Ms.
VanTiem’s Classroom Investigation
Through my observations so far this school year, I have
noticed the children are developing an interest in balance. The last two weeks,
I have implemented two different experiences that incorporated this idea. In
the first exploration, the children had the opportunity to test their balance
by walking across the balance beam. I noticed when they were walking across the
balance beam they had their arms spread out to their sides. When I shared my
observation with the children, Lilly recognized “It helps you keep your
balance!”
After several attempts at walking across the beam, the
children experimented different ways they could walk across the beam and tried
to walk across it like their peers. The children worked together to help each
other successfully walk across the beam. While Lilly was on the balance beam,
Ibrahim said, “Walk like me!” As he demonstrated how he successfully made it
across the beam earlier. Throughout this activity the children developed
problem solving skills and cooperation.
The second exploration I implemented involved the balance
beam as well. I wanted to challenge the
children with weighted buckets. The intention of this lesson was for the children
to adjust their bodies with the additional weight, so they could remain
balanced on the beam. Children were able to successfully walk across the beam
when the buckets had the same amount of blocks inside. Then, I change the amount
of blocks in each bucket; one had 30 blocks, the other had two. I noticed the
children had to lift and tilt their bodies toward the lighter bucket to remain
balanced on the beam. While he was trying to remain balanced on the beam, I
asked Victor what the buckets were doing to his balance. He replied, “They’re taking
it away.”
We will be continuing our investigation of balance. Next, we
will be working on reflecting on our experiences so far, by drawing our
ideas. We will move into thinking about
what helps us balance on the beam and what strategies help the children
successfully walk across the beam.
When you are at home with your children encourage them to share
their experiences on the balance beam with you.
