(Pictured Sculpture: AMOR by Robert Indiana at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.)

We’re back with a new Top 5 all about Valentine’s Day!  Of course it’s a fun day filled with  hearts, the color pink, and candy, but there’s lots of learning that can happen as well.  We’ve rounded up some fantastic ideas on how to celebrate Valentine’s Day with young children in ways that incorporate museums, science, art, movement, and more!

1. Touch and Feel Hearts.  These Touch and Feel Hearts from Simple Play Ideas are easy to make and there are so many different materials you can use to make a variety of textured hearts.  Infants through preschool aged children will enjoy exploring the soft, smooth, grainy, bumpy, sticky, and rough textures. We also love how they’ve paired these hearts with a book as well to incorporate literacy.

2. Painting with Frozen Watercolor Hearts. This idea from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds looks like a ton of fun!  These frozen heart watercolors are simple to make (you just need watercolors, Popsicle sticks, heart cookie cutters, and a freezer), and combine science and art for a unique painting experience.

3. Explore Valentine’s Day Themes in the Classroom and/or the Museums. Check out our 7 Valentine’s Day Ideas for Your Classroom blog for inspiration in ways to explore Valentine’s Day themes such as baking, the color red, communication, flowers, and hearts in the classroom, and the museums. 

4. Valentine’s Hearts Gross Motor.  How do you make Valentine’s Day fun active?  Try out this gross motor game from And Next Comes L.  She provides lots of variations to this game to keep it exciting for young children time after time.

5. Valentine’s Day Oil and Water Science.  This activity from Little Bins for Little Hands offers great opportunities to make observations, predictions, and explore, not to mention it’s aesthetically pleasing.

For more Valentine’s Day ideas, visit our Pinterest board here.  You’ll find more ideas from SEEC, around the web, and additional objects within the Smithsonian museums that are perfect for visiting in relation to Valentine’s Day.  Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

This week we are featuring a museum lesson from our infant teachers, Logan Crowley, Jill Manasco, and Rosalie Reyes. The infant class had been particularly interested in reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. Logan, Jill, and Rosalie noticed the interest and decided to build a unit around their class’s intrinsic interests. They began by looking at the brown bear who saw the red bird who saw the yellow duck who saw the blue horse who saw the green frog. The class focused on each animal and then they moved on to the next. When they arrived at green frog, I joined the class for a lesson at the National Museum of American History. Below is a reflection from Logan, Jill, and Rosalie as well as images from the lesson.

 Here are some images from their lesson:

Sometimes getting the class to the museum is one of the most challenging aspects of the trip. The class made frequent stops to check in with the children and make sure that they were physically comfortable as well as mentally stimulated. See the teachers reflections below for more.

Since Kermit the Frog was displayed at a height where adults were able to view it easily, the infant teachers picked the children up and held them closer to the Kermit the Frog.

While holding a child up, Rosalie was able to engage the child by pointing and paying close attention to the child’s nonverbal ques. She watched the child’s facial expressions and was aware of where the child’s eyes were looking.

The class was not able to touch the Kermit the Frog on display. Luckily, Jill was able to bring in her childhood version of Kermit. Touching Jill’s childhood Kermit played an important role in the lesson, since touch plays such a crucial role in brain development.

The class had other examples of frogs to compare to Kermit the Frog including puppets, rubber frogs, green scarves, and musical frogs.

The infants were able to touch and explore all the tangible examples of frogs that their teachers brought with them.

A reflection from Logan, Jill, and Rosalie:

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

We had noticed that our infants really loved to read the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, so we decided to do a unit on it, focusing on the different types of animals featured in the book. We had already learned about several animals in the book and during this week we focused on the frog.

Why and how did you choose the visit?

I was scouring the websites of nearby museums for ideas and noticed that the National Museum of American History has a Puppets and Muppets display that included the original Kermit the frog puppet. As it so happened, Jill had a stuffed version of Kermit from her childhood at home and so we decided she would bring in her Kermit and we would head over to see the original Kermit in all his glory.

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

With infants, museum visits tend to be a short and focused experience. While older children may be ready to spend more time talking about the history of Kermit or the detailed characteristics of real frogs, infants take in and process information differently. With this in mind, our main objective was to introduce Kermit the frog to our infants and then to help them make connections between Kermit and the frogs that they’d been learning about in the classroom. The more that infants are exposed to, the more points of reference they will have, so they will begin to understand that there are many different types of frogs. This is how a baby begins to make sense of the world around them. It gives them the ability to think flexibly, which is an essential skill for future success in school.

