myGanBlog: All Aboard!

A look at this week:

Hear the whistle blow; every come aboard! The train has departed from the Gan! This week we focused on trains and boats. We talked a little about direction (N, W, S, and E) as we made compass with arrows the children can move. And we spent time working on our passports as we took another trip around the classroom aboard trains and boats! In writing this week the children made their own train tracks and then copied words onto their tracks. In math the children took the cars from the number train and had to put them in order from 1-10. Then we parked our train on top of our word tracks on the wall! Some of the children enjoyed making a train out of boxes as well as making trains out of popsicle sticks, paper and stickers! And although the home living and block areas were open to play in with a train theme, no one chose to go in there. However, some children did decide to play with the gears to see how gears affect each other when putting them together to make things (such as trains) move! To finish off the enjoyment of our train trip, we not only got to put together a model train but we also made our own trains out of cucumbers, tea biscuits and carrots!

After debarking from the train, we then set sail on a boat! We started this part of our theme by making celery boats with peanut butter and paper sails and then we enjoyed eating them! We attempted to make boats out of soap, which we then learned that they would sink in a container of water! We also had the chance to graph items by finding out if the floated in water or if they sunk.

Conversations from the week:

Every morning I have been putting out different activities for the children to play with. This gives them a little bit of time first thing in the morning to enjoy some of the manipulatives found in the classroom. We have added to this a question of the day in which the children try to read the question and then sign in under what they think the answer is. This helps them work on writing their names, sound recognition, letter recognition, beginning reading skills and actual reading! After they sign in then they work on their journals for a little. Normally they are given a topic for their journals, but if they write off topic, that is fine too! And then, if there is still time before snack, they get to enjoy the other toys that have been put out.

One day this week (Wednesday) I put out the bristle blocks and pattern blocks. As each child finished their journal, they picked either activity to do. Here is a short conversation that took place over the bristle blocks!

Miriam: Let’s make a boat truck. Ok?

Avery: No. I want to make a train track.

Miriam: Well, I’m not making a train track.

Avery: I am.

When other children heard this conversation they quickly came over to help with the train track (which did turn into a boat of some sort at the end). It was just nice to hear the children actually taking what they are learning throughout the day and putting into their own play!

A look at next week:

Next week is a short week with the Thanksgiving break Wednesday through Friday. However, we still have some fun planned for the children! While we talk to the children about being thankful every day, we are going to spend these two days doing some Thankful activities. The children are going to help make a thankful page in writing; we are going to do a thankful count in math and we will also be working on a very special surprise that we started this week!