It’s Teacher Feature Thursday!

This week we are featuring Amy Schoolcraft and Emma Cowan-Young in the four year old Cinnamon Bear classroom.  Our teachers were inspired by the children’s interest in music and spent several weeks exploring musical instruments prior to this lesson led by Amy on music composition and sheet music.  Below you will find a reflection from Amy and Emma, and images from the lesson.

What were your topics of exploration? Why did you choose them? Where did they come from?

Over the past several weeks our class has been studying musical instruments. They have had a great time learning why and how instruments play different notes but we wanted to find a way to extend their understanding of the role that notes have in creating music. So, learning about composers and sheet music seemed like a natural avenue to explore, and a great starting point for our week-long study on music composition.

Why and how did you choose the visit?

We wanted to select a visit that would reinforce the idea of sheet music as a product of a composer. While there were a few great choices among the Smithsonian museums, the installation Part File Score by Susan Philipsz at the Hirshhorn was too perfect to pass up. I loved the space because of the large sheets of music that are prominent, and the music that was being played through speakers, allowing the students to explore the music in two ways.

What were your learning objectives? (What did you want your children to take away from the lesson?)

I wanted the students to understand what a composer is and why they are important. This lesson was also intended to be an introduction to written musical notes for us to build upon throughout our week-long study of basic music theory.

What was most successful about your lesson?  

To introduce the idea of a composer, we first discussed what a composer is and then listened to a few musical selections. As they listened, I asked for them to try to figure out what story the composer was trying to tell. For example in Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, what was the bee doing? Where was it going? Was it moving fast or slow? The last song we listened to was a known favorite of our class, Star Wars (Main Theme) by John Williams. This was a song they knew well and could relate to, giving the students a personal connection to the music and its composer. They were very excited to learn more about John Williams and even try to follow along with a section of the sheet music while listening to the song.

How did the lesson reach your objectives to expand the topic?  

This introduction to composers helped to establish what a composer is and made it meaningful to the students by introducing John Williams, the composer of one of the class’ favorite songs.  The lesson also provided a basic understanding of sheet music, and how writing notes creates music.

What was successful in terms of your preparation and logistics?

We typically reserve the “meat” of the lessons for our museum circle, but we knew that it would be difficult to play the selections of music within the exhibit. So, we had the bulk of our lesson in our classroom instead, using the Hirshhorn exhibit to reinforce the concepts we had learned about in the classroom. Because we were having two circle times, one in the classroom and one in the museum, we knew that we would not have time for our follow up activity in the morning and so we prepared for our class to complete the follow up activity later in the afternoon.

What could you have done differently to better achieve your objectives and expand the topic?  What was challenging regarding logistics?  What recommendations would you have for another teacher trying out this lesson?

This exhibit was largely chosen because of its display of sheet music, but upon reading the description of the artwork, we realized that the artist had intended a much deeper meaning, [“Based on the life and work of film composer Hanns Eisler, a German Jew who immigrated to the United States after his music was banned by the Nazis, only to become an early victim of the infamous Hollywood blacklist of supposed Communist sympathizers”]. While we did not go into great detail about this new information with our class, we were able to add a layer to our lesson since the book we read was about musicians who were also banned from playing their music. Our program utilizes artwork and artifacts from a variety of sources in the many museums of the Smithsonian and this visit served as a reminder of the importance of being informed and sensitive to the intent and meaning of the items we use in our lessons.

The follow up activity asked the kids to use Picasso’s Three Musicians, shape cutouts, and Star Wars sheet music as inspiration in creating their own musician collages. While the results were great, it turned into a mini-lesson by trying to relate these inspiration objects to the morning’s lesson. In hindsight we think it would have been best to select a different follow-up activity and save the one we did for its own lesson down the road, perhaps a lesson on music-inspired art.

Here are a few images from their lesson on Music Composition:

Amy began the lesson in the classroom with a conversation about composers and why music is written down.  She asked the children  what they knew about composers and wrote down their ideas as they shared.  Many children knew that composers write music, but Amy asked them, “Why do they write their music down?” Amy told the class that composers write music so musicians know what to play!

Next, Amy played several songs and each time she asked the students to listen and imagine what the composers were thinking about or what story they were trying to tell when they composed the song.  During each song they got up and let the music inspire the way they moved, and then shared what story they thought the composer was trying to tell.  “Flight of the Bumblebees” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov made the class think of people walking fast. “The Carnival of the Animals, Movement VII Aquarium” by Camille Saint-Saëns made the class think of spooky, scary things like monsters and ghosts.  “Comic Duet for Two Cats” by Gioacchino Rossini made all the children laugh and meow, and reminded them of “Cinderella” and “The Lion King”.

