NZ Teacher

We have been enjoying  Miss Tracey's Number Songs. The lyrics of the songs were made into a book for the numbers 1-5.  The children are enjoying reading the book. They know the words of the song and can match the words they sing with the words in the book. Literacy, mathematics, matching 1:1.

B. brought some Orbeez to school. I asked if we could add water and watch them grow. "They don't grow," he said. We put them under the document camera and drew around the orbeez on the screen, then watched throughout the morning to see if they orbeez got bigger. B. was not convinced they had got bigger. He said that the camera had magnified them. Observation, experimentation, sharing thoughts. More experimentation is needed.

The stones have been used for balancing, as coffee and now for placing on the holes in the letters. The foam letters have holes for pegs to be fitted into. Stones work just as well. Creativity, counting, letters, arranging, decision making.

During recess, a group of children had discovered ants in the date tree and on the ground.  While making porridge, one of the packets of oats had ants in it. I put the oats into containers for the children to watch the ants. Some of them used spoons to try to scoop the ants from one container into another. They wanted to collect ants from the playground to keep. Observation, fine motor skills, wonderings.

Porridge was made after reading "The Three Bears". T hree bowls; Papa bear, Momma bear, and Baby bear's porridge.  As the children arrived at school they saw the bowls of porridge. They were able to choose which bowl to sample some from. A couple of the children loved the porridge and wanted to keep eating it. They decided that they liked Papa bears porridge - it was the "hottest" - they said that it was "just right". Lists, sizes, language, re-enactment.

Some of the children were playing with the crockery plates when one fell onto the floor.  A large chip came off the plate. "This is what happens when they fall onto the floor," I explained as I picked up the plate and put the chip into place. "It's ok, I can glue it on." I was thinking of using some super glue to fix it later. "I'll get the glue," A. said.  "We can use sticky tape," I suggested. A. got the sticky tape and, with a friend, repaired the plate. He then took the sticky tape over to the home center when he'd decided to "fix all the plates" by putting sticky tape onto them. Problem solving, cooperation, cause and effect.

The foam shapes were used to model putting them onto a graph from 1-3. This foam shape looked like a butterfly to me. "It's not a butterfly. It's a dress," L. said. "Can we draw a person with arms and legs?" That's what she did. A few of her friends did it too. (The shape is actually a housefly.)