disappears.” (The larger ceiling light is brighter than the flashlight beam and obscures it.)

 “Move it close and it gets smaller, and then up and it gets bigger.” (Noticing the change in size of the circle of light as she moved the flashlight closer and farther away from the floor.)

“My hand got in the way.”

In one classroom the sun was conveniently shining in a window providing a very bright light to reflect around the classroom using mirrors.

From NSTA The Early Years Blog

 

 “The light comes here [to the mirror’s surface] and then goes [gestures to the wall].”

 

How can I know what impact my teaching has on the students? I look to see if children are trying the materials one way and then another way, asking questions, speculating on what some new item can be used for, and telling me or the classroom teacher about their discoveries.

 

Children who are not engaged these ways often respond when a teacher sits near them and asks an open-ended question, such as, “What do you see?” or “Show me what you can do with the flashlight.” See the list of “Question Frames for Teachers” as well as the comments and questions by children in the comprehensive lesson plan on exploring shadows from a South Dakota teacher.

 

In the days following the activity the children asked to use the flashlight again during the morning circle time. Because it was not a new experience, the flashlight could be passed around the circle without disrupting the proceedings. As classroom teachers extend the exploration of the concept in the days following the activity with the science teacher, they make sure to hear the thoughts of all the children.

 

What are your students’ discoveries?

Peggy

Published: Feb-19-09 | 4 Comments | 123 Links to this post

Feb17

Teach the lifecycle of a butterfly and celebrate 40 years of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar

March 20, 2009 will be the 40th anniversary of the publication of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a book loved by children for its parade of fanciful food, by parents for the healthy eating message, and by all for the artwork with splendid colors.

Are your students interested in the lifecycles of insects? Observing caterpillars and seeing the metamorphosis to the adult form is a common early childhood classroom activity in spring, culminating with the release of the adult butterflies. The NSTA elementary email list group recently responded to a request for butterfly resources with these suggestions (edited to create a list):

 

  • See the Teacher's Guide from the Florida Museum of Natural History. It has some cool activities, crafts to make, lots of detailed information, and lists of resources Be sure to check the weather forecast! If we rear butterflies, we need to give them a shot at survival--which means you need to have warm enough temperatures for them to survive outside and appropriate nectar plants available outside once the butterflies hatch and you release them. Also, be sure to work around your spring break! You can't predict exactly when the butterflies will emerge from their chrysalises and you don't want it to be when you are gone for a week!
  • The net housing for the adult butterflies is easy to make out of 4 paper plates, enough netting (fabric store) to go around the plates one and one-quarter times (and 30-60 centimeters wide), some tape, and a hot-glue gun.

1.      tape the length of the rectangle of netting to the underside of one paper plate, being sure to overlap the width edges by about 10 cm (the overlap is the access for hands but the butterflies do not find it).

2.      lay a line of hot glue around the edge of the plate (over the tape) and quickly put another paper plate on top of the glue.

3.      repeat this with a second set of plates and the second width-edge, paying special attention to making the net overlap go the same direction as on the first set of plates.

4.      to hang the housing, poke 2 holes in one set of plates, reinforce with tape, and thread string through the holes.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

From NSTA The Early Years Blog

 

  • Please note that almost all butterflies form a chrysalis, rather than a cocoon, when they grow and change into their pupa stage. I substitute the word 'chrysalis' for 'cocoon' when I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar (I even cross it off in my copy of the book so I will remember) but Eric Carle explains his reason for using the word on his homepage, http://www.eric-carle.com/q-cocoon.html
  • Tell children that as scientists we have special words to explain exactly what we mean when we talk about something with others. It helps to have examples of both chrysalides and cocoons to show children (save the empty ones). They often enjoy having the additional special vocabulary at their disposal.
  • What I tell people [about The Very Hungry Caterpillar] is to compare what we have observed about butterflies and what we have read in the book—what is "real" and where does the author's imagination take flight? I think it's a valuable point to discuss and I feel even young students can begin to appreciate the difference.
  • Butterfly resources at www.exploringnature.com:

1.      How to Draw a Swallowtail Butterfly

2.      Diagrams and informationabout different species of butterfly

  • See the article "Honeybees, Butterflies, and Ladybugs: Partners to Plants" in the February 2008 Science & Children .

