GRASSHOPPERS! A Study by Preschool Children

Great to have you back in the month of May!  I am so grateful for the opportunity of being able to be a part of the lives of so many children.  I'm grateful because I find children healing.  I have also learned so much from their authentic sense of wonder, willingness to explore, risk and create.  One of the preschool centers I have been around a lot is Child-Parent Centers, Inc.   Specifically, over the last couple of years, the center site in Benson, Arizona.  Together we have found ways to address both:

Critical Thinking and Creativity

Academic Growth and Emotional Intelligence

A strategy that this entire program has used successfully is engaging the children in "Studies" of certain topics.  Recently, the topic which excited the children was "Grasshoppers!"  Below is a description the teachers posted after the experience so parents and other visitors could see what they had been up to.

One of the most powerful ways to elevate any learner is to help them experience the "Artistic Process" in any area of study.  Experiencing the artistic process helps the learner realize that:

• learning takes place over time
• learning never stops
• the precarious edge of "not knowing" is a thrilling place to be and return to
• creating your own structure creates a life full of learning

Recently in my collaboration with other artists, (primarily International Mime and Director Rick Wamer of Arts Integration Solutions and Corey Ferrugia of MyTown Music), I have had some of the most meaningful conversations and artistic experiences in my life.  From those experiences we have talked about some of our experiences as Artists and here's just a small part of what I has been illuminated for me as a guide of children in the artistic process.

The Artistic Four 
(there are more, but these are some of my favorites):

• Context
• Concept
• Content 
• Collaboration

CONTEXT

In this study of Grasshoppers, children began with a context they knew and loved… the outdoors!  This is where they first noticed grasshoppers and became interested in knowing more.  As I have pointed out in many of my posts, the use of questions by the teachers was the launching pad for discovery.

CONCEPT

Elevated teachers help their young students establish goals and an overall plan.  In this case that meant:

• Catch some grasshoppers
• Examine the grasshoppers
• Figure out what grasshoppers eat

After the examining had gone on for a while, this study expanded as teachers added the ideas of:

• Counting
• Sorting

CONTENT

Throughout the experience, content was present, and it was present at all times IN CONTEXT!  This of course enriched the experience for the learner, in this case preschool children.  The content present throughout this study varied from the resources and materials below.

• Prior knowledge of insects
• Insect books
• Containers that could hold grasshoppers without harming them
• Writing materials
• Food for grasshoppers

Content is of course necessary and it's important for us to remind ourselves that it needs to be connected to concepts in order for the content to have anything beyond surface meaning.

COLLABORATION

Guiding young learners to work together goes beyond teaching basic social-emotional development.  When we help learners of any age understand how to listen to the ideas of others and truly collaborate we are giving them the gift of:

• Understanding that your own idea can become part of a larger idea
• Recognizing that no one has all the answers working alone
• Embracing new ideas as a way of learning and growing

THINK ABOUT…

• What else was learned in this study by the students?
• What else was learned in this study by the teachers?
• How could you use a study like this and create even more learning? 
• What areas of science could you teach to preschool children or older students?

ASK YOURSELF…

• How can I use the scientific ideas of comparison and contrast with young learners?
• How can I use the scientific idea of observation with young learners?
• How is observing different from seeing or looking?
• How often do I use the word "observe" with my children and how could I use it?

MAKE A COMMITMENT TO…

• Beginning the learning process of each day with CONTEXT the children are connected to.
• Co-create CONCEPT with your children that is connected back to the CONTEXT.
• Trust that the CONTENT will reveal itself based on the CONCEPT which is connected to the CONTEXT.
• Become a master at asking questions that encourages true COLLABORATION

Children are some of the most wonderful teachers I have ever met.  When we can embrace that idea and when we, as adult learners, can remember what it is to be like a child, full of wonder, excitement and energy, we can achieve so much more.

Meaningful success is much like meaningful learning.  It's not the content alone that is important.  It is helping the learner create their own structures and their own understanding OF THE CONTENT.  The CONTEXT of this is key, and the asking of questions is one of the foundational strategies in our quest to grow new paradigms of thinking in our youngest learners.

I would love to hear how you are using any of these ideas.  I invite you to post questions and comments on my Facebook educational site, "Living Like a Child."

Abrazos!
Enrique Feldman
Founder, F.A.M.E. Foundation
Co-Founder, Context Method®
Collaborative Artist, MyTown Music

PAPER POSSIBILITIES!

Happy Summer to all!

