LEARNING STORY
“IT’S ALMOST MY NAME”
JAKE and LOGAN
WRITTEN
by SUZANNE SELF
PRELUDE
THE WORD ALMOST MAY SEND THE SUGGESTION THAT
SOMETHING IS INCOMPLETE LEAVING A
POSSIBLE NEGATIVE MEANING. THE WEBSTER DICTIONARY LISTS THE FOLLOWING SYNONYMS
FOR THE WORD ALMOST:
PRACTICALLY
NEARLY
NOT QUITE and JUST ABOUT.
HOWEVER, THE PHRASE “IT’S ALMOST MY NAME” SIGNALED A NEW YEAR’S
LEARNING CELEBRATION IN THE PRESCHOOL CLASSROOM. WITHIN THE FIRST HOURS OF
BEING REUNITED AFTER THE HOLIDAY BREAK, YOUNG READERS WERE IN PURSUIT OF NEW
LEARNING!
THE RECENT SNOWFALL LED ME
TO INTRODUCE THE TYPICAL WINTER THEME, SNOW.
WINTER WEATHER PROVIDES STUDENTS WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO WEAVE MATHEMATICS AND
SCIENCE LEARNING TOGETHER WHILE EXPLORING SNOWFLAKES AND MELTING EXPERIMENTS.
AN INITIAL LEARNING GOAL WAS FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF A SNOWFLAKE:
ALL SNOWFLAKES ARE MADE UP OF ICE CRYSTALS
ALL SNOWFLAKES ARE SYMMETRICAL AND HAVE SIX POINTS OR SIDES
LIKE FINGERPRINTS, ALL SNOWFLAKES ARE UNIQUE.
THE SONG, SNOWFLAKES PROVIDED STUDENTS WITH A
CLUE TO THE QUESTION, “HOW MANY POINTS
DOES A SNOWFLAKE HAVE?”
SNOWFLAKES FALLING,
SNOWFLAKES FALLING
ALL AROUND, ON THE GROUND
SIX POINTED SNOWFLAKES,
SIX POINTED SNOWFLAKES
ON THE GROUND, ALL AROUND
AT MORNING MEETING OUR
BLUEPRINT PAPER (GRAPH PAPER) WAS LABELED WITH THE LEADING QUESTION. STUDENTS
QUICKLY RESPONDED WITH A VARIETY OF NUMBERS RANGING FROM 5-10. ALL ANSWERS WERE
DOCUMENTED. NEXT I DEMONSTRATED HOW TO DRAW A SNOWFLAKE USING ONE BIG LINE AND
TWO DIAGONAL LINES AND STUDENTS COUNTED EACH POINT. THIS ACTIVITY PROVIDED THE STUDENTS
WITH THE CORRECT ANSWER, 6. THEN EACH STUDENT DREW STRAIGHT AND DIAGONAL LINES
(HIS OR HER REPRESENTATION) OF A SIX POINTED SNOWFLAKE ON THE BLUEPRINT PAPER.
THE 10 SNOWFLAKES WERE COUNTED AND LABELED WITH THE APPROPRIATE NUMBERS. I
COMPLIMENTED THE STUDENTS BY TELLING THEM THEY WERE AMAZING READERS AND WRITERS
AND WAS READY TO MOVE ON TO OUR NEXT ACTIVITY, BUT LOGAN HAD A DIFFERENT
PLAN! HE WAS EAGER TO WRITE HIS NAME
NEXT TO THE SNOWFLAKE HE HAD DESIGNED AND REQUESTED TO “STUDY” THE WORD SNOWFLAKE
(“STUDYING” A WORD IS A TYPE OF “WORD DISSECTION “AND IS A COMMON OCCURRENCE IN
OUR CLASSROOM). STUDENTS IDENTIFY LETTERS IN A WORD AND MAKE CONNECTIONS TO
LETTERS IN THEIR NAME (EX. CAT HAS A
“T” AND THE NAME TOM HAS A “T”. IF A STUDENT MATCHES ONE LETTER IN HIS OR HER NAME TO A LETTER
IN THE WORD BEING STUDIED, IT IS IDENTIFIED AS A “SINGLE ALERT”, TWO MATCHING LETTERS IS DEEMED, A “DOUBLE ALERT” AND THREE MATCHING
LETTERS IS DESIGNATED A “TRIPLE ALERT”!
I TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE TEACHABLE MOMENT AND LOGAN’S ENTHUSIASM AND ENCOURAGED THE
GROUP OF YOUNG READERS TO “STUDY” THE WORD SNOWFLAKE. STUDENTS QUICKLY STARTED
IDENTIFYING LETTERS IN THE WORD SNOWFLAKE AND CONNECTED THEM TO MATCHING LETTERS
IN THEIR NAME. WHEN IT WAS JAKE’S TURN TO “STUDY” THE WORD SNOWFLAKE, HE
ANNOUNCED WITH A BRIGHT GRIN, “IT’S ALMOST MY NAME”! HIS FACIAL EXPRESSION
DISPLAYED A SENSE OF PRIDE. JAKE’S MESSAGE PROMPTED HIS PEERS AND I TO TAKE A
CLOSER LOOK AT THE WORD BEING DISSECTED. JAKE MOVED TOWARDS THE BLUEPRINT PAPER
AND POINTED TO THE “A K E” SEGMENT
OF THE WORD SNOWFLAKE AND AGAIN
AFFIRMED, “IT’S ALMOST MY NAME!” JAKE’S FRIENDS RESPONDED, “TRIPLE ALERT!” IN PRESCHOOL THE WORD SNOWFLAKE
HAS AN EXTRA SPECIAL MEANING,
“IT’S ALMOST JAKE’S NAME!
JAKE EXPERIMENTS WITH
SNOWFLAKES BY MELTING SNOW WITH COLORED WATER
LOGAN “STUDIES” THE WORD “SNOWFLAKE” AND ADDS HIS NAME TO THE BLUEPRINT
PAPER
