Ms. Agnes's classroom

How children reconstruct the guided activity to their free plays My little friends always surprise me with their capacity for learning and creativity. At the circle time, guided activities with specific instructions are surely beneficial for the young learners. Even more, to observe how they reconstruct certain activities in their free plays truly amazed me. Here are some examples. 1.  Small bears on the bridge. When we talked about bears, I incorporated science and math in this theme. I used colored cups and popsicle sticks to create “bridges” and put some small bears on the top of each popsicle stick. We tried to put as many bears as we could while keeping the bridges in balance. Then, I put my little friends into small groups, gave them some cups, sticks and bears and asked them to work as a team to build a bridge. They surely had fun. On the second day, when I opened it as one of the table time activities, Child E reconstructed the bridges with the small bears on the top of the sti

Penguins—circle times  Penguins are apparently one of the most popular topics in winter. Here is how I plan out the circle times and activities.  Songs 5 little penguins went out one day, over the hill and far away. Mama penguin sais” come back.” Only 4 little penguins came back.  4 little penguins went out one day, over the hill and far away. Mama penguin sais” come back.” Only 3 little penguins came back.  3 little penguins went out one day, over the hill and far away. Mama penguin sais” come back.” Only 2 little penguins came back.  2 little penguins went out one day, over the hill and far away. Mama penguin sais” come back.” Only 1 little penguin came back.  1 little penguin went out one day, over the hill and far away. Mama penguin sais” come back.” No more little penguins came back.  5 little penguins slide on the ice. One hurt his leg and said “oh ouch!” Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, “ put that penguin straight on the bed.” 4 little penguins slide on the ice. One h

  We’re Going on a Bear Hunt “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” is a well-known children’s book. While I was preparing for the Bear theme, this book popped into my mind right away. Other than just reading the story, I would like to come up with an activity with hands-on and interactive elements to enhance storytelling experience.  I did some research online. However, most of the activities are either arts and crafts or making a map. Therefore, instead of just making a map, I used toys found in the classroom to create the “ plots” from the story. The first one is grass made up with some green Lego Duplo. Then, some wooden blocks are used as “mud.” The felt trees are arranged as the forest, and some blue crystals on a blue blanket as a river. Finally, the bear hinds in the cave. All the stations are small but symbolic. I also draw out the map in accordance with the story on the whiteboard to visualize the pictures for my little ones. So, here is how I conducted this activity.  We started with