Every year, I do a unit about Transportation. As part of this unit, we have a discussion about traffic lights. It is a good opportunity to talk about spatial relationships, colors, and introduce perennial favorite, Red Light/Green Light.
I get out my red, yellow and green circles, and arrange them on my white board, putting them in the correct order. We talk about how the red light is on top, the yellow light is in the middle, and the green light is on the bottom. And this is when little David raises his hand and says, "But really, green is in the middle."
I reply, with a note of condescension in my voice, "No, honey, green is on the bottom." And I reference my handy diagram on the white board to illustrate my point.
David, with a tone of condescension in his voice says, "Yes, there the green light is on the bottom. In a real traffic light, the green light is in the middle."
Obviously, David is confused. But, this is easily remedied, because the preschool is located right on an intersection, complete with traffic light. Field Trip!
I gather the class and we march outside to look at the traffic light. I was so excited to have the opportunity to use a real life example to show David this concept.
We all look up at the traffic light, and....from the top, here is the order of the lights. Red, yellow, green, yellow arrow, green arrow. Yes, The green light is in the middle. I am a dork, and obviously not versed in traffic light appearance in my city.
David, being a kind and understanding soul, did not jump up and down and yell, "In your FACE!" He simply said, "See? Real traffic lights are different than ones you make out of paper."
When will I learn that these kids know way more than me???
.
Showing posts with label transportation themes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation themes. Show all posts
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Santa vs. Trains
I haven't written for a few weeks - I actually stayed away from the computer for most of my winter break. Weird for me, but I did spend some good, quality time with my family.
But preschool is back in session, and so is my need to share it with you.
The day before school let out for break, we had a small Christmas celebration. We made cookies, had a small gift exchange, and most exciting of all, someone special came to pay a visit. A hint...he wears red and says, "Ho, ho ho!"
Santa has been coming to the school for years. Even though it is a busy time of year for him, he always makes sure he is able to pay our little preschool a visit.
I told my students of the planned visit a couple weeks in advance. I always like to feel them out...is anyone scared of Santa? not know who Santa is? When I told the class "Santa will be coming to visit us in 14 more sleeps!", one little boy was almost speechless, with a smile that took over his whole face. He was so excited, it took him a couple of tries to get these words out, "Does that mean I won't have to wait in line forever to see Santa?" "Yep!" I replied. He was on cloud nine the rest of the day. When his mom arrived to pick him up, he informed her, "We don't need to go to the mall to see Santa, he will be at my school in 14 more sleeps!"
The day of Santa's visit, as a surprise to the boys in my class, I brought out the school's train collection to play with. Normally, I don't break out the trains until I do a Transportation unit, but there are several train enthusiasts in this year's group, and I thought it would be fun for them to play with the trains on their last day of the before break.
Big mistake.
The boys LOVED the trains. The immediately created a complex track system that covered the circle time rug, and developed complicated schedules for the trains to follow, as well as made buildings and villages along the tracks. But when Santa came in, booming, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" the boys didn't give him a second glance. "Santa's here? Oh, hey Santa. Look, we have trains!"
Santa didn't mind too much that he was being overshadowed by trains - I guess in his line of work this sort of thing happens a lot. But I had promised the kids' parents pictures with Santa, so I had to convince the boys to stop what they were doing and come talk to Santa. Which they all did, albeit reluctantly. And in each one of their pictures, instead of looking adoringly at the big guy in red, they are looking wistfully over their shoulders at the trains that are waiting for them to come back.
Note to self...next year, bring out the trains AFTER Santa visits.
.
But preschool is back in session, and so is my need to share it with you.
The day before school let out for break, we had a small Christmas celebration. We made cookies, had a small gift exchange, and most exciting of all, someone special came to pay a visit. A hint...he wears red and says, "Ho, ho ho!"
Santa has been coming to the school for years. Even though it is a busy time of year for him, he always makes sure he is able to pay our little preschool a visit.
I told my students of the planned visit a couple weeks in advance. I always like to feel them out...is anyone scared of Santa? not know who Santa is? When I told the class "Santa will be coming to visit us in 14 more sleeps!", one little boy was almost speechless, with a smile that took over his whole face. He was so excited, it took him a couple of tries to get these words out, "Does that mean I won't have to wait in line forever to see Santa?" "Yep!" I replied. He was on cloud nine the rest of the day. When his mom arrived to pick him up, he informed her, "We don't need to go to the mall to see Santa, he will be at my school in 14 more sleeps!"