After moving to the music, the kids sat back down and Amy played one of the class’ favorite songs – The Star Wars theme song.  The class instantly recognized it and got very excited.  Amy showed the class a picture of its composer John Williams, and the sheet music to the song.  The class noticed the title of the song on the top, just like books have titles.  They listened to the song and were able to identify lots of different instruments, and Amy told them that each musician will each get their own sheet music, specifically for their instrument.

As the kids listened to the music they tried to follow the notes on their sheet music with their fingers, noticing all the different types of notes on the page.  Amy pointed out the staff, and shape of the notes.  They noticed how the notes go up and down the staff, which indicates the pitch of the note.

Next, the class went to the Hirshhorn Museum to see  the installation Part File Score by Susan Philipsz.  This large space was perfect for their visit as the class was surrounded by music that they could both see as sheet music and hear through speakers.  Immediately the class spotted music notes on the large sheets of music that were framed on the walls, and stopped to listen to the music floating from the speakers.  Amy asked the class what they heard, and they named instruments as they listened.  They compared the sheet music in the piece to the Star Wars sheet music and noticed that the sheet music in Part File Score was much larger, and it had marks on top, but both had music bars and notes.  

Amy read the class Really Awful Musicians by John Manders, about how musicians first learned to play together through composition and writing down notes.  The story illustrated why sheet music is important when musicians play together in order to play a cohesive song.  After the story, the class walked around the installation, and practiced their careful looking skills, noticing where notes were on the staff, and what the notes looked like.

Amy and Emma ended their Music unit with a concert for family and friends. Check out our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for more ideas from their unit on Music! See you in two weeks with our next Teacher Feature!

This week we are featuring Smithsonian Early Explorers (SEE) program.  This SEEC program for children 18 months to 3-years-old and their adult caregiver. It meets for two hours twice a week in classrooms on the National Mall and takes trips to various Smithsonian Museums. A few spaces are still available for the 2019 – 2020 academic year. Ready to enroll – use our easy online application.

The class had been learning about bears with educators Allison Bates and Elizabeth Shaw. They had been learning about bear habitats and focused on waterfalls for this lesson.  Below you will find a reflection from Allison and images from the lesson.

What were your topics of exploration? Why did you choose them? Where did they come from?

This lesson on waterfalls was part of a larger unit on the story “Going on a Bear Trek.” Bears are an animal many young children are familiar with and gravitate toward, and these toddlers were no exception. During this unit, we learned about different bear characteristics including their fur, claws and teeth, and became familiar with many different environments bears call home. We had been studying rivers for a few weeks and learned that grizzly bears hunt for salmon in the river. This lesson focused on waterfalls and the different kinds of things we might see happening at a waterfall.

Why and how did you choose the visit?

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is great for kids because the quiet galleries provide an ideal space to look carefully at the artwork. When bringing young children to an art museum, it is often helpful to visit spaces that are not too crowded or loud. I chose the painting The Great Horseshoe Fall, Niagara by Alvan Fisher because its large size and subtle details provide a great opportunity for kiddos to look carefully.

What were your learning objectives? (What did you want your children to take away from the lesson?)

The goal of this lesson was for the children to understand that a waterfall is part of a river, a geographical feature we had been learning about for a few weeks. We spent a lot of time using our bodies to demonstrate that rivers flow from high places to low places, and we repeated that concept in this lesson. We also reinforced the concept that bears go to places like rivers and waterfalls to look for fish to eat. In this lesson, I introduced the concept of rainbows and light refraction – a concept that is very abstract, so we tried to make it as visual and concrete as possible. The goal was for the children to understand that rainbows are created when light and water meet.

What was most successful about your lesson? How did the lesson reach your objectives to expand the topic? What was successful in terms of your preparation and logistics?

I find that many young children engage better with material when the concepts are introduced in the form of a story, or when music is used as a teaching tool. This lesson featured a lot of singing, dancing, and moving our bodies around and it seemed to resonate with the kiddos. Having something for each child to touch is really helpful as well. On this visit, the children were each given a small photo of a rainbow that they could use to connect to the painting, the songs we were singing, and the book we were reading (A Rainbow of my Own by Don Freeman). A nice benefit of holding our lesson at the American Art Museum was the beautiful Kogod Courtyard, where the kids were able to freely move their bodies and play in the fountains after our lesson. It was a great way to wrap up as the children could make connections to the flowing water under their feet as they played.

