Bananas Wheel-y Love Learning
Wheels, Wheels, Wheels!
At the end of our pet study, I gave the students three options of what topic we would explore next. The options were: balls, buildings, or wheels. The response was overwhelmingly wheels! One of the things that I love about our Teaching Strategies Gold Curriculum is that it takes simple items that are part of our lives and turns them into multi-week investigations that encourage our children to think deeper and more critically about things that they see and experience everyday (there is even a box study!).
We transformed our classroom to include centers that helped us explore wheels; different kinds of wheels, how wheels work and move, and how wheels are used in our everyday lives. Mr. Red built us an awesome convertible that we had in our dramatic play center. They were able to use tools to work with bolts, wires (bungees), and lights. In preschool we enjoy using as realistic items as possible, so students had access to paintbrushes and sponges to do body work on the vehicle. We encouraged writing by students having the ability to write up their own vehicle inspection and charge customers with our cash register and play money. And let me tell you: inflation has not hit the Frankie Lemmon Auto Repair shop!
We put wheel pasta in the sensory table and students had to string them on matching colored pipe cleaners that acted as the axels. This helped students work on color matching and the fine motor skills that are vital to writing. In the block center, we added road tape to most of our blocks so the students could build roads. This helped us when we did a science lesson where we measured how far wheels would go and then experimented with different ramps to see how it impacted the distance our wheels would travel. We also put out a wooden train set so students could build their own track and use different sizes and kinds of wheels.
In both our math and literacy centers, we created activities that allowed students to use wheels to explore concepts. We created roads out of popsicle sticks so students could create shapes for their vehicles to drive on. In literacy, we printed off roads that formed letters that they could drive on and then trace/write. Additionally in this center, we added an interactive environmental print book. While it is not related to wheels, I noticed that students have begun to 'read' labels and logos such as McDonalds, Goldfish, or Target. Students are encouraged to match these different logos/labels to the letter they begin with and can also build sentences such as "I like Oreos."
Lastly, we tried to have some hands-on experiences throughout our Wheels Study. One day we took clipboards and pencils out to the empty side parking lot and looked at the wheels on a staff member's vehicle. Students drew what they observed and when we came back inside we talked about what they drew; what the different parts of the wheel were, what the letters/numbers on the tire might mean, and how the wheels work to make the car move. It was so exciting to watch students make connections and observations about the things that they see everyday and I hope they were able to share some of this knowledge with you.
The cherry on top of this study was being able to end it with a visit from the Cary Police Department. We got to look at the wheels on their vehicle, examine the steering wheel, and ask a bunch of questions of their important jobs. We are so thankful for the community members that take time to make our learning special and memorable.
 |
| Julius is hard at work fixing our car |
 |
| Josephine is recording her wheel observations |
 |
| Mya is sorting vehicles by size in the Science Center |
 |
| Major enjoyed trying out the police cruiser |
All while learning all about wheels, we were also able to meet a few more friends from Letterland!
Comments
Post a Comment