the weight of 9 books

Integrated curriculum at its best:

Children using math and science...while weighing a hefty stack of literacy.

"How much do 9 books weigh...?" Great question!

This photo was taken during Choice Time in our 4s/5s class. We had been engaged in a long term project of the science of cooking. This table was filled with tools for weighing and sorting, cookbooks and items for writing your own recipe. These 2 students decided themselves to collect all the books nearby and give them a weigh, as well! (Check out the link to the wondrous Pretend Soup, a child-friendly cookbook by Mollie Katzen )

OVERHEARD:

"Press them down more to make a bigger number..."

"I think they are number 10 near the bottom..."

"The red line went so far! These books must be so heavy!" 

"I wonder if we should get MORE books?
Let's make the red line go far far far!" 

It is fantastic when there is new language and new partnerships around an investigation. These 2 students did not usually play together yet were both interested in finding out what would happen with books on a scale. They collaborated for quite a while, tried more books, and tried other objects to get the "red line to go far far far!"

Skills used in this open-ended episode:

• inquiry & hypothesizing
• collaboration, teamwork & dialogue
• using tools & materials in new ways to gain knowledge
• number exploration of weight and quantity of books
• self-direction and engagement in an experiment

The Incredible Science of Food Project.
This school year, we had been working on a long term project of Cooking and Family Recipes. Families would come in with a chosen 'family favorite' recipe - arms loaded with all the tools and ingredients required - and cooked and baked and blended it together with our class of 16 students! Incredible experience.

Family guardians were integral in creating a very special community while cooking and feasting with young children. We created our own cookbook, documented with photos and comments, and had the children invent their own recipes as well. It is one of my favorite long-term projects ever. Ever.

because it is your name

Came across an old photo and just stared at it.

I remembered this 4-year-old girl in this exact moment, so many years ago.

I remembered her NAME  - easily - as I stared at the photo of her water painting her own name with a stick, at our school, outside on the playground, on the side of the sand box.

Outside exploration with sticks and water and ... T-A-Y-L-O-R.

I thought about how special each of our names are to us.

How it begins so early to put our name on things we do, things we make, things we own. Putting our name on something is an action of sorts - it is an announcement that continues to announce every time someone reads our name:

This is ME, I am HERE. This is MY NAME.

Painting mostly abstractly on the easel...except for his name: can you see it TWO TIMES?

Think about your name.

Think about how people know YOU because of your name, how it sounds,

how it feels on your tongue,

how it rhymes or jolts or is lovely like a song.

one friend gives friend JACK a letter which he discovers in his mailbox: he knows it is his because it is HIS NAME.

There are so many names to know OTHER THAN our own: this girl is writing a note to someone from the class list!

Do you make sure to KNOW your students names on the first day (nearly!) of school? I have found that knowing a student's name (and their guardians, and siblings, and grandmothers...) literally changes your relationship in one instant:

"Wow? YOU know ME?" 

Has that ever happened to YOU? Didn't you feel immediately welcomed, included and "in" ?
Your name has power and grounding and vitality.

It is double-or-nothing for C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N-A as she signs her second piece of art work with HER NAME.

Personally, I remember wishing I had a different name because I wanted it to "sound" a different way - exotic perhaps, or like a famous person, or from another country. As I grew up, I realized my name was exactly what it should be and it fit me exactly right.

My name IS french and IS in songs by David Bowie and Elton John so surely I can be content with that.

My name IS part of I Dream of Jeannie and The Little Mermaid. It could be worse.

And, I am pleased with the general "magic" with which my name IS associated. 

Professionally, I have been called by my first name only, then "Miss Jeanne" for about thirteen years, then "Teacher Jeanne" (of which I am not a fan) and now, well, am back to my first name only in the college courses I teach.

My husband takes delight in hearing "Hello Miss Jeanne" on occasion as we walk through our downtown streets in the location where I taught for so many years. It does have a nice ring to it - my name ... granted, to be acknowledged usually does have a nice ring to it.

