What happens when you add salt to your watercolor picture? We began our experiment last Wednesday, when the children were given several pieces of watercolor paper and paints to work with. The first piece they painted was a cut-out of the first letter in their name; one child explored the contours of her letter with the paintbrush, following the curves while another spent more time exploring the colors in the paintbox itself. I appreciate how some children seem more drawn to muted shades and others to bright color. The salt was gathered up in pinches from a small cup and sprinkled onto the paint; the contrast between the salted and unsalted areas is quite clear, and I'll be interested to see what comes from this observation when the pictures are shared on Wednesday.
We also spent some time making more colored rice, the children mixing food coloring into the rice in large bowls. It turns out that following the recipe for purple actually makes a very black-looking rice. This was a very focused activity for the kids, who didn't really look up from their bowls while they worked.
We've had more time for open-ended work with glue, scissors and paper. I am constantly amazed at how much the children love to practice their cutting. They asked for letters to be cut out (letters from their names) by me, but mostly spent a lot of time cutting a pile of little squares. They were also offered dried flowers to glue onto their paper, but the scissors were certainly the main attraction.
A block zoo was made with all four of our long blocks; the animals were lined up on top. Another block set (the half-circle/arch pairs that fit together) were used to make telephones; interestingly enough, each child used the blocks differently as phones--one had a more conventional arch phone while the other had a more contemporary half-circle cellphone. Their conversations centered on organizing visits to each other. "You can come at three o'clock" one told the other. Then the long blocks were used as gates across the floor. We had two sets of gates as the builders were very particular about how their gates needed to be and this appeared to be the most appealing solution.
As our poor long-handled shovels and rakes were getting pretty bent up---gee! our kids are strong!--I've replaced them with more of the smaller hand tools to work with and we've found these to be much easier to use. Soon to come will be a big bag of potting soil, and we've got some pea seeds to start this week. Stay tuned... Oh, and our calendula seedlings are indeed coming up, happy to see more of the sun at last.
A few other moments:
Taking a short walk down the street to watch a chipper turn a neighbor's trimmed branches into bark chips. The children dragged me to the door, they were so excited to know what the noise was.
A neighborhood walk, to explore the signs of spring: a few nascent daffodils almost ready to burst, hellebores, summer snowflake and the ever-present crocuses, all closed up due to the cool weather.
Making bracelets with beads, and naming the beads with very imaginative names as they worked. One child dubbed on sort of bead an "Easter egg" and would draw my attention to it each time she found it.
We are reading a wonderful book by Lois Ehlert called "Feathers for Lunch", which identifies birds, their calls, and flowers that grow in our Portland neighborhoods. (Sadly, a few of the birds don't live here--I think it would be great to have some orioles and cardinals in our midst!), but the forsythia blooming out the window of the housekeeping area might help to keep that name fresh in their minds.
We have some new activities for the puzzle area, and don't be surprised to find a new sandbox in the backyard in the next month or so. We'll see you next week, with more focus on color and flowers and fun.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Circles and Hearts
This week it was easy to see that the new schedule is really working for the kids. We have found a pocket of time for stories right after lunch, before we head outside. "Thy Friend, Obidiah", a story about a boy in early America who is followed around by a seagull, is becoming quite the popular selection. On Tuesday we read this story and the children used watercolor crayons to decorate paper birds. They explored both methods of using the crayons: dipping them in water as well as using the crayons dry and adding water with a brush to make the paint.
On Thursday we used the watercolor crayons again, to make a group work with circles. At our Morning Gathering, each child was handed a paper circle and their name necklaces. They were asked to see if there were any circles in the letters of their name, and then we read "Harold and the Purple Crayon"--with the clear line drawings in the book, it's easy to discern shapes. Our game was to hold one's paper circle up when we saw a circle in the story. One child noticed all of the buildings that Harold draws toward the end of the story ("he drew a whole city of windows") and asked "Is that a high rise?" What a fabulous question! We talked about what exactly high rises were and I let them know they could build one with blocks if they wanted. They did move to the blocks later, but chose to collaborate,lining blocks up next to each other in a long spread. This entirely-horizontal structure was used at various times as a stage, a bed, and at one point, something entirely of the children's own creation; two of them spent ten minutes in great concentration, lining up two parallel rows of picture dominoes on top of these blocks.
