I had been looking at great photos of science centers in
classrooms and wanted to start off the year with some interesting things in
mine. Thinking of how to gather a
selection of various objects with everything else I was trying to set up in my
room got me thinking. I also wanted a
connection to the children coming in for their first day to ease nervousness
and give them a sense of ownership of their classroom. I combined these two needs in to one, and
ended up with a fantastic science center.
I wrote a note to each family asking the children to bring
in an object from nature for our science center on their first day. This way when the children arrived, they
immediately had something concrete to show me and we had a conversation
piece. The parents and children enjoyed
finding and talking about what to bring in.
Some children brought something found on a summer vacation; others went
in to backyards or on walks to find something, while others chose an object
from a treasured collection.
We received shells, rocks, flowers, feathers, tree bark, insects, a
bird house and more. The children have
been enjoying looking at them with magnifying glasses. It has been a nice connection point for the
children as well as they are the expert on their particular piece and can “teach”
the others about it. We plan on sharing
them this week now that we have settled into our routine a bit.
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