Building a Tree House

We have been having a lot of conversations about habitats, animals, and zoos.  We proposed the idea of Tree Houses to the children.  We asked the children: "What is a Tree House?"

"It's a bird house."

"It's made of mud."

"It's made of wood."

"It's for people."

"It is big."

From there we looked at pictures of tree houses and then discussed some of the materials we had available to us if we wanted to build our own Tree House.  We found some log blocks, rocks, and tiles to help make our environment exactly how we wanted it.  

The children went to work right away and worked together to make decisions about what it should look like.  Many of the children wanted to build it tall, while others focused on bridges to walk across.  

Thinking that the children would focus on a different type of houses for people - thinking outside of the box, the quickly went to the idea that this structure was for animals.  

Liam decided that the animals need a bridge to walk across.  He thought that creating steps would help the animals get up easier.  

  

The children had discussions with each other about how the animals would get up the tree house, what they needed, and developed ideas together to create our final structure.

Throughout the process of our structure, the children brought over animals to explore and see what else they needed.  They mentioned that the animals needed water and grass.  Our next step is to create these aspects into our work. 

While working together the children strengthened a lot of their discussion skills, spatial awareness, developed a stronger concept of what animals and people need to survive, and understand a little deeper about environments. 

Finding A Shadow

We proposed the idea of shadows to the children and investigated our own shadows outside.  The children were quick to discover that the light from the sun created a shadow on the ground. 

The children used the playground and a bright sunny day to investigate where they could find their shadow. They found out that under the awning there were no shadow.  They then began relating the warmth of the sun to the creation of the shadows on the ground.   

"My Shadow is right here.  It gets big!"

"There is no shadow here because it's not hot here."

"My shadow is backwards."

"Not it is forwards."

"The shadow is there. (Pointing to the ground)."

 "Look, I see my shadow!" 

"When I am in the sun I see it.  When I move here (in the shade) I can't see it."

"I am drawing my shadow.  It's on the floor."

"It's here!  It's running!" (He started running with his shadow.)

"There is no shadow here because it's in the shade, but in the sun I see my shadow."

"When I back up it gets smaller, when I go forward it gets bigger."

Some of the thinking that was emerging was the movement of shadows, the size of shadows, and how we could change them.  These concepts that we will explore.  

While exploring shadows, the children were strengthening language skills, exploring their environment, and developing a stronger sense of cause and effect.