Easter Bunny and Roads
We celebrated Easter with a visit from the Easter bunny. The children hunted eggs, made crafts, and had a sack lunch. Even though it was a rainy day the children had a blast!
We are studying roads. Why are we investigating roads? Roads are all around us. Roads take us to school, to the store, and to visit family and friends. When riding in vehicles, children gaze out of the windows and watch the world go by. They delight in pointing out features on the road that, for adults, are simply part of the landscape: light poles, reflector bumps, overpasses, and bridges. In the classroom, roads become a key feature in the Block area, we added a construction rug, helmet, vest, cars, trucks and traffic signs.
A study of roads provides children with an opportunity to learn how roads are made, where roads take us, how we can stay safe on the road, and the features that make up a road.
In this study, children will explore different types of roads. They will investigate the features of roads, how roads help us, how roads are made and repaired, how we can make a road, and how to be safe on the road.
Our focus question for the week was what do we know about roads? Here are our answers:
Anna Scott – “cars drive on the road”
Victoria – “there are signs on the road”
Townes – “roads are made out of concrete”
Abbi – “you can walk on the road”
We talked about maps and how they show us where to go when we are on a road. The children were given a sheet of paper and they had to draw a map of our school campus. I was blown away with how well they did this assignment. Simple map making shows their understanding of familiar places. Children’s experiences with mapmaking help them to develop the concepts of representation, symbolization, perspective, and scale.
The children decided that we should use all of our blocks and build our own road. They worked in groups of three for five minutes creating a road. These types of activities encourage simple geographic knowledge and provides positive participation in group situations.
