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Friday, December 13, 2019

Lake and Park Students Travel Back in Time

During the study of Prehistory the entire school spent a day at 

Seward Park imagining life on earth long ago.  At the fire circle 
we told stories about how fire came to be from many different cultures. 

Virginia Lee Burton is the author of many well loved books for children, including Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and The Little House. In the picture book, Life Story, written in 1962 she sets out to tell “the story of life on our earth from its beginning up to now”.  She sets up the timeline of
prehistory as a play on a stage and moves us from the introduction of our galaxy in the prologue into Act I - the Paleozoic Era, with scenes of Life in the Cambrian seas, the Ordovician seas, the Silurian shores the Devonian shores and on to the Carboniferous swamps and the Permian desert.  The story continues with four more acts that cover the Mesozoic Era, the Cenozoic Era and eventually on to the Life of Prehistoric man right up to recent times. This book was the major touchstone for the Lake and Park study of prehistory.  
Early in the study of Prehistory Big Room students worked together
to create a classroom timeline from the dawn of time.  They made
individual timelines where they recorded information which they
found interesting about each era.


It didn’t take long before the names of these different eras were rolling off the tongues of children
throughout the school.  Teachers were paying close attention to which details were grabbing the
attention of different individuals. Children began rendering different eras in paint and pastel as they
wondered about different aspects of life on earth during different time periods.  This period of
exploration early in a study is often open-ended, encouraging children to make connections and
express ideas in a safe and supportive environment. It allows children the time to find their own
way into a study, to begin to construct meaning. As we design and plan curriculum we create
opportunities for diverse learners to enter into a study.





The Very Beginners work as paleontologists, the Beginners observe bones and 
carefully sketch the shapes as they wonder about the discovery of dinosaur bones.
The Big Room students are guided through an initial exploration of geological
time.  Before contemplating the timeline, the North Room students took time to go outside and reflect on what they already knew and what they thought about where humans came from. 



Eventually different classes found the era or topic within the larger study of prehistory on which to focus their research.


The Very Beginners and Beginners focused on the Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era, about
235,000,000 years ago and into the Mesozoic Era (Middle life) including the Triassic Period, the
Jurassic Period and the Cretaceous Period up to about 60,000,000 years ago. This met the
developmental needs of children ages 3 -6.
 
Many parents have experienced their children’s love of dinosaurs. The importance of this interest is backed up by research from the University of Indiana, which found “that sustained intense interests, particularly in a conceptual domain like dinosaurs, can help children develop increased knowledge and persistence, a better attention span, and deeper information-processing skills. In short, they make better learners and smarter kids.”
Beginning Room children build dinosaur sculptures
with big blocks.

Beginning Room children role- play working as paleontologists.
The Big Room class (ages 7 - 9) chose to focus on mega fauna, early mammals that lived during the
Cenozoic Era. This was after the dinosaurs died out from about 40,000,000 years ago right up to 10,000 years ago.  Each child researched a particular animal and created an exhibit to share their work with the larger community.


After choosing an animal to research, students got to know them
from the inside out.
They learned about their individual animal in the context of
the other animals classmates were learning about.
Over the time of this study students met a variety of scientists and experts who all
helped us better understand life on earth long ago.  We hosted an archaeologist and a
paleontologist at school. Some classes visited the Primate Evolutionary Biomechanics Laboratory at
UW and met with anthropologists.  Everyone spent time with a group of flint knappers, who continue
to study and recreate early human stone tools.  Our final field work was a day spent at the new
Burke Museum where the labs are all visible to museum goers. When children are exposed to
adults who work in the field we are studying they make the connection that these topics are relevant
and the work we are doing is important.


Siobhan Brown, parent of Declan shared her experience as an
archaeologist.
Tom Wolken, president of the Northwest Paleontological Society
visited Lake and Park and spoke to each class in a smaller setting.