 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?

Since our main goal was to help our infants make a connection between Kermit (a fictional frog) and real-life frogs, we brought along not only a stuffed Kermit, but a variety of examples of frogs. The examples varied from very realistic (photographs of real frogs), semi-realistic (stuffed frogs), to more cartoonish depictions of frogs. We also had a video of Kermit the frog singing “The Rainbow Connection” for the children to watch, noting as they watched that he was sitting in a swamp, an environment where frogs are often found. The children remained largely engaged throughout the lesson and showed a great deal of interest in the various objects and in the Puppets and Muppets display.

Having all three teachers interacting with the children and showing them objects can feel a little chaotic in the moment, but these one-on-one interactions are key to keeping the children engaged and enjoying the experience. We spend a lot of time in the classroom building relationships with the children and establishing trust. These relationships are instrumental for meaningful learning to take place and we find they are key to successful museum experiences for our children. Our relationships with them help us to pick destinations that we know will engage them and also help us to connect with the children as we visit and explore what we see.

 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 most challenging logistic in any museum visit with our infants is simply getting out the door. Between making sure that the class has clean diapers, is fed, has had their bottles, and has napped, it can be tricky just finding a time to make it out. But we know how important it is for our children to explore, get some fresh air, and see the museums, so we make it work. The other major challenge is that infants attention is easily diverted so visits are typically short and sweet. I would recommend bringing tangible objects for infants to explore that will hold their attention. Most of all, when doing any sort of lesson with infants, the main thing is to be flexible and to be open to changing your plans if you find something doesn’t work. I constantly remind myself that the most important part is that the children have a positive experience and that as long as I can make that happen, it’s okay if a lesson doesn’t turn out exactly like I envisioned. I think the main takeaway is to have fun with it. If you are enjoying yourself and focusing on making a connection, the children will almost certainly enjoy themselves too.

The class continued to looked at frogs for the rest of the week. They explored many green objects and played in water to gain a better understanding of the habitat of frogs. When the class felt ready to move on from frogs, they continued learning about Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by exploring colors and color mixing. Be on the lookout for our Roundup on the unit Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? 

This Teacher Feature was originally posted November 5, 2015, and provides a great example of how question asking can be a powerful tool for young children’s learning.  Want to learn more about question asking techniques?  Join us for The Art of Asking Questions Webinar on February 8!

It’s Teacher Feature Thursday!

This week we are featuring Jessie Miller and Will Kuehnle in the Honey Bear classroom. This class of four year olds began the year with a unit on inquiry and question asking.  Will and Jessie used this unit as a way to introduce the museums and their vast collections and also get to know their children and gauge their interests. As they visited the different institutions around the National Mall, Will and Jessie carefully recorded their questions and hung them on their class “Inquiry Tree” as a creative display. They noticed a lot of the questions could be answered by visiting the Natural History Museum collection and could be connected through the theme of digging. Will and Jessie collaborated to develop their next unit. I was able to join their class as Jessie led the group through Natural History and gave them hints about what they would study next.  Below you will find a reflection from Jessie and images from her lesson.

Teacher Feature

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

The Honey Bears had two weeks focused on inquiry and curiosity. We began with a lesson about what a question is and how we can use questions to express what we want to know more about. We created an “inquiry tree” in the classroom where the children could hang their questions and we revisited them throughout the weeks. The Honey Bears used their new found curiosity to explore places such as the Botanic Gardens, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden, and the National Museum of Natural History.

Why and how did you choose the visit?

As the Honey Bears conducted observations and gathered questions about the topics they wanted to know more about, Will and I determined what areas held most of their interests. This led us to the Natural History Museum where we went on a scavenger hunt looking for clues that would lead us to our next unit of study. Many of the children’s questions over the weeks had to do with things like dinosaurs, jewels and gold, bones, rocks, and other topics related to digging. The picture clues we used on our scavenger hunt led us to different exhibits in Natural History where we could explore these things and introduce the next thematic unit of “Can you dig it?” to the Honey Bears.

