Guest Teacher: Kati Nash
Reggio Blog Series
Hi! My name is Kati and I am a teacher in a Reggio-inspired preschool that serves the most at-risk children in our school district. Our school is unique in that we have private, philanthropic funding but remain a public school. Our school works with many local foundations and groups including the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. I am so excited that I can share a glimpse of my children’s inspiring investigation from this year with the world.
We first began noticing children’s intrigue with ramps, bridges, and
tunnels emerge in the block area.
Children were building multi-level structures and using objects to manipulate cause and effect relationships with their structures.
We wondered what would develop if the children’s ideas of ramps were brought
into another area of the classroom.
Teachers set up a series of provocations involving ramps and a variety of materials. These started with simple ramps and obvious balls.
As teachers watched the children’s interactions with the ramps evolve
they would add or take away materials.
During ongoing exploration children began to agree that “a ramp goes down.” And thus the children formed their definition of a ramp.
Kati will be a guest presenter this summer with Fairy Dust Teaching's e-institute!
Awesome, and very inspiring, Sally, thank you.
I have done ramp study with children of all ages. The extensive teamwork involved for constructing is hard to duplicate in other settings. Beautiful display.
When the children are given the materials, time, and space to collaborate on such an interesting study, the sky is the limit!
Math:
Geometry and measurement. The student applies mathematical process standards to analyze attributes of two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional solids to develop generalizations about their properties. The student is expected to:
(A) identify two-dimensional shapes, including circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares as special rectangles;
(B) identify three-dimensional solids, including cylinders, cones, spheres, and cubes, in the real world;
(C) identify two-dimensional components of three-dimensional objects;
(D) identify attributes of two-dimensional shapes using informal and formal geometric language interchangeably;
(E) classify and sort a variety of regular and irregular two- and three-dimensional figures regardless of orientation or size; and
(F) create two-dimensional shapes using a variety of materials and drawings.
Science:
Force, motion, and energy. The student knows that energy, force, and motion are related and are a part of their everyday life. The student is expected to:
(A) use the five senses to explore different forms of energy such as light, heat, and sound;
(B) explore interactions between magnets and various materials;
(C) observe and describe the location of an object in relation to another such as above, below, behind, in front of, and beside; and
(D) observe and describe the ways that objects can move such as in a straight line, zigzag, up and down, back and forth, round and round, and fast and slow.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Kindergarten –