The Puget Sound Knappers set up a workshop for Lake and Park
students at one of the shelters at Seward Park.

Elen Feuerriegel, PhD, a research associate in the Department of
 Anthropology hosted the upstairs classes at Denny Hall at the UW,
sharing knowledge and allowing students to explore models of early
hominid skulls.

Working at the Burke Museum.

The North Room students (ages 9-12) narrowed their study to consider the evolution of humans
during the Quaternary Period of the Cenozoic Era from about 25,000 to 10,000.  In addition to the
many scientists the North Room students talked with they also spent some time with Merna Hecht,
an artist-in-residence, learning about the art of storytelling.  While researching a particular
aspect of early human development, they also transformed their classroom into a cave, covering the
walls with cave paintings, building a sculpture of a fire hearth and inviting the community to hear
stories told the way humans have shared stories since speech was developed.

Merna coaches the students on traditional storytelling techniques.

The study of Prehistory was scheduled to accompany the opening of the new Burke Museum.  It was
a way to prepare us for a first visit to the museum and to be fully present for its opening. It was natural for us to want to share our enthusiasm for the new museum by opening our
own Lake and Park School Prehistory Museum.  We invited the larger community to come to the
museum and students acted as both museum guides and as visitors. Children felt honored to share
what they had learned with guests.

Parents,grandparents, neighbors and children all gather to
experience a story in the North Room cave.

One of many exhibits in the museum.

Big Room students created a special ice age exhibit to house the
early mammal displays.

Gus shares his exhibit with his family during the museum.

Morgan helps students prepare for their different jobs at the museum.
  
Japhy and his dad visit exhibits and fill in the museum guide.

These bones add some realism to an exhibit about the diet of
early hominids.

Noe compares the size of her hand to the actual size of
the paw of the cave lion. 

In addition to dioramas about a particular dinosaur,
Beginning students also created wooden dinosaur
sculptures.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Blocks at The Lake & Park School


"Kindergarten and first graders express themselves through play. Not play which is merely a pastime, but play which is constructive and leads through progressive stages of relationship-thinking. This kind of play needs free or raw materials which can take the impress of the user. The best of all adaptable materials seems to be blocks."
 -Lucy Sprague Mitchell




How are Blocks Used at Lake and Park School? 



Camille, Eileen and Morgan shared Lake and Park School's use of blocks at the Northwest Association of Independent Schools annual conference in October. Drawing from the wisdom of progressive educators from the early 20th century, Lake and Park teachers integrate block play throughout each day and across disciplines.

When walking through our classrooms, you'll notice space designated for block play. Time is reserved in the daily schedule for children to work in the block area. Blocks are sorted by size and shape and stored on shelves. Nearby shelves hold accessories that may change along with the children's interests and our thematic studies.

How does block play differ throughout the ages? 


Traveling between classrooms and observing block play in action shows how different ages engage with blocks. Through observation and research over the last hundred years, teachers have found that young builders pass through developmental stages when using blocks, similar to those that have been documented for young artists. Below are photos of children at each stage along this continuum.



Images from: Hirsch, Elizabeth S., The Block Book,   National Association for the Education of the Young Child, 1984

In the downstairs classrooms, we mostly see children moving through stages 1-4. Children are encouraged to build collaboratively and freely in the block area. They are frequently offered boats, cars and wooden figures to accompany their stories and dramatic play.


Scenes from the Beginning Room block area

After several years of building with blocks in the downstairs classrooms, children move to the Big Room as accomplished builders. Here, children are frequently asked to work collaboratively to build in response to a prompt or question directly related to the school's theme of study. One such provocation might be, "How can you build a car with blocks?"or, "How can you show the story of Raven stealing the light in the blocks?" In the Big Room, children leave structures up throughout the school week and return each afternoon to make adjustments or engage in symbolic dramatic play. Holding time for this each afternoon sends a clear message to children that we value the work they do when they play. This is reaffirmed when they have the opportunity to tell classmates about their work.