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

I wanted this lesson to be a culmination of the inquiry weeks. It would be a way to review everything we had learned about how to ask questions and touch on some of the questions we had shared over the weeks. I wanted the Honey Bears to be free to explore the different exhibits at Natural History related to our next unit and come up with new questions. I wanted the children to see how their curiosity and questions control where our themes go.

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?

Most of the Honey Bears have been to the Natural History Museum many times before. However, by giving them magnifying glasses to hold and picture clues to follow, it gave them a different way of exploring the exhibits. They had to use the picture clues to really think about where we were going next and it added an extra layer of excitement to our exploration. In preparation for the lesson, I sifted through all of the Honey Bears questions and comments to determine where their main interests were. As I ventured through Natural History with the children, I brought up some of their previous questions to spark their curiosity and reflect on their previous experiences.

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?

I think the experience could have gone more smoothly if we had gone to the museum at a quieter time of day, perhaps before it opened so there was less of a crowd. I also felt like I was having good conversations with the children close to me in the front of our train but it was harder for me to communicate with the children in the caboose of the train. We were moving from place to place and there were a lot of people around so next time I would prefer to get there early and have specific spots to stop at so we could all share and discuss our thoughts and questions with the group as a whole.

Here are a few images from their unit on questions:

Jessie began the lesson by reminding the children of the different museums they visited around the mall. Will and Jessie used a token object to remind the children of the Museum collection and asked the children to reflect on their visits.   

Jessie then reminded the children that they had asked a number of really great questions and read some of the questions off of The Inquiry Tree that related to the Museum of Natural History. She explained that a lot of the questions they had could be answered at Natural History so today they were going to go on a hunt for answers at the museum.
Jessie created a modified “scavenger hunt” using images that connected to the children’s digging questions and to different exhibits in the Natural History Museum. She began the visit by  showing the children an image of a squirrel digging in the dirt. Jessie asked the group where they might learn more about her image. The group enthusiastically replied “Mammal Hall!”

After locating their squirrel and looking at the other digging mammals,  Jessie revealed the next image, a crown! The group discussed the different locations in the museums where they might find a crown and the materials that they are made of. The children decided to go up to the Gems and Mineral Hall to investigate.

The students did some close looking with the magnify glasses and found crowns, gold and uncut gems.

Their next clue took them to the Live Insect Zoo to see insect digging in action.

Their final stop was  to the Last American Dinosaur Exhibit to learn about paleontologists and what they are able to dig up. One of the paleontologists came out and talked to the children about his job and brought out a real fossil for the children to examine.

The students all took turns looking very closely at the fossil.

During the next week Will and Jessie formally introduced the class to their new theme: “Can you dig it?” They will be spending a few weeks doing in depth explorations in digging tunnels, archaeologists, and so much more! Check out our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for more ideas from their unit on inquiry and digging! See you in two weeks with our next Teacher Feature!

Last week we brought you a Teacher Feature from our kindergarten class where they learned about art conservation.  This lesson was part of a larger unit on museums in which the class learned what museums are, who works in them, and how they run.  The web below displays the aspects of museums the class, led by Cathryn Prudencio and Silvana Oderisi, learned about during this unit to gain a better understanding and appreciation for all the people and work that goes into the museums that the students visit daily.  Following the web are photos highlighting some of their experiences from the unit.

Collections

After exploring many of the museums on the National Mall, the class focused their attention on collections.  They visited the third floor of the National Museum of Natural History to look at photographs of collections housed in the Museum.  The class learned how collections are used for educational purposes as well as, research.

The kindergartners were in for a surprise when Igor Krupnik, a curator from Anthropology Department happened to walk by, and invited them to view his collection from Greenland.  The children were able to see firsthand how the objects in a collection are stored safely while not on display.  He also talked about how some of  the objects are used by people.  He is holding  a woman’s knife called an ulu, which is used to scrape animal skins and cut food.

To further understand collections, the class worked in teams and sorted a variety of objects into categories.  As they touched the objects they wore gloves and handled them gently, reminding them that objects in a museum’s collection need to be protected and preserved so people can view them for years to come.

Exhibits

Now that the class understood the concept of collections, they began to explore how the are displayed in exhibits.The class met with Tim Winkle, a museum curator at the National Museum of American History.  Mr. Winkle explained that he is in charge of the firefighting collection, and walked the class through an exhibit he curated: Always Ready: Fighting Fire in the 19th Century.  Winkle offered a glimpse into how exhibits are created by explaining how and why he chose each object. He also discussed how he collaborated with the exhibit designer to create the finished product.

