Well, I am off on a new adventure! I am no longer in a dedicated classroom, but am working as a literacy specialist for my local school district. It is through AmeriCorps, and ends next summer. Then I will look for a new position in a classroom setting. In the meantime, I will try to post funny things the kiddos say while drawing their stories for me. It should be a hoot!

Ramps

The last couple days our kiddos have been using a plastic baby carrier as a ramp for Hot Wheels cars. They have been varying the depth of the incline to vary the speed and distance traveled. For the most part, they have done all this on their own. They are also realizing that different cars travel differently.

I have asked a few open ended questions - like "Why does one car go faster/farther than another on the same ramp?" And "Why does the same car go differently when you change the ramp?" They aren't quite able to articulate the reasons, but they have observed the differences.

Connections Conference

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!

Focus on Children conference

Today was the annual Focus on Children conference for early educators. This is always a good conference.

This year, the keynote speaker was Bette Hyde, director of the Department of Early Learning for Washington. Her talk was about all that is happening to improve early learning in the state, and how much of it is interrelated.

Early Achievers, which starts in earnest in July, is working on improving environments through training, coaching and grants through the federal Race to the Top campaign. Washington placed third in the initial round of funding. The P-3 alignment in literacy is working on early literacy starting in preschool with David Matteson's program, and continuing that same program, with increasing fluency and independence, through third grade. My school and the elementary we feed to are forerunners in this program, being the only private preschool to receive a visit from David Matteson himself last summer (the other schools he visited were publicly funded schools, I believe. I had just started working here when he came). It was an honor to see him interact with the children!

The breakout sessions I went to were: an intro to the WaKIDS Early Achievers program; an overview of what a P-3 aligned preschool and elementary school looks like; and using technology in early learning environments, which NAEYC has issued a position statement about in conjunction with the Fred Rogers Foundation. This is a hot topic.

I also convinced my director that we needed a liquid watercolor set. I bought a "new" rhythm stick CD (it was originally released in 1976, and I used it 12 years ago on *vinyl* in my first class) and a new matching game for my kiddos. We have lots to do next week!

When in Rome, do as the Romans do...

Today is my birthday. And while many women of a certain age may try to keep that on the down low, not me. I knew it would be party central! Thats how things are done in preschool. And when in Rome, you should do as the Romans do!

When I got there, there was a happy birthday note in my box from a school age girl that left for school before I got there. Then when I walked into my class, they all jumped out and yelled happy birthday, then sang to me :) I got a gift from my boss, along with flowers and a cupcake. My coworker made me a cake and gave me a handful of dark chocolate candy bars (she knows me well!). The class all drew me happy birthday pictures, then several of them also painted me pics after I got there. I got hugs galore (maybe the best part). After the school agers got back, they made brownies and gave me one, sang to me, and gave me a card.

I love working with these people and kiddos <3

Now, off to dinner with my girlie and a friend. Perfect ending to a good day :)

Surface tension

Yesterday we experimented with surface tension. I poured about a quarter inch of evaporated milk onto a pan and dripped some food color on it. Then the kiddos had a Dixie cup of dish soap and a toothpick. The process was to dip the toothpick in the soap, then into the center of a drop of color to see what happens. The soap changed the surface tension, and the colors swirled all around. At the end, we had a beautiful swirly pan of milk. They really enjoyed chasing the colors around the pan.

One of our other activities was "magic touch bags." These were a mixture of water, cornstarch and a bit of color. Once that was mixed, I added some oil. The cornstarch created a suspension with the water, but not the oil, so there was a blue, opaque liquid, and the oil. They would seem to come together, only to separate when left alone. They were a fun sensory experience when taped to a tray to use our fingers to draw lines and swirls on the bag.

We also had a lot of fun dancing ourselves silly :) The Cha Cha Slide is a favorite of our group, as well as some of Hap Palmer's active songs. Dancing is a great way to channel some excess energy. Our kiddos like it when the music is on my ipod, as that means they can jump around, because jumping makes our CD player skip and jump :)

Chromatography

Wow! Two posts in one day! We were busy today!

One of our centers was a less hands on, more observational, exploration of chromatography...the separation of colors. We used coffee filters cut into strips, and markers. As you can see in the picture, we made big dots at the narrow end of the strip, then we draped it over the edge of a dish of water so the very end was touching the water. The filter paper absorbed the water and wicked it through the marker spot. Depending on the kind of marker, we had colorful results.

The Sharpies, being permanent, really didn't wick. But the other markers, a variety of brands of watercolor markers, had different results. We actually had two browns of different brands, and they showed to be made of slightly different colors...like blue! And the pink had purple in it! And the black also had blue!

Now we just need enough sun here in NW Washington to do a similar experiment with a prism and light refraction. Maybe later this spring...