The Week in Review February 10-14, 2014

The Week in Review

February 10-14, 2014

Ms. Cicchelli and the children have been exploring shadows. Ms. Cicchelli provoked the children’s ideas about shadows with a projector, large sheets of paper and a pencil. The children took turns tracing their partner's shadows. The children were very interested in how the size of their shadows changed as they moved their bodies closer or farther from the light source. "My shadow is getting bigger," Lea said as she moved her body away from the door.

The artist Joan Miro has inspired the class. The children are attracted to his black bold lines, organic shapes and vibrant colors. We have had several discussions on how we can incorporate these elements into our paintings. The children first drew their picture with a black felt-tip marker and then filled in their shapes with different primary colors. This week was our second round of creating Joan Miro inspired art.  

The class has concluded that the stage area near the office is a great place to build our airplane. This week we started to focus on the interior of the airplane, especially the cockpit. We have had several conversations about the different things that make up a cockpit such as seats, steering wheels, walkie-talkies, maps and gas pedals. We drew a plan of the cockpit to aid us in our construction. Next week, we will focus more on constructing our cockpit. 

Week in Review January 27-31

The Week in Review

January 27-31, 2014

The children have been interested in the idea of storytelling. This week we discussed the different ways stories can be told. We provided the children with a descriptive sentence and asked them to draw a picture that went along with the sentence. The teacher guided a conversation about what details they could add to their picture to better represent their sentence. Later in the week, Ms. Mused provoked the children’s thinking with a screen, and the book “A Very Snowy Day.” The children acted out the stories with their shadows. This exploration got the children thinking about how they could tell a story without using words. 

Ms. Cicchelli got the children thinking about shadows with a white screen and flashlights. The children experimented with their bodies and the flashlights. The children discovered how the placement of their bodies affected the size of their shadows and the placement of the flashlight determined the intensity of their shadows. Many of the children were under the impression that they always have a shadow. Ms. Cicchelli’s next investigation will be searching for shadows.  

Blue trays, sand, rocks and cups full of water nurtured the children’s curiosity about water. The watched as the water pushed away the sand and rocks to carve out a pathway. The children discovered that the amount of water poured onto the tray determined the amount of sand that would collect at the bottom of the tray. Also, the children noticed how they had to add more water in order for the rocks to travel down to the bottom of the tray.