People

During the unit, the class met with many people who work in museums, all performing very different jobs, but all vital to the museum running smoothly.Ann Caspari, a museum educator at the National Air and Space Museum, and former SEEC teacher, met with the class to talk about what museum educators do.  She explained how she meets with many children from around the area and teaches them about flight and space through stories, objects, and hands-on activities.  They even got to participate in one of these activities – the children made their own air crafts and tested them in a wind tunnel, modifying them if need be.

The children met with Chris Mah, a marine biologist who studies at the National Museum of Natural History. He shared invertebrate specimens with the children and explained how scientists use questions to classify objects. Two important questions to his work are about shape and symmetry.

The class also met with Alexander Nagel, an archaeologist who worked in Persepolis in Iran.  He showed the children how he restores objects back to their original colors, and took them through the Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History to find artifacts that have been restored to look how they did when they were originally created.

We hope you enjoyed getting a bigger picture of our Kindergarten class’ unit on Museums! We’ll see you soon with our next Teacher Feature.

It’s Teacher Feature Thursday!

This week we are featuring Silvana Oderisi and Cathryn Prudencio of our Kindergarten classroom.  To begin their school year Silvana and Cathryn wanted to provide the children with a foundation of what museums are, who works in them, and how they run.  To do this they met with many people who hold very different roles, but who are all responsible for ensuring the Smithsonian museums run smoothly, and that the objects in the collections are cared for. I joined their class for a lesson on Art Conservation. Below you will find a reflection from Silvana and Cathryn, and images from the lesson.

A reflection from Silvana and Cathryn:

In the beginning of the school year, our kindergarten class explored museums as a topic. Our purpose of this unit was to really delve into what happens behind the scenes of the museums that we visit on a daily basis, so that we can understand all of the work that goes into the different exhibits, installations, and artwork on display.  After spending some time exploring what collections, exhibits and installations are, we decided to learn about the people who take care of the objects that go into these museum spaces, one being art conservators. We visited the Lunder Conservation Center at the Smithsonian American Art Museum to talk about what the conservators do in the Paintings Lab (restoring the structure of a painting by examining the damage, fixing tears, cracks, and the like) and the Paintings Studio (cleaning and in-painting to fill in the missing parts of the painting to match the surrounding areas), as well as the tools they use to accomplish those tasks (magnifying visors, cotton swab, brushes, heated micro-spatula, etc.). This lesson did require a great amount of research on their website, which described what they do in each portion of the Lunder Conservation Center.

The Lunder Conservation Center website and the facility itself, both proved very useful in creating a rich understanding of art conservation for the children.  The website includes videos with interviews of actual conservators and examples of paintings that had undergone the conservation process, and these helped demonstrate for the children the changes that conservators make in a painting, and why.  After viewing and discussing the videos, our class was able to walk around the Center, which has glass walls so you are able to see conservators hard at work- researching, painting, and restoring, which was very exciting.  This lesson was a great way of making concrete connections between science and the arts. Another successful part of the lesson, was allowing the children a hands-on experience in restoring their own painting.  The children were very excited and invested in going back to our playground to become conservators and “fix” a painting we had bought at a thrift store.

An area of the lesson that we will rethink if we do it again, is the amount of time the kids were sitting watching the videos and listening to an explanation of the work conservators do.  We sat for a long time, and some of the children were getting fidgety, however, we were very lucky to have an actual conservator walk up to us and show some of his tools, which refocused our attention. If we were to do this lesson again, we would make the lesson more effective by starting with the videos and pictures as an introduction, then go for a walk through the Center, and conclude with a debrief of what we saw, discussing the importance and significance of the work they do. Another area of the lesson we might rethink is the amount of materials that we wanted to use. We had a computer, a bag with the materials and “tools” for conserving our own painting, a book with some information of a restored painting at the National Gallery of Art, and an anchor chart. Because we had so many materials,  we ended up accidentally leaving the anchor chart in the classroom.  We believe the anchor chart is a valuable visual, and perhaps we would not have left it behind if we had organized the materials better or been more mindful about which we really needed.  One last recommendation we have for this lesson, is to ensure there is some sort of context for a lesson like this- we really believe one of the reasons the children were so excited to learn about the job of a conservator was because they had a firm grasp on the concept of objects in a museum. Art conservation would definitely not be something to teach without context because then it might fall flat.

