Children's Center Preschool Serving the Los Feliz, Hollywood, Silverlake , Atwater communities
  • emergent curriculum

  • Aug5

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    Preschool Outdoor “Construction Zone”

    Posted in: From the Director, Monthly Classroom Themes, Projects, emergent curriculum

    Life in the Construction Zone

    Life in “construction  zone”  of our preschool is an ever changing place.   There are  a wonderful array of  building materials andtools to choose, Sawhorse and big  2’ 6” by 3’ 6”, sheets of translucent plastic are fabulous for the creation of a house or a small city.  Add towels and food and a whole village comes alive.

    Moving boxes were perfect for the “burning” buildings the kids created after the fireman came to visit us.

    The smaller ones morphed into  a long train that “traveled” from  one grandparent’s house to another.  Everyone took a job, conductor, ticket taker, passenger. We add the train song , “A train is a comin’, Oh yeah” as it chugged along. Many days were spent hopping in their own train car and going on another trip.

    Trains haven’t been the only use for boxes. We looked over one day and noticed that  two empty boxes were wiggling  and some eyes were peeking out. The two box children ended up playing for a long time, sometimes tilting back their housing for some direct  conversation.

    A few months ago we added a set of grid builders that interconnect to make different shapes . They have mirrors, holes for shapes to fit through, windows, and holes to crawl through.   At first, they were used as paths and streets for the big vehicles but lately they have seen more use as  home builders.  Their advantage is that you can create connections between building.

    Our construction area has a full work table, filled with hammers, pliers, and screwdrivers and hard hats, yellow vests, and tool belts. The children enjoy putting together and taking apart not only the pretend buildings but also many things in the yard. Construction zone is one of the many areas of the preschool yard that provides children many opportunities to create and play out their great ideas.

  • Aug5

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    Science in our Preschool

    Posted in: Food and Cooking, Monthly Classroom Themes, The Garden, emergent curriculum, science

    The weather has continued to be gray and damp in the morning and our garden, it turns out, is feeling the effects of it. One of the children asked, “Why are the leaves getting all white?” A fellow gardening mom suspected powdery mildew but none of us really knew. So it was time for a trip to the Sunset Nursery in Los Feliz to learn what was causing our trouble. The weather turns out to be  the culprit; it allows the growth of  powdery mildew because the plants are getting too much mositure and not enough heat from the sun.

    Children observing the world around them, asking questions, creating hypotheses, and learning more is science in action in our preschool. Conversations about science are a daily occurrence. The garden is a regular source. But of course there are many other opportunities, both created by us and by nature and events, to learn about biology, physics, chemistry, and the physical world.

    The children began the year with an interest in bugs. First the scream, BUG, then some run away, but all return. Out come the magnifying glasses or the cups to hold the subjects, briefly. The dead ones get put in petri dishes and are saved for viewing under the big magnifying glass.

    Rocks have been another fascination. We have developed a good collection of rocks, crystals, and “gems” to look at, sort, and look up in our books. Using resources to learn more is a natural part of our investigations, be it the local nursery, a book, or a visiting expert ( see  article on crystals).

    Our spring was filled with butterflies and silkworms ( see earlier articles). Here we are launching the last of the cabbage white butterflies, that came from the caterpillars we found on our cabbage plants. Very big eaters, those cabbage whites.

    This summer we have been talking about the children’s trips to the beach. Ty created a pretend beach, complete with towels, sun glasses, stuffed marine life, hats, sandals, and shells. The shells were so beautiful to look at and everyone tried to hear the ocean in them. The science table offered a chance to explore a little further and match them to the ones in the book.

    Water has been another summer science investigation. Turkey basters pushing the water through tubes to learn about force or tubes held up high to learn how gravity works are very popular right now. Color experiments, tornadoes and fountains in a bottle, oceans in a bottle, and bubble blowing  give children lots of ways to consider the physics of water.

    Cooking  is another wonderful way we explore how the state of something can be changed, be it juicing lemons and making lemonade or creating popsicles from our juice.

    In a experiential school, children learn by exploring and  doing, asking questions, and learning more from the resources available. As teachers, it is a most exciting way to be with children, supporting and facilitating them as science discoveries become a  natural part of daily life.

  • Jul23

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    Water Play, Rainbows, & Curriculum

    Posted in: Monthly Classroom Themes, Projects, emergent curriculum, science

    How we take children’s interests and build our curriculum around them.

    The warm weather has come and water play is in full swing. From the hose in the 8 tons of sand sandbox to the colored bottles on the science table, water is providing our children with hours of  great fun and many valuable lessons. Our preschool curriculum often develops around what is relevant and interesting to children; two things that are especially interesting right now are water and rainbows and their  colors.

    Below, you can get a glimpse of how we follow through with children’s ideas ; hopefully it will offer  you some insight into how we integrate children’s interests into our curriculum over the areas of:

    • science,
    • art,
    • literacy,
    • fine motor activities,
    • sensory activities.

