We Are All Alike...We Are All Different

Before you know it a new school year will be beginning. We'll be gathering lots of little ones together that don't know each other, haven't played together before, and it's a whole new experience for many of them. As the adult caregivers we have the amazing opportunity to invite all these little people into a new relationship, our classroom family. For some of them, this will be their first play experience with children they haven't known all their lives and learning about each other, how we're alike and different, and how to accept all of it and work together is the beginning of embarking on a new adventure.


One of the obvious differences would be appearance: different skin tones, hair colors, eye colors, heights, weights, physical abilities, etc. We display multi-cultural, varying skin tones, different ages, different abilities, and the like through dolls, books, posters, and more. One book we choose to use to demonstrate likenesses and differences is We Are All Alike...We Are All Different by Laura Dwight and a group of kindergarten children. 

The photographic images and kid-drawn images are appealing and encourage the children to look at themselves and their friends.

We then pull out the Crayola Multicultural Washable Paint. They come in 8 colors: Beige, Bronze, Brown, Mahogany, Olive, Peach, Tan, Terra Cotta.

I would choose the two colors that I thought were the closest to that child's skin tone, as one color rarely would match. I'd blend the two colors on the back of the child's hand to see if we came up with the right combo.

Once we determined the color or color combo that matched that child's skin, we'd mix up a small batch of the color in preparation for their self-portrait. You'd hear them saying, "My skin is beige-bronze." "My skin is peach-tan."

Each child then painted their personalized skin-tone on the face outline and we waited for it to dry. 

Continuing our self-portrait project from the day before, the child looks at him/herself in the mirror determining his/her eye color, then add eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Another look in the mirror determines hair color and we measure yarn to match the length. This little guy has spiky hair on top so we measured it for his portrait, also. LOVE IT!!

Here's the end result. Each child's is uniquely his or her likeness. We listed the color or color combo of the skin paint at the bottom of the portraits.

We wanted to get the parents involved, so we took photos of each child's hands to see if the parents could identify them. Most parents admitted that it was harder than they thought it would be.

These are a couple of many activities you can do to develop and understanding and acceptance of likenesses and differences among the children in a gathering. What kinds of things do you do in your program?

Volcanoes and Dinosaurs and Summer, Oh My!! Part 2

The dinosaur adventures continued as we did various art projects, had a variety of sensory experiences, learned about and made our own fossils, had a dino hunt, and more...

We have these plastic dinosaur templates with punch-out centers.
We lightly taped the centers down and the children painted around
them as they chose to do, leaving a cool dino print when the
center is removed.

We created cloud dough, which we dubbed "Dino Dough" and
had lots of dinosaur adventures in it. It smelled great and felt, oh
so silky. (5-8 cups of plain flour, 1 cup baby oil; I began with
5 cups and put it out, but added more flour as the days went by)

We learned about Animal Defenses through our GEMS guide
and discussed how dinosaurs could protect themselves.
We used an overhead projector (a dinosaur in its own right) and
projected images on the blinds. The kids loved the adventure
of seeing things in a new way. (This is a T-Rex hanging out
near an erupting volcano)

We had a generic dinosaur and discussed which one was better
able to protect itself through it's defenses.

Each child was able to choose the defenses they wanted for
their dinosaur. After they were dried we projected "their
dinosaur" on the wall and they shared the defenses
they had given their dinosaur.

Animal Defenses is another guide created through
GEMS (Great Explorations in Math and Science) at
Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley. They are an
amazing resource. You can find more information at
this link: www.lhsgems.org  Click on guides to see
all the ones they have available.

We later used the outline stencils to make another view
of the dinosaurs.

We played "Pin the Horn on the Triceratops".

We made dinosaur tracks with paint.

We did the story of the Baby Stegosaurus, "Are You My Mommy?"
during group time and left the board out for the children
to re-enact it themselves. 

We discovered dinosaur skeletons buried in the dino dough
and gently brushed away the sediment.

We created our own fossils from either a T-Rex footprint...

or lying small dinos in the dough, then baking on low heat.

Be sure to go back to our previous post to read more
about this adventure.
http://msbarbarasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/its-dino-dig.html   

We did dino sticker stories. Each child chose some dinosaurs
to place on the paper and then dictated a story to me, which I
wrote down exactly as they said it. We later discussed the role
of an author and read their stories at a group time.

What an adventure we've had. We had three full weeks of dinosaur adventures, explorations, and learning. What an amazing way to end our school year!

