Early Childhood Standards

This is just a quick note about what you will be seeing at the bottom of the blog posts lately.  I have started attaching relevant information regarding the Michigan standards for preschoolers.  Depending on the type of lesson the blog post is highlighting, you will see what standards are covered at the end.

Just like elementary grades, there are Michigan standards of quality for preschoolers.  The state of Michigan has defined what is reasonable to expect for all young children to accomplish in multiple domains of development.

Here are the domains:

• Approaches to Learning
• Creative Arts
• Language and Early Literacy Development
• Dual Language Learning
• Technology Literacy-Early Learning and Technology
• Social, Emotional and Physical Health and Development
• Early Learning in Mathematics
• Early Learning in Science
• Early Learning in Social Studies

Under each of these categories is what I am highlighting at the bottom of the blog posts.  For example, one lesson might have been about making blueprints for a house (previous blog post).  Many areas and domains are covered according to the standards.  When children use a pencil to draw their ideas, they are focusing on their fine motor experiences.  When a child communicates their ideas verbally to their teacher or peers, they are using their expressive language.  When the child thinks critically about a house, what it needs, and their own experiences, that child is thinking of their relationship in place.

What is planned for the children has intention behind it and covers many domains of development.  So make sure to look at the end of each blog post for a summary of the lesson's standards.

For more information, visit  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/ECSQ_OK_Approved_422339_7.pdf

Blueprints of a house

In order to plan out ideas for a classroom dollhouse, we need to decide on what we need to build.  We have talked about it as a group, but sitting down with individual children gives us more aspects of a house that otherwise might not be thought of in a group discussion.  While sitting down with the children, I saw that each child had a focus on a certain aspect of their house.  

These drawings will be sorted and saved to use again later while making plans as a group.  My next steps are to make a master list of what needs to be a part of the house.  Knowing what is important to the children is vital when building.  This way I can start to gather materials needed.  I have talked to the children about what materials they would like to use, but they do not seem to be interested in this idea (so far all they have said has been boxes and tape).  Maybe once we start to build they will have more opinions on what materials they need for the future.

It's a big garage door.  I don't know how to draw a car. (He grabbed a car from the shelf to trace). What else?  I like that house with the blue roof (looking at pictures of houses).  That's about it.  I'm done.

I'm going to make grass first.  And a worm.  This worm has no eyes.  I'm drawing this house.  It has a small red car (on the car).  3 lights?  See?  It's open (the garage) with no sides.  

I want to draw a brick house.  A door!  With a door knob.  Windows! 

Early Childhood Standards of Quality:  Early Learning Expectations

1. Visual Arts: Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through experiences in the visual arts.
2. Writing Skills: Children begin to develop writing skills to communicate and express themselves effectively for a variety of purposes.
3.  Expressive: Children develop abilities to express themselves clearly and communicate ideas to others.
4.  Fine Motor Development: Children experience growth in fine motor development and use small muscles to improve a variety of fine motor skills both in structured and unstructured settings.
5.  Relationship in Place: Children begin to understand and interpret their relationship and place within their own environment.

Caterpillars

At the end of last week caterpillars were mailed in to school.  I introduced them on Monday to the children.  We were very excited about them and really enjoyed watching them closely with the magnifying glasses.  Each day we have been observing changes and discussing predictions.  A lot of the children are guessing the caterpillars will grow as big as their arms!

 "It's spikey."



"They're moving!"




"They have 60 legs!"

 


"They have spikes so they can wiggle up the cup."


"I see they have food to eat and little mouths."


"I see one sleeping."



"They will grow and eat leaves."

We just started discussing the change that is coming up.  Some of the caterpillars have started walking up to the lid already today, so I expect a chrysalis or two soon.  We will keep you posted with our findings!

How do we make a house?

Last semester we worked a lot with the building of houses.  We discussed materials needed, different types of houses, tools used, and important parts of houses.  I added a new shelf to the block area to store all of our house materials.  So far we have a house book, masking tape, basket of tools, and empty space for more house materials (TBA).  I wanted empty space to give us the freedom to add materials when we need them.

What I did add were pieces of carpet.  This provided new inspiration for the children while building.  We spent the morning using them while making houses.  This is a story of one particular child's journey through building and how the other children reacted.

First a base for the house was constructed.  Carpet was considered initially, but was decided against as more "bricks" needed to be added.

"I need a seat and a bed.  Two seats in my house."

Here is the garage

This shows how the "bricks" were stabilized.    Careful application of masking tape helped them stay still.  When the house was completed, children would come and go and enjoy the pre-made house with people.  This way those who wanted to pretend could pretend without the hassle of building a house.  

This got me thinking.  What if we put our house building skills to use by making one large house to perfect over a few weeks.  This way we will have our own house that is specific to what we need.  I plan on presenting this idea to the children next week and will let you know of the results!