Our day started off a little chilly so we were inside most of the morning. Thankfully, we had a daddy here to help us and play. His help at the art center produced some pretty amazing pieces.
At one point today Elliette drew a robot ? She said ” Ms Debbie, does a robot have a nose ? ” After a little discussion I suggested she ask her friends . I showed her how to make a graph and helped her go to their first two friends and ask” Does a robot have a nose ”
She eventually made it to each friend and adult present and then we took her paper downstairs and looked at the results. This type of activity hits so many learning domains. There’s social and emotional – having the courage and the self directions to follow through with the project. There’s gross motor and fine motor – Many times she had to balance to write on her paper not to mention the writing itself ! There’s creative and arts – which is obvious from the original drawing. There’s math ! So much math as she has learned what tally marks are and counting and comparing and using math terms like more and less. There’s language – verbal and written ! Can you see how one small activity with a teachers tiny help can lead a child to learn so much ?
Tomorrow maybe I can take Elliette’s paper back down we can use technology to research real information on robots. Perhaps eventually we can make a robot … if she wants. Child led learning is always right.
Another good thing that came form this activity is the way it encouraged the other children to join and play . Graphs started popping up all over the room – Does a dog where a skirt ? Does a cow have legs? They really had fun with it .
Oh then there was that planned activity to look at a picture of fall trees and encourage the children to use different types of art tools to create a picture of a fall tree.