Dramatic Play- The Campsite

I have long been a believer that when it comes to dramatic play variety and rotating stations are key and less is more.  The less stuff provided the more imagination takes place.  This is why I was so excited to try the campsite.  I used it the last week of school but ended up wishing I had given it a month of play.  My teaching team found 2 boxes of camping stuff that someone in the neighborhood was giving away.  They nabbed the boxes but the boxes sat in storage for months.  I was looking for something simple and different to keep my kids engaged the last week of school so I pulled the boxes out, went through them and discovered a treasure of imagination.  There a very few props but the kids had so much fun being in the tent and cooking over the fire.  In later pictures you will see trees around the tent.  We have these for various activities in kindergarten and they made a nice forest.

I am hoping to put together and apple orchard dramatic play area for the fall.  I am giving up the house keeping center all together because it originally belonged to another program and they really wanted it back.  I don't think I'll miss it.  I'll keep you posted!

The tent and camping dishes were a "give away" find in my neighborhood.

The campfire is a group of paper towel tubes and red, orange and gold tissue paper under a cooking grate.

There is a camping pad inside the tent and a backpack with a set of 4 plates, cups and spoons and 2 frying pans and 1 spatula a life vest and a minnow bucket and a small broom and dust pan.

The kids supplies the imagination.

The Science Lab

The Science lab is a dramatic play area created to encourage budding chemists by using simple tools  to mix common kitchen "chemicals" and observe the reactions.  I used clear plastic containers, spoons, eye droppers and dosing syringes to measure and mix vinegar, water, salt and baking powder.  I also included small vials of colored water.  I introduced this area with specific rules, spoons are for powders and mixing, eye droppers and dosing syringes are for liquids.  No Pouring!  This was enforced so that there would be enough compounds for a group of 4 to share and helped with fine motor development and self control.  It also managed materials so that they did not have to be replaced.  I had the center out for 3 weeks and used 1 box of baking soda but still have salt, baby oil and vinegar for other projects.  If a group ran out of a compound, it was not refilled.  I refilled them for the next group the next day.            

Students use small plastic containers, like from fruit cups, to mix chemicals and observe reactions.  Part of their job was to was out their containers to prepare the center for the next group of students.

I used clear plastic cups with lids and labeled them with painters tape.  The vials of colored water are clear, film canister sized containers.  The large bottles are "discovery bottles"  that have been glued closed.  These are ways to observe different liquids.  These are and idea from Dr. Jean at drjean.com

Tic Tac Toe

This ear I am teaching in a new school and in a new district.  One of the district focuses in STEM.  I wanted to challenge myself and my students to daily work on developing and honing problem solving strategies and teamwork, particularly with hands on activities.  I spend the year seeking different games and activities that were very simple to create and maintain and that the students were able to do independently after a initial practice.  Tic Tac Toe came up as a familiar enough game that it was easy for most student to catch on to, but with enough strategy involved to keep them engaged.

I used coffee and oatmeal canister, covered with colorful paper and decorated with Tic Tac Toe designs.  I used a permanent marker to make X's and O's on the lids (4 of each).  The board is a place mat with a grid made of painters tape.  I use a tote bag and the transport and put away container.

Oh My Gosh, I'm a Squash!

During a recent pumpkin unit we read the book The Ugly Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz (available through Scholastic Books.) It is a great story about accepting difference.  After reading the story, each child got to take off and trace his/her shoe, cut it out and decorate it.  They think it is super funny to trace their own shoe!   In the future I would give the student a choice of colored paper to use.  The vine is made out of crunched up brown paper that came in a box of shipped items.

Our shoe shaped squash displayed on their vine.

Fact Displays

I like to incorporate informational text in as many units as possible.  Studying animals is an easy way to make this happen because of the plentiful amount of resources available.  After reading and studying the animals, each student gets to dictate a fact that impressed them about the animal.  I found themed sticky notes at our local dollar store to add a special touch to the fact collection.

A cave of bat facts displayed on bat themed sticky notes.

A web of spider facts displayed on spider themed post it notes.

Magnetic story boards

My wonderful family knows never to throw any unique thing away until they've checked with me about using it for Kindergarten.  This got me into using cookie sheets and magnets to create story props for retelling popular stories.  I used Pete the Cat books as inspiration for these 2 boards because of the predictable text and rhythm of the stories.  I used construction paper to create the characters and taped them with clear tape over the cookie sheets so they had a laminated type feel and protection.  I hot glued the changing prop, in this case buttons and shoes, to magnets for easy manipulation.  These are sturdy and easy to repair.

Pete The Cat and His 4 Groovy Buttons.

Pete The Cat and I Love My White Shoes

The other shoe colors stored in a zipper bag taped to the back of the cookie sheet.

What's been going on?

I was lucky enough this year to be hired in a fantastic school district.  That means that I had to pack up my classroom, where I resided for 10 years and accumulated many kindergarten treasures.  It took a while to decide what to leave and what to take.

Everything sat in my garage all summer until I was finally able to move in 1 week before starting classes at my new school.

I was lucky to walk into an empty classroom.  No need to sort through someone else's accumulation of treasures, the value of which may have been lost on me.

Anyone who has gone through this process knows that it take a while to learn the culture and procedures of a new school and remember where you put everything.  That is why there have been no new post in a while.  My creative energy had to catch up.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!