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!

Jambo Watoto (revisited)

Dr. mutindi ndunda and her students are back from their trip to Kenya (see previous post), and visited our children to share their experiences with our four and five year olds, who had conducted a bake sale to raise money for them to take to the Emmanuel Children's House. It was at first hard for our children to understand why it was more important for the money to be used to help support the establishment of a clinic, than to buy toys! But after seeing pictures Dr. ndunda and the students brought back and hearing their stories, they understood, and are now thinking about what to do next. They were thrilled to receive great big thankyou cards from the children in Kenya and more interested than ever in getting to know their new friends better.

From Trash to Monster Treasure

Over the summer our 4's and 5's were asked to be "color hunters." Each was assigned a color and encouraged to collect unwanted objects of that hue. When we came to school in the fall we combined all of the objects and had fun sorting them by different attributes. We had always intended to ultimately use the objects for sculpture or collage. An opportunity presented itself with a rising interest among the children in monsters. They love monster stories and enjoy playing chase games where someone is the "tickle monster." It is definitely one of their favorites.

We started reading more stories about monsters including James Howe's "There's a Monster Under my Bed," "Glad Monster, Sad Monster" by Ed Emberley and "Go Away Big Green Monster" by Ed Emberley and Anne Miranda. After reading, we came to the mini-atelier where the children were able to choose any of the collected materials they liked to create their 3-D monster collage. "Anything?" many asked incredulously as they inspected the unique collection of objects. They were happy to hear the answer was yes and proceeded to dive into the project. Some chose to make the monster by itself while others chose to make a monster along with its monster friends or in its monster habitat.

After creating the sculpture the children were given the opportunity to reflect on their work. Again the children often had different approaches to this task. Some were very focused on the individual pieces used to construct their monster while others were inspired to tell stories featuring their creation.

3's doing research

Our 3's class has been involved in collecting, displaying, and interpreting data as part of their studies this month! Two important projects involved investigating the properties of objects that roll and slide, and concepts of freezing and melting. First, the children used a ramp and chose random objects, predicting, testing, and then recording their observations about whether objects rolled, or slid down the ramp. This sparked conversation about characteristics of objects. Typical conclusions made by children included, "it needs to be like a circle (round)." One of the most interesting observations they made was that an object can roll AND slide, depending on which surface was placed on the ramp (a bowl, for example).

They also investigated the concepts of freezing and melting, because Ms. Phyllis noticed that while they were familiar with the two words, they were clearly confused about their meanings. For example, when asked where ice comes from, a typical reply was, "the kitchen"!!!
After prompting them with questions, she used the documentation of their initial thinking to plan activities that would encourage them to test their theories. After a number of experiments with ice cubes and water, children had a much better understanding of melting, because they can actually see the process occur. When they painted with ice cubes that had been frozen with water colors, they observed, "it's getting small, it's cold, it's slippery, it's melting!!!"

We find that three year olds have lots of questions about why things happen - they can be very scientific in their thinking when given the opportunity!

It's FLU Season!!!

We are hearing from many sources that the flu is alive and well in our area. Please be vigilant hand-washers and keep sick children home!!!!

Jammin' at ECDC

We were fortunate to have a visit recently from Dr. Renard Harris, Assistant Professor in the Elementary and Early Childhood Department. We know Dr. Harris to be an extra-special person, as he shares his many talents, but particularly those in the musical realm with our children on a regular basis. He likes to involve the children in creating stories with MANY verses, that he accompanies with his terrific harmonica! The children look forward to his visits, enthusiastically engage with the music, and we hope we will see him again soon!

Jambo Watoto!

Children from the four year old and kindergarten classes recently conducted a bake sale to benefit the Harambee Service Project. As part of their year-long study of Africa, they invited Dr. mutindi ndunda to visit and share stories and photos from her home in Kenya. She told them while she was here that she would be taking a group of students from the College of Charleston to Kenya over the winter break to deliver humanitarian aid and work with children from two orphanages there.

Subsequently, the children decided to help – under the direction of their teachers, Mary White and Deanna Satzger, they worked for two weeks baking everything they knew how to make: brownies, chocolate chip bars, sugar, lemon, and oatmeal cookies, and rice crispy treats! They made signs and conducted a bake sale on Friday, November 16. They sold over 200 items, including a cake and plate of brownies that were donated by the Physical Plant and Jewish Studies Building staff during the course of the day.

On Tuesday, November 27, Dr. ndunda visited ECDC again with two students who will be participating in the trip, Sasha Kominers, a sophomore Psychology major, and Laura Anderson, a sophomore Communications major. Camp, one of our kindergarteners, presented them with the proceeds from the sale, $133.27! The children will be preparing "jambo watoto" messages (hello, children) and a book about their bake sale to send along with Dr. ndunda and her students and look forward to her visiting once again when they return.