Being the week before St. Valentine's Day, the children were given another chance to pour on the glue, sticking tissue paper hearts onto larger card ones. This was a great opportunity to talk about love and family. Some children had noticed that they were seeing heart-shaped things at the store lately. Some of our playdough time this week included making heart-shaped "lollipops" with popsicle sticks sandwiched between the dough. At other points, the dough play emulated a bakery with all sorts of little treats being created, including french fries, which triggered off a discussion of which condiments each child liked on their fries. People like to eat all sorts of things with their fries!
Family was another topic of discussion. We revisited our family pictures, now dry, and have read some stories about different kinds of families. ("The Little Fur Family", "Babar and his Family" and the aforementioned Obidiah.) Even in our own school, each household looks different from the next. My hope is that the children will take away the idea that love, first and foremost, is what makes a family, and that appearances are far less important than that loving, caring bond between the people who live together.
And we had some other great moments:
A child running from one room to the other with the windsock to find the best vent for making the windsock flutter about. The next day she saw the windsock moving and shouted excitedly "The heat is on, Hazel!"
Another child squealing at a bug scooting across the floor. We captured it in a glass and checked it out with hopes of identification, as it had very unusual antennae. Sadly, our Audubon book of Northwest critters didn't have a picture, so we liberated it back into the wild. If anyone knows of a great naturalists guide for insects that isn't overwhelming, please let me know!
One child remembered the blank books we'd used last week; we have a stack of them in our paper drawer. Using markers and stickers, some children took filled-up books home.
Outdoors, our campfire play and plum tree house play is still alive. We planted primroses in pots today as well, each child having the chance to fill up the pots with dirt and plant the flowers. We'll see how long they last before the renegade slugs discover them. The children agree that the slugs are pretty icky...everyone's interested in worms, some children will even hold the worms, but nobody wants to touch a slug!
The pine cone toss game has taken on a new wrinkle, with the children throwing pine cones (toward a designated area, not at each other!) and counting them together as they are tossed. When the basket is empty, the children gather them up and it's the next person's turn.
Our washtub full of colored rice is still a hit. Funnels, scoops and bowls galore, but their latest favorite is covering each others hands up with the rice and asking "Hazel, where did my hands go?!" excitedly.
I hope you all have a great weekend and we'll see you next week for more fun!
On Thursday we used the watercolor crayons again, to make a group work with circles. At our Morning Gathering, each child was handed a paper circle and their name necklaces. They were asked to see if there were any circles in the letters of their name, and then we read "Harold and the Purple Crayon"--with the clear line drawings in the book, it's easy to discern shapes. Our game was to hold one's paper circle up when we saw a circle in the story. One child noticed all of the buildings that Harold draws toward the end of the story ("he drew a whole city of windows") and asked "Is that a high rise?" What a fabulous question! We talked about what exactly high rises were and I let them know they could build one with blocks if they wanted. They did move to the blocks later, but chose to collaborate,lining blocks up next to each other in a long spread. This entirely-horizontal structure was used at various times as a stage, a bed, and at one point, something entirely of the children's own creation; two of them spent ten minutes in great concentration, lining up two parallel rows of picture dominoes on top of these blocks.
Being the week before St. Valentine's Day, the children were given another chance to pour on the glue, sticking tissue paper hearts onto larger card ones. This was a great opportunity to talk about love and family. Some children had noticed that they were seeing heart-shaped things at the store lately. Some of our playdough time this week included making heart-shaped "lollipops" with popsicle sticks sandwiched between the dough. At other points, the dough play emulated a bakery with all sorts of little treats being created, including french fries, which triggered off a discussion of which condiments each child liked on their fries. People like to eat all sorts of things with their fries!
Family was another topic of discussion. We revisited our family pictures, now dry, and have read some stories about different kinds of families. ("The Little Fur Family", "Babar and his Family" and the aforementioned Obidiah.) Even in our own school, each household looks different from the next. My hope is that the children will take away the idea that love, first and foremost, is what makes a family, and that appearances are far less important than that loving, caring bond between the people who live together.
And we had some other great moments:
A child running from one room to the other with the windsock to find the best vent for making the windsock flutter about. The next day she saw the windsock moving and shouted excitedly "The heat is on, Hazel!"