The day of Santa's visit, as a surprise to the boys in my class, I brought out the school's train collection to play with. Normally, I don't break out the trains until I do a Transportation unit, but there are several train enthusiasts in this year's group, and I thought it would be fun for them to play with the trains on their last day of the before break.
Big mistake.
The boys LOVED the trains. The immediately created a complex track system that covered the circle time rug, and developed complicated schedules for the trains to follow, as well as made buildings and villages along the tracks. But when Santa came in, booming, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" the boys didn't give him a second glance. "Santa's here? Oh, hey Santa. Look, we have trains!"
Santa didn't mind too much that he was being overshadowed by trains - I guess in his line of work this sort of thing happens a lot. But I had promised the kids' parents pictures with Santa, so I had to convince the boys to stop what they were doing and come talk to Santa. Which they all did, albeit reluctantly. And in each one of their pictures, instead of looking adoringly at the big guy in red, they are looking wistfully over their shoulders at the trains that are waiting for them to come back.
Note to self...next year, bring out the trains AFTER Santa visits.
.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Zoom Zoom! Transportation Theme!
Every year I do a Transportation theme, which as happens with things you do year after year was starting to get boring. For me not for the kids. And I worry that if I am bored then my enthusiasm will not be where it needs to be. Three year olds are perceptive - if my eyes are glazing over and rolling to the back of my head, you can be sure theirs will too. Or that they will just start running around the classroom screaming and going nuts.
This year, I had the grand idea I would introduce large construction trucks into my transportation theme. I ambitiously planned 2 weeks, and set about researching the topic. Unfortunately, I discovered that I would need to reinvent the wheel if I wanted to talk about large construction trucks - no one had done it already. I had the fantastic idea of taking pictures of large dump trucks, excavators, bulldozers, etc. from around my seemingly always under construction neighborhood and I would present the pictures to the class. I then imagined us having animated and informative discussions about the name and function of each piece of equipment.
Then, I remembered my students were three. And that animated discussions, while always starting out on the right track, quickly degenerated into princesses or how a dog threw up. Discussions are always fun, and a lesson in raising hands, and listening while your friends speak, but would do nothing in advancing knowledge of construction trucks.
So, I stuck to what I normally do, with a few new ideas. And a fun time was had by all…
Arts and Crafts
I did the old stand-by of using cars to paint with. Roll the cars through the paint and then run the car around on paper. I made sure I had lots of different treads on the cars we used, and we discussed the differences as they painted.
I then expanded on this idea the following day by laying out large sheets of bulletin board paper over the majority of the floor in my classroom, had large trays full of paint, and then had them roll the large, sand toy-type trucks across the paper. Fun, messy, and an exercise in cooperation. I specified that they needed to keep the trucks on the paper. No rolling the paint covered trucks onto the floor or carpet. Hmmmm…how to do that? Well, buddy up with a friend and roll it to each other from across either side of the paper. What happens if you put both yellow and blue paint on the wheels and then roll it? Eventually the tracks become green - cool! The pairing up, and the color experiments were all a product of the process; they came up with these things on their own with no help from me.
After all the painting was done - we headed out to the playground with (kid safe) dish soap and sponges, and made a carwash to clean up our painty mess. Fun for the kids - less work for me!
Two ambitious projects I attempted were for the kids to create their own flying machines and boats. For the flying machines, I provided a variety of materials for them to use; toilet paper rolls, crafts sticks, buttons, ribbon, glue and multi colored masking tape. The results were fabulous. Of course, there were some kids who looked at the stuff on the table and said “Later, I am heading to the blocks”; but the rest of the kids let their imaginations run wild, and their creations were very cool. Some needed adult aid “Please make a slit in this tube so I can put in a stick”, and others just muddled through on their own.
For the boats, I provided butter tubs, straws, craft sticks, construction paper and scissors, with the instructions “Make a boat that will float” I set up a small swimming pool with water in it (outside, since I am using any excuse I can to get the kids outside) to test out the boats’ seaworthiness. It was amazing how the kids would go “back to the drawing board” time and time again until they had a boat that floated. They tested all sorts of techniques to create a floating craft with a sail. They used combinations of a variety of materials - play dough, sand, wood chips, tape, glue - to hold up the sail in the butter tub. A successful model used a combination of sand and play dough to hold up the sail which was taped to a straw.
Science
We used large cardboard tubes (like you might find throw rugs wrapped around) as tunnels for the cars. We held them at different heights to see if the height of the tunnel affected the speed of the car that was going through it. Of course, this scientific data could only gathered after numerous discussions about how the tubes were not swords, clubs, extensions of our arms, antennae, flamethrowers or a device with which to hit your friends over the head.