Ken builds a Greek temple during a study of Democracy in the Big Room




When blocks are part of the school culture, children seem to have as much satisfaction putting the blocks away as they have when building. According to Piaget, reversibility is the beginning of logical thinking. A way to observe children's ability to perceive the reverse of their sequential patterns suggests that they take down their structure in reverse of their putting it up. On Fridays, a group of mixed-aged children move through classrooms to tidy the block areas. Older children spend time with a loved material and younger children learn to stack three or four like-sized blocks in a pile to easily move to a shelf.


How Does Block Play Support Academic, Social and Emotional Learning? 





The pleasure of blocks stems from the aesthetic experience. It involves the whole person - muscles and sense, intellect and emotion, individual growth and social interaction. Learning results from the imaginative activity, from the need to pose and solve problems. -Elisabeth S. Hirsch, professor of Early Childhood Education at the City College of New York.


At Lake and Park we agree that blocks are the perfect tool for engaging children's hands, minds and imaginations. Engrossed in building with blocks, the child is a mathematician, scientist, architect, stage designer and storyteller. As children build together, they stretch and grow as problem solvers and collaborators.

Children collaborating in the Beginning Room 
As children work collaboratively, they learn to confidently initiate their ideas, solve problems, take turns, share, negotiate and compromise. Throughout this process, their language develops and relationships deepen. When they return to their projects day after day, they practice commitment and discipline. As they share their ideas and constructions with the larger class group, their self esteem grows. As they deconstruct towers, bridges, houses and forests, they learn to take responsibility and care for the materials in their space.

As children explore various thematic studies, they recreate their learning in the blocks. During our study of the Silk Road, traders on camel back traveled from town to town in the blocks. When we studied space, a large block rocket ship was boarded by astronauts. After visiting the Central Branch of the Seattle Public Library,  children recreated the impressive structure in the blocks, complete with people reading on the top floor. As various groups of children build similar scenes in the blocks, they learn about differing perspectives and experiences of one another.


Teague builds the Elliot Bay Bookstore

A rocket ship awaits the boarding of
astronauts during our study of space 

Mathematics

Skyscrapers of Seattle are connected by an airborne light rail track 

In addition to benefiting the emotional and social development of children, blocks serve as a powerful tool for laying the foundation of basic math and geometry. Children count constantly. They identify shapes and consider their attributes and recreate them using other shapes. Triangles fit together to create squares, for example. Children compare lengths, heights and volumes. Over time, they build structures within the same scene to a chosen scale.

Children learn to build with symmetry and in these cases are considering the aesthetic balance and appeal for their construction.


George uses each available block in a perfectly
symmetrical structure. 






Young children begin to intuit the mathematical relationships of the unit blocks to each other as they seek and find fractional substitutes for different shapes. When one size is no longer available, they compare the attributes of other blocks and explore equivalency.

Through repeated use of these concrete materials, children come to internalize these mathematical concepts. When they are later taught math in a more formal way, the children are given language and symbols for these concepts that they already understand intuitively.






Theo carefully balances the water pipes of the Cedar River
Watershed. 


Science

Leah and Boden explore gravity and speed with big blocks.
After constructing a ramp, they take turns riding a block
down the ramp.

Science is frequently explored in the blocks. Balance and collapse teach the nature of gravity and weight. Ramps and columns can be used to make simple overs and fulcrums; an early step in the teachings of physics.


With consecutive days spent in the blocks area, children practice trial and error and over time begin to place blocks with more precision and care, resulting in more stable structures.


Language Arts


With an excitement to share their constructions, children write and attach labels to different structures. When older children build in the blocks, they look to books to research details of structures they wish to build. during our study of China, for example, children researched the Great Wall of China before building it in the blocks. As children share their block creations with others, they tell stories that are often written in journals.

Labels help children share the stories that take place in the blocks. At times, a structure in the block area can help a
beginning writer generate ideas for a story. 


