Learning through Imaginative Play and Literacy

Here comes the train...

The Cardinals arrived in our classroom, creating their own trip on a train inside the cubbies! Noticing this interest, the teachers invited the children to assemble seats and construct their very own train in the bigger block area. This led to adventures in traveling to different places. The Cardinals took on different roles including conductor, ticket collector, and passenger. They began asking questions such as "Can we go to Disney World?" or "Can we go to New York?" or "How about Bethany Beach?" and adding "What about Sesame Place?" The Cardinals even took to reading books about trains as they enjoyed their journey. The Cardinals identified problems and road blocks such as broken wheels that stopped the train in the tracks. They worked together cooperatively to find solutions to these problems such as using a forklift to lift the train up and fix it. This showed the mechanical and constructive minds developing in the Cardinal classroom! We are wondering where this interest in trains might take us including inquiring about different types of trains, reading fiction and nonfiction books on transportation and travel and beginning to identify train cars, parts and other parts of traveling such as stations and tickets.

Library with Gwen

Gwen invited us to visit the library today for our special time with her. She introduced us to a book about hats and a bear who was searching for his missing hat! This story brought smiles to our faces as the humor brought out our funny sides and bright personalities! We are developing listening skills during shared group reading experiences such as this. After the first story, Gwen introduced another story about hats by the same author! This one was about a hat that was found by a fish even though it wasn't his. We are enjoying reading with Gwen and connecting with her, building a deeper relationship and hearing her stories. She even shared an experience and sighting she had of a bear on a trip to Canada. 

Outdoor Time

Let's build and go on adventures:

Constructing a house and holding special events for each other:

Dancing and Freeing our bodies through movement:

We finished up our morning through a shared reading of one of the honor books given to the Cardinal Class called, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw, which introduced the concept of different shapes representing real-life objects such as ice-cream cones, rabbits and an owl. We also read a kindness story called Nico and Lola by Meggan Hill,  about a relationship between a boy and a dog full of love and compassion for each other.