 

Comment to add your suggestions to this list of resources.

Thanks,

Peggy

Published: Feb-17-09 | 1 Comment | 36 Links to this post

Feb12

Spring flowering bulbs planted where they can be seen

Are the daffodils blooming yet at your school? My across-the-street neighbors get about 6 more hours of direct sunlight on their front yards in February and March than I do, so I always have a preview of what nature happening will be coming next to my yard. Their daffodils have fat buds now in the middle of February, and the earliest crocuses are already blooming. Some years they wear caps of snow as we get winter and spring weather in turns. Every year spring flowering bulbs struggle to sprout and bloom right in the spot near our steps where my daughter always bounces her ball. The sprouts get smashed down but come back every year.

From NSTA The Early Years Blog

It can be hard to find a spot in a school yard where children do not step, walk, run, dance, or jump. At one school the best place for planting lies within the playground fence where years of wood chip mulch application have produced a deep organic soil. The flowers may get picked or stepped on, but first they are noticed because the children planted them where they play everyday instead of in a border outside of their territory. A gentle reminder to “go around” serves to protect the blooms while not destroying the children’s freedom to play. The teachers don’t worry too much about the children stepping on the bulb sprouts—they have survived many years of children.

Peggy

Published: Feb-12-09 | 0 Comments | 33 Links to this post

Feb09

Learning about motion and appropriate restraints

Some children chafe at any restriction, including car seat straps. Doing an activity about force and motion may not make them any happier to be strapped in but it may help them understand what could happen if they weren’t restrained during an accident.

 

The March 2008 Early Years column in Science and Children

From NSTA The Early Years Blog
provides instructions for discussing child passenger safety while modeling a car and passenger using a cup and marble. Children look at me curiously when I tell them, “This is me (holding up the marble) and this cup is my car. I’m going for a drive.” They all want to ‘drive,’ and we do—after they tell me how I can stay safely in my seat in the event of another car getting in the way. They propose seatbelts which we make out of tape. First we drive without ‘seatbelts’ because this is pretend,
From NSTA The Early Years Blog
then with the ‘seatbelts’ to see what happens. The children are repeating the experiment. Through experience they understand more fully that a loose marble will continue to roll even when the cup that was holding it is stopped.

Note that not all children think of using seatbelts to restrain their marble-drivers, notably those whose families do not own a car. They still enjoy the activity and taking home an information sheet for adults. Here are websites for such information:

The Washington State Booster Seat Coalition

Download these one page informative flyers at no cost to raise awareness about booster seat basics. They are available in Amharic, Arabic, English, Chinese, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Oromo, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinva, and Vietnamese.

 

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Information in English and Spanish, including videos that teach the appropriate restraints according to the child’s age and size.

 

Transportation Safety Tips for Children, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

A set of 11 topics, including riding in a car, bus, on a bike, and walking, these pages fully describe the rational behind using different car seat restraints at different ages and describe child development, such as, “Children can't judge speed and they think cars can stop instantly.” Copy the pages to share with the families of your students.

From NSTA The Early Years Blog

Children enjoy exploring motion.

Peggy

 

 

Published: Feb-09-09 | 2 Comments | 45 Links to this post

Feb07

Planting peas--who will help students record the growth?

I’m wondering what crops your class grows—Peas? Collards? Cilantro? Zinnias? Marigolds?

Planting peas on President’s Day has been the first item on my planting list for many years, and is the topic of the Early Years column in the February 2009 issue of Science and Children.

From NSTA The Early Years Blog
In USDA Plant Hardiness temperature zone 7a (see map), February is the earliest time I can plant this cool-weather crop. But this year with temperatures varying from 21*F to 51*F in the same week, I’m never sure if the children will be able to plant on days that I’m at their school. Results have been mixed. One year we had enough pea pods for every child to try one. They loved the crunch! Another year every pea shoot was eaten to a stub, perhaps by voles? Then there was the year there was so little rain and not enough human water-ers that the pea plants were stunted and produced only a few pods.