What could you have done differently to better achieve your objectives and expand the topic?  What was challenging regarding logistics?  What recommendations would you have for another teacher trying out this lesson?

The biggest challenge of this lesson was introducing the concept of light refraction. We tested out this phenomenon in the classroom using a glass of water, but it would probably have been more effective if we were able to try it in a dark room with a brighter flashlight. Since the rainbow wasn’t quite as visible during our experiment, the cause-and-effect relationship of light passing through water may have been lost.

Here are a few images from their lesson on waterfalls:

Allison started the day by letting the children explore learning centers that focused on rivers, a common place to find a bear!

 Children had lots of choices to explore.  A light table lit up different water colored objects including glass marbles and water beads.  Children rolled bouncy balls down a PVC pipe to illustrate how water runs down a mountain. They also experimented with this concept by pouring water down empty water bottles, and watching as the water zoomed back and forth as it slid down into a pan.After learning centers, Allison called the group together for their morning meeting.  First, she reinforced the concept that rivers flow down a mountain from high to low by demonstrating with her body. The students and their caregivers jumped in and also moved their bodies from high to low, like a river traveling down a mountain.  Then it was on to the focus of the day – waterfalls and rainbows.  Allison explained that waterfalls are a part of rivers, and that sometimes you can see rainbows at waterfalls. Allison told the group about refraction, the interaction between water and light.  She illustrated this by demonstrating what happens when light penetrates water- sometimes there’s a rainbow!
Each explorer received a picture of a rainbow to hold as they got a closer look at the light moving through the water.  They compared their picture to what they saw, and noticed similarities like its brightness, and differences, for example, they only spotted one color – blue.  After singing their Bear Trek song, and making whooshing waterfall sounds, it was time to trek to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  
Once in the museum, the class searched for waterfalls and rainbows, and found both in the painting The Great Horseshoe Fall, Niagra by Alvan Fisher.  The group observed the painting and compared the rainbow in the painting to the one they were holding.  They noticed that all the colors were present and sang a rainbow song. Allison used a felt sun to reinforce the concept that rainbows appear because of refraction; the sun is shining on the waterfall, which causes the rainbow.Next the class read A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman, which tells the story of a boy who imagines what it would be like to play with his own rainbow.  As they read the story they spotted all the colors of the rainbow. Allison then reminded the class that bears catch fish in rivers and waterfalls, showing them a picture of a bear catching salmon in a waterfall.Then it was time to make their own waterfall by sticking blue crepe streamers to a long, narrow piece of poster board.  When they were finished Allison held up the waterfall and shook it, making the crepe paper wiggle.  The class made the whooshing sound of a waterfall. Then the group moved down to the Kogod Courtyard to play in their waterfall.  They got into bear mode and jumped through the waterfall to go fishing.The kids put on a paper bear paw and used the velcro to capture fish. Then they brought the fish back through the waterfall to the appropriate color bucket.Lastly, the group loved playing in the water feature in the courtyard of museum.  They experimented walking over the flowing water, and feeling it run over their fingers.

Through this Bear Trek unit, the explorers learned about different aspects of bear habitats, including waterfalls. Check out our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for more ideas from their unit on Bears!

A few spaces in the Smithsonian Early Explorers (SEE) program are still available for the 2019 – 2020 academic year. Ready to enroll – use our easy online application.

It’s Teacher Feature Thursday!

This week we are featuring Will Kuehnle and Jessie Miller in the four year old Honey Bear classroom.  Our teachers were inspired by the children’s interest in Ancient Egypt and mummies during their unit on digging entitled, “Can You Dig It?”  I joined their class for a lesson led by Will on Egyptian tombs.  Below you will find a reflection from Will and Jessie, and images from the lesson.

What were your topics of exploration? Why did you choose them? Where did they come from?

Our topic for the majority of the first half of the year from the end of October through the end of January was digging and the underground world. The concept was sparked by the children’s interest in using shovels to dig holes on the playground. While children dug outside they would find rocks, bugs and roots that sparked questions about what was going on underneath their feet. We knew that there was a whole world underground that could be dug up, so we created a thematic web to corral all of our ideas. The subject of Ancient Egypt came to light after learning about archaeology. Our original thematic web included many concepts and we hoped that we would eventually get to archaeology, but with an emergent curriculum you are always on your toes for shifts in the children’s interest, so we were fully aware that our roadway of topics leading up to archaeology could easily shift course in an entirely different direction.

