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9/23 & 9/25/14 Playgroup

9/25/2014

 
This week in playgroup, we opened with clay again.  But, this time it looked different.  It was nice to see many friends plunk down and enjoy exploring clay again this week.

In our studio, we added a light box to the lenses so that we could explore more properties of this material.  Filling and pouring was also a familiar pastime.  One friend worked for a long time to fill a large vessel.  When other friends ventured over to this center, we were able to narrate the encounter so that everyone became involved.

We also added containers with lids to the building area after observing children taking marker lids off and putting them on last week.  There was a fascination with the markers last week, and we noticed the lids and contents of the containers kept friends busy this week.  Many were successful in twisting the tops off the containers!

Other studio activities included tape, cutting discarded greeting cards, and mark making with oil pastels and water color paint.

Still Having Fun With Junk

8/23/2013

 
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Ellie, Mr. Spikes and Piggy
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Bunny and Zeebree
Our second week of Fun With Junk camp ended with some clever creations as well as some beautiful work.

Our friends worked on sculptures of creatures.  We looked through books for inspiration and drew the animals, looking carefully at the shapes that made their parts.  These drawings became a plan that we referred back to as we sculpted.  
We also did some sewing: paper cards with beads and monogrammed pillows.  We used upholstery samples and scraps of fabric to create letters for the pillows.  We also used a variety of stitches: running, couching, blanket and the French knot.  Our friends were very pleased with their work.
On Thursday, we tried an experiment that gave broken crayons a new life.  We peeled the paper off of the crayons and broke them into little pieces.  This was great fine motor work!  Then we created a solar oven out of a box and aluminum foil.  We wanted to use the energy from the sun to melt the crayons into candles or a big chunky crayon. 

We checked our crayons after snack, noting that there were some changes.  The crayons appeared wet and a couple were changing shape.     
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Friends suggested that we add more foil and wrap the oven more tightly.

At the end of the day, we checked again and saw very few changes.  We decided that a hot car might melt the wax, so Susan put the oven in her car for the afternoon.  When that didn't work, we used a real oven!

We suspect that we might have had success with our solar oven alone if we had waited several days for changes to occur.   
More Fun With Junk
Thanks for sharing your children with us!

Welcome to Our Materials Playgroup

4/24/2013

 
How fun it was to meet new friends and have new experiences!  At our first playgroup, we gathered around natural clay.  Some friends were hesitant to touch the clay at first, but almost everyone became involved.  Many of us commented that the clay felt cold.  We grabbed chunks of clay off of the block and worked to change it.  We rolled the clay into coils and balls, and we pinched and poked it.  We stepped on the clay and touched it with our feet.  We flattened the sides of a ball by dropping the clay repeatedly.  And, we worked to put the hunk of clay back together. 
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Then the room was open for exploration.  In our workshop, friends rolled balls through tubes and tunnels.  We were curious about where the balls went, and we noticed the sounds they made as they moved in the tubes.  Other friends poured materials and put them into containers.  We also made sounds with the containers.     
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We made marks with tape.  Many friends "stuck" with tape: unrolling, cutting, ripping, and sticking it on reclaimed posters and themselves.
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Many friends were "focused" on the bin of eyeglass lenses.  We looked through the lenses, made comparisons and sorted them.  We also enjoyed scooping and stirring the lenses.  We noticed that friends were satisfied with both the sight and sound of this experience.
Our color collection box was open and friends created designs on the wall.
We would like to share an article with you about constructivist learning and productive questioning:  Productive Questions:  Tools for Supporting Constructivist Learning, by Mary Lee Martens.  We will be talking about how we can guide our children's play in ways that support and extend their learning.

See you next time!

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  • About us
    • News
    • History
    • Opportunities
  • Materials Center
    • Shop
    • Materials Donations
    • Memberships
  • Programs & Events
    • Earth Day Celebration
    • Kids >
      • Camps
      • Materials Playgroup
      • Parties & Group Activities
    • Adults >
      • Programs & Workshops
    • Teachers >
      • Lesson Plans
      • Professional Development
      • Field Trips/Groups
      • Outreach
  • Support
  • Contact