This year, our Early Learning team is placing an emphasis on STEM learning. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. These skills are to be integrated across the curriculum, not just taught in isolation. This comes so naturally when working with young children as they are still concrete learners and just beginning to connect with ideas and concepts they can't always see or feel or even experience. Although I will teach math in isolation at ability groups, skills such as measurement, computation and geometry are being used daily in their play and investigations. Their free choice time consists of open ended toys that bring out creativity, problem solving and critical thinking skills. The blocks, marble run, etc. are all incorporating math and science skills as they engineer their structure. They learn about physics and how things go together and balance as structures get taller. In the early learning program, we are not as concerned about the specific "topic," rather the skills necessary to be applied to learning anything new. The topics are explored based on class interests and emerging events.
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| These students are incorporating symmetry and comparing lengths |
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| These rods are used for a variety of math skills. They can be used for fractions, number decomposition, and measuring. |
We have had such a busy week getting settled into our routine, starting small groups for reading and math instruction, and being introduced to the scientific tools we will be using this year. Next week we will be doing experiments and observations with apples, and begin to discuss the change of seasons. This week we used our observation journals to draw detailed pictures like scientists. And of course, we had a fun morning with our bikes! We graphed how many wheels each child had on their bike, and a few Bumblebees took on the challenge of totaling all the wheels, and used manipulatives to build numbers and act out number stories.
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| Studying an object and doing a "scientific" drawing of it |
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| RH is showing 3 ways to model 26 using base 10 blocks |
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| YK is telling an addition story by creating two parts to make a whole |
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| SA is finding different ways to make 10 from two parts |
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| Magnifying glasses are so fun! What a great scientific tool. |
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The weather held out for our annual Bike Day!
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