SUMMER VACATION

ECDC is closed for the summer until the first day of fall term, Tuesday, August 26. The office will remain open daily from 10-4.

Maps, maps, maps

Three's have been very interested in all things related to treasure and pirates! Ms. Phyllis helped them construct a treasure map recently, and provided 'clues' which they eagerly hunted for, found, and deciphered. Low and behold, after following all the clues, a treasure chest for each of them was found in the sandbox, complete with trinkets of all kinds! As we observed their enthusiasm for making the 'pretend' map, we realized they seemed to really grasp the concept of 'birds-eye-view' that is necessary for understanding of how to create and/or read maps. We posed a new challenge to them to create a 'real' map of their classroom, which they eagerly did, only needing orientation on the paper to one wall in the classroom to do so. This was followed with a second map of the playground. We were impressed with the accuracy, proportion, and details included. They are great examples demonstrating the means by which young children begin to translate what they understand about 3-D space to two-dimensional representation.

Going to Caw Caw

The 'big kids' (fours and fives) had a really exciting trip to the Caw Caw Interpretive Center recently. As part of their study of habitats, they chartered a (big) bus and had a wonderful morning with the naturalist. They observed all kinds of wildlife native to the LowCountry, asked great questions, and are busy now following up on their trip with more research and activities related to what they experienced. It was a great day! Thanks to the parents who accompanied us.

The Cycle of Life

In the fours and fives, there has been a sustained interest this year in the study of animals; the children have been particularly interested lately in representing what they know and have constructed a stuffed and painted paper 24-foot python and red-tailed hawk to scale, currently on display in the classroom. They know a lot about how animals live, eat, communicate, and the difference between predators and prey. When they came in on a recent Monday, they realized the big storm over the weekend had knocked over the nest of four baby birds they had been observing on the playground. They understood the babies were dying and there was nothing they could do to prevent that from happening. So they covered them up to make them comfortable, and later conducted a funeral and burial. Patrick hummed 'taps' throughout the ceremony and the children each paid their respects. It was an unexpected and not necessarily welcome event, but provided us a great opportunity to see how they responded with concern and compassion, but understanding that losing the baby birds was also part of the cycle of life.

Green grows the garden

The children have been hard at work planting their garden. Thanks to the College of Charleston Teaching Fellows, we had some great new soil added this year which it badly needed. The fours and fives have planted a sunflower house, tomatoes, and several variety of herbs. They are measuring the progress of the plants and posting updates on their classroom news. When the two's class noticed what they were doing and began watching them work in the garden, the older children were happy to share their work with them and helped them to plant bean seeds in little cups. The garden is such a favorite place that some of the children are choosing to eat lunch in the emerging sunflower house.

Pomp and Circumstance

Our kindergartners graduated officially on Thursday, May 1. We all gathered at the Rivers Green garden. The fourteen children sang a round of one of their favorite songs, were presented their certificates, and then we were finished! (They probably have the shortest ceremony on record). We had many families and friends on hand to celebrate and the family picnic was a great success. Thanks to all who participated and helped out with the food.

Two's go green....

The two's have been busy for the past few weeks re-using and recycling in celebration of Earth Day on April 22. The children have learned to search for the recycling emblem on the bottoms of their empty lunch containers; they even know to only use items that are marked with a 1 or a 2. They almost always remember to rinse their container and then carefully sort the object into the proper bin: paper, plastic, or metal. We actually fill our bins faster than they are emptied, so we often pull items out for other projects.... We paint on paper grocery sacks and newspaper instead of easel paper. We re-use soda bottle caps for fine motor work (transferring from bowl to bowl with tongs) We try to incorporate items like soda caps and tabs, scrap paper, sandwich foil, etc... into our collage projects. The kids had a fun time using our recycling overflow to build a "sculpture." We have more small projects planned for the upcoming weeks, including composting for the 4's & 5's garden!

Play Day 2008

We held our annual Play Day recently, jointly planned by our teachers and the Parent Advisory Board. This year Ms. Deanna took the lead, coordinating activities around a theme of our children's favorite books. Many children (and even one dad!) and the teachers dressed in character. Children were issued passports to make sure they didn't miss any activities on their trip around the playground - it was a wonderful evening, complete with a visit from the birthday bear, who brought surprise balloons for the birthday girl! Thanks to all of our teachers and parents for their hard work, donations, and support of this event.

Parents with tools-Argggh!

Several of our parents gave up their Sunday afternoon on 4/6 to dig out the sandbox two feet deep, line it, and replace all the sand - a LOT of hard work and of course it was 85 degrees (or felt like it anyways). Thanks so much to John Massey for coordinating this effort and all of our helpers - Edward Orr, Edward Orr, Jr., Tom Ross, Calvin Blackwell, Deb Turkewitz, and Mark Landis. The kids are so happy to have their sandbox back and it was, indeed, a job well done.