For those who don't know me, I'm Enrique Feldman, the Founder and Director of Education for the non profit education organization, the F.A.M.E. Foundation.  The Fostering Arts-Mind Education Foundation partners with many programs across the country, including Child-Parent Centers Heads Start in Tucson, Arizona.  For 13 consecutive years, we have been a very important part of their educational vision and it has been an incredible journey.  Today's blog is written by my colleague and  Children's Service Coordinator of Child-Parent Centers.  Her name is Leo Lundholm and she is one of the most gifted educators I know.  Enjoy her blog!

Enrique

A Study of Paper

Our curriculum approach values  the process of learning the qualities and attributes of materials.  Too often teachers:

• jump to encouraging children to make something representational 

BEFORE

• children have had time to explore the qualities and attributes of the materials.

Four teachers (Irasema Gerriets, Silvia Figueroa, Brenda Morales and Cecilia Mendibles) in our Sunnyside Head Start Center facilitated a yearlong Study of Paper  in their preschool classrooms. Paper is something we often take for granted it is a material most frequently used for writing so when the teachers began to think about paper as a material to study they had a lot of questions. “Paper… what about it?”  “Where do we start?” and “What about paper would be interesting to the children?” 

The teacher’s began the year with:

• setting up their classroom environment that offered the children several different types, textures, colors, weights, and sizes of paper. 

The teacher’s then posed three questions to the children: 

• “What is paper?” 
• “Where do we find it?”
• “What can it be used for?”   

From these responses the teachers acquired a deeper understanding of where to begin. The study began with children exploring  paper’s many transformational properties.  A few were:

• “Does it perform different actions; Such as folding, balling, tearing, molding, cutting,    
•   and movement?”
• “Can paper stand?” 
• “What happens when it’s twisted?”
• “Can paper be made to fly or float?”
• “Does different paper make different sounds?” 
• “Does paper have musical properties?”

Over the months the explorations lead to constructing, deconstructing and generating their ideas about paper!

The children spent many months studying paper pulp, they were intrigued by all the ways it could be transformed. One day the teachers noticed that the children were trying to find ways to make the paper pulp stand; they applied many different strategies some that were successful and others that were not. After some very thoughtful discussion the teachers decided to introduce wire to extend the paper pulp exploration. 

Wire further supported the children’s theories and understanding about paper. The children explored more complex applications of design, structure and creativity.  The result was the creation of the paper dolls that Enrique blogged about last month.  The possibilities are endless, including the creating of baskets (basket weaving) and the creating of piñatas!

When materials are:

• thoughtfully offered to children
• carefully mixed with other materials
• it offers children countless opportunities to reflect, design, construct and create with new depth and breath. 

Leonor Lundholm

Children’s Services Coordinator 

Child-Parent Centers Inc.

llundholm@childparentcenters.org

Differentiated Instruction, A Box of Rocks and a Freebie or Two!

Hello again.  It's me, Marsha, from A Differentiated Kindergarten.  I'm so happy to be asked back as a guest blogger here on PreK-K Sharing.  It truly is a pleasure.

Now if you happen to have noticed the title of my post, you're probably thinking, "What could a box of rocks have to do with differentiated instruction?"  Well, you trusted me the last time I was here proclaiming the powers of the almighty clipboard when differentiating, so I'm asking you to place your faith in me once again. 

It all begins with a little boy and his box of rocks.  Within this prized shoe box, lie the most valuable earthy possessions and treasures of my six year old son. 

When this sweet Irish lad was only 2 1/2 years old, from within the depths of his toddler-sized trousers one day as I was doing the wash, I recovered 2 Hotwheel Cars, one superball and 23 rocks (No, I am NOT exaggerating.). It was a wonder he could even keep his little pants up!

Three years later, I wish I could report that things have improved, but the proof is in the picture. These are the latest addition to his collection that I recovered from just yesterdays' wash. The sit proudly on my laundry room window ledge.

My son is a collector of all things natural. He studies, he sorts and he ponders. . . He is a salamander-hunting,  Petoskey stone-searching (It’s a Michigan thing.), bird-watching,  flower-smelling,  and blackberry- picking NATURALIST.
  

This summer as he investigates every inch of our 11 acres of woods, he is in the best possible classroom for a child who shows tendancies towards naturalist intelligence.  But what happens to children like my son when kindergarten calls in the fall?  How can we as classroom teachers find a place and a means to meet the needs of students like my own son who gather and demonstrate their intelligence through nature and working with natural items? My answer, of course, is through differentiated instruction.