Another child squealing at a bug scooting across the floor. We captured it in a glass and checked it out with hopes of identification, as it had very unusual antennae. Sadly, our Audubon book of Northwest critters didn't have a picture, so we liberated it back into the wild. If anyone knows of a great naturalists guide for insects that isn't overwhelming, please let me know!
One child remembered the blank books we'd used last week; we have a stack of them in our paper drawer. Using markers and stickers, some children took filled-up books home.
Outdoors, our campfire play and plum tree house play is still alive. We planted primroses in pots today as well, each child having the chance to fill up the pots with dirt and plant the flowers. We'll see how long they last before the renegade slugs discover them. The children agree that the slugs are pretty icky...everyone's interested in worms, some children will even hold the worms, but nobody wants to touch a slug!
The pine cone toss game has taken on a new wrinkle, with the children throwing pine cones (toward a designated area, not at each other!) and counting them together as they are tossed. When the basket is empty, the children gather them up and it's the next person's turn.
Our washtub full of colored rice is still a hit. Funnels, scoops and bowls galore, but their latest favorite is covering each others hands up with the rice and asking "Hazel, where did my hands go?!" excitedly.
I hope you all have a great weekend and we'll see you next week for more fun!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Making Playtime Even Better
Nothing is more important to our children than family. While they love being at school, there's no place like home. The loving arms, familiar faces, smells and sounds all serve to help our kids feel safe and secure. Families give children a sense of importance and belonging, of being loved especially for their own wonderful selves. And even when our kids aren't feeling so wonderful, family--through our unconditional love--is a most powerful anchor.
Today we gathered at the table to work on our family pictures. Each child took a moment to share their photos with the group, naming the members of their family. Then the artwork began in earnest. I supplied the children with glitter glue pens, small bottles of old-fashioned plain white glue, sequins and colored macaroni. Along with manipulating the different types of glue tubes, they had to figure out how to keep the glue off the faces in the pictures. This was quite a challenge: one child was having so much fun squeezing the glue into huge puddles and declaring "it's like ice cream" that the faces had to be wiped clear several times. Another child glued over her father's face and laughed, saying "He's wearing a mask!" before it was cleared off. It's great to see the children becoming more comfortable touching gooey things; they were less hesitant to get their fingers in there as they poked the sequins and macaroni into it. One child even noticed that when she pushed a clear sequin into the glue, she "can't see it no more". Once these pictures were done, some wanted a second piece of paper to keep working with the available supplies.
Thanks, too, for the lemons! Lemons were brought by one child to be shared. We discussed the lemons and where they came from at Morning Gathering, and later we sliced into one. We smelled and tasted our pieces; "sour" was the group consensus.
Lately, my desire has been to enrich and deepen the playtime. This Monday I took a big dive and moved the housekeeping from it's original space to the area opposite the block play. The futon is now gone and a smaller reading corner now rests next to the shelves where the little kitchen was before. There is a lot of cross play between the blocks and housekeeping; today, one child filled up a bag with kitchen things "for the farmers market" and used blocks to build a stand to display their wares. The other children used some picture dominos as money to buy the items for sale. This drama lasted for quite a long while, with a lot of dressing up involved.
Most helpful was an idea I wanted to try out: offering longer chunks of playtime both indoors and out. Our morning went along with our Gathering, art, some play, a break for snack, more play (and playdough!), then lunch and lastly, our time outside. The children weren't upset by the switch, and instead I found that things went more smoothly. By streamlining the transitions, which are always the most challenging moments both for kids and adults, our day was more peaceful and the children were able to stay engaged in their play longer. This newer routine also means that we drop three separate transition times (getting dressed to go out, changing shoes/slippers to come back in, and leaving the school area indoors), which I believe is a relief to the kids as it asks less of them. We will try meeting parents at the gate over the next week, too, as it makes the end of playtime at school more concrete.
I understand that this is already a long post, so here are some snippets to round out our week:
The plum tree is still a house. We had more campfire play and the children are very interested now in sticks they can break to put in it.
In a further imaginative turn, sticks are used as 'flashlights'. We encourage them to aim their lights low, so as not to hurt our friends.
We planted a potful of sprouting bulbs. The digging of dirt was a community effort!
