Tzemach Class 2016: We Are Scientist!

Hello family and friends!

I'm going to use this week's post to give you a brief update on what we've been doing the past 2 weeks since I was out of town for most of last week with family. First of all, I want to thank you so much for all the sweet words of encouragement and emails. They meant more to me than you know! I was so happy to be on Monday and get back to a normal schedule. I'm so thankful for a wonderful community of parents like you!

The past 2 weeks have been a little crazy as we've been trying to pin down what the kids want to learn about. To start last week, we were learning about plants because the kids had started bringing them in from their yards. We thought maybe they'd enjoy learning some more about these flowers. However, on Tuesday, the kids got to spend a little bit of time with Ms. Kelly while I was surprised with a sweet baby shower at school. While I was gone, they were talking to Ms. Kelly about things that are fast and she communicated with me that they seemed really excited about it! We thought this was something we should transition to. However, I found out that afternoon that my grandmother had passed away and I was leaving town. Michelle decided she'd keep up the plant study for those days and we'd meet with the kids on Monday about what they wanted to learn about. During this time the kids got to explore bulbs, seeds, plants, and leaves. They did some bulb dissecting and got to get their hands dirty as they explored different types of soil and plants. Michelle did some write ups on the bulletin board in the hallway that explains the rest of the week. I encourage you to go check it out when you get time.

When I came back on Monday we sat down with them to discuss our new exploration direction. They were all about things that go fast. However, during that talk someone mentioned that sharks go fast. This got everyone talking and before I knew it, most of them had jumped on the sea creature train! At this point, we had things go in so many directions that we figured it was time to do a vote. We asked them individually what they wanted to learn about and the verdict was sea creatures! At this point I was thankful that I hadn't spent all weekend at the library gathering "fast" books like I had originally planned. HA! This is the beauty of working with 4 year olds...they keep you on your toes!

All of that to say, we're officially on the topic of sea creatures! The kids are excited about it and have been bringing in TONS of books. I've been amazed at the facts we've been learning. Our plan for this exploration is to expose the kids to as many different types of sea creatures as we can and then allow each child to become an expert on a creature of their choosing in later weeks. To start the study, we made a web chart of ocean creatures we knew about and some questions we had. We then learned about the 3 main zones of the ocean: sunlight zone, twilight zone, and midnight zone. As we talked about these, we discussed their different characteristics as well as the types of creatures that live in each zone. We were able to learn how many of these animals have odd characteristics that allow them to better live in their zone. For example, many creatures in the twilight zone have large eyes because there is much less light in this zone. Many creatures in the midnight zone have body parts that actually make their own light since this zone is void of light all together. To further demonstrate these concepts, we made a jar of ocean zones. For the bottom, midnight zone, we dyed corn syrup a very dark purple/black. This shows no light entering that zone. For the next zone, the twilight zone, we used dark blue dish soap. This layer sits on top of the bottom layer and shows us how very little light can enter it. For the final zone, the sunlight zone, we dyed some vegetable oil a light green/blue color. This shows us that light can easily enter this zone, and therefore has the most abundant plant and animal life. I've noticed the kids talking about these zones during their play, so I hope you've been hearing about it at home as well.

After spending the week soaking up as many facts about new sea creatures as we could, we thought it'd be fun to let the kids paint an ocean mural of some of their favorite creatures we've studied this week. As we painted, we discussed facts about each creature, such as where it lives, what it eats, it's defenses against predators, and our favorite things about the creature. Some students chose to work alone during this time, while others worked together and merged their mural section. A few of them even created a beautiful coral reef full of colors and life! We did 2 of these murals and will be hanging them up on the walls as soon as they dry.

Next week, we plan on beginning to narrow down the interest of each individual child. We want them to learn, in detail, about the sea creature that they're most curious about. I'm excited to learn what each of them pick and see what direction they take us in next! If you have any books or ocean artifacts, please bring them in! Also, if you or someone you know is a diver or expert in oceans, we'd love to have a speaker! We're looking forward to another great week!

Love,
Ms. Rachael

Approaches to Learning:

Demonstrate increasing ability to identify and take appropriate risks in order to learn and demonstrate new skills.
Show curiosity in an increasing variety of activities, tasks, and learning centers.
Demonstrate eagerness and interest as a learner by questions and adding ideas.
Demonstrate delight or satisfaction when completing a task, solving a problem, or making a discovery.
Demonstrate growing initiative in selecting and carrying out activities.

Social & Emotional:

Demonstrate self direction by making choices among peers, activities and materials.
Demonstrate confidence by participating in most classroom activities.
Respond respectfully to positive and negative feedback from adults most of the time.
Follow classroom rules and procedures with reminders.
Manage transitions positively when told what to expect.

Language & Literacy:

Make relevant comments or appropriate responses to story events or characters.
Begin to identify significant words from text real aloud.
Begin to ask questions about eh causes of events they observe or hear about in books.
Explore books independently.
Show interest in informational texts about familiar objects.
Incorporate information from informational texts into play activities.
Begin to ask questions about the causes of events they observe or hear about in books.

Mathematics: