Our Families

Another way we talked about our similarities and differences in September was by comparing our families. This isn't the only time we will think about our families this year, because they are such a huge part of who we are and our everyday learning experiences.

This month we were mostly exploring the people in our family- who they are, how many people, and how that compares to other families.

Family Photos + Figurines

I displayed our family photos along with these people figurines as an invitation to create your family. This led to some great conversations about the different people and quantity. 

People in Playdough

I noticed that some kids were frustrated at times by the people figurines because they didn't always stand up easily. So the next day we tried them out in playdough. Since this was a table activity, all the kids were sitting together to try it, and it was fun to listen to all their conversations about their families. It's something that we all enjoy talking about!

This also led to some creative playdough prints as well.

Birthdays in Preschool

There is one day during the year that is extra special because it celebrates you! We spent some time thinking about birthdays last month, as part of exploring our similarities and differences. Birthdays can be a great learning topic because the children already have background knowledge for how their family celebrates birthdays, and there are a lot of ways to integrate math, literacy, sensory, and social learning into birthday celebrations!

Birthday Cake Playdough

I first knew the students would be interested in birthdays when multiple children made birthday cakes out of playdough and straws. I loved the child-led learning that took place with this activity: different kids pretending it was a birthday cake, using fine motor skills to cut the candles, and counting the candles.

Water Beads Sensory Bin
Water beads are so bright and colorful, they seemed like a great addition to some birthday play. I was excited to see how the children would interact with them, and their imaginations really took off.  There was a lot of scooping, and making ice cream, soup, snail eggs, and more! This sensory material is hard to resist.

Birthday Cake and Ice Cream Dramatic Play

I set out various materials to encourage some dramatic play, like gift bags, pretend cakes, birthday crowns, ice cream scoops + cones, pipe cleaners and colorful pom poms.

 

 Counting Birthday Candles

These birthday cakes are made out of cardboard with tiny holes big enough for a pipe cleaner candle to poke through. That makes this a fine motor challenge and math activity all in one!

Balloon Painting + Parachutes
We  also used balloons as a painting tool, which was fun and a little messy if they accidentally popped...

And the favorite balloon activity was bouncing balloons on the class parachute. :)

Months of the Year

We used the topic of birthdays to talk about the months of the year, and how they go in a cycle. Time and the calendar year is a pretty abstract concept for preschoolers, but we focused on how each child has a special month, there are special things that happen during the months, and the idea that the pattern of months repeats itself over and over again. One way we did that was to walk around the names of the month in a circle, singing a little song. (hard to get a clear picture...)

We also used our all about me posters and birthday stars to see when everyone's birthdays fall.

Birthday Stars
We are starting a new birthday tradition in our classroom in this year by painting birthday stars and hanging them in our room. On a child's birthday, or Star Day, we will take the star down and they can take it home as part of their special day.

Snails in the Classroom

Alongside exploring the live snails found outside, we've also been doing some different snail activities to learn more about them.

We'll see if and how this interest continues to evolve, but here are a few of our favorites so far:

Shells and Playdough

I set out some sea snail shells for them to explore with playdough. One thing we've learned about snails is that there are different kinds- sea, freshwater, and land snails. Some students tried to make snails using the dough, while others just created using the shells.

Rolled Paper Snails

One misconception the children had about snails was the fact that they cannot leave their shells. Several students thought that snails left their shells to become slugs and look for new shells. We explored this idea in a few ways with questions like, "Why are some shells bigger than other shells? Do shells grow?" and thought about other animals that have shells. With some conversations and research we learned that the shells grow with the snails, and that snails need to stay in their shells to survive. We created these rolled-up paper shells as one hands-on way to visualize that the shell is part of the snail's body.

 We also learned that snails have 4 tentacles, and some students chose to show that in the snails they made.

Collecting "Snail Eggs"

We had water beads out in the sensory table, and several children pointed out that they looked like snail eggs! This was not intentional on my part, and I loved watching them make that connection on their own. After that a couple children started collecting only the white water beads because they looked like snail eggs.

Snail Slime Painting

This was a super messy, but favorite activity. Some kids who never come to the art table couldn't resist trying out the snail slime paint! We mixed up a batch of slime to a consistency that would work for painting and added some food coloring. 

The batch in the morning class was extra stretchy, and by the afternoon class it was more gooey. The students were free to use pipe cleaner snails, sticks, or their fingers to explore the slime. It was a great sensory art process, and dried into smooth, colorful blobs. :) 

Writing Journals

I always love to see how students express their interests and learning in their writing journals. Many students have chosen snails or snail habitats as a topic for the journals recently. 

The Wonder of Snails

We get a lot of snails in my yard. And all summer long I had been cursing those little, slimy creatures because they love to eat the vegetables in my garden. But I've found a new appreciation for them since school started. The kids started finding snails outside on the very first day of school, and their interest has only continued to grow since then.

Whenever the children found a snail, they would usually move it to the porch to take a closer look.

Often they would bring water over to it, or other natural materials like grass or leaves...or a stray seashell.

One day, the morning class found a group of snails by the sandbox, and we used the empty water table to observe them. Then they proceeded to bring sand and water over to the table for the snails.

The afternoon class noticed the table, with only a few snails left, and decided to create a new home for them, saying, "they'll love it so much, they'll never want to leave!" They gathered materials from the yard, including some discarded produce as "snail snacks."

After that day when all the students became engaged in one way or another with the snails, I decided to start adding some snail exploration activities into our day to support their interest. I started off with a simple shelf of materials,

that later evolved into an entire table.

In the middle of the table, you can see the little snail habitat the students helped to create to observe one pet snail in the classroom.

 Then we let the little guy go free.

After reading that snails like damp and cool places, to avoid drying out in the sun, the children also set out to create a shady habitat for them outside. We built it near the sandbox, since they found a lot of snails in that area before.

It started out small, and continued to grow and evolve as the days went by.

And any time a snail was found, it was usually placed right into the habitat.

Some children still check to see if they can find snails there right when they go outside.
And some children have become pretty attached to these little friends.  :)

These snails are probably getting more attention and excitement than they ever wanted...

More on our snail activities in the classroom coming up next!