This lesson was really fun for us as educators as well, because it helped us to better understand all of the work that goes into putting the different pieces of artwork on display in the museums- from the paintings and even to the frames! All in all, we were very surprised by how enthusiastic the children were about the topic. What might seem like a dull topic (even to some adults) was completely absorbed and taken in by the children and they really enjoyed it! After this lesson we continued to learn more about the people who work behind the scenes in museums like archaeologists that restore artifacts at Natural History, scientists who research animals at Natural History, security officers, horticulturists, and more!

Here are a few images from their lesson on Art Conservation:To learn about art conservation the class visited the Luce Conservation Center, a visible art storage and study center located within the Smithsonian American Art Museum. With the view of conservation labs, it was the perfect place to visit to learn about art conservation.

To begin the conversation, Silvana pulled up two photos of Charles Bird King’s Miss Satterlee– a before and after of the painting’s restoration work.  Silvana asked the class to look at the first photo and explained that the photo shows how the painting looked when the museum received it.  She asked if they could tell what the painting showed, and the children said they had a hard time seeing what it is, and that it looked like it was from a long time ago.  Then they looked at the second photo and noticed that it looked much clearer.  Silvana explained that the second photo was of the painting after an art conservator restored it – to make the painting look like it did when it was first painted.

Silvana explained that painting restoration is done in two different places – the Paintings Lab, and the Paintings Studio.  While looking at photos and viewing examples of conservator’s work from the Lunder Conservation Center website, the children learned that the Paintings Lab is where  structural damage, tears, flaking paint, and ripples in the canvas are repaired, while the Paintings Studio cleans and restores areas of lost paint.

 Lastly, Silvana used her computer to show photos of the tools that conservators use, and brought some along, including a q-tip and a magnifying glass.  She showed the class how conservators use these tools to look for tears, wrinkles, dirt, etc., and fix them before they go on display in the museum.

Then the kindergartners were in for an exciting surprise.  Martin Kotler, a frame conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum walked by, heard the conversation and stopped to talk about his job.

 He brought out some of his tools to share with the class.  He explained that he makes a special batch of glue every day that gives flexibility, and he uses a syringe to apply it.

After learning about the elements of art conservation, the class walked through the Center and looked at the conservation labs to see tools they had just learned about.

The children also enjoyed seeing the interactive exhibit pieces that display how artwork and objects are conserved and restored.

They even went upstairs to see another section of the lab and to get a better idea of all the work that goes into art conservation.

After their museum visit, it was their turn to conserve some artwork!  The class went back to the playground, and split into two groups: the Paintings Lab and the Paintings Studio.

The Paintings Lab group used magnifying glasses to look for structural damage like tears, ripples and flaking paint.  They also noticed some dirt and used a q-tip to scrub it off.

Once the Paintings Lab were done, the Paintings Studio group took over.  They pretended to touch up paint that had lost its color.

They even spotted some white patches and pretended to do some inpainting, which is the process of restoring areas of lost paint.

Silvana and Cathryn continued to explore the roles and responsibilities of museum employees for a few more weeks. Stay tuned for the Museum Round Up for more ideas from their unit!

The holidays season is upon us, and we know from experience that it can be difficult to come up with a gift that children can actively contribute to while also being economical, useful, and meaningful.  This task becomes even more daunting if you are a classroom teacher with a large number of students.  Over the years our teachers have found several DIY gifts to be a hit.  See our list to be inspired!

Snow Globes

These snow globes from Our Best Bites are festive and fun for children to make,especially taking the “I’m in a snow storm!” photo. They’re also cost effective, which is always a plus!

Silhouettes

We’ve found these silhouettes canvases from Christina Williams to be easy and a huge hit with families!  We also love these silhouette canvases because even the youngest of ages can help! After sticking the contact paper silhouette to the canvas, children can paint with their fingers or a paint brush.  In the past we’ve ordered these canvas panels to ensure we had enough for all the children in the class.

Trivet

Talk about fun and functional!  These DIY trivets from Inner Child Fun look like a blast to make and also have a practical purpose.  For younger children, help them stick long pieces of tape on the trivet, and encourage them to pat it down flat.  Allow children to use colored paint with their fingers or paintbrushes.