What about YOUR name? Does it fit you just right? Have you struggled with it?

A-M-A-N-D-A's name is ready to take flight with her twirly flyer any second!

special delivery of a card with 2 NAMES on it and looking for ONE NAME on the exact right mailbox.

Think about all the places we NAME IT in our classrooms: 

name tags, cubbies, clothing, shoes, blankets, backpacks, lunchboxes, mailboxes, coat hooks, charts, portfolios, writing area lists, birthday boards, sing up lists...
so many opportunities for our NAMES to be boldly present. 

a friendly monster story AND a painted I-S-A-B-E-L-L-A ... what could be better?

from a boy named W-A-L-T: "C-O-L-E you are inv - " ited to my birthday party. friendship rocks.

Think about the names that will be in your upcoming class.

KNOW that each name is important - the way it is pronounced and the respect it deserves. 

The name IS the child that you are inviting, welcoming, and including into the family that is your classroom. 

Uplift the names, uplift each child.

this says it all: L-A-U-R-E-N and then she had me write at the bottom "I put a frame around my name!" well done.

We should ALL feel this proud of our NAME [like Lauren's painting above] where we frame our name in big bold fabulous paint.

S-I-G-N  your  N-A-M-E.

the window owns the view

Perspective taking.
Looking closer.
Looking lower, higher, across, under, over.

the window does own the view...with 5 different pair of eyes seeing what they choose to see.

*

"What you see depends on

where you are standing

when you look." (anon)

For our students, it can mean offering ways to LITERALLY look around using tools that CHANGE THEIR VIEW:

CAMERA to zoom in on friends and classroom.

tube BINOCULARS to see the world differently.

friends change colors with COLOR PADDLES!

MAGNIFIER on a light table w/ shells & jewels.

HOW you see something changes WHAT you see.

Do you offer your students different ways to view the world? Make it smaller or bigger, higher or lower, sideways and upside-down?

the parent/art expert introduces the idea of a mini-frame lens.

2 children test out the mini-frame to find THEIR own interesting spot in the art.

In this ART EXPLORATION:

children used mini-frames to look closer at their own abstract art ... and then they described what they saw! For a full read on this Abstract Art project, click here.

this boy discovers a section on the abstract art that he especially likes.

Teacher Reflection... 3 ideas that helped ME see differently:

1. Ironically, I realized in my classroom that while I did/do offer students ways to experience the school day from different perspectives I REMAINED IN A ROUTINE WHERE MY OWN PERSPECTIVE WAS THE SAME!
I always sat in the same "teacher spot" for meetings/circle - sure I might sit on the floor OR a chair, yet I kept my same spot because I wanted to be near the books/games/music for easy access. I realized that this also only let me experience meeting time with one lens. When I - finally - sat in a different place around the circle, I literally felt different and viewed the experience differently. After that day, I was more deliberate to switch up where I joined the meeting. Have you had this experience, as well?

2. Something I DID do that helped perspective taking as a model for students was NOT be the leader on a walk or if we needed to be in a line of some sort (going up/down stairs, etc.). I would elect to be in the middle or end or partner with a student somewhere IN the line or group. (Of course, for safety, there would be another teacher at the lead if required). The non-leader role helped me be a member of the group experience, instead of needing to lead or protect the experience.

3. A tip as we head into A NEW SCHOOL YEAR and PREPPING OUR CLASSROOMS: as you prepare your environment, squat low and/or sit on the floor to see how children will be seeing the room. What barriers present themselves at their level? What materials and experiences are available at their eye level? What is above their eye level that might be too overwhelming, high or distracting? Examine your color choices on the walls and the quantity of materials: Neutrals, natural materials, clean and defined choices in baskets or trays, a flow and non-clutter - the layout should inspire YOU to want to touch, discover, play.

2 MAGNIFIERS to examine the Dinosaur That Might Be Dead.

Taking new perspectives is exciting.

It allows for new ideas, opinions, and understandings of our world.

It allows for the joy of teaching to present itself daily.