Inclined Planes are More Fun Than You Might Think...

When Francine and I get together to plan curriculum, we usually start by asking "What have the kids been passionate about/obsessed with lately." This time around, the resounding (but not surprising) answer was cars and trucks.

Cars and trucks are a perennial item in the Frog room. We may switch off the size and type of vehicle, but you can always find wheels close at hand.

We have nothing against simply rolling cars along the floor, but we figured it was time to expand everyone's horizons a little bit...

The addition of this wooden garage helped to point us in the right direction. Hang onto your hats, it's time to explore some inclined planes!!!

An inclined plane is one of the six simple machines as defined by Renaissance scientists. According to our good friend Wikipedia, simple machines are "the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage (also called leverage) to multiply force"

For example, a dump truck uses leverage to move it's payload (in this case, plastic cows) from the hopper to the dumping ground.

Leonardo Da'Vinci's fantastic inventions were all based on simple machines.

Because simple machines are...well...simple, they are easy to make and offer many hands on opportunities to explore concepts in engineering, mathematics and physics.

Also, when you "multiply force" you can make things go FAST, which is super fun!

As soon as we decided to start purposefully playing with inclined planes in our classroom, we noticed that they are everywhere!
Ramps...

Slides...

Ladders...

We're having too much fun with simple machines to stop with inclined planes. Next up? Pulleys!!!

Halloween Scenes!!!!

Our last post touched on how we pull a group of children together to make a community. Well, last week we were lucky enough to unite under the banner of Halloween!

We surprised the Frogs with a classroom-gone-batty.

Our loft was transformed into a 'Bat cave' using mosquito netting recycled from our now defunct playground gazebo. The Frogs took turns spatter painting the netting earlier in the week, then we teachers hot glued fabric bats all over it. We also used some recycled TP tubes that the Frogs had painted black to make a garland of flying bats to string across the classroom ceiling.

We had a variety of pumpkin related projects available. The Frogs used paint sticks to embellish our smaller pumpkins, and we opened up a couple of our larger ones, just to see what was inside. Squishing around in pumpkin guts proved to be less enticing than it sounds, once the Frogs heard about what was across the hallway...

CHICKENS!!!!!

...Chickens with a thing for toy vehicles, no less!

One of the families in the Polliwog room surprised the kids with a visit from three of their super tolerant, (and very well house-trained) pet chickens!!! Man, there's no topping live farm animals for party entertainment!!!

After the chickens packed up and headed back to their coop, we got ready for snack. Of course, it is a long standing Frog room tradition to make the kids really work for their snacks on Halloween! First, they had to break their pretzels out of a bat-shaped pinata, then they had to go on a treasure hunt around the community room in search of apples.

All in all, the day was a great success!

And now, we will leave you with a couple of before and after videos of our Halloween sensory table project.

Here's the Before;

...and here's the After;

Enjoy!

Becoming Frogs

How do you bring a group of very young children together?

You can give them a problem to solve, like "How do we get the toys out of there?"

You can draw their attention to something that they can't resist digging into...

...with tools...

...or, with their hands.

...perhaps, even with their mouths.

You can show them all something very exciting...

...and then talk about the experience together.

You can ask them to bring in something to share with the whole entire group...

...something from their yards...

...or something to eat...

Whatever we do, it seems that sharing experiences and then reflecting back on them, over, and over, and over again, takes this group of toddlers, with different ages, interests, and levels of ability, and turns them into "Frogs".

We're Still Here!!!

What?! It's October already? That was fast!!!
The transition from late summer into early fall is a strange one for us Frog teachers. Our classroom spends a most of the Summer in a state of limbo, with new Frogs orienting to our classroom, old Frogs gearing up for something new, and everyone taking breaks for vacations, long weekends, and other summer outings. By mid-September, the last of the "Senior Frogs" have moved on to their next big gig- sometimes the Possum room, sometimes other schools entirely- and The new class of Frogs finally starts to fall into place.
A couple of years ago, we started a tradition; As we were putting together each child's end of the year portfolio, we were inspired by how much growth- cognative, emotional, and physical- took place over the school year. We started to measure each child with a length of ribbon during their first week in the Frog room, then again on their last day so we could compare the two. Then, we would use both of the ribbons to make a "magic" wand for each child to keep as a memento of their time in the Frog room.