When we started back in October with our, “Can You Dig It?” unit we began with gardens and digging to plant seeds to grow. Continuing our exploration through such themes as animals that dig, underground construction, utilities, mining, buried pirate treasure, caves and plate tectonics, we were excited to see strong interest in the subjects presented. After winter break we knew the children would love to hear about how digging underground can give you clues about the past because of the children’s questions surrounding old artifacts spotted in museums and an interest all preschool students seem to have: dinosaurs and fossils. When we returned in January we explored the differences between archaeology and paleontology before learning more detailed information about Ancient Egypt due to the children’s many questions about mummies. It was an exciting journey and by far the longest we have stayed under one subject umbrella, but it felt fresh the whole time because of the various ways we approached the “Can You Dig It?” theme.

Why and how did you choose the visit?

We chose to see the photographic collage Oum el Dounia by Lara Baladi, which is on display in the lobby of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art until June 5, 2016 as part of the museum’s Perspectives series. We actually stumbled upon the piece during one of our first archaeology lessons. On that day, we were heading to the museum’s Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran exhibit to think about why archaeologists search for clues and what those clues can tell about the past. Our walk through the lobby of the museum that morning took us right by Lara Baladi’s tapestry. Our agenda that day was put on pause for a moment so that the whole group could soak up the work of art for a moment. The objects size and scope made it an approachable work of art for children. One of the main focal points on the tapestry was the image of a sphinx in a dessert looking landscape, which had many of the children wondering if the collage was Egypt. We acted just as curious as the children and filed away the piece as an object to visit again with more time to observe and intentionally dissect what we discovered. When our archaeology exploration landed on Ancient Egypt as a point of interest, we knew we had to go back to the piece that had planted a seed of curiosity in the subject.

What were your learning objectives? (What did you want your children to take away from the lesson?)

The main objectives for this lesson were to connect the mummy and Ancient Egypt information we had been learning about with the creation of our own pyramid and tomb.  We also wanted to provide a fun and engaging experience driven by the children and their desire to do something with the knowledge they had been gaining through our exploration. Specifically, we wanted the children to learn the motives (tomb robbers) of the evolution of tombs in Ancient Egypt, from mastabas to the Valley of the Kings. We try to weave many areas of developmental growth into all our lessons, and this particular lesson provided a great platform. New vocabulary was spoken consistently throughout the morning, books were used as a tool to quench curiosity, whimsical figurines in the tapestry were counted, different types of tombs were categorized, reflective opportunities surfaced when the children thought about what a person might need in the after life, motor skills and creativity were utilized in adorning the inside of the pyramid with paint and hieroglyphs. The kids had a blast with the lesson, and we as teachers we were glad that their enjoyment coincided with development of skills we feel are important to their growth.

What was most successful about your lesson?  How did the lesson reach your objectives to expand the topic?  What was successful in terms of your preparation and logistics?

The most successful part of our lesson was how the children took the lead in creating the pyramid. Their excitement and creativity in finding objects to contribute to the tomb was terrific to watch. As preparation in the days leading up to this lesson the class had wrapped our mummy (which was a plastic human body with removable parts) after dissecting vital organs for canopic jars the children decorated. The class then made a sarcophagus for the mummy a different day when we viewed an actual sarcophagus at the National Museum of Natural History, and an actual archaeologist gave us insight into how color was used in Ancient Egypt. The outside of the pyramid (which was made by using a construction fort by Discovery Kids found on Amazon) was decorated with paint and sand (plus a few sprinkles of glitter) prior to the lesson as well. All these objects were on display in the classroom and added to the curiosity and excitement building up to the creation of the tomb. Logistically, having all those materials made before the lesson made the creation of the tomb more streamlined. All that was left to do was collect items for the tomb to be included alongside the canopic jars and sarcophagus, and decorate the inside walls of the pyramid. By breaking the class into two smaller groups we were able to give each child a quality experience doing both tasks.

What could you have done differently to better achieve your objectives and expand the topic?  What was challenging regarding logistics?  What recommendations would you have for another teacher trying out this lesson?

Reflecting back on the lesson we thought one thing that could have been done differently was the timing of the lesson. We felt that we could have split the lesson into two different days: one day to go to the museum to discuss what a tomb is and the different types of tombs, and another day to focus on creating the tomb in the classroom. We felt painted into a corner with the timing of the lesson due to an unrelated activity we were obligated to do later in the week and did not want to wait until the following week to create the tomb.

