During our clay and blocks workshops a week ago, the 3A educators noticed that the children were interested in their homes. So we started asking the question "Where do I live?" We had a picture of a skyscraper, a low rise apartment building, and a house in order to give the children visual support. Some of our friends knew that they lived in a tall building (a skyscraper), while some said they lived in low rise building, and the rest said they lived in a house.
Then the children began to translate how they thought of their homes during their activities. Parker and Nico built a house together and said "This building is so high!" Manu pointed at his creation in the block center and said, "This is the elevator." Then Levi added by saying, "I live on the eight floor!" Emilio said "I live on the three floor." It was so fascinating to see how the children brought their own experiences to the classroom during their play.
The children also showed their interest for homes through painting and playing with Magne-tiles and Legos. Nico said, "I have two house(s). This one is big and this one is small. They are people." Katerina said, "(This is) my house!" "(There are) toys!"
Then on Friday, we made our class house by using different shapes. Each shape represented different parts of our house. Our friends thought of squares, circles, and triangles as our windows, doors, kitchen, elevator etc.
Apple Picking Trip Epilogue:
Although it rained on Thursday, it was so refreshing to step outside of the city and see lots of nature's colors. First, we walked to the pumpkin patch and got our pumpkins. Then we picked the apples that we liked and went on our way to taste apple cider and go on a hayride. At around 11:30am, it started pouring so hard that all of the BMS families came inside to a little shop that sold all kinds of apple related items! We finished our trip by eating our lunches on the bus and then driving back to school.
What an adventurous day!
