February 11-15, 2019
Room 8 had a colorful week to say the least! On Monday morning, we opened up a conversation on the idea of multiple perspectives, one of the pillars affiliated with the Wise Learning Process. Multiple perspectives can be defined as different points of view. The notion that people can see the same story in different ways is a complicated concept to grasp for young children. We wanted to introduce the children to this complex subject to create a basis for future learning. In order to do this at a simpler level, mixing and creating colors became the subject of this conversation. We began by asking, “What are the primary colors?” Ask your child if they remember the three colors that can never be created by any other color. We followed this question with a demonstration in mixing colors including red and blue, green and blue and red and yellow. As the new colors formed, the children were amazed by the transformation. We inquired, “Can you make this new green or orange lighter or darker, and how?” Sasha exclaimed, “We can add black to make it dark green.” Blake said, “Let’s add white to make a light blue like sky.” The children learned two new vocabulary words, tints and shades. Tints are created when you add white to make a lighter variation, and shades are darker values, such as dark blue or black. Teacher Aaliyah brought out a stack of paint color swatches to demonstrate the large variation that can occur with mixing colors. The concept that one color can come in thousands of shades and tints and be called all different names creates a basis for children to understand the idea of multiple perspectives. One might see a variation of green as dark green, but someone else might see it as olive green or dark yellow/brown. Everyone sees things differently, which is powerful and crucial concept needed to be successful in school and in life. Teaching this idea at a young age helps children accept others’ opinions, learn to comprehend a bias, and understand classification. We will continue the idea of multiple perspectives and take it a step further in our unit on Purim. After our large group discussion, the children had the opportunity to make their own color variations in smaller groups. At first, they chose two primary colors to mix. For instance, Grayson mixed blue and yellow, and Scarlett mixed yellow and red. Grayson wanted a lighter green, so he added white and called his new color Lime Green. Scarlett desired a peach-like orange. At first, she added more red paint, but then lightened it up with white. Her creation was called Peach Lipstick. Later in the week, we read the story The Littlelest Paintbrush. While this did not highlight the subject of colors, the story connected our new unit to the past unit on Ethics. The book emphasized how we need to use a variety of brushes, in size and shape, to create a masterpiece. The children understood that, at first, the brushes were on the “dark side,” as they would not include the little brush to work with them. The little brush went on to be used by the artist, whom stopped using the bigger brushes. Christopher shared with his peers that the big brushes felt bad for excluding the little brush demonstrating a grasp on doing the “right” thing. We have noticed through every day activities and play that the children portray a strong grasp on choosing the right instead of the wrong. During their conversations in play, we enjoy seeing one friend tell another, “Remember to be on the light side instead of the dark!” Developing a concrete understanding on ethics sets the children up for a moral future. We are excited to connect this to future topics this year. Thank you to Evie’s family for joining us this week for a great Shabbat. We hope everyone has a fun and restful 4-day weekend. We will see you all on Wednesday! Shabbat Shalom, Mari + Aaliyah Reminders:
Shabbat Family Schedule:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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