Aleph Academy

Today’s learning highlight was at the bank.  The students spent most of their indoor exploration time playing “store” and “bank” so we decided to visit the bank on the corner of Lakeside and Moana.  When we walked in, the children were immediately drawn to the huge coin machine in the lobby.  As we were discussing the machine, a friendly banker surprised us by opening it up.  The children watched in amazement when he explained how the machine works and were delighted when the banker gave each of them an item that was caught by the machine’s foreign object magnet.  The bounty included foreign coins and shiny metal stones.  It was a  really fun way to extend the children’s learning interests.

Economics Standard

6.PK.1 Demonstrate the role of consumers through dramatic play.

Carey

Math was the focus of our learning today.  We began with a student centered lesson about patterns.  The students were given colored manipulatives and asked to create their own patterns.  Most students were able to create an A/B pattern with little help.  Zoe was an impressively quick learner and all of the students were engaged in the activity.   On Friday we are going to continue exploring the concept of patterns.   Skye Snyder, mother of Ruby and Marley and professional photographer, will be giving a photgraphy lesson involving patterns.

Math Standard

2.PK.1b  Recognize and replicate simple patterns (e.g. ABAB).

Carey

P.S.  I aplogize for the lack of photos this week.  My computer crashed and I’m in the process of purchasing a new one.

The new classroom arrangement seems to be inspiring lots of new creative play ideas.  The class pretended they were working in a cafe.  Ruby worked the cash register, Zoe worked on the computer and the others answered the phones and waited tables.  We also briefly spoke about the coins posted on the wall inside the new play area. The students expressed interest in coin identification so we will be exploring other money related learning activities in the near future.

Standards

Creative Thinking

3.PK.3- Create stories and scenarios by combining experiences and ideas.

Carey

 

 

 

 

October 26, 2009

The students decided to begin their day by investigating sunflower seeds. They were a newly added provocation in the sensory/science area. We talked about the five senses and the students commented on their observations.

We then moved to morning snack. During this time, Ruby and Dovid began to shape their napkins. This inspired me to partially scrap the art activity I had planned. Instead of replicating the black and white compositions using white tissue paper, I decided to go with the student interests and use white napkins. This turned out to be a wonderful change of medium. The children had an easier time manipulating the napkins and fostered a conversation about utilizing everyday objects in art. I also noticed the students spent more time on their compositions today. The older students shaped their napkins prior to gluing and the younger students spent lots of time creating designs with the glue.

 

Standards

Life Science

6.PK.2-Use the five senses to explore and investigate the natural world.

Creative Thinking

2.PK.2a- Demonstrate the ability to delay gratification to complete a larger task.

 

Carey

The students seem to do some of their best learning in the mornings.  Today they enjoyed building towers with plastic manipulatives.  This allowed for some mathematics (counting to 20, shape identification) and critical thinking.  The plastic pegs they were manipulating are three shapes-squares, circles and triangles.  After several towers built on a circle base toppled, Dovid commented “The square is on the bottom because it lets it stand up.”  Ruby immediately followed suit and built a 25 piece tower.

Math Standards

1.PK.5 Count to 10.

4.PK.1 Identify circles, triangles and squares

Carey

We began our morning with an exploratory walk through Dovid’s neighborhood.  The students observed many different trees, flowers, bushes and animals.  They collected rocks and leaves along the way and used them as inspiration for some drawings upon our return to the classroom.  At lunch time, they named and counted the different animals they observed during the walk.

Data Analysis Standard

5.PK.1 Identify and sort data.

Carey

The children took their building skills a step farther today.  I showed them three documentation boards that illustrate yesterday’s creative and critical thinking process and we had a wonderful discussion about what they learned.  Then the children used the photograph on the first documentation board as a reference while they attempted to replicate the block structure.  The students also decided I should post the documentation boards outside the classroom.  Ruby summed up their reasoning by stating “so the big kids can see it.”

Creative Thinking Standard

1.PK.1 Use a variety of approaches to solving problems in math, sciene and other cognitive areas.

Carey

P.S.  We began to explore clay today.  The children really enjoyed the texture of the medium.