Tippy Tap

I love this idea : the Tippy Tap.

Developed as a way to create a hand washing station using recycled materials, the Tippy Tap is an idea for preventing disease that is spread as a result of improper, or missing, hand washing.  Not only can disease be prevented for the person washing their hands, hand washing aslo helps prevent the spread of disease from produce that may have been harvested by someone who does not have access to soap and "running" water.

I thought about all of the outdoor classrooms and kitchens and gardens that I have been looking at lately : this is a simple, economical, and very kid friendly design.  A volunteer at our garden created a hand washing station for us that is fed by a rain barrel, and I feel like reused water could be a reality with this system as well.

What do you think?  Would you have kids, parents, or perhaps both help you in the creation of a station like this?  

You can see the simple directions for making a Tippy Tap right here.

(photo and info via farm hack)

 

visual news

Our Sketchbook Adventure

We're adding something to our daily work in our classroom on Monday: Sketchbooks.

I have used sketchbooks in the past few years, and last year the children worked in them on a regular basis. In fact, during the first half of the year, I couldn't keep up - every time I turned around, someone needed a new sketchbook.

The plan is this: each day, there is a drop off window of about 20 minutes in the morning. The children will begin the day by making a choice in the classroom, as they always have. When that first 20 minutes is over, we all stop and get sketchbooks, and work in them for 10 minutes.

There will be different prompts for them every day: from drawing, to materials used, to location where we use them, to idea prompts like props and photographs and video.

I was really inspired by Sketchbooks in Schools
last year, and tried a few little activities here and there. But this year, we'll be more regular about our work. And the idea of using sketchbooks with threes and fours is so interesting to me -- the idea of learning what they decide and make and think about the activity is so mysterious. What will it look like? Where will it bring us?

Maps!

and other map-like things.





















The concepts the children seemed to connect most with were:

• how do you get from one place to another?
• what is a map for?
• what do you see on the way to school?

The inspiration comes from observing the children with maps in the classroom, and from here. I was really struck by the dominoes, and how they looked like a trail or a road.

On an unrelated-to-the-classroom note, just the word "maps" makes me think of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Which in turn reminds me that Karen O wrote most of the soundtrack for Where The Wild Things Are. October cannot come soon enough.