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This fall, the Moonbeam classroom focus on a variety of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) activities. Our everyday approach at Magic Garden is to let children learn by providing lessons and activities that are based on their interests and complement their development. The children love STEM activities because they tap into children’s natural curiosity and desire to explore. The children were motivated by making new discoveries and wanted to learn new vocabulary and new concepts. Our role as teachers is to provide materials and opportunities for children to explore and learn in a meaningful way. This fall, we provided children with a variety of building materials such as wooden blocks, foam blocks, Legos, cups, and boxes. We encouraged the children to use these different materials to explore balance, geometry, building tunnels, roads, and bridges. We asked questions to encourage further learning and exploration. Asking, “What happened?” and “What will happen if…?” are great ways to support our young scientists to develop observation and prediction skills. We always made sure to connect learning to the natural world and environment. Fall is a wonderful time of year for the children to learn about colors, changes, life cycles, and weather. We went on many nature walks and collected leaves, sticks, and acorns. We used these materials to count, sort, and as a basis for art activities. We sang songs about fall, and made a class book about our observations.

We also had a new door installed in our classroom which provided many hours of observational opportunity for the children. Through the window, the children observed the step by step process of construction and got a close up look at tools in action. We were also very fortunate to have the chance to go outside to look at the building process and to get some hands on experience of using rulers, tape, set squares and measuring and the children got a chance to feel and manipulate different pieces of wood. We all loved being construction workers. We are all looking forward to the many activities and adventures the new year will bring.

Our Afternoon Program has been quite lively this fall and — due to the lovely warm weather thus far — the outdoor fun continues!

While Twilight enjoys running off its late-in-the-day energy at the Old Magic Garden playground, Starlight has fun getting out its wiggles on The Rainbow playground. All of the children have made marvelous discoveries spending so much time outdoors, such as the moon at dusk. We have also engaged in simple activities, such as crafting bird feeders while outside.

Both the older and younger children enjoy bringing the “outside inside” by bringing natural materials indoors and using them with related books, stories, floor puzzles and seasonally themed projects; many of which are displayed on the boards and table just outside the Rainbow and Starburst classrooms. We also created artwork for the Winter Solstice Sing-a-long and Pajama Day.

Starlight is considering adding a “Show and Tell” component to the afternoon, and we would love to hear from parents, about implementing this idea. We also want to thank parents who lent their signatures to improve the lives of Farm Animals, and who continue to donate blankets/towels and food, for delivery to local Animal Shelters. We love teaching the children about compassion and love for all animals!

Rainbow Room is busy exploring traditional American Folk Songs.

Using recyclable materials, we designed and constructed a city with airplanes, soaring along the skyline. Each child created their own 3D house that included their photo inside. A large child sized interactive airplane was built and painted for dramatic play. Flight attendants, pilots, boarding passes and creative movement were part of the fun. Continuing our theme of exploring American folk songs, while riding in our plane, we enjoyed singing and acting out the song, “If I Were an Airplane.”

Ideas were inspired by the song “Row, Row, Row Your Boat, “then during art, we created a fleet of rowboats. We painted bowls, added popsicle stick oars and small people from our block area. Scientifically exploring the concepts of sink and float by filling our row boats with a variety of objects was fun. Balancing boats with our toy people in the water was more of a challenge. The children also enjoyed playing in a large wooden boat experimenting with their own body weight. How many friends needed to sit on each side of the boat to balance, before we could rock back and forth? The boat was then converted to a bridge, where the children had fun fishing with magnetic fishing rods and fish.

Our emergent curriculum led us to expand upon our transportation theme. Our airplane has now become a train, and we are having fun singing and acting out the song, “I’ve Been Working on The Railroad.” Making music with instruments is always fun, this was some of our friend’s first experience with a banjo!

Cooking is always a creative way to practice math and science skills! We counted scoops and cups, measured, poured, mixed and stirred ingredients; observing how they changed as they swirled around the bowl together. Turn taking helps to foster team cooperation skills. Our apple sauce and pumpkin pies came out awesome!

It is always fun to go for a buggy ride and explore the neighborhood. Rainbow enjoyed a field trip to the Fire and Police Departments. We brought along two of our pumpkin pies to share with our friends; the police and firefighters. We had a nice visit with Officer Surette and were very happy with the stickers he gave us.

Heading into February our new theme will be centered on Winter, Bears hibernating and include songs and stories that foster understanding of these ideas. We will start off with the Traditional American Folk Song “The Bear Went Over The Mountain” and see where that leads us!

All posts by website@magic-garden.org

Moonbeam Focus on STEM

Starlight & Twilight Highlight

Rainbow Current Blog