Thinking back on it, we probably could have delayed the creation of the tomb and spent more time exploring the evolution of tombs in Ancient Egypt from mastabas to the Valley of the Kings because the class was highly interested in this topic.  This was so fascinating to the children because one of the main reasons pyramids went out of fashion was due to the their clear invitation to tomb robbers of possible treasure inside (which brought back many fantastic memories of our time exploring pirates and buried treasure earlier in the “Can You Dig It?” unit). A simple follow up activity such as a journal entry prompting the children to choose a type of tomb they wanted to draw and items they wanted to put inside the tomb could have been a great wrap up after the museum visit, with the actual pyramid creation the next day or week.

One thing that challenges us in teaching is whittling down a complex topic to the main points we want to get across in a developmentally appropriate way. This is a challenge because we must balance our desire to dive into a topic of interest with the desire to keep the children’s interest. With this particular lesson on tombs, we probably could have kept the obvious high level of interest and excitement going for little bit longer, but we as teachers were also excited to shift themes after a successful three months of digging.

One tangible recommendation we would give teachers thinking about doing this lesson would be to look into acquiring a large image of the object you are going to view. Our museum education team was able to print one for us using Microsoft Publisher and it made the interaction with the object mush more meaningful because although the children cannot touch the real art, they could touch the print out and interact with it (such as adding different types of tombs to the landscape). The print out also has the added benefit of bringing a museum like experience into any classroom, regardless of museum access. As luck would have it, it was raining the morning of our lesson and we thought of skipping the walk to the museum, which would have made the print out a vital component for the lesson if we had stayed inside the four walls of our classroom.

Here are a few images from their lesson on Egyptian Tombs:

Will began the lesson by heading straight to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to see Lara Baladi’s Oum el Douna (The Mother of the World) as part of the museum’s Perspective series (Photo courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.) This large piece is located in the far end of the gallery lobby, which provided a large, quiet area for the class to sit in a semicircle and become absorbed in Oum el Douna. Will asked the children what they noticed about the piece.  Oum el Douna is so large, with so many aspects that the children had many observations to share.  Several children spotted the Sphinx immediately, and many others mentioned the two bright colors, and how they believed this represented the sandy desert and blue sky or water (“maybe it’s the Nile River!” said one child). The class decided that the piece was most likely depicting Egypt due to the Sphinx and the desert.  Will asked the class what might be missing from the piece if it was Egypt.  Many students said, “pyramids!”, and when asked what pyramids are they said, “tombs”.  To learn more about the evolution of tombs, Will read an excerpt from Mummies and Pyramids by Will and Mary Pope Osbourne.  To demonstrate this information further, Will also drew a picture to illustrate the evolution of tombs from mastabas to the Valley of the Kings.Will explained that tombs in pyramids became targets for tomb robbers due to their size and promise of treasure, so Pharaohs began building their tombs underground in the Valley of the Kings to keep them secret and protected from tomb robbers. 
After learning more about pyramids and tombs, the class worked together to add pictures of pyramids, mastabas, and the Valley of the Kings on a print out of Oum el Douna that Will brought with the class. After all the discussion about tombs, the class went back to school and began readying a tomb for their mummy, Claudia, who they had prepared earlier in the week.  The class split into two groups- one with Will to decorate the tomb walls, and the other with Jessie to gather items to go inside the tomb.  Jessie explained that mummies laid in their tombs with anything they might need in the afterlife.  The group brainstormed what Claudia might need, and came up with lots of ideas including food and chapstick.
Jessie took the group around the school and the children each chose an object they thought Claudia could use in her next journey.  They placed them carefully in their tomb structure.  Once the objects were in place they built a podium for their sarcophagus.Then it was time for the groups to switch so they each had an opportunity to gather objects, and decorate the tomb walls.  Will helped the children color hieroglyphs, paint with glitter paint, and add hieroglyphic stamps to the inside of the pyramid walls so that Claudia’s tomb would be colorful.Finally, the class came back together to finish off the tomb walls by adding a dash of glitter to make it extra opulent, just like the Ancient Egypt Pharaohs would have wanted.   Lastly, the class laid Claudia in the tomb and touched her mouth for the “Opening of the Mouth Ceremony” so that Claudia could live on in the afterlife.  They wished her safe journey and put the final wall on their tomb.

Will and Jessie ended their “Can You Dig It?” unit with Ancient Egypt, and started exploring Storytelling and Theater. Check out our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for more ideas from their unit on “Can You Dig it?” and Ancient Egypt! See you in two weeks with our next Teacher Feature!