Kitzia shares about a queen's castle with children in the Big Room


Physical Benefits 

The need to place blocks carefully develops hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Lifting larger blocks and carrying them across a room builds strength and coordination.


Children in the Beginning Room build a house with big blocks; a task requiring planning,
an understanding of balance and weight and strength. 


Blocks can stand for an indefinite period of time. A structure may be returned to day after day for modifications. Plans can be revised, research integrated. Blocks can be moved and combined and recombined in countless ways making them an accessible medium for exploration and learning at any time of the school day.


Block structures catch the early evening light after children have gone home for the day


Education is not an affair of telling and being told, but an active and constructive process.
-John Dewey

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Considering Water: A Trip to the Cedar River Watershed Education Center, by Morgan

How can you build about your experience in the blocks?


This question is one often considered by children in the Big Room upon returning from a trip into the field to research and explore a place connected to our theme of study. Blocks are the perfect medium for expression.





In late September Four Big Room children worked collaboratively for several days to construct their experiences at The Cedar River Watershed Education Center near Rattlesnake Lake. After touring the area, the forests, lakes, water pipes, laboratories and offices were carefully reconstructed with blocks.










Prior to visiting the Education Center and Rattlesnake Lake, children pondered this question: 
Where does our water come from?

In the upstairs classrooms, children thought about the water cycle; how water moves from oceans to clouds to mountaintops to streams and back to oceans. As we drank water, we imagined where it came from and where each water molecule had been. Had it been on the wet fur of a bear in Alaska? Had it been in the teacup of a child in China? Had it been in the bathtub? 




Children looked at maps of the Puget Sound Region and familiarizing themselves with the 90,000 acres of land within the Cedar River Watershed. They traced the water from the Puget Sound, through the Ballard locks, Lake Washingtion, up the Cedar River and into Chester Morse Lake. Children calculated the distance water travels from its source to our city reservoirs and individual homes. We wondered about the volume of water in our watershed and how the water stays protected and clean. 



At the beach, children worked collaboratively to build models of the Cedar River Watershed in the sand. In the classroom, the children attached blue ribbon to the blocks to represent water. At the beach, they carried water from Lake Washington and poured it into basins representing Chester Morse Lake.  







Tessa explores the shoreline of Rattlesnake Lake




On the day of our trip, rain spattered the windows of the bus and we emerged in full rain gear to explore the land surrounding the source of Seattle's water. The Beginning Room spent their day on the shoreline of Rattlesnake Lake. They stacked rocks and climbed enormous tree trunks, all the while imagining the town of Mocton, that once stood at the center of the lake. 












One group of mixed age children from both the North Room and Big Room also traveled the rocky shore of the lake picking up specimens and collecting water to look at more closely through microscopes at the nearby laboratory. 






What life lives in water? 

Why is life dependent on water?

What does a drop of water look like under a microscope? 

What's in a leaf that we can't see with just our eyes? 






What people drink this water? 


The other group of children from upstairs classrooms visited the source of Seattle's drinking water and learned of the Duwamish Tribe's rights to the water and the protected site. When we looked up we noticed enormous water pipes carrying clean water to the cities to the west.



The Duwamish Tribe considers this waterfall a sacred site






What animals depend on this water? 


At Chester Morse Lake, a large lake above Rattlesnake Lake, the children quietly walked along forest trails, considering the many animals that consider the Cedar River Watershed home. We learned the deer, elk, bears, salmon and a variety of smaller mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds consider the watershed their home.








How can we take what we've learned back to school? 

Children ended their day along the shoreline of Rattlesnake Lake. In silence they used watercolor paints to reflect on their experiences.  Realizing how dependent so many plants and animals are on the water in the Cedar River Watershed stimulated thoughtful conversation about protecting the health of the water. We are grateful to access and drink such clean and plentiful water.

Amalie paints along the rocky shoreline