The Value of Game Play
Let’s look at a couple games we have had out this summer at the Mom and Dad’s Night’s Out.  We also have them out during the school year.  The two games I am going to focus on both fit with our beach theme.
Game #1  Battery operated Fishing Game where children use fishing poles to catch moving fish by putting the hook in the fishes mouth and pulling it up when the fish closes its mouth. The game can be played with 1 to 4 players of all ages. The fish are multicolored.
Option 1

• The child who caught the most fish is the winner

Option 2

• Have the children sort their fish by color.  The children then compare the amount of each color fish they caught  i.e.  Jimmy caught the most red fish but Mary caught the most yellow fish.  Who caught the most blue fish?  What color fish did you catch the most of?  Is there a color that you both caught the same amount of?

Option 3

• How many fish can you catch in 3 minutes.  Use an hourglass timer.

 
Game #2  This is a homemade game that has sea creature stickers going in a curvy line throughout a hand drawn ocean.  There is a homemade spinner made with the same sea creature stickers.  Using plastic sea creatures as markers the children simply use the spinner to move their creatures through the ocean.  The first child to get their marker to the sea cave wins.

• Lessons learned from a basic simple game like this
  • Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t
  • Visual recognition of a sea creature and applying that picture to the game board
  • You can count the spaces you have to move before you match your creature

As you can see there are always ways to expand the learning that can take place during game play.  Games also teach the valuable lesson of taking turns.  Most importantly, games are just fun to play!

​What is emergent curriculum and how is it implemented in the classroom environment
Emergent curriculum is curricular activity that emerges naturally.  It is not planned.  At our school we have the opportunity to take advantage of emergent curriculum throughout the year both indoors and out.  Some examples are:

• The snowstorm that covers our farm with a fresh white coat (we do not close for snow!) We can explore what the animals are doing and what we need to do for them in order to keep them comfortable.  We build a snowman and cover it with food for the wild animals as their food sources have been covered with snow.  How is the snow affecting our plants. What can we find to slide down the hill on.
• When working with the concept of random vs patterns we run out and “catch” raindrops on painted paper so we can figure out whether they fall in a pattern or fall randomly.
• When our bearded dragon starts to shed we bring out the microscope and look at his skin which leads the children to get hair from many of the animals on the farm to compare under the microscope.

There is a great deal of power in emergent curriculum as it gives the children the opportunity to expand their learning in a way that is meaningful to them. They make the discoveries and use the information to expand their learning.

What an amazing time the children had in the garden last week.  They worked cooperatively to make a deep hole and then filled it with water.  The ensuing mud play was magical to watch.  The children discussed the way the mud was “sucking” their boots off. 

They then had to work cooperatively to figure out a way to get their peers boots and sometimes feet pried loose from the mud. They worked together to decide who was digging, who was gathering water from the pump and who was stirring. 

I am also so proud of our amazing parents who simply hosed off their children and engaged in discussions about what they witnessed. 

​This was emergent curriculum at it’s best!

As I begin to set up our ”Mud Kitchen” I thought it would be a good time to help you understand the value of children playing in this amazing area.  Here are a few things the children are learning as they play:
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Social/Emotional
Co-Operative skills as they work together
Pretend play as they decide what to create
Problem solving and strategy building skills
 
Math
Counting as they gather their ingredients and measure them out
Serration as they clean up their bowls and have to make them fit together
1 to 1 Correspondence as they set their table
 
Science
Investigation skills as they mix ingredients
How substances change when liquid is added/ Items turned to powder in the mortar and pestle
Floating and sinking
Wandering the property to find just the right Ingredients for their creation
 
Language
Letter recognition when they develop their menu
Writing skills as they make lists of what they will need
 
Fine Motor skills
Crushing ingredients in the mortar and pestles
Pouring
Stirring
Pumping and carrying water
 
These are just a few of the many areas of learning that are taking place when your children play in a mud kitchen showing just how fun learning can be!
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​What fun we had this past week working with Fruits, vegetables and nuts we harvested from our garden.  We made Roasted tomatillo salsa and some rather delicious Stone Soup.  We used our harvest during our language group time by group time by graphing fruits and vegetables by their first letter sound. We used some of beans during math.  Each child estimated how many seeds were in their bean.  Then they opened their beans and documented the amount.  For science using  mortars and pestles we ground up different parts of a plant (spices) and tasted them.  We then tasted different candy and matched the taste to the spice (part of the plant) it got it’s flavor from.  We are enjoying many culinary adventures in our garden tasing all the plants as they continue to thrive in this beautiful fall weather we are experiencing.

Starting of the new school year