In our continuation of Apple Week, Peter developed a math activity to help our Tugboats with one-to-one correspondence.  While many of our students are experts at counting, it can be difficult for a 3-year-old to make the connection that if we have 8 friends at school during rest time, we need 8 mats.  The classroom job of Snack Helper gives each child individual practice with the concept, but we wanted to extend the project as a group.

Each child was given a tree trunk (a brown rectangle), a tree top (a green cloud shape) and several apples (small red circles), as well as a glue stick.  Everyone loves glue sticks!  Upon each tree top, a number was written.  The directions were to identify the number on your tree, count that many apples from the pile, then glue them to the tree.  With 2 groups of 4 children each, Peter and I were able to assist each child individually, as well as encourage them to help each other.  Many friends were so excited to use the glue that they got a bit overzealous with their apple counting!   After a bit of practice, though, they were able to check their own trees, as well as each others’, to see if they had glued the appropriate number of apples to their trees.

Strengthening one-to-one correspondence is an important foundation for later math skills.  The journey toward number sense begins with identifying the names for each number, as well as the order in which they count.  The next step is recognizing that each number has a concrete representation, which one-to-one correspondence supports.  Once children can identify objects in quantitative terms, they can begin to perform addition and subtraction with hands-on materials and, later, theoretical numbers and written representations.  We will continue to develop these important building blocks using fun, hands-on experiences that are as much fun as they are educational!

For the past two days, we have been experimenting with ways we can use apples.  At snack, we noticed that many children prefer to eat their apples differently.  Some of our friends like their apples cut into slices, others don’t care for the skin and like their apples peeled, while others still will eat the whole thing down to the core!

Yesterday, we used some of our apples to make our own applesauce.  We used 7 medium-sized apples (Macouns, Empires, Macintosh and Cortland), peeled them and cut them into cubes.  The Tugboats tried to mash the apple cubes at room temperature and decided that it was way too difficult!  We added a splash of apple and lemon juices, then microwaved them until they were softer, about 10 minutes.  Two groups each used whisks to try to mash our softer apples.  Although it was easier than mashing cold apples, we noticed, it was still too difficult.  So we called in for back-up:

With the help of the blender, we were able to make smooth, delicious applesauce.  We at our home-made applesauce for morning snack today and it was a big hit!

During today’s small group project, we attempted another application for applesauce:  play dough!  Although Peter and I have used this recipe many times, something still went a bit wonky with the chemistry.  Typically, we start with applesauce and simply add cinnamon until the consistency is similar to play dough.  The resulting dough can be formed into shapes and baked for a holiday ornament or air freshener.  We may have started with a bit too much applesauce, because our consistency never advanced beyond a sticky mess!

Today’s project perfectly highlights our emphasis on “process over product.”  Although we would prefer to have some sweet-smelling dough to work with at the end, the children still gain valuable experiences from an experiment that doesn’t go as planned.  They count stirs, ensuring that each person gets a fair turn.  They share the materials and take turns contributing to the process.  Most importantly, they see first-hand that some things don’t always go as we hope they do, but that’s okay.  The children see their teachers “make mistakes” and it helps to ease some of the stigma of making those mistakes.  They also observe their teachers working through a problem-solving process, which demonstrates to them the importance of adapting to unforeseen circumstances.

Besides, what 3-year-old doesn’t love a good sticky mess?!

I may or may not have gotten a little carried away at the apple orchard this weekend…  I got half a bushel!  According to the orchard, that’s 20 lbs!  But if I know these Tugboats like I think I do, they can definitely take care of some apples.

We learned last week, thanks to a generous donation from the Nofziger/Friederichs family, that the children at HCS love to eat apples.  We like them with sweet sunbutter, cream cheese, or just plain!  This week, we’ll continue to enjoy apples for snack, but we are also integrating them into our curriculum.  We built upon last week’s seed projects to talk about how the seeds inside an apple are arranged in the shape of a star.  The Tugboats thought that was super cool!  We cut open several small apples and used them as stamps:

As always, we enjoyed making our art projects as much as we enjoy the final pieces!  An important part of our art curriculum here at Harbor City is that we emphasize the process over the product.  There is so much learning that develops from the exploration of new materials, that if the final product is a sopping wet paper that can’t be salvaged, that’s okay.  One of our students, for example, loves to make careful, deliberate stamps on the page, then uses the stamp to smear the paint everywhere.  From the final piece, you’d never know that stamps were even used.  Watching him paint, however, reveals a lot about what he enjoys about interacting with the paint and the unconventional stamp.

Later this week, we will use apples to do some microwave cooking, create a sensory project, and continue to develop our understanding of the different parts of a plant.  Stay tuned!

Today’s rain has fit in nicely with our topic of Seeds this week.  As we learned on Tuesday, our seeds need water as well as sunlight to grow.  We visit our community garden plot every day to water our plants, but some days we don’t need to do it because the sky does it for us!  At Circle Time, we sang our Weather Song:

(To the tune of “Oh My Darlin’ Clementine)

What’s the weather?  What’s the weather?  What’s the weather like today?

Tell me Tugboats, what’s the weather, what’s the weather like today?

Is it sunny? (Hands in a circle above our heads)  Is it cloudy? (Hands shading over our eyes)  Is it rainy out today? (Wiggling rain fingers down)

Is it windy? (Waving hands side to side)  Is it snowy? (Shivering arms around our bodies)  What’s the weather like today?

As we talked about rain and clouds, some of our friends expressed confusion about how clouds could make rain.  To help explain, we read Little Cloud by Eric Carle.  The story of the tiny cloud separating from his friends and finally joining them to make rain together helped a lot of our friends, but some are still in disbelief.  I think I see a science experiment in our future!

Sometimes the best moments of the day happen when we least expect them to.  Those moments, which would be remarkable on their own, are made all the more precious by their unscripted, unexpected nature.  We had one such moment today and it was a doozey!

When we clean up our classroom here at Harbor City School, we play a song that we only use at clean-up time, so the children identify it as The Clean-Up Song.  Peter brought in an instrumental piece called “Diablo Rojo“by a duo called Rodrigo y Gabriela.  If the children finish cleaning the classroom before the song ends, they can use the rest of the song to show us their sweet dance moves, an opportunity they seldom pass up!

As we cleaned the classroom this morning, the children finished early, as they tend to do.  From my office, I heard Peter quietly whisper, “Carissa, get out here… You’ve got to see this!”  I emerged from my office to discover than an impromptu ballroom had taken place of our classroom!

The children spontaneously selected dance parties and spent the remainder of the song holding hands, spinning, and laughing.  There was none of the awkward “I don’t have a partner!” stress that I’m sure we all remember from middle school.  They were so sweet and careful with one another, but still having a rowdy good time.  It was such a beautiful sight!