Just like last year, we were floored by how much the class of 2010 has grown! The differences between the "first day" ribbons and the "last day" ribbons ranged from 4 to 6 inches-Wow!

This week, we are preparing to measure the Frog class of 2011. We are looking forward to growing together this year!

Frog Class of 2010 Retrospective; Many Hands

Here's another post featuring assorted photos from the past year. Enjoy!

Frog class of 2010 Retrospective; Building Structures

As you know it's the end of the school year. Our "Senior Frogs" have started hopping over to the Possum room, and we are already welcoming new Frogs to the class. We have covered a lot of ground with this blog, but I still have literally hundreds of photos from the last year that haven't made it here. Until now!
Over the next few weeks, I will be posting several "Frog Room Retrospectives", featuring random photos from the last year. Parents of the "Senior Frogs" can take a look back at what your child has created over the last year. Parents of the Frog class of 2011 can get an idea of what they're in for. Enjoy!

Changes...

Wow!!! It's the time of year at Nonotuck when everything winds up changing at a breakneck pace!

We have lots of updates for you, so lets jump right in!

First up; The Birds...

On Wednesday, June ninth, we snuck a camera out to try and take a photo of the babies before Mama Robin came back from gathering worms. This is what we found;

Look! Feathers!!!

No more little naked chicks with bulgy eyes. Just a trio of tiny birds!

The following Monday, we snapped another photo.;

No more babies????

We were worried for a moment, until a parent who was doing some work on the playground over the weekend told us this story;

"while I was working I noticed the Mama Robin hanging around on the playground fence. Then I heard her call out to her babies, and they all came scurrying down to the ground. She sort of coaxed them over to her and after a little bit, the babies all flew off and joined her in the trees around the playground!"

How lucky that he was on the playground to witness this! Good luck, little Robins!

Next up: Silkworms...

Our silkworm larvae continued to eat, and eat, and eat! This photo was taken on Thursday, June twenty-fourth;

(You can't really see a whole worm, but they are about the length and width of an adults pinkie finger.)

When we came in on the following Monday, this is what we found;

Making a cocoon

Finally, Pupa!!!! The Frogs have been pretending to be pupa, wriggling inside imaginary cocoons while changing into their insect forms, for weeks. We are delighted that the silkworms have finally caught up with them!

Speaking of transformations....

Last up; The Frogs!!!

The Frogs are changing too!!! Our first batch of "Senior Frogs" is orienting to the Possum room this week. We also have a few children who will be leaving Nonotuck soon to move on to new schools. Way back when we were waiting for our chickens to hatch, we devised a method to help the children keep track of how many days were left until the chickens (hopefully) came out of their eggs. We made a long paper chain with twenty-one links, and removed one link every day during circle time. Since chicken eggs typically take 21 days to incubate, when all of the links were gone, our chickens started to hatch! The Frogs really loved this ritual, and we could really see how it made waiting patiently for a big event easier. With this in mind, we made each child their very own paper chain, with one link for every day they have left in the Frog room. Every day during circle, everyone removes a link and counts how many are left. When all the links are gone, we have a special something for each child to keep in recognition of all of their growth in the Frog room (more on that in our next post!) We also made a paper chain for someone who is not technically a Frog, but has nonetheless been an integral part of the Frog group, as well as Nonotuck as a whole. This week, we removed the last link on the chain we made for Margery Heyl. Over the last thirty-ish years, Margery has been a parent, teacher, and most recently director at Nonotuck. On Wednesday, we celebrated Margery's immeasurable contribution to the Nonotuck community with a breakfast party on the playground, where we dedicated a beautiful flowering pear tree that was planted in her honor.

Thank you, Margery, for all you have done for Nonotuck, and for Early Childhood Education in Western Massachusetts! We will miss you!