Documenting our Documentation

We often take photos of the children in action.  Why do we do this?

(Above, Annabel paints 15 Condo Skyscraper.)

    

Here are a few of our reasons . . .(Parents and friends, you may think of even more!)

• When the children look back over their photos, they use expressive language to retell the action, thereby increasing their language skills,
• By reviewing past activities together, we notice our physical and social/emotional growth,
• By sharing our experiences with our friends, we reinforce positive relationships with our peers. We form a more cohesive group when we have shared experiences.  

     We have certainly taken many, many photos of our Construction unit.  We are now involved with including some of our photos in a Big Book.  The Book itself is a form of documentation--and, along with our blogs, it tells the story of our Construction journey. 

     We are including additional photos here, to further document and share our investigation.  

Above and below:  Shane, Ezra and Shayan add their "apartments" to 15 Condo Skyscraper.

 

 (Above) Our Big Book of Building contains documentation beginning in January and ending in May.  The Morahs began jotting down the children's dialogue.  When we noticed the interest in building, we went outside to investigate an actual construction site.  This continued for a few months.

  When we flipped over our finished  pages of our Big Book, we discovered that there was not a single page left to write on!  At that point, all of us had chosen our own "apartments" in the condo.  Perhaps we were "finished" with this project?

  But, there was one more concept we wanted to document:  asking questions.  Curiosity is important for many reasons.  "Learning to learn" means we are ready to absorb information, integrate the new information with our previous knowledge, and ask questions.  All of this guides us to form our opinions, and to create strategies for the next step.  What were our questions?

      Here are some questions about the house:  Avraham Chaim:  Is there a carport?
                                                                          Dalia:  Where are the bathrooms?
                                                                          Shane:  Is it a warehouse?
                                                                          Rafi:  Is there a cement floor?
                                                                          Harper:  Are there laser lights in the house?

(Below, the cover of our Big Book. Above, the builder of "our" house at 625 Cooledge, Jarrett Macintosh.)

Here are the answers, directly from the builder:

There's no carport, but there is a 2-door garage,

There are bathrooms throughout the house--one is on the roof!  (The builder called it a "powder room.")

This new construction is a home, not a warehouse.

There will be wooden floors, except for the garage, which will have cement floors.

The lighting is LED, to conserve energy.

So, now we know the answers to our questions!

(Below, Annabel and Dalia stage a tea party at the Condo.)

And, what about our trays?  How do they reflect our interests in building?

  (Below, Asher and Shane build together.)

Below: Eliza experiences construction with clay and golf tees. 

 Below:  a group building activity with loose parts.

 Harper drives a construction truck through the dirt.

 Below:  Rafi, Ezra, Avraham Chaim and Asher involved with the building trays.

 Below:  a close-up of one of our trays.  Yes, these are real tools--we can do it!

Below:  wait, does this pic belong in a cooking blog or a building blog?  What's it doing here?  Oh, Eli is leading us as we make edible bricks a/k/a brownies--super delish!  

Come join us at our Siyum tomorrow, Wednesday, to see our Construction Gallery and enjoy our brownies!  

The Kitah Gimmel Morahs