    Rainbow interest began, in part,  when we read Hawaii is a Rainbow by Stephanie Feeney, a beautiful book about Hawaii and its fabulous colors. Here are some of  the exciting things that happened after that.

    The children  made bottles of water to have all of the colors of the rainbow. We put them in the window with pictures of real rainbows.

    • We got out  the eyedroppers ( good small motor activity) to create rainbows and color designs on paper towels.
    • That led to experimenting with the eyedroppers on different paper, including waxed paper, to see what happened.
    • We layered tissue paper to create colors and see how colors changed.
    • Out came the computer so we could  look at many different pictures of rainbows and talked about how they are made. We looked for the their pattern of color with a question in mind, “Do they always go red, orange, yellow, green, blue violet.” Yes! I showed the children the picture I took last Thanksgiving of a double rainbow that had a double thickness of the colors. Amazing!
    • We read a  poem about rainbows.

    My heart leaps when I behold

    A rainbow in the sky

    William Wordsworth

    • On the “pretend you are at the beach day”, one of the children discovered that if you wear sunglasses with red lenses, the color of things around you change color. Everyone had to try that out.
    • So we added the new colored paddles with red, yellow, and blue color gels for exploring how the things in the classroom look and if they change color.
    • Outside, we set out  watercolor, tempura paint, and spray bottles filled with water and  colored paint for art exploration.
    • Colored water was set out for experimenting and mixing; could  new colors be created.
    • The water table was filled with colored water, tubes, and funnels. It was great fun to watch as the color water passed through the tubes and then mixed with the other color.
    • We talked about the physics of force and pressure  as the water was pushed by the turkey basters through the tubes and  funneled into bottles.

    • We used big water  bottles with  special connectors to create both fountain and tornado effects. Over and over the bottles were turned upside down to see the water create the vortex or send a fountain up the tube.
    • A third bottle was  made mixing mineral  oil, water, and food coloring; they gave it a good  shake  and watched the oil and water combine, then separate.
    • Someone asked what it would be like to mix food coloring with sand or salt, so we tried it out  to see what happens. The colors weren’t as clear as expected; the white salt did better than the beige sand.
    • Using glue bottles and paper, the children made designs and sprinkled on the new colored sand and salt.
    • One day, the inside tables were filled with children making flubber in a rainbow of colors. They stretched and pulled them into different shapes.

    Our water and color exploration will continue along side  other curriculum ideas. Gravity looks like the next area of interest as the children were trying out a rain gutter in the big sandbox and tilting it to see what happens. Ramps for the cars and trucks will likely be very popular. Sinking and floating are also likely to be of interest when we introduce them. We will make a chart of what sinks and what floats just the way we did when we figured about what was attracted to magnets and what wasn’t.

    And so it goes in preschool as one idea leads to the next. There is always something interesting to explore and to write and read about and to create in art.

  • Jun19

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    Dramatic Play- Life in Action

    Posted in: Child Development, Weekly Happenings in the School, emergent curriculum

    Our school has a large area set aside for a house area, dramatic play, and dress up. It is in use every day in many different ways. Dramatic play is central to children’s healthy development and learning during the preschool years.  In the house and dramatic play rea, children are able to set aside reality for a time and pretend to be someone or something different from themselves.  They make up situations and actions that go along with the various roles they choose.

    When our children engage in dramatic play, they deepen their understanding of the world and develop skills that will serve them throughout their lives. They recreate life experiences and try to cope with their life circumstances, fears, desires, and interests by acting out roles and situations. As they play though their feeling, ideas, and worries, they begin to develop a feeling of empowerment rather than a feeling of being at the mercy of the world around them.

    This was the case one day recently.  One of our children arrived at  the preschool and went right over to the suitcase. (We had learned earlier that her family was beginning to pack up for a move across town.)

    As she started to pick out the clothes she would put in the suitcase for a move, two of her friends joined her. Over the next half hour, there was lots of discussion-What would need to go and what would need to stay.  Would they need to take food? What should the babies travel in? Step by step, the food, dishes, and baby things were packed up and added to the luggage.

    The car was packed,  the trip across town began, and all of the belongings were carried to the new home ( the reading and drawing area ).

    Once they arrived, the unpacking began. One friend put the food and dishes on shelves and while another prepared a meal . The babies were fed and cared for.

    As the child played through this move, she began to feel a sense of control  over her new situation and began to talk about how she was looking forward to having a room of her own. In the next few days, the girls played moving several times, each time adding something new to the play and making more peace with the experience.

    Dramatic play has been helpful to our children this year in coping with illness of family members and doctor’s check ups,  with the deaths of relatives and pets, and with the disruption of divorce.  We will continue to add the props necessary to keep it relevant to our children’s lives so that they may problem solve aspects of their daily life through play.

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