Friday, May 4, 2018

Ant has a problem - Belgium story

Integrated activity:"Where do the ants appear?"(stages of development)
Age group:4/5 years old














Ant has a problem - Belgium story

Integrated activity: "What is it and what role does it have?"           Age group - 4/5/years old
Science education and role-playing game   - assessment activity

 The children were grouped in pairs, each pair having an image with parts of ant's body.
They had to identify which part of the ant's body is and its role.
 A correct answer allowed children to change pairs at the teacher's signal after the colleagues's applauds of appreciation.
 The next partner of the pair is choose by the children from the colleagues who give the correct answer.


Biannual meeting of preschool teacher - Bivolari, Iasi - Romania


 In the framework of biannual meeting of preschool teachers held on 27 april 2018 at Bivolari (rural area), Iasi county, Romania, some of our project activities were presented in the electronic material " Valences of  role play in the development of socio-emotional skills at preschool age".
 
 Our team shared through presentation and debates, best practices in role playing activities using innovative methods and strategies based on traditional/folk stories in the context of  "From the forest to the sea!" Erasmus+ project, evidencing the importance of children emotions for their future development and also the success of learning.








Thursday, May 3, 2018

Ant has a problem - Belgium story

THEME: WHITCH IS HEAVIER?

CHILDREN AGE: 3-4 years

OBJECTIVES:
- Experiments with scales. Exploring different scales and weighing methods. Weighing different objects. Whitch is heavier, whitch is lighter?
- Walk to the forest to explore anthill. Whitch is anthill in winter? Does snow give warmth to the anthill? Why you are not allowed to destroy anthill? Exploring pictures of ants (head, body, feet). Exploring pictures of anthill and its inside (tunnels, eggs, ants). What do ants eat? How they get food? How do they work? (carring objects that are bigger than they). How do they cooperate to help each other?
- Getting to know numbers 1-10; comparing (heavier-lighter).
- Making anthill with its inhabitants. Molding anthill.

USED MATERIALS, TOOLS:
Story "Ant has a problem". Scales, differents objects for scaling. Pictures of ants, anthills. Gouache colors, brushes, buttons, silk paper, modelling clay and modelling sticks.

PREPARATIONS:
The story has been told to the chidren. Other materials are put ready for the activity.

ACTIVITY:
Teacher tells the story to the children. They discuss about it. We explain the importants of helping others and sharing with others. Thinking together, can we lift and move heavy and big objects? Exploring scales. Exploring how they work? How do we know whitch one is heavier?

 

Whitch is heavier and whitch is lighter? How can we determine the objects heaviness?
 


During the testing the children understand that heavier object falls down, lighter rises up. Sometimes we can tell by looking or weighing by hand how heavy the object is, but its always not true. It is more secure to use scale, you get more accurate answer.

Weighing different sizes numbers it turned out that bigger number weighs more. In the same time two numbers (3+3 or 2+2 or 4+4) weighed the same as one number (6; 4; 8); they were equal weight.


Walk to the forest to see anthill. We expore anthill in winter. What changes have occurred since spring and autumn in anthill. As we did not see the ants, we realized that they were sleeping in the winter. Snow gives the nest warm and protection.
 

When we came back from the forest we expored ants life and doings from the pictures. We expored the inside of anthills, where are the tunnels, where are the eggs, where the ants.

The children draw a picture of anthill with tunnels. When the paint dried, they glued ants from buttons and eggs from wrinkled silk paper.
 


The children were enthusiastic about the ants and anthill, and wished to make something more exciting. So we decided to model nice anthills and illustrate them with modelling sticks.
 

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Ant has a problem - Belgium story

CHILDREN AGE: 5-6 years

OBJECTIVES: 
- The child makes difference between good and bad behavior. The child acts purposefully. The child is able to concentrate for half an hour. The child uses discussion dialogue.
- The child knows and describes local home and forest animals, birds, bugs and plants. The child knows and names natural sites in their home area (river, swamp, forest).
- The child can tell the story, the sequence of events, causes and behavior of the characters through adult guided questions. The child can discuss and express own opinion.
- The child can count, name previous/following number, knows numerals. The child knows terms heavy, lightweight. The child can estimate distance by eye, measure length and width with agreed measuring instruments (glass, cups). The child compares and sorts up to 5 objects by size.
- The child uses creatively geometric shapes. The child can make from modeling clay small and mini sculpture, modelling from one or several pieces and make it one whole.

