Stack it Up

By: Natasha


Have you ever wondered why are the blocks such a big part of our classroom? What is the connection with the dramatic play? How do you actually learn by "playing" with the blocks?

These are all very simple questions that have very good answers.

We generally start by reading a book and having a discussion where everyone is encouraged to participate. We connect the book to our lives, our experiences and things we are familiar with... and ta-daaa this is when the magic happens. Kids armed with ideas, break into groups to build with partners or on their own.

They are not just "building with blocks" they are  using this time and opportunity to represent their own understanding of how things work and even how life works. It is all about making sense.

Now you ask, ok but where is the science in all of this?

Have you ever watched your child stack up blocks ever so carefully to make a tall tower, just to see it tumble down when it reaches the particular height? They try different ways, techniques, adding the support at certain levels just to make it a little bit taller reaching a whole new level of height and excitement. When kids play with blocks they build replicas of the world around them and just like little scientists they experiment with balance, space, structure and most important gravity.

As they are building they are using the SCIENTIFIC METHOD of hypothesis, experimentation, observation and cause-and-effect to solve the problem of the tumbling tower. Here to the left you can observe the pattern of columns that are so carefully spaced out and the small ones on top. there was a lot of experimentation with the size of the columns on top, and the decision was reached that all of them need to be the same size, because if you put a long one on the side it will make everything tip over. Making a three level house that the children observed on the walk around the neighborhood took a full hour to complete and many, many times it fell down as they tried making roof and support for it.

Blocks come in so many different shapes and sizes, but all in precise mathematical relationships and so they are perfect for hands-on learning of the basic math concepts: shape, size, area, geometry, measurement, patterns and equivalencies.While playing with blocks they explore and figure out that hollow or rectangular blocks make much better bases. This early exploration helps children later with geometrical understanding.While playing with blocks they explore and figure out that hollow or rectangular blocks make much better bases. This early exploration helps children later with the geometrical understanding. They also delight in making and recognizing patterns that they have made.

As they are building, as you well know, they have so much to talk about and they LOVE sharing stories about their ships, planets, homes, families and out of this world experiences. Some young builders talk to themselves as they are consulting with their mind about next steps and their strategy. Block building is one of the effortless ways to get children to build their language skills.

Having to collaborate and use their skills to negotiate with others while working together on a project is a skill that we start working on now, but it will last for a lifetime.


And finally, the social world of blocks is of course the "pretend play" which builds and supports the development of the social and emotional skill set. Here children not just learn how to share, take turns, make a new friend, listen to others, share their own opinions but they at the same time practice LIFE.

At times blocks may be a solitary activity,

and then at times children work together.

  There is no "right" way to build with blocks, and this is what is most appealing to some children. They have to work creatively together and come to a decision on how to use them. 

So to sum it all up, block building is important because kids here get to develop mathematical and scientific thinking, collaborate, negotiate, navigate in social situations, work with limited resources and while doing so they get to construct their own understanding of not just how things work, but how life works too.

Good Night!

    

What a cozy study of Nighttime we've had at ALG. Many a dreary winter's morning you could find children (and teachers and co-opers) snuggled up on the pull out bed reading a nighttime tale. Books and stories, such a part of most children's nighttime experience, were a favorite activity this study. When Jose got involved and told children a story while they cozied up in sleeping bags, well it just doesn't get much better…At the end of the study, children were asked about thier favorite part and Sidney, said, "Jose was there. Being cozy…" We read many books again and again and of course to deepen our understanding we played the stories out in the back with Pickett and Oran and also played them out with Melissa and Deborah using thier own bodies, with Hector and with puppets and with Natasha in blocks. Children also told thier own stories of course and Alexander Spinnell said his favorite part was, "hearing my Story of the Night. It was about ninjago with swords."When outside it was like this… 

You can see why we so enjoyed being like this…

All this warmth and coziness in the ALG nighttime, got us thinking about nocturnal animals snug in their dayttime burrow or nest and what they are up to while we are snug in our beds…We did several projects to get closer to the idea of an Owl: what they look like, where they live and how and what they eat. Older children did a study of how owls look and did renderings of owls in ink and paper before and after examining some models.  

 We learned that owls swallow thier prey whole and then later cough up all the indigestible bits in a tidy pellet. All children were invited to dissect an owl pellet and to search for the bones.  Later we laid the bones out on the light table where we could study them further and look at them alongside animal x-rays. Lucy and Luka said opening the owl pellets was their favorite part. Jasper said, "Bones! Jose was telling a story. That was fun." Hank said, "seeing bones and putting on pajamas." (more on that later…)

 But to actually have an Owl at ALG? That was incredible. Mr. Waldt, "The Critter Guy" came with his trove of animal friends and gave children a chance to see and experience many of the animals we had been talking about up close. When asked for their favorite parts, Alexandra said "Owl;" Zayan said, "I liked the owl;" Ananda said, "I liked the owl also;" Izabella said, "My favorite part was when the owl came;"Kami said, "My favorite part was the owl;" Lillian said, "The owl and the snake;" and Nikolai said, "I loved when Mr. Waldt was here." 

