Emergent Curriculum
News from Older Group
Emergent curriculum – weather
Denise and the children walked into the Older Group classroom early one morning and saw a most amazing sight. There was a cloud sitting right under the George Washington Bridge! Denise quickly grabbed a camera to take pictures of the cloud to show the children and teachers who had not yet arrived in case it should quickly disappear. But the cloud stayed around for a while. When Dr. Terry, our science specialist arrived, a number of children were glued to the window watching the cloud. What was that white stuff and how did it come to be?
Dr. Terry explained that the white stuff was fog. It was made of very tiny droplets of water, so tiny that they werefloating in the air. Fog is a cloud down at ground level instead of up in the sky where we usually see them. Fog and clouds form in precisely the same way. The air was warmer than the water so the coolness of the water caused the water vapor in the warm air to form little droplets.
One child considered this information carefully and made a new connection. “So the droplets could form a big droplet and that would be rain!”
This led to a science experiment. Could they make a cloud form in the classroom? Dr. Terry heated some water and filled a transparent container half-full with the hot water. Then he placed a tray of ice cubes on top of the container. Immediately the container became hazy. A cloud was forming. The cold ice cubes caused the warm air in the container to form droplets. We had created a cloud.
This led the children to became more interested in their morning weather reporting. Was the air warm or cool? To help us find out Nicola’s family donated a digital outdoor thermometer. Each morning the child reporting on the weather now could read out the temperature as well as reporting on whether it was sunny or raining. Then Dr. Terry showed the children how we could record this information on a graph and keep track of the daily temperature. This way they could tell if the air temperature was hotter or colder than the day before.
One morning a child looked at the thermometer when he arrived in the morning. It was 63 degrees. When he looked again an hour later it read 53 degrees. He got excited. He ran over to tell Dr. Terry. “It’s getting colder, Dr. Terry!” he said. Dr. Terry was excited also because the child had made a connection. By the next day the temperature had fallen even further. A cold front had come through and it was all recorded on our graph.
This is emergent curriculum – curriculum stemming from the interests of the children. Curriculum based on children’s observations of the world around them. Curriculum that stimulates further questioning and observing their environment.
News from the Middle Group
In October’s newsletter we wrote about how the Middle Group’s interest in leaves emerged and developed. The children had read several books about leaves and began noticing some leaves changing color and falling to the ground. They went on a leaf hunt in the park. They focused on the sizes and shapes of different kinds of leaves and with the aid of pictures were able to locate gingko, maple, oak and sweet gum leaves to bring back to the classroom.
Because of the high interest level of the children, the leaf curriculum continued to develop. The children learned how to identify and sort leaves by shape, size and color. They discovered that some leaves are small and some are big.
Dr. Terry, our science consultant, brought in some very large Royal Paulownia leaves which are the largest leaves found in our area. The children felt the thickness of a leaf and its veins. Then they helped to preserve one of the large leaves by covering it with newspaper and pressing it under a heavy block. Eventually the leaf was removed from this leaf press and it hangs in the classroom.
Dr. Terry and the children discussed the leaves. Why do trees have leaves? What purpose do they serve? Most of the children thought that the leaves take water into the tree when it rains. Dr. Terry helped the children understand that, in fact, the leaf has a very different job. Its function is to make food for the tree. Dr. Terry and the children examined the leaves carefully noting the veins that the leaves use to send the food to the rest of the tree. But these veins also carry water to the leaf. To help the children understand how the parts of a tree work together, Dr. Terry brought in a much smaller plant to examine, a snapdragon that was in flower. He explained that each part of a plant has a different. The flower produces seeds so that new plants can grow. The stem acts like a straw and draws water up from the roots and the roots take in water from the ground. He took the plant out of the pot and washed the soil off the roots so that the children could see the large root system. Since the large root systems of trees are hidden underground children are not usually aware of their size. Then they put the plant into a container of water to keep in the classroom so that the children could observe the roots. Mercy read I know Trees by Sharon Gordon which showed pictures of all of the parts of the tree and how the tree roots look underground.
To expand the study of leaves even further, the children undertook several projects. They made leaf prints and rubbings. They preserved some specimen leaves by ironing them between sheets of wax paper. These leaves have been placed on the science discovery table along with photos of the leaves for the children to match and examine.
News from the Afternoon Group
Emergent curriculum for the individual child
English is the first language for most of our children at MCNS. Some of our children are bilingual and English is their second language. But for a few children English is a brand new language. And for a very young child who has only recently learned his or her first language this can be difficult. This may also be the child’s first school experience compounding the difficulty. Individualized emergent curriculum provides a way to meet these children’s needs.
Take the example of a boy in the Afternoon Group. He arrived with almost no English at all, speaking a language that no one else in the school speaks. Teachers always look for what interests a child and build on those interests to develop curriculum. What was this boy interested in? He could not tell the teachers, but he showed them.
In September, the Older Group went on a trip to an orchard and brought back apples and pumpkins for all of the classrooms. This child was very interested in the apples and pumpkins. He quickly learned how to say their names. Then Joann brought in a pineapple. He rushed over to the table where she was preparing to cut up the pineapple. He repeated the word – pineapple - and then bit into the fruit. It became clear to the teachers that this child was very interested in food.
A basket of small pumpkins of many different colors was brought into the classroom. The boy puzzled over these pumpkins. He examined them carefully. He picked each one up and asked each time, “Pumpkin?” The teachers knew that he was working on the definition of the word. Did color matter? Was it still a pumpkin even if it wasn’t orange? Did size matter? He pointed to a large pumpkin. “Pumpkin?” he asked. He pointed to a medium-sized pumpkin. “Pumpkin?” He pointed to a small pumpkin. “Pumpkin?” By providing examples of different kinds of pumpkins the teachers were creating a curriculum for him.
When it was time to go shopping for ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner the teachers knew that this boy would be very interested in the foods in the supermarket. But on the way another lesson unexpectedly emerged. Someone had decorated their doorway with flowers and a pumpkin. “Pumpkin?’ Yes, another pumpkin. Then he saw some leaves that had fallen from a tree. They were many colors like the multi-colored small pumpkins in the classroom. This was interesting. A new word was learned, leaves.
In the store he found a pumpkin and held it up. “Pumpkin?” But then he saw a sweet potato. It was orange. It wasn’t quite the right shape but could it be some other type of pumpkin? “Pumpkin?” he asked. “No. Sweet Potato.” He nodded and repeated the new word. He helped to choose some other vegetables for the dinner and soon had learned their names as well. Then he helped to put them in the cart and then he took them out and placed them by the cash register. The teachers could tell that he was no stranger to the supermarket. Food seemed to be an important part of this boy’s life. Back in the classroom he helped prepare and cook the foods and then, of course, to enjoy eating these foods at the Thanksgiving meal.
By careful observation of children, teachers can build curriculum that is meaningful to the children. That is why emergent rather than prepackaged curricula are so important and why we emphasize it at MCNS
This article by the Older Group teacher, Susan Milligan, is reprinted from a recent school newsletter.
