Since the beginning of the year, the children of the Dolphin group have been engaged in a variety of building activities. They first focused on simple 2D constructions, then progressing by using small manipulatives and nature materials such as tree cookies and corks, they continued to expand their interest in putting things together and taking them apart. From small displayable projects they evolved to building big, elaborate, 3D complex structures that are incorporated into their play. They are now creating with Legos, crates, and big hollow blocks. It is fascinating to see them use their projects in their dramatic play to further expand their engagements and discoveries. Their play has become both more reciprocal and cooperative. Still aware of their social distance and wearing masks, the children have developed skills to play together and exchange ideas and roles that transcend these minor pandemic boundaries.

As they are building, the children are negotiating, problem-solving, and communicating. One of the more popular play games they engage in is “Playing Families.” There are always many ideas and suggestions of how to navigate this play. Along with choosing who they want to be in their family, the children design their physical space using variety of materials. They use their constructing skills to create trains using chairs, planes using hollow blocks, houses using large building materials, and more – the original ideas are infinite! The children are not only expressing these ideas in their construction, verbally to each other, and through their play, but they are also recording them on paper too. We see many more letters written, numbers recognized, and complex shapes named. “I need a cylinder!” E exclaimed, while building with blocks. T punched 40 on the cash register play toy, “Look, this is how old my dad is!” “What number is that?” I asked him. “40!” he confidently responded.

We have also been incorporating voting to decide on how to expand our curriculum with the children. Our latest poll was: “Where should we go on a Field Trip?” The children are invited to place their vote and at the end we collect the highest number of votes to make our decision. This is quite a complex mathematical process. To expand on that concept, we have made predictions and timed our seeds growing in the garden area. “How long will it take for them to sprout?” Counting and mapping out our hypothesis, we have enjoyed the process of discovery and change. Currently, we are observing our new addition to the classroom, our silkworms. The children are fascinated with how the silkworm’s poop changes over time. We have created a comparison chart and daily the children look at their discoveries and make predictions and conclusions.

Now that we have merged our outdoor cohort with the Eagles, we are excited to see how the children’s play continues to evolve as they incorporate new friends with new ideas and 5-year-old wisdom to share.

Written by Ani Ivanov, Master Lead Teacher