School Time 9/27 - How We Use Rocks

I asked Becca if she wanted to do school time today, she said yes. I told her today we were going to go outside for school time and learn about how we use rocks to make things. I asked if that sounded interesting to her and she said yes. We got everyone outside and walked down the street to a house that had big rocks in front for decoration. We looked at them. Then we walked up to the actual house and looked at the bricks the house was made of. I asked Becca if she knew what they were and she said yes. I said they were bricks. I asked if she knew what bricks were made of and she didn't say yes. I told her they were made out of rocks, kind of like how we made mud yesterday when we mixed dirt and water together. Then we walked back down to the sidewalk, and I asked Becca to look down. She did and we saw that there were rocks in the asphalt, and that the road and also the sidewalk were made out of rocks. We walked around the neighborhood and saw that all the houses were made out of rocks. We also looked for things that weren't made of rocks, like trees and fences.

I asked Becca if she was tired because she wasn't opening her eyes very wide, and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to go home and she said no. So we walked around a little longer, while her siblings ran around and played and we looked at flowers and yards (also not made out of rocks).

When we finally got home I asked Becca if she wanted to be done with school time, and she wouldn't say yes. I figured we'd review what we learned another day, but when I asked if she wanted to play a review activity she said yes. So we printed out a bunch of pictures and had two big squares on her plastic board, rocks and not rocks. I told Becca that mommy wanted to work with her this time and was that ok, and she said yes.

Paula held up a picture of a brick wall between the "rocks" and "not rocks" pictures and asked Becca if bricks were made out of rocks or not rocks. Becca looked back and forth at both pictures. Paula prompted again, and Becca looked at "rocks" and then back at Paula very quickly. It was so quick Paula wasn't sure if it was a choice, so she asked for confirmation and Becca said yes, she thought bricks were made out of rocks. Paula said yes, they were, and we all cheered.

Next Paula did a tree, and Becca chose "not rocks" after looking back and forth a few times. Again Paula wasn't sure if that was actually her choice, so she confirmed again and Becca said yes to her choice. We cheered and said that was right, and attached the picture to the "not rocks" section. Next Paula held up a picture of Becca as a baby. Becca wouldn't pick "rocks" or "not rocks" at all, even after lots of prompting. I chimed in and said we hadn't talked about whether people were made of rocks, but she could just guess if she wanted to. She still wouldn't pick one. Eventually Paula set that one aside. Next she did a picture of sidewalk, and Becca chose "rocks" very quickly. Next was a window, and Becca chose "not rocks" very quickly. It seems like when Becca has a choice board where the options aren't moving (i.e. two new options every time) she doesn't need to look back and forth much before picking. On asphalt Becca wouldn't pick without a lot of prompting. Eventually she chose "rocks". 

Next was a picture of dirt. Becca looked at the picture of dirt for a little while, then might have picked "not rocks". Paula reminded Becca about what we talked about yesterday, that dirt is made up of little tiny rocks. Then Becca chose "rocks" on her own. Next was a picture of a car, Becca chose "not rocks" very quickly. Paula said that was right, and talked about how it would be silly if cars were made out of rocks because they'd be so heavy and they'd fall apart into dirt. After that was a picture of a cow, which Becca quickly chose as "not rocks".

Last, Paula held up the picture of Becca as a baby again. Becca wouldn't pick right away, but after some prompting it looked like she chose "not rocks". Paula wasn't sure so she confirmed, and Becca said yes.