Today, two coworkers and I went down to Anacortes to the Skagit Valley Connections Conference for early childhood educators. The presenter was Lisa Murphy, AKA The Ooey Gooey Lady. She had lots of good ideas regarding play based learning, and how to articulate what is happening while the children are playing in an intentionally prepared environment. Play based, as she said, does not mean they are all naked with paint flying thru the air. It does mean that playing with, for example, blocks is a learning opportunity - spacial concepts, balance, shape comparisons, social interaction, etc. and every aspect of our day needs to be intentionally planned for these things. But, it also means that we need to be willing to diverge from our lesson plans when something arises. If a child brings in a bird nest, but the weekly theme isn't birds, examine and discuss the nest anyway. That is all any of the kids will be thinking about until they have a chance to investigate.
She also provided lots of ideas for fun science activities that they can participate in. Like the non-Newtonian fluids flubber and ooblick. These suspensions are super fun to explore because of their unique properties. She also demonstrated making gases that make balloons inflate and film canisters to pop (which my class thought was great!), as well as using homemade bubble juice to explore surface tension. Again, learning is happening thru play, not "lessons."
There were lots of ideas that the three of us thought were great. Now we need to ponder the best way to accomplish adding them to our classes. Lisa warned us all not to go running into class on Monday and throw all these new things at the kids. We need to add them slowly, one at a time, so the newness doesn't cripple them! Here's to playing together!
