Wonderful Water! LANK Flagship Unit
Flagship units are learning themes that the whole school engages in over the course of a week or two. There is nothing better than walking through our school, and finding everyone engaged in learning about the same topic—yet benefitting from the individuality of the classroom teacher, and interests of the students in their classes. This past week we enjoyed our first flagship unit, and it was a great hit. This year our school made a commitment to include learning nature-ally as part of our ongoing focus, and nothing could be more natural than water! Over 70 percent of the earth is water, and our bodies are of course, about half water, so it made great sense to expose our little learners to this important resource.
I felt great joy as I strolled from classroom to classroom. It was delightful to watch the children completely engaged and having so much fun. Each classroom teacher brought a different perspective to the flagship week, and our LANK children benefitted from lots of hands on activities.
Here is a sampling of the learning and discovery your children enjoyed.
Junior Preschool
Our JP cuties painted with water colors, and went outside to explore soap and bubbles. They loved chasing and popping! These were not your dime store variety bubbles, but huge beautiful bubbles made with large wands. Inside, they used droppers, and observed ice melting back to its original form. Yes, even at two they are starting to understand that water has different forms.
3 & 4 Day
Our three and four day friends, also enjoyed watercolor painting and crayon resist art, learning about cloud formation, and even had an introduction to the water cycle! All of the learning also included time for water play, and visiting the very full stream on a nature walk.
5 Day
In our five day classes, the children learned that water can take many shapes, did an awesome experiment to learn about volume, chipped away at ice to uncover prehistoric dinosaurs, and loved painting with colored ice cubes. The cubes leave a trail of color as they melt!
Educators understand that the best learning happens when children are exposed to ideas and inquiries that have meaning to their everyday lives. Over the past week our little ones had just that opportunity as they explored water. Enjoy talking to your preschooler about the flagship unit and the other wonders that exist all around them!