Newsflash: Two's Love Books!

The 2's are doing lots of activities that connect with stories they love. One of their favorites is using teacher-made props on the magnet board to interact with story characters. Inspired by the stories, A Box Can Be Many Things, and Not a Box, they used little boxes of all sizes to make prints.

They are spending more and more time sitting in the rocker connecting with favorite books and learning that falling in love with literature is a highly individual thing! After reading Little Cloud and It Looked Like Spilt Milk, they created cloud pictures that were so interesting, they couldn't wait to talk about them.

Seeing their emerging interest in the letters in their names, Ms. Stephanie suggested they make an alphabet book with the letters in the names of all the children in the class. It was AMAZING to see how intently they worked together to finish it!

Three's Spring 2008 Literacy Activities

In the three year old class, we are beginning to study topics of interest, and books are becoming an integral part of that process. Right now they are interested in dinosaurs and fossils. Cracking open one of Ms. Phyllis's fossils to see what is inside is a very high interest activity lately (and we are learning how to be careful with tools!).

The children are learning that books can answer questions, and also generate them! They are learning the difference between fiction and non-fiction. One of their favorites is, "What Happened to Patrick's Dinosaur?"

They spend lots of time using props to act out their ideas as they retell favorite books to one another. Representing their words accurately is becoming very important to them, so our graduate assistant, Miss Anna, is being very careful to get it right and taking LOTS of dictation!
Children see how their words and ideas are valued when they are turned into books that become part of the classroom library. We have a new book published by the class titled, "Where Did the Dinosaurs Go?"

4's Spring 2008 Literacy Activities

In the four year old class, the kids are now deeply committed to research as an important means for finding out the answers to their hundreds of questions; they are obsessive fact-checkers! Their collaborative investigation with the kindergarten about pythons has provided many opportunities to consult with expert sources of all kinds. They now have the 24 foot paper python guarding the classroom at all times against unwanted intruders--

At this time, many of them are developing a serious interest in the mechanics of language, really intrigued and motivated by the "mysteries" of reading and writing, not to mention all the books their kindergarten friends are producing. They are acquiring and using many strategies both for decoding text in books they like, and generating letters and words to label the drawings for books they want to produce themselves. They are starting to describe themselves as readers, writers, and authors. The teachers are busy carefully scaffolding their learning as they are in many different places in their understanding of text.

Butterfly Publishing, Inc.

Our kindergarteners (The Orange Butterflies) have their classroom publishing company in high gear these days! They are producing books almost faster than we can bind and laminate them! Their book rack is filled with many examples of both fiction and non-fiction, illustrated with wonderful drawings and photos on an amazing range of topics - travels to exciting places, snakes, robots, pirates, weddings, and more coming every day. It all started with the very first story published, Kylie Grace's "A Long Time Ago in Virginia," and now even includes chapter books like Camp's book about skeletons. Miss Mary relates they love writing so much, that recently her suggestion one morning that Writing Workshop be shortened by a few minutes (for a very good reason) was met with (very) loud protests and they just wouldn't allow her to do it!

Even the casual observer notices that brainstorming, drafting, collaboration, shared reading, transcribing and editing, printing, and binding is now an activity that goes on all day long and the writing and publishing materials are the last to be put away for the day. They look forward to each new book that is published and celebrate each others' ideas and products. They are eager to read their books to others and are very excited that they will soon be going to the 3's rooms to be guest readers!

When children see the value and meaning of writing in their daily lives, when adults are invested in and place a high value on their work, when children clearly see that reading and writing open the window on a big and interesting world, the classroom can be a very satisfying place for everyone.

Our parents are such a great resource!

Feb. 7th is the First Day of the Chinese New Year (It will be year of the Rat). Now is the perfect time to teach your children Chinese! There will be a free Mandarin Chinese lesson tomorrow (Feb.2) and next Saturday (Feb.9) at the West Ashley Public Library from 10:30 to 11:00am. Sing and Learn Chinese with Lucy's mom, Wei Mei. During this 30 mins class, Wei will teach you Chinese greetings, counting to 10, and a few simple songs. All ages welcome; children under 9 must be accompanied by an adult. Wei will also be visiting our children Thursday, 2/7 to share fun ideas and activities about Chinese New Year with our 4's and 5's.

Observers and research at ECDC

This past fall we welcomed 224 visitors to our center who came to do observations or assignments for classes. These students came from courses taught by professors Hagood, Skinner, Voorneveld, McIntosh, and Tamsberg as well as psychiatry fellows from MUSC under the direction of Dr. Rusty Wolfe.

We also hosted a senior thesis project with a student from the Academic magnet school and began a collaborative literacy research project with Dr. Mary Blake-Jones in our kindergarten that will continue through spring 2008.

Thanks to all for your interest and support of our mission as a laboratory/demonstration program! If we can provide a supportive context for student observations and/or faculty research from any department on campus, give us a call!