Exploring the Mail
February 3-February 20, 2015
With the interest in mail growing, we introduced a mailbox brought in by Michelle for the children to examine and actively use in the classroom to send mail to friends and family. They passed the mailbox around and commented on what they noticed, as well as talked about what their own mailboxes look like. The children were provided with envelopes to start learning how to address them, and learned about stamps. They all know now where to write the name of who they are sending their mail to, where to write their own names, and where to place the stamp. They became very confident in writing their names and started to learn to write names of family members and friends. A lot of the children helped their friends to spell their names on their envelopes by spelling out each letter. This was helpful in developing their social, and fine motor skills. We are seeing great improvement in how the children write and hold their pencils.
Next we provided a guided layout for the children to write mail that would include writing their name, the date, draw a picture, and dictate or write what they drew. This encouraged them to have more of a purpose in sending their mail as well as to write more. They often had exciting stories to go along with their drawings with the intention of sending it to a special family member, teacher, or friend. Along with learning about what we send in the mail, the children learned how to properly fold paper to fit into their envelopes. This was a difficult task for them but they have expanded their folding skills greatly with lots of practice.
After learning about how to correctly address mail and what we send in the mail, we went on a walking field trip to Teacher Andrea’s Park Merced Apartment and explored her mail room. The walls were covered with mailboxes with locks and were each labeled with a number and a letter. The children searched high and low for Teacher Andrea’s label and were excited to watch her open her mailbox with a key and discover mail inside. They passed around the mail and noticed the stamps on the top right corners as well as her name and address. On our walk we also explored a blue mailbox that the postal worker uses to gather the mail. The children learned about where they put their mail and how the mailbox is locked for only the postal worker to open with his or her key. We will have a visit from a postal worker in the coming weeks to ask him questions and share what we are learning about mail.
Since our mail project has begun, some children brought in personal mail from home and shared it with their group. It was exciting to see their name and address on the envelope, a stamp, and mail inside. Each child will soon be receiving special mail so they can have a similar experience and be able to talk about it as a group at school. We will have a space on the wall in the House Area where friends can share personal mail they have received if they would like to bring some to school. According to an article by the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children), teachers must provide the children with print-rich learning centers to encourage their reading and writing skills. An example given in the article was “provide mailboxes for children and teachers so they can send and receive messages.” We are seeing this in action during our mail project as we have a table in the house area dedicated to mail and will expand the area as the project continues. This is an exciting start to our project and the children are already showing a lot of progress in their reading and writing.
Our intention, through pursuing this interest in mail, is to explore the various opportunities to learn through experience and develop new skills in a unique way. Providing moments where they can engage in this interest and learn ensures the most impactful results. Field trips to actual locations where mail is used, experiencing receiving personal mail, writing mail to family, are all ways the children will dive into the topic. Following the children’s lead, the project will expand into new topics.
Citations:
Pool, Juli, and Deborah Carter. "Creating Print-Rich Learning Centers." NAEYC.org. 1 May 2011. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. <http://www.naeyc.org/files/tyc/file/V4N4/Creating_print-rich_learning_centers.pdf>.
Why do we have mail?
Mackenzie: “Because people like to send things.”
Brandon: “Because we need to donate.”
Rorey: “Because we go to someone else’s house.”
Saoirse: “Because the mailman brings us mail and we have to take it out because it’s from somebody.”
Ariana: “Because people love making mail.”
-Nicole
Drawing in the Block Area
February 12th, 2015
On February
12th, several children started to draw some of the toys they were
playing with in the block area. The drawings in the block area quickly became
popular and more children joined in to draw images of families, and sea life. My
intent to set-up drawing in the block area came from my earlier observations of
children drawing outside. The children’s interest to draw gave me the idea to
see what would happen if I offered drawing materials in the block area. The
children were offered large pieces of drawing paper, markers, pastels, rulers,
and flat pieces of wood to draw upon. It became evident that their interest to
reflect on the important things in their lives came out in their illustrations.
One child really likes sea life and
monsters. Another child really likes dinosaurs and trucks and while drawing
these images they expressed their knowledge of dinosaur names, the sea life and
how trucks work. Families were illustrated and one child practiced drawing
circles. Because the drawings were so big and so many, we decided as a group to
make a book of all their illustrations. This activity supports creative
expression, cognitive skills, thinking skills, shape, symbol, and color
recognition and demonstration, fine-motor skills (grip control of markers),
which later helps with writing words and sentences to express complete
thoughts. For example children are using thinking skills when they draw lines
and curves and use shapes to build a more complete image of something they
recall from memory. For an example, when one child drew dinosaurs and their
characteristics he was remembering and comprehending the information he
retained from reading a book about dinosaurs. While observing the drawing that the children
were engaged in, I noticed and recorded a few of their conversations:
“Look at the truck,
look how many hooks it has!”—Nathan
“How many
hooks?”—Teacher Brittany
(Nathan then counts the
hooks one by one on his drawing.) “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 7.”
—Nathan
“What are the hooks
for?”—Teacher Brittany
“For carrying
things.”—Nathan
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Ayush is writing his
name on his drawing. “It’s my name, --a picture of rollercoaster ride.”—Ayush
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Ariana is showing her
drawing to Chloe. Chloe asks, “Is that a silly sun Ariana?”—Chloe
“Yep.” Ariana responds
with a smile. Ariana then comes to show me, “Look teacher, once upon a time a
there was a human, a little girl named Ari and she saw a big dinosaur with a
lot of teeth. But Hali was trying to save me but the sun crushed down the
dinosaur and the end.”—Ariana
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“Look Chloe!” Anya is
showing Chloe her drawing…Chloe responds, “It looks beautiful.” Anya smiles
then says, “Look I made a bridge for the crocodiles to cross.”-Anya (Anya
pointing to the long loopy sketch on her drawing.)
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Ariana is drawing next
to Nathan, she glances over at Nathan’s picture and says, “That’s awesome
Nathan.”
Research:
According to Zero to Three, www.zerotothree.org,
“Pictures
of Objects or People (3 years to 5 years) Many adults think of “pictures” as a
picture of something. This ability to hold an image in your mind and then
represent it on the page is a thinking skill that takes some time to develop.
At first, children name their unplanned creations. This means that they finish
the picture and then label their masterpiece with the names of people, animals,
or objects they are familiar with. This changes over time.
Once
your child has begun to purposefully draw images, she has mastered symbolic
thinking. This important milestone in thinking skills means that your child
understands that line on a paper can be a symbol of something else, like a
horse, a cat, or a person. At this stage, your child also begins to understand
the difference between pictures and writing. And later letter and word practice
begins.”