It was BEAUTIFUL out this morning, so we enjoyed playing (therefore learning) outside!
A few provocations were laid out- magna tiles, an easel with paints, the water table with numbered sea shells and a home made music station. The learning literally exploded today!
Sean was the first to get to the magna tiles. Due to the lovely sun, he quickly saw that the tiles allowed the light to shine through, leaving a colored reflection the same shape as the tile.
He showed his discovery to his friends and demonstrated the different colors.
Meanwhile, Retal, Juwana, Malath and Hajar started playing in the water with the shells. They quickly realized there were numbers on them.
A variety of structures started developing as more children joined in.
The same color reflection worked with the triangles as well.
With Mrs. Katie's guidance the girls started playing a guessing game with the shells. They had to try to scoop up a shell and then tell me what number it was. They then put it back in and tried to get a different number!
3 dimensional structures started- and the light shone through them as well.
The easel started to become popular, and we created our own drying line outside to put the finished works of art on.
Amaya said she was making a color wheel.
Hamudi was excited when the discovered that two triangles were able to make a square!
The "Burj Khalifa" started construction outside of room K102!
Together the children decided they only wanted to use the transparent tiles so they could test and see if the light went through.
Sean wanted to build a mouse trap, but was happy to continue to make it as big as they could.
Amaya continued adding different sized squares to make the tower taller.
Hashim inquired into whether he could see through the tiles or not.
Lots of collaboration and commitment in this project.
Hajar said "Look, my nail polish has changed colors". She had red nail polish on, and in the blue colored water, her nails appeared purple!
The tower continued to grow. These kids were determined thinkers, and very patient as they needed to be careful so they didn't knock it over.
Retal and Hajar started making their own music.
Retal and Hajar extended their understanding of concentric circles and made concentric squares!
Now, adding the final touches. The children decided to add tiles sticking out to make it look "fancy".
The final element- adding a string to it so they could pull it down if they wanted. They decided to wait and do it after they went to library and Arabic, unfortunately the wind had other plans and knocked it over.
Lots of great numeracy happening- number recognition, shape recognition, color blending, shape creation, structures, counting of tiles....
Great communication skills and ground decision making!
Very impressed with how these children worked together, demonstrating their understandings of so many concepts, all while playing :)
