Summer Explorations

During our group discussion we include a storybook titled A Stone Sat Still by Brendan Wenzel. This story is about a rock that seems ordinary and unassuming, but to the animals around it, it is so much more - a haven, a hill, and a quiet resting place. Each animal approaches the stone from a different place and gets something different from it. Using this stone, we can discuss how perception is influenced by perspective and our senses.

When asked to reflect on the stories, based on his or her own words, Felix shares his thought of the crack on the stone as a representation of a baby is inside.

Brooks thinks a snake is feeling relaxed sitting on the stone and he loves the sky. His perception links to how the stone stays physically the same throughout the story, but is perceived differently by each animal that interacts with it.

This story also encourages us to encounter the passage of time as a form of change. This prompts us to think about how change affects the way we see things. Near the end of the book, we learn that the environment around the stone has changed, and it is now submerged in water.

Working with the above story, we extend to a hands-on sensorial experience of water and pebbles. Kalyan and Emily are observed to make effortful attempts of dropping a solid piece of pebble from a certain height into the water using all of our senses - sight, touch, size, hardness, and hearing - to perceive the world around us.

We too take opportunities to immerse ourselves in water over this whole week to keep ourselves hydrated under the scorching hot weather. Movements such as pouring dumping, filling, dunking, splashing, mixing, squirting, squishing, and squeezing are our various ways to have fun while developing our skills.

As we fill and pour from different-sized containers we learn about volume and capacity. We experience concepts such as full/empty and more/less.

Learning a song about fish in the water is another great way to make connection between our current experiences with our next field trip to the beach. In addition, we include another song of A Sailor Went to Sea to incorporate our interest of understanding a concept of a sequential order.

We slowly unpack our understanding of sea creatures based on the above song. Firstly, we make connection from the song to the smallest sea creature in the order which is a seahorse. It is interesting to learn making an origami seahorse. Despite a few challenges such as following the steps and working on the techniques, we persist on with our efforts. Brooks further draws a seahorse which represents his origami creation.

Making a jellyfish using mesh and liquid glue to attach requires us to engage our controlled arm strength. Our next creation of a sea creature is a sea turtle using clay as a medium this time round.

Shaping a dome-shaped base is indeed quite challenging to some of us. However, with determination, we manage to press the side of the clay and little by little we make it work. Toward the end we enjoy using a toothpick to create grids on the top of its shell. We too add expressions on our sea turtles!

More interesting experiences from our summer explorations! Tasting summer fruits from the trees. Sometimes we wonder how it tastes and by tasting we figure it out!

Margo’s drawing of our collections of green apples from an apple tree is one of our ways to further represent our experiences.

Kindest,
Children & Friends.