While Kayla was away student teaching, the Super Lollipops made a list of ideas for our Dramatic Play center. They then worked with Brian to sort the ideas into two groups; Gross Motor and Classroom. After, the Super Lollipop’s voted to select their top four choices for what they would like the Dramatic Play center to become. From that list, we narrowed it down to four options: Pizza Restaurant, Ice Cream Shop, Donut Shop, and School. Finally, using ranked choice voting, the children were divided into research groups based on their top choices. The groups were then tasked with researching their chosen center. They were asked to make decisions about what items would be needed in the area, what roles/jobs they would need to take on, and what furniture would be necessary in the restaurant.
With their groups selected, we set out to begin their research. We talked about all of the different ways that people could do research to learn more about a topic. You could visit somewhere, talk to someone who knows about the topic, or read books on the topic. These researchers decided to read a book on the topic.
We discussed the importance of observing and listening when doing research. This meant we needed to look closely at the pictures in the book to see what we noticed about the donut shop in the story, and listened to the words the author used. The children took a close look at drawings of the kitchen on the story, searching for ingredients we might need: dough, sprinkles, frosting. They listened to the names for different people at the restaurant: servers, chefs, and customers. They examined what was inside the restaurant in the story, and thought about what they themselves had seen in restaurants had visited: tables, chairs, signs, ovens, and money.
The researchers then chose how they would like to represent their findings. They selected a mixture of words and drawings.
Finally, the group presented their discoveries to the class. Using the information presented, ‘Donut City’ was created in the dramatic play area!