Bookmarks

How cool are these bookmarks from Creative Family Moments?  When we make these here at SEEC, the kids love to pose for their photo and help pick out the silliest one to make into a bookmark.  After the teachers laminate them, the children also help by picking the colored yarn or ribbon they think their family will like, and work on their fine motor skills by threading it through the hole at the top.

Sleds

This fantastic and personalized gift idea comes from two of our past SEEC teachers, Rebecca Wilcox and Erin Pruckno.  The children painted popsicle sticks and posed for a picture acting as if they were going sledding.  Then the teachers hot glued it all together and created a fun winter display for the class and families to enjoy before taking their sled home for the holidays.

If you have other ideas for fun DIY gifts that children can make for their families, please comment; we’d love to hear your ideas!  And check out our DIY Gifts from Kids Pinterest board for more ideas!

Recently we brought you a Teacher Feature from one of our four-year-old classes, the Honey Bears, as they discussed their thoughts and curiosities.  This lesson was part of a mini unit on inquiry, which fit into a larger unit of Me, Myself, and I.  The web below depicts the many facets the class, led by Jessie Miller and Will Kuehlne, explored during this unit to get know one another, their school and their community.  Following the web are photos highlighting some of their experiences from the unit.

My Family

To discuss families, the class went to Nicholas Nixon’s Brown Sisters at the Smithsonian American Art Museum , an exhibit of forty photographs of the same four sisters over the course of four decades. After observing the photographs, each child got a chance to share their own family portrait and tell the class about who makes up their family.

The class discussed how all families are unique and different, but all families enjoy spending time together.  After talking about their favorite family activities, they played family charades.  Jessie printed out images of families doing favorite activities and placed them in a hat.  Each child got a turn to pull a picture and act it out for the class.

Myself

After talking about their families, the Honey Bears turned more attention to themselves.  They visited Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Four Seasons in One Head at the National Gallery of Art to discuss portraits. They defined a portrait and carefully observed Arcimboldo’s unique portrait made of food and other natural materials.  The class worked together to create a portrait using play food in the galleries.

Back at school the children made their own food portraits using food print outs on a paper canvas.

Later in the week the children made their own self-portraits.  Will and Jessie printed out each child’s face, cut it in half and glued one half to a piece of paper.  They provided the children with mirrors and flesh tone markers to create the rest of their self-portrait.

To end their week on “myself” the class went to the United States Botanic Garden to talk about the five senses.  Will and Jessie made little books for each child that had a sense on each page.  As they walked through the gardens they paused to identify what senses they were using.

My Community

Since the class ventures out to the museums and community daily to support their learning, Will and Jessie wanted to spend some time talking about our local community.  The class took a community walk and added pictures of local buildings they visit to a big map of our surrounding area.  They displayed the map in their classroom and reference it each morning when they discuss where they will be visiting. To talk about how our local community fits into the larger global community the class visited The United States Navy Memorial to see a giant world map on the ground.  They learned a song about the seven continents by Wise Little Owls that Jessie found as a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Then they played a game where they passed a globe to each other and named a different place in the world (continents, countries, etc.).

We hope you enjoyed getting a bigger picture of our Honey Bears class’ unit on Me, Myself and I!  Visit our Me, Myself, and I, Self-Portrait, and Family Portraits pinterest boards, for more ideas.

It’s Teacher Feature Thursday!

This week we are featuring Will Kuehnle and Jessie Miller of the four-year-old Honey Bear classroom.  At SEEC we believe in fostering a sense of curiosity and thoughtfulness that will stay with children long after they leave our school.  In this vein, Will and Jessie wanted to spend some time at the beginning of the school year explicitly exploring curiosity with their children to set the stage for an inquisitive year. I joined them for a visit to the National Portrait Gallery where they discussed their own thinking and how our thoughts can be linked to our curiosities. Below you will find a reflection from Will and Jessie and images from the lesson.

Lesson Reflection from Jessie and Will:

The Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center’s Honey Bear class is made up of a diverse group of four-year-olds. During our study of curiosity, the students focused on questions, thoughts, and things we were curious about. We started out by asking ourselves “What is a question?” and “How can we find the answers to our questions?” The goal of this process was to get the children excited about learning, and interested in finding out the unknown. By using language such as “I wonder…” and “I’m curious…”, the wheels in their brain began to spin a little faster and we opened up a world of exciting, new things for them. To enhance this process, we traveled to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery to see a piece of art called Caja De La Memoria Viva II by Adrian Roman.