It's a Dino Dig!

We spent a day learning about fossils and paleontologists, then followed it up with a "Dino Dig". I got out early and buried a variety of bones in our sandbox. We encouraged the kids to dig and unearth a bone, brush it off with the paintbrush, then match it to the bone graph we had on a nearby table.

I drew the outline of the bones on a section of banner paper.

The first child out found the largest bone.
He was convinced that it was a dinosaur skull.

The excitement was contagious as each child discovered
a bone and began unearthing it.

After digging up their bone each child used some brushes
to clear off all the sand.

After the bone was cleaned, they made their way over
to the table and began matching it to the paper drawing.

  

They did a great job with the matching.

The kids had a blast! Some discoveries they believed they made were: a triceratops horn, an allosaurus skull, a tyrannosaurus rex leg bone, and more. 

Volcanoes and Dinosaurs and Summer, Oh My!! Part 1

Each year our school district offers extended year programs at a variety of sites. This was my 5th year teaching with them and each summer I choose a focus for our program. This year I decided to focus on dinosaurs, and though we are still going for two more weeks, I can say that we've been having a blast.I wanted to share some of the activities and things we've been learning with you.

Each child made a volcano out of clay.

We erupted a volcano in the sandbox with
dinosaurs looking on...

We erupted a volcano in class and discussed the vinegar
being the acid and the baking soda being the base and
when the two combine you get a reaction. Choruses of,
"Again, again!" were heard.

After the clay was dry each child painted his/her volcano.

We used sponges in dinosaur shapes to do some sponge painting.

Each child added colored vinegar to the backing soda filled
volcano to erupt his/her own volcano and then were able
to take the volcano home with directions of how to
repeat the activity with his/her parents.

After learning about herbivores and carnivores
we played the game "What's for Lunch?" The
kids took a piece of the play food and put it
in the appropriate basket.

Nothing but meat for this guy.

We celebrated our T-Rex day with clothing and toys.

We've completed our first week with our Dinosaur unit and I believe it has definitely earned it's name: "Volcanoes and Dinosaurs and Summer, Oh My!!"

Making Dinosaur Eggs

We're in the midst of our Dinosaur Summer unit and had such a blast making our Dinosaur Eggs that we wanted to share it with everyone. Here goes...you'll need to gather everything in advance. Note: I had 14 small plastic dinosaurs and doubled the recipe. I had a little left over, but not much. It probably depends on the size of the dinosaurs you are using.

1 cup flour

1 cup dried coffee grounds

1/2 cup table salt

1/4 cup craft sand

3/4 cup water

small plastic dinosaurs

a large bowl, whisk, and measuring cups

a group of giggling, enthusiastic kiddos

Before making the eggs we spent some time playing with and identifying the dinosaurs. I purchased a plastic tube of 14 dinosaurs from Michael's for this activity.

I went to Starbucks the day before and got one of their FREE bags of used coffee grounds. The recipe calls for dried coffee grounds. Ours were mostly dried, but not completely. This may vary just how much water you need. We passed around the coffee grounds for everyone to get a chance to smell them. 

We mixed the coffee grounds and the flour together and used a whisk to blend them until the mixture was smooth. Ours were a little lumpy, so vigorous whisking was necessary. We made the most of the experience and passed the bowl and the whisk around so everyone got to help.

We then added the salt and blended until smooth, again. The kiddos were amazed at the color changes as we added each new ingredient.

The more, the merrier when it comes to mixing things. Everyone gets to help.

Next comes the craft sand. I had purchased a light brown colored sand from Michael's. It was a little glittery and the glitter would show through when we laid the eggs out in the sunlight to dry. 

We then added the water. This amount may vary from what the recipe calls for. It depends on how dry the coffee grounds are. We doubled our recipe, but didn't quite double the amount of the water. It's better to add it a little at a time.

We then use a 1/2 cup scoop, putting some in the cup, having each child choose a dinosaur and lay it down in the scoop and then add more to cover it up. We then "plopped" the mixture out into the child's hands and have them form the egg around the dinosaur making sure all dinosaur parts are covered.

Once they were pleased with the egg, we laid them on a tray to dry. We've had them drying out in the sun during our 3 1/2 hour class time for a couple of days. Tomorrow we'll have a Dinosaur Egg Hunt where the children will find an egg and break it open to discover which baby egg they've found. Such fun!!