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We started exploring the concept of time
by seeing how long it took us to do things. While the group and I clapped or
patted our legs and counted how many beats, one child would tie his shoe or
another would write her name. We experimented with a number of activities like
this. The best ones were when I kept track of how long it took the children to
come in to class or how long to clean up after an activity. We kept track of the
results and the children tried to improve their times and the result was more
efficient use of time.
The next activity to help us get into
this concept of time was sharing what we did in a morning, an afternoon and an
evening in a accordion type book made from the top down using a legal size piece
of paper.
| In the morning I
|
| In the afternoon I
|
| In the evening I
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After this activity we did a survey that
was more specific. This survey was completed at home and at school. To lead into
this I read the story of The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. We had made
individual clocks and for a second reading we explored telling time to the hour.
When I felt the children understood the idea of showing time on their clocks to
the hour I reread The Grouchy Ladybug and the children plotted the times on
their clocks. The written assignment that followed looked like this:
| 6:00 a.m. |
| 7:00 a.m. |
| 8:00 a.m. |
| 9:00 a.m. |
| 10:00 a.m. |
| 11:00 a.m. |
| 12:00 p.m. |
| 1:00 p.m. |
| 2:00 p.m. |
| 3:00 p.m. |
| 4:00 p.m. |
| 5:00 p.m. |
| 6:00 p.m. |
| 7:00 p.m. |
| 8:00 p.m. |
| 9:00 p.m. |
Children took the survey home and filled in the
schedule. To share their research from home the children
went with a partner and used a clock to map out the times in their day. The
times the children were at school we filled in the chart together as a class.
Following this a discussion ensued that explored
the idea of activities that only happen on some days of the week like music,
phys. ed, soccer or dancing.
Children's
Timelines
Now that we had explored times that were more
immediate I decided to send home another survey that showed a timeline of
highlights in the children's lives. The children were very excited about sharing
this information with their peers. The children and their parents five important
events since they were born to share on their timeline.
Following this we talked about how my timeline
would be different and how our grandparents timelines would go back even further
in time.
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