We hibernated through the book The Bear Snores On and children's vocabulary grew stronger alongside thier impulse control as they took on pretend roles that required patience and turn taking. 

                                             

Children enjoyed making cozy caves of their own in the block area and enjoyed bringing books over and reading to themselves as they snuggled. Children had to work together and to share ideas, space and materials as they built. 

 

Many other animals were read about and captured some children's interest like Soren who said, "My favorite part of nighttime was bats" and Zac who said, "In the nighttime, flap, flap, flapping, Bats! Garbage man!" After several weeks of animals, we moved on to people in the night. (Hence, Zac's "garbage man!") Many children were drawn to the new garbage trucks in the block are and to reading again, and again, and AGAIN, the book I Stink; when we asked Didi about his favorite part he replied, "I have I Stink at my home." We talked about trash and treasure and what we can save and reuse and used that connection to frame our roll out of our annual Hector the Collector project. 

We read the book Night Shift and learned about many other people who work at night. We even got to hear from Iris' Nana who shared a story about her many years as a nighttime newspaper deliverer. We talked a lot about hospitals and doctors who work at night and children had many opportunities to play out the roles of patient and doctor and to delve into the workings of a nighttime hospital.

 

We read the book Si Se Puede about the Janitor's strike in LA told from the perspective of a young boy, Carlitos, who's mother works at night as an office cleaner. Because the text was at a higher level than many other books we had been using, Melissa told the story using the overhead projector and made up rhyming chants for the children to sing along with.

Children were also given many opportunities to explore the projector own their own. (side note: How many kids does it take to burn a projector light bulb out? less than you think…) With letters, colored acetate and Hector items children made art and told stories using this very compelling material.

We also got to take a lovely, practically perfect field trip to Imagination Stage to see a play about children who are supposed to go to bed but instead take household items, dress ups and junk and let their imagination run wild. It was as if they wrote the play just for us! 
Continuing to delve into what can happen when the lights go out, all children got to play out the story Blackout with Pickett and Oran which tells the tale of one family and what they do the night of the big NYC blackout some years back.

  At first the family is bummed and a little frightened when the lights go out; there's no electronics to play or work with, no power to cook in the kitchen, etc. But then they begin to play with each other and use their imaginations and old games instead. There are cookouts in the street as people give away food and ice cream and a party on the roof.

With the lights off and headlamps on, ALG kids had the another chance to play in darkness with only their imaginations and whatever odd materials were at hand.

Zeina said her favorite part was "blackout." 

We also had some nice nighttime cooking at the All Night ALG cafe: starry night vegetable soups (once with and once without star pasta) and some star shaped pancakes were the dishes served by (electric) candlelight.  Liv and Ava both said, "eating pancakes" was their favorite part. 

We also had some pajama days at our school (though it can be a little hard to tell the difference between that and a "normal" day; side note: Pickett and I own the same pajamas) where we got to delight in our usual play with the coziness of jammies. 

                             

It was nice to have our parent night out dovetail with the nighttime study and children had another chance to wear pajamas and party at school--this time in the actual night! Alexander Achilles said, "Well, my favorite part was going out at night, like when we had the pajama party at school and stayed up for the whole night. I have to go to bed at a certain point…So when I go outside it will be bedtime. Now with daylight savings, I can stay up longer."

We had some other nice art and science experienes with nighttime like when we made "night" playdough with black food coloring and glitter for stars. Isla said "making nighttime playdough" was her favorite part.

Children also worked with Quin and got to explore with light, shadow, color and reflection as they played with liquid watercolor and used mirrors and a flashlight to experiment.

Alice Jane said, "I liked the flashlight experiment" and Jane said, "eating pancakes and using the flashlight and experiment cups" were her favorite parts.

Early in this study children were asked for a "wish" they had about nighttime and to close this experience children were invited to make a diorama of their wish using Hector materials.  

    

Iris said her favorite part about the nighttime study was, "dreaming about a Unicorn" and Andrea's favorite part was, "Your best wishes. I like stories and legos and things of pirate and treasure."

 
 After much nighttime magic and some reflecting on their favorite part, children helped gather up and put away the nighttime materials to clear space for the new. A good time was had by all and ALG wishes you and yours a very, very GOOD NIGHT!