USED MATERIALS, TOOLS: modeling clay, illustrative materials, nature pictures, magnifying glasses, notebooks, backpacks, camera, flashlights.

PREPARATIONS: 2 activities: first activity in grouproom listening the story, modelling and discussing the story and second activity in forest walking, noticing surrounding and exploring with magnifying glasses. The teacher puts ready all needed materials for the kids, pictures from the story characters, modelling clay and modelling bases. To taking into the forest magnifying glasses and camera.

ACTIVITY:
The teacher reads the Belgium story "Ant has a problem". Because the children can and really love modelling, they will try this time to make mini-sculpture from bugs, to make it from one piece modelling clay. The teacher shows at first how to do it. After that the children sit behinde the tables and model snail, ant, bee, cherry or cricket. At the same time the teacher reads the story and stops on the key questions and asks them. The children answer. All who want to answer get the opportunity. The teacher observes that all children who want will get the opportunity to answer. They also discuss answers. Teacher writs up children discussions and more interesting arguments. The mini-sculptures that are ready will be put on a base with the childs name in exhibition.

After that the children dress, back the backbags and go to the forest walk with the teachers. They make stops and notice surrounding nature, trees and earth. From the backbags they take magnifying glasses and explore interesting things, searching for bugs and plants, tree and bush buds. Because our nature is under the snow we will see the first pieces of grass and moss. It is interesting to find spring awakening or first movements in nature. On the walk in the forest the children touch the trees, feeling the bark roughness or smoothness with hands, touching big stones, branches and so on. The children determine different materials, name them and describe what they see and what they feel with hands. They compare trees sizes, length, width and shape. When they talk about snails, ants, crickets and bees the children know that they are sleeping and they will wake up when spring is here. Outside they can do the bugs sounds and listen the sounds of the forest and be very quiet. While walking we can hear different sounds, like snow under our boots, braking ice, water guggle, water squelching or braking of the branches. The children tell what they see and show other children and teachers. During the conversations they discuss the Belgium story and the children answer what did the ant learn. We also learn what the children learned from the story. The children gives examples from their own problems and experiences.

CHILDREN THOUGHTS AND DISCUSSIONS:
- At first the ant felt bad but then he was good and kind
- If somebody wants to help then take it
- The others have to get a fee for helping
- If somebody helps you, then you have to help them, thats why he had to make that they get something sweet to eat
- The ant found out that you have to be kind
- Rude
- Cruel
- Bad
- Meanie
- He wants it for himself because he doesn´t want others germs
- He wants to eat it by himself
- Because he is enviou





Ant has a problem - Belgium story

CHILDREN AGE: 4-5 years

OBJECTIVES: 
- The child knows that helping others and sharing are very important and necessary skills for life.
- The child gets acting experiencec, developing self-confidence and fantasy.
- The child knows in more detail four new bugs and animals.

USED MATERIALS, TOOLS: paper, cardboard, felt-pens, hula hoop, gouache colors, pencils, pine tree thorns

ACTIVITY:
1. The teacher reads the Belgium story "Ant has a problem" to the children. They discuss that must help each other and sharing with friends is important. The story will be read several times during the week so the children remember it.

2. Making anthill from pine tree thorns. Creating ants home.

3. Making and coloring masks for the story dramatisation. Each child colored one character from the story. We made more ant masks so that every child has a part in the play. They also made one big cherry that the ant tried to take home.




4. Teacher and the children together stage the play. So that everybody could participate they have main characters and others are ants who come to cherry eating party. Teacher has written the play a little bit shorter according to children age. The nervousness before going to the stage is read from their faces. Children enjoyed the play very much and the courage increased significantly.