OK, to start let’s take a little refresher crash course in the ways we can differentiate.  Remember this little guy?  He reminds us of WHY we differentiate.   Differentiated instruction is done in response to a students’ interest (This is the HOOK that creates interest and meaning.), readiness( This is a students starting point in regards to a concept and NOT their ability.)  and finally, learning profile (This includes learning styles and multiple intelligences.). 

Many people tend to focus a great deal on responding to a learners readiness when they think of differentiated instruction and understandably so.  But I really believe that a student’s interest and, in this case, a students' learning profile need to become as important as our response to a students readiness.
Brain research supports the notion that learning is optimized when skills and ideas are meaningful to the learner. It suggests that when students are allowed to engage in hands-on, real-life experiences, learning is at its best. So why wouldn't we consider different learning styles and intelligences?  It only makes sense.

When we think of a students learning profile, of course, we are thinking of how they learn best. It’s how they attain knowledge and, likewise, how they represent what they know.  The last time I was here I reminded you that Gardner tells us that intelligence is not just a singular notion but rather, knowledge can be acquired and represented in up to eight different ways. 

In my lesson planner, you will find a copy of the chart illustrating the 8 intelligences above.  I use it when planning my centers and activities so that I am reminded of the many different types of intelligences that are represented in my class.  (If you'd like a copy of your own, just click on the picture above to download it.)

In all honesty, despite living under the same roof with a 6 year old who is a naturalist, it is the most difficult intelligence for me to incorporate into my class.  It’s crazy, I know!  I mean I have a science center, sensory table and allow for an occasional activity outdoors when the Northern Michigan weather permits, but I have had to really make a conscious effort to find ways to respond to the needs of naturalist students in my classroom beyond just offering learning center activities.

I had to start by understanding what it means to have a naturalist intelligences. . .

 . . . and consider how I could incorporate this into my core objectives and essential skills.  I had to think about what we do in kindergarten and make a place for natural elements and activities.  I really needed to find meaningful ways to bring it all together.  So here's a couple of ideas of what I have come up with . . . 

In kindergarten, we sort and make patterns, so offer natural items such as rocks, pine cones, acorns, leaves or whatever you can find in your backyard or woods to practice these skills.  Here's a little "I can" poster to put next to a sorting tray (just give the picture a click if you'd like a copy).

In kindergarten, we count. Offer materials from nature as manipulatives for creating tens frames numbers in this  "Ten Frames Fun Build" activity.  It is aligned to the Common Core, is self-correcting and tiered to meet the various readiness levels of your students.  Just click on the picture to pick it up for your classroom.
You'll only find it free here on PreK and K Sharing (one of the perks of being such great readers).

In kindergarten. we also  learn about bigger and smaller numbers.  Here's a simple game using acorns we play in my class called ‘Oh Nuts.’ Never played 'Oh Nuts?' Click on the picture below to find out how.

In kindergarten, we read, so offer LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of nonfiction picture books for students to choose when they shop for books to read from your library.

In kindergarten, we write.  Write outside on a beautiful day, write in the sand, on the side walk with chalk, write by using sticks or stones to form the letters.

In kindergarten, we work with words.  How about some painted stones to use for putting letters in alphabetical order, writing words, or sorting letters that are in their name or not in their name. Here is an 'In my name' activity for the beginning of the year. Children sort letters that are and are not in their name. If you'd like a copy of this sorting mat to laminate and use in your own working with words center, just click on the picture below.

Incorporate natural elements into activities that appeal to other intelligences.  In kindergarten, it is still developmentally appropriate to have dramatic play. So offer a rock or seed shop.  Collect seed catalogs, varieties of seeds for sorting, and pretend selling or offering plants to customers. How about incorporating natural elements into art? Allow your students to paint with flowers, feathers or even worms!

You've never painted with worms? Click on the picture below to find out how.

These are just a few ideas on how you can differentiate your instruction by responding to the naturalist intelligences within your class.  I'm hoping all of you can come up with some more ideas to share.
In the meantime, it’s summer and Mother Nature’s school is in session for my little rock hound. 
You’ll can find us combing the shores of Lake Michigan for the illusive Petoskey stone

digging in the dirt

and searching the woods of our home for the biggest and juiciest blackberries in Michigan.

School's in session so get on out there and enjoy Mother Nature's classroom, and please stop over to my blog and let me know if you come up with any other great ideas for bringing nature in for our naturalist learners. You can check out other ideas for differentiating in your own classroom by visiting my own blog.  I hope you'll stop by.  I can't wait to hear from you!