We played a counting game, throwing five pinecones at a time at a long stick lying on the ground. Then we count how many cones landed in front of the stick and how many landed beyond. No matter how many, they always add up to five!
We made cards to give or mail to someone. They used their writing, and then I took dictation and added it on in my writing.
Small blank books were made for the children on Tuesday, for them to do with as they pleased. They decorated them with stickers and markers, and then decided to cut them up to bits with scissors. Lots of good cutting practice!
We painted with two colors at the easel. Each child chose their colors. One painted each color onto the paper separately, one painted one color first and then over it with the second, and one child dumped one color of paint straight into the other, mixed it, and then began painting. Remarkable that they all approached the same project in their own authentic way.
Fun.Fun.Fun.
PS--The popsicles didn't quite make it outside this week. We'll try for next Wednesday!
Today we gathered at the table to work on our family pictures. Each child took a moment to share their photos with the group, naming the members of their family. Then the artwork began in earnest. I supplied the children with glitter glue pens, small bottles of old-fashioned plain white glue, sequins and colored macaroni. Along with manipulating the different types of glue tubes, they had to figure out how to keep the glue off the faces in the pictures. This was quite a challenge: one child was having so much fun squeezing the glue into huge puddles and declaring "it's like ice cream" that the faces had to be wiped clear several times. Another child glued over her father's face and laughed, saying "He's wearing a mask!" before it was cleared off. It's great to see the children becoming more comfortable touching gooey things; they were less hesitant to get their fingers in there as they poked the sequins and macaroni into it. One child even noticed that when she pushed a clear sequin into the glue, she "can't see it no more". Once these pictures were done, some wanted a second piece of paper to keep working with the available supplies.
Thanks, too, for the lemons! Lemons were brought by one child to be shared. We discussed the lemons and where they came from at Morning Gathering, and later we sliced into one. We smelled and tasted our pieces; "sour" was the group consensus.
Lately, my desire has been to enrich and deepen the playtime. This Monday I took a big dive and moved the housekeeping from it's original space to the area opposite the block play. The futon is now gone and a smaller reading corner now rests next to the shelves where the little kitchen was before. There is a lot of cross play between the blocks and housekeeping; today, one child filled up a bag with kitchen things "for the farmers market" and used blocks to build a stand to display their wares. The other children used some picture dominos as money to buy the items for sale. This drama lasted for quite a long while, with a lot of dressing up involved.
Most helpful was an idea I wanted to try out: offering longer chunks of playtime both indoors and out. Our morning went along with our Gathering, art, some play, a break for snack, more play (and playdough!), then lunch and lastly, our time outside. The children weren't upset by the switch, and instead I found that things went more smoothly. By streamlining the transitions, which are always the most challenging moments both for kids and adults, our day was more peaceful and the children were able to stay engaged in their play longer. This newer routine also means that we drop three separate transition times (getting dressed to go out, changing shoes/slippers to come back in, and leaving the school area indoors), which I believe is a relief to the kids as it asks less of them. We will try meeting parents at the gate over the next week, too, as it makes the end of playtime at school more concrete.
I understand that this is already a long post, so here are some snippets to round out our week:
The plum tree is still a house. We had more campfire play and the children are very interested now in sticks they can break to put in it.
In a further imaginative turn, sticks are used as 'flashlights'. We encourage them to aim their lights low, so as not to hurt our friends.
We planted a potful of sprouting bulbs. The digging of dirt was a community effort!
We played a counting game, throwing five pinecones at a time at a long stick lying on the ground. Then we count how many cones landed in front of the stick and how many landed beyond. No matter how many, they always add up to five!
We made cards to give or mail to someone. They used their writing, and then I took dictation and added it on in my writing.
Small blank books were made for the children on Tuesday, for them to do with as they pleased. They decorated them with stickers and markers, and then decided to cut them up to bits with scissors. Lots of good cutting practice!
We painted with two colors at the easel. Each child chose their colors. One painted each color onto the paper separately, one painted one color first and then over it with the second, and one child dumped one color of paint straight into the other, mixed it, and then began painting. Remarkable that they all approached the same project in their own authentic way.
Fun.Fun.Fun.
PS--The popsicles didn't quite make it outside this week. We'll try for next Wednesday!
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