Embedded Files
The Kindergartners' exploration of thermal energy extended through much of our time together in the IDEA Lab this winter and also found its way into other areas of the classroom curriculum, including Writer's Workshop and the annual Popcorn Sale in which the students raise money to buy mittens for children in need by selling bags of popcorn to the school community.
For much of December and January, students throughout our Early Childhood division were engaged in learning about some aspect of robotics. Regardless of grade level, the core ideas were the same:
- Computers and robots are machines.
- They only work when they have a power source and can only do what people program them to do.
- They do whatever you tell them to do- even if you make a mistake and give them the wrong directions. They don’t know what you meant to do or what would make sense. They just follow the the steps of your program.
- A program is a set of directions that are in a specific code or language that the computer or robot has been designed to use. There are different kinds of codes used for different machines and different purposes.
- Each command, or piece of information, that is entered into the computer or robot (called “input”) causes a specific, predetermined response (called “output”)
In Kindergarten, the children reviewed and practiced the basic commands for our BeeBot robots by engaging in fun- and sometimes a little silly- group programming activities like the (relatively) synchronized BeeBot dance in the video below.
beebot line.mp4Once they were able to accurately enter sequences of oral commands with good consistency, the children progressed to following printed programs, mapping out routes on our large grid mats, and writing their own programs to move the BeeBots along a chosen path. Not unlike their literacy skills practice in the classroom, decoding and encoding their robot programs required the children to both make sense of sequences of symbols- when reading an existing program- and to choose and arrange the correct symbols in a particular order when writing programs of their own. It was a joy to see their excitement and pride when all of their work came together and the robot performed as planned. Definitely an empowering experience for these young programmers!
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Below are several short videos of the Kindergarteners' shadow puppet performances for our 2017 Karla Harry Visiting Author, Nikki Grimes. The students chose four poems from Nikki Grimes's book, When Gorilla Goes Walking to perform: "Little Miss Fussy", "Chase", "Boxing Match", and "Telephone".
Each child chose a part from one of the poems to draw and/or make. I enlarged the students' original artwork, traced it onto cardboard, and cut out their designs to maintain their authentic characteristics. In addition to our brief performance before an audience, this fun culmination of our study of light and shadow enjoyed a reprise- with some new twists- in our class the following day.
The following is a slideshow of many of our puppeteers with their puppets and their original drawings. The videos are below the slides.
Little Miss Fussy.mp4In "Little Miss Fussy", Gorilla turns up her nose at a variety of foods until...
Boxing Match.mp4In "Boxing Match", Gorilla battles with a wall of ivy. Things got a little wild...
Telephone.mp4In "Telephone", Gorilla and Cecilia race each other to answer the phone.
Chase.mp4In "Chase", Gorilla tries to catch a fly by chasing it around the house.
If you would like to see more from this project, please look on THIS BLOG POST on the Gordon School website. There are also a number of beautiful related photos on Gordon's flickr stream
kindershadownov3.mp4If you have been anywhere near the Early Childhood shared space over the past two weeks you are already aware that there is a serious investigation of light and shadow being conducted by our Kindergarteners. In the IDEA Lab, they are applying some of what they have learned in their creation of a shadow puppet performance of four poems from Gorilla Goes Walking, a book by this year's visiting author, Nikki Grimes.
After exploring what happens when light shines on transparent, opaque, and reflective materials, the children had fun experimenting with casting shadows on a rear projection screen- in this case, simply a sheet over a table. We are all excited to see the shadows they will create for the performance using paper cutouts, their own bodies, and a variety of objects - all on our big new screen!
FRICTION.movLast Friday, Kindergarteners explored the concept of FRICTION. They noticed that when we rub our hands together, the friction created by the two surfaces rubbing against each other creates heat. We got into the habit of making that motion while saying the word "friction" to help remember what it means and how it works.
Next, the students experimented with pulling classmates across the room who were seated on different surfaces, including: a carpet, a sheet of cardboard, and a yoga mat. They created the terms "slippier" and "grippier" to describe their observations. Ask your child which surface generated the most friction! (Hint: it was the "grippiest".)
This is a drawing by one of our Kindergarten students illustrating a toy car rolling down a steep ramp. Over the past few weeks, the children have been exploring forces and motion. They found that toy cars travelled faster and farther when they increased the number of blocks supporting the ramp.
The students also attached spring scales to the toy cars and pulled them UP the ramp to help them see the difference in the amount of force needed to pull the car up ramps of different heights.
Look for an opportunity for your child to continue practicing how to use a spring scale next time you are in the produce section of your grocery store!
Students in Young K and Kindergarten started out the year in our IDEA Lab thinking about technology. When asked, "What is technology?" the children were quick to provide numerous examples of electronics- particularly computers, computer games, iPhones, iPads and other digital tools. The idea that a spoon could be an example of technology, however, came as a bit of a surprise.
In Gordon's Early Childhood and Lower School, students are introduced to the larger meaning of the word technology as defined by the Engineering is Elementary curriculum and website developed by the Museum of Science, Boston. Their child-friendly explanation of the term is as follows:
- Technology is something designed by human beings to help solve a problem or meet a need.
After reading the book, Spoon, students reflected on what problems a spoon would be good at solving- and other activities for which they are not well-designed. Some photos of their ideas are shown below.
If you are interested in exploring the question of what is and isn't technology with your child, there is a free, fun app for iOS devices created by the Museum of Science, Boston called "Technology Flashcards". Click HERE to find out more.
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