Book
“Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” I love this book! And the kids love it too; some taking very seriously their job of not letting the pigeon get behind that wheel. Of course, there is always the one or two children who think the pigeon should get his way, but once I remind them what the bus driver said (I flip back to the first page of the book and reread it) they usually get on board. (Check out http://www.pigeonpresents.com/ for more pigeon fun.)
Silly Fun
We played “Red Light Green Light” on the way to and from the bathroom. Great fun - the kids especially liked when they didn’t stop for the red light I wrote them a “ticket”. They also liked going really slooow for the yellow lights.
So, if anyone has any wonderful ideas involving big construction trucks send them my way!
This year, I had the grand idea I would introduce large construction trucks into my transportation theme. I ambitiously planned 2 weeks, and set about researching the topic. Unfortunately, I discovered that I would need to reinvent the wheel if I wanted to talk about large construction trucks - no one had done it already. I had the fantastic idea of taking pictures of large dump trucks, excavators, bulldozers, etc. from around my seemingly always under construction neighborhood and I would present the pictures to the class. I then imagined us having animated and informative discussions about the name and function of each piece of equipment.
Then, I remembered my students were three. And that animated discussions, while always starting out on the right track, quickly degenerated into princesses or how a dog threw up. Discussions are always fun, and a lesson in raising hands, and listening while your friends speak, but would do nothing in advancing knowledge of construction trucks.
So, I stuck to what I normally do, with a few new ideas. And a fun time was had by all…
Arts and Crafts
I did the old stand-by of using cars to paint with. Roll the cars through the paint and then run the car around on paper. I made sure I had lots of different treads on the cars we used, and we discussed the differences as they painted.
I then expanded on this idea the following day by laying out large sheets of bulletin board paper over the majority of the floor in my classroom, had large trays full of paint, and then had them roll the large, sand toy-type trucks across the paper. Fun, messy, and an exercise in cooperation. I specified that they needed to keep the trucks on the paper. No rolling the paint covered trucks onto the floor or carpet. Hmmmm…how to do that? Well, buddy up with a friend and roll it to each other from across either side of the paper. What happens if you put both yellow and blue paint on the wheels and then roll it? Eventually the tracks become green - cool! The pairing up, and the color experiments were all a product of the process; they came up with these things on their own with no help from me.
After all the painting was done - we headed out to the playground with (kid safe) dish soap and sponges, and made a carwash to clean up our painty mess. Fun for the kids - less work for me!
Two ambitious projects I attempted were for the kids to create their own flying machines and boats. For the flying machines, I provided a variety of materials for them to use; toilet paper rolls, crafts sticks, buttons, ribbon, glue and multi colored masking tape. The results were fabulous. Of course, there were some kids who looked at the stuff on the table and said “Later, I am heading to the blocks”; but the rest of the kids let their imaginations run wild, and their creations were very cool. Some needed adult aid “Please make a slit in this tube so I can put in a stick”, and others just muddled through on their own.
For the boats, I provided butter tubs, straws, craft sticks, construction paper and scissors, with the instructions “Make a boat that will float” I set up a small swimming pool with water in it (outside, since I am using any excuse I can to get the kids outside) to test out the boats’ seaworthiness. It was amazing how the kids would go “back to the drawing board” time and time again until they had a boat that floated. They tested all sorts of techniques to create a floating craft with a sail. They used combinations of a variety of materials - play dough, sand, wood chips, tape, glue - to hold up the sail in the butter tub. A successful model used a combination of sand and play dough to hold up the sail which was taped to a straw.
Science
We used large cardboard tubes (like you might find throw rugs wrapped around) as tunnels for the cars. We held them at different heights to see if the height of the tunnel affected the speed of the car that was going through it. Of course, this scientific data could only gathered after numerous discussions about how the tubes were not swords, clubs, extensions of our arms, antennae, flamethrowers or a device with which to hit your friends over the head.
Book
“Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” I love this book! And the kids love it too; some taking very seriously their job of not letting the pigeon get behind that wheel. Of course, there is always the one or two children who think the pigeon should get his way, but once I remind them what the bus driver said (I flip back to the first page of the book and reread it) they usually get on board. (Check out http://www.pigeonpresents.com/ for more pigeon fun.)
Silly Fun
We played “Red Light Green Light” on the way to and from the bathroom. Great fun - the kids especially liked when they didn’t stop for the red light I wrote them a “ticket”. They also liked going really slooow for the yellow lights.
So, if anyone has any wonderful ideas involving big construction trucks send them my way!
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