March 20th 2013

In preparation for my visit to Italy, I have been introducing it to the children all week.  At first I brought in a piece of luggage I plan to use.  I asked the children what it was and could be used for.  After discussing the possibility of it being a backpack, we came to the conclusion it was “luggage.”  They spent the day taking turns looking inside, opening and closing it, and rolling it around.  I asked the children what I should pack with me.  They came up with a list:

• toothbrushes and toothpaste
• jammies
• toys (a baby)
• clothes (pants, shirts, and a t-shirt in case it is the hottest day in the world)
• sunscreen so I don't get burned
• goggles for the beach
• 2 dinosaurs
• a swimsuit
• a backpack
• money
• tennis shoes
• a hot dog
• a lunch box
• sandles

With these things in mind, I have started packing!




Today I introduced a map of the town I am visiting (Reggio Emilia) that was made by children who live there.  We tried to guess what was in the town and places where I could go.  The children took magnifying glasses to explore and then drew maps of their own.







 "This is the Italy"









 Here are some of our drawings.

"Here is the Italy house"

"A train and a school for Ms. Kurtjian"

"For Ms. Kurtjian to find her way around Italy"

"It's all bridges!  Ms. Kurtjian has to go this way all through the town."

"This is New York and this is the bridge to get across the river."

It can be hard to explain the concept of traveling far away, but luckily a lot of the children have spent time doing it already.  Most of the children know about hotels and airplanes.  Seeing a map made by children inspired our children to study and create one of their own.   The lower right part of the map was  a school and playground, which got the children thinking of comparing us to others far away.  What kind of school do they have?  What kinds of materials do they work with?  What do you think this part is on their playground?  The children agreed with me that I need to take pictures and see what the Italian children play with.

I hope that I will be able to communicate everything we have talked about while I am in Italy.  I know when I get back I plan on describing everything as much as I can to them by making books, sharing photographs, and watching video. 

March 19th 2013

My name is Kathy Cholette and I am one of Interns placed here on Wednesdays this semester in your child’s class. One of my many responsibilities is to interact and work in groups by providing children opportunities to enhance their knowledge in many areas of learning. After watching children explore the sand table I wondered if children could explore water movement in the same manner. I have planned my group times allowing children to explore water and enhance their thinking about how water flows. We began our investigation by using colored tubes and water.  After watching and listening to the children I learned they already had some concept on water movement.

Some of the children’s “Big Ideas” were that they needed bigger tubes, “maybe if we had bigger tubes we could see the water inside”. Would larger tubes answer our big question?  The children were able to get more water in them, but they still were not able to see the water inside the tubes. I needed to provide a visual to the children to enhance what they already knew about water, but how? I discussed many options with the children and they decided that maybe clear tubes would support this goal. In order to do this we dyed the water red and used clear tubing and funnels to explore with.  The children were able to see the colored water go into the tubes and watch as it came down. The visual effect was now provided for but did they learn something new? It was even more apparent that all we did was create a different mean for the same result.  In the end after exploring the children were able to confirm that water flows down.

The children were excited to learn about how water flows and moves during this process. In the weeks to come I want to create ways for children to learn that water flow and movement does move up. In order for the children to learn this I will be providing some hands on activities through capillary exploring, a physical process by which a liquid spreads or shrinks when it comes in contact with a particular solid surface.  Some of the materials will be coffee filters, flowers and celery.  I hope to teach that water flow and movement can go in many directions.