 

One of the joys for teachers who have one class is being able to develop a close relationship, and to be there for all the teachable moments. As a “push-in” science teacher, I’m not in the class the next day so I can’t immediately follow up on the spider that was found behind the blocks, or assist the children’s daily observations of a pea seed sprouting in a bag. (But I do get to fine-tune my teaching by trying it out on many classrooms with different populations and different curriculums.) The Fall 2008 issue of The Science Educator (Volume 17, Issue 2) discusses how the Center for Science Education at Education Development Center, Inc. invited researchers and practitioners to come together to think about the best models for teaching science in elementary schools—by the classroom teacher, by a science specialist, or a mixture of those arrangements. As scientists do, they first talked to define their terms, to better communicate with each other. This research is exciting because whenever education researchers mix it up there will be new information for teachers to use in the classrooms as we work towards using the best practices.

 

One way to share the results of seed sprouting is to have a brief class observation and drawing time every day. Date the drawings and encourage students to write or dictate their descriptions. Posting the drawings outside the classroom lets others follow the progress of your class’s discoveries.

Peggy
Published: Feb-07-09 | 0 Comments | 38 Links to this post

Feb04

Count the birds you see on February 13th -16th for just 15 minutes!

I’ve never taken part in the Great Backyard Bird Count but it sounds like an interesting way to learn about collecting data and become part of a greater group contributing to knowledge about bird population trends. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has partnered with the National Audubon Society on a project that includes the contributions of novice bird watchers to experts—me and you, and our students! See the Great Backyard Bird Count website for the simple instructions on how you and your class can participate. There is a “Learn about Birds” section with tips on identifying birds.

 

The ten most commonly reported bird species last year were:

1 Northern Cardinal

2 Mourning Dove

3 Dark-eyed Junco

4 Downy Woodpecker

5 American Goldfinch

6 Blue Jay

7 House Finch

8 Tufted Titmouse

9 Black-capped Chickadee

10 American Crow

 

Have you seen any of those bird species lately? A flock of Mourning Doves have been resting on the ground among the rhododendrons in front of my house (my neighbor fills her feeders daily), startling me by suddenly flying up all together when I open the front door. So I know where I’ll find my first five birds on February 13th!

From NSTA The Early Years Blog
Bird-shape rubbings are an easy way for young children to make accurate body shape drawings. They can fill in the details after completing the rubbing.
From NSTA The Early Years Blog

 

Once they start looking at birds, children will soon be pointing out the small brown ones and the large black ones, the red birds and the big white ones, otherwise known as sparrows, crows, cardinals, and gulls.

 

Cut out this mourning dove shape (30 centimeters/12 inches long) from old cereal boxes or poster board and help your students choose appropriate colors to make a rubbing that reflects what they see in nature. (Click on the photo to see larger version.)

From NSTA The Early Years Blog

The shapes of additional birds can be made by enlarging photos of birds to their actual size (see lengths listed in identification books) and cut from cardboard. Later children can make a fanciful bird, perhaps a pink crow with blue wings!

 

Be aware that book illustrations showing groupings of birds in perspective—those farther away pictured smaller—may confuse children about the actual or relative size of different species. I like the way  Counting is for the Birds by Frank Mazzola Jr. (1997, Charlesbridge Publishing) combines counting and identifying east coast bird species that often visit a feeder. Feathers for Lunch by Lois Elhert (1990, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) illustrates the dangers of allowing cats to have access to a bird feeder while introducing 12 species.

 

Some birding groups offer online identification guides, such as that of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Environmental Education Program about the refuge in Ridgefield, Washington on the Columbia River floodplain. It’s exciting to see the details of the birds revealed by the photographs.

 

Whatever the weather on February 13, I think I can count birds for 15 minutes. The online bird photos are already identified but birds outdoors present a challenge.

Peggy

Published: Feb-04-09 | 1 Comment | 61 Links to this post