The objective of the lesson was to get the children thinking about their own thoughts. Thoughts are constantly rushing through our heads but it is hard for children to conceptualize those abstract thoughts. This lesson allowed the students to see a visual representation of thought, which sparked their curiosity about the artwork as well as the things they were thinking about in their own heads.

One thing that made the lesson so effective, was the freedom the children had with their minds as well as their bodies. We were surprised to see how each child interacted differently with the piece. When they were given the journal pages and told they could go anywhere in the room to work on them, some children gathered under the woman’s head to get another look inside, while others stayed back to get a larger view of the piece. Some children laid on their stomachs, some sat on their knees, while others laid on their backs looking up into the inside of the cube. They were all completing the same activity but we were fascinated by the variety of ways each child approached it.  Logistically, the space in the museum was also crucial to the effectiveness of the lesson.  It was quiet and empty, which freed us from the distractions many museum visits can have.  If we could go back and change something about this lesson, we would have allowed more time to discuss the journal pages with each child one on one. When you wait and have the children explain their pictures later, you can sometimes lose exciting details. Providing the students and teachers with a quiet space with extra time to finish this part of the lesson is ideal.

It is amazing to see the looks on the children’s faces as their minds race with ideas and thoughts. During our walk back from the museum, we could hear many children saying things like, “I’m curious what they are building in that construction site” or “I wonder what country that flag is from”. Modeling this language for young children and showing them your own excitement about the world helps children feel confident in their own thoughts and questions. It is important to support each child as they bring up questions and past experiences they would like to share so that they grow to have confidence and a love for learning. Setting up experiences like these, lights a fire of curiosity in the children that is only built upon as the year progresses, and helps us as teachers follow their interests and enhance their education. This lesson allowed the children to balance a structured activity with the freedom to express themselves and that is when they are most susceptible to learning and fully experiencing the world around them.

Here are a few images from their lesson on Thinking about Thoughts:

Before traveling to the museum, Will began their lesson by introducing the concept of thoughts in our head. To do this he shared a portrait that one of the children created in a previous lesson.  The children noticed that they could tell what the child looked like based on the portrait, but they could not tell what the child was thinking about. Will explained that they would be visiting the National Portrait Gallery to see a portrait that has objects inside its head to provide clues about the person’s memories and what they are thinking about.

Will showed the class objects that are similar to the ones they would see at the museum. After laying out all the objects Will set a sand timer for the children to look at the objects and think about what this person might be thinking about based on the objects.  After looking silently the children shared their thoughts including that the person might like to wear jewelry, that the person might like disguises, and that the person might be thinking about a baby sister because of the doll.  Now that the class had a context for the piece they headed to the museum.

While in the elevator on the way to the exhibit Will asked the children to look for the portrait with the objects inside.  He reminded the children that the portraits they see are usually flat, but the portrait they would find today would have an inside that that they could look in.  This reminder from Will helped the children refocus their attention after the walk to the museum, and they ventured into the gallery with a purpose.  It didn’t take long for the children to find the portrait!

Once the class spotted Caja De Memoria Viva II: Constancia Clemente-Colon by Adrian “Viajero” Roman, Will led them around the entire piece to see it from all sides.  They stopped in front of the face section and Will asked what they noticed.  One child said, “I see one eye is closed”, while another child noted that the person had a nose.  They noticed that they didn’t have any ideas what the woman was thinking about.

To take a look inside the piece, the children laid in a circle on the floor, facing up.  From this vantage point, all the children were able to see the various objects inside the artwork.

As the children shared their observations, Will used a laser pointer to point out what objects the children were noticing.  They discussed what they thought the person was thinking about using the objects as a guide.

After looking inside, the class came back together in a circle.  Will asked if they felt they knew more about what the woman was thinking now that they had observed her portrait on the outside and the inside.  The children agreed they felt they had a better idea of who she was, but had some questions including, “did she live a long time ago?”  Will said, “That’s a good question, and I don’t know the answer.  What could we do to find out more information?”  The children suggested they read the label on the wall, so Jessie did, and they found out that the piece used a recording of the woman’s voice, so she most likely didn’t live a very long time ago.  By respecting and responding to children’s questions, Will and Jessie were creating a community of thinking where curiosities, and information-seeking are valued.  (To read more about how to create a culture of thinking, check out the article “Making Thinking Visible” by David Perkins.)

Will asked the children if the thoughts that the woman was thinking were important, and they all agreed that her thoughts are very important.  Will emphasized that all of our thoughts are important and asked the children to think about what they think about in their head.  Will explained that they would draw whatever those important thoughts were if they could be represented in objects.  Will handed out clipboards with paper and a pencil to each child and said that they could go anywhere in the room to draw.

Many children started in one location, but got up and moved after some time to look more closely at the piece or to get another view.  They looked at the piece for inspiration, but drew objects that were familiar and important to them.

Some of the items they drew included their family members, hair, fireworks, remote control cars, bones, sharks, and boats.  These drawings helped the children to practice meta cognition – to think about their thinking, and gave them a way to communicate it.  These drawings also helped Will and Jessie see the important things the children were thinking about, so they have a better idea of what topic to explore next.

Through their mini-unit on curiosity, the four-year-olds practiced careful looking, asking questions and thinking about their own thinking, which will set them up for a thoughtful, inquisitive, and meaningful school year.  Check back next week for the Round Up to see how this lesson and their exploration of curiosity fit into their larger unit of Me, Myself, and I.  See you in two weeks with our next Teacher Feature!

Welcome to our new blog feature, the Round Up!  This blog series will follow our Teacher Features and provide a fuller picture of how the featured lesson fit into a larger unit.  At SEEC our educators often use webbing as a planning tool at the start of a unit.  This helps to visualize all the directions that can be taken within a topic while also brainstorming books, museum and community visits, interactive activities, songs and more. The Round Ups will share a web of ideas from the unit, as well as highlights with images and more detailed information.

Last month we brought you a Teacher Feature highlighting our kindergarten class as they learned about haboobs.  This lesson did not stand alone, but was part of a larger unit that explored Extreme Weather.

Clouds

To learn about cloud types, the Kindergartners sat outside on a cloudy day, looked at images of cloud types, and observed the sky.  Kindergarten teacher Silvana Oderisi taught the class a fun cloud song by Cynthia Sherwood that she found on pinterest that helped reinforce the new vocabulary in an engaging way.

The class also went to the National Gallery of Art and walked around identifying different cloud types in paintings.  The teachers found it helpful to do this lesson in the beginning of the unit as cloud types were discussed in many of the different extreme weather lessons throughout the unit.

Weather Forecasting

The class went to visit a large world map on the floor of the Martin Luther King Jr Public Library to learn about weather symbols that are used in forecasting. After learning about the weather symbols, the children took turns placing weather symbols on the map to predict the weather for different regions of the world.

 Back in the classroom, kindergarten teacher Cathryn Prudencio, showed the children how radars are used in weather forecasting.  The children used the radar projected on their Smart Board to report the weather for their classmates.

Hurricanes

When learning about hurricanes the class went to the National Gallery of Art to see Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast by Ludolf Backhuyesen and talked about the big waves that hurricanes cause.  They moved their bodies as if they were on a boat during a calm day, and then moved their bodies as if a big hurricane was approaching.

The class also went to the National Museum of American History’s exhibit Within These Walls.  They looked at categories of hurricanes and measured the height of waves in each category to see just how high the waves could go up the house walls.

Cathryn explained that in areas where hurricanes are more common people prepare by packing an emergency bag that they can take with them if a hurricane comes.  The children brainstormed what might be in the bag and helped pack one.

Tornadoes

When learning how a tornado forms, the children enjoyed swirling water in a bottle to mimic the way a tornado twists.

The class visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum to see The Girl I Left Behind Me by Eastman Johnson to explore the effects of tornadoes.  To illustrate wind blowing, Silvana blew up a balloon and let the air out on the children’s hands.

Also in the Smithsonian American Art Museum they visited No Mountains in the Way: Photographs from the Kansas Documentary Survey to learn about Tornado Alley – the part of the US where tornadoes happen the most, and why they form there during warm months.

We hope you enjoyed getting a bigger picture of our kindergarten class’ unit on Extreme Weather!  Visit our weather pinterest board for more ideas on how to explore weather with young children.