Our exploration of Many Things Food continued this week. On Tuesday we debuted the new illustrated menu on the wall; the children were excited as they identified the pictures. As an invitation to writing, we now have two pad/pencil sets available for kids to 'write down' orders, just as real servers do. It's neat to see them scrawling horizontal scribble lines across the paper, which is markedly different from their drawings. The restaurant play often sparks some zoo play (I believe the restaurant is connected with the zoo as this is an ongoing theme), and I overheard S telling T that "the zoo is crowded. You need to hold my hand".
Tuesday found us gathered around a table full of playdough food: S offered a piece of "ravioli" to a friend while J was making lollipops and ice cream cones. Later J mashed the dough, announcing that he was "toggling it up", and then decided that he was "sticking sushi on a plate for Mama". T was busy with his own ideas, first joining in with J for "ice cream", then practicing rolling coils. "I have a Mama Snake and a Baby Snake" he showed me, then introduced "Zodzo the Snake" before holding two snakes up next to each other for comparison. "They're the same!" he concluded excitedly.
On Thursday we explored the process of making dough; I divided a salt dough recipe into thirds and each child was given a bowl of flour, a container of salt, some water and wooden spoon. Each child set to work, stirring their dry ingredients and very excited to add the water. Once we got to the point where the dough required handling to form the mass into a play dough, the children were a bit hesitant to get their hands gooey. S was done at this point and chose to play elsewhere; V wanted more water added in, then more flour, and J commented more than once "Look at all the flour!" V stuck around for a while, using a fork to poke a pattern into her dough. This activity was process-oriented so that, while we didn't actually get a usable batch of dough, the children had the fun of stirring, mixing and seeing the changes in the ingredients as they went from dry to wet. Big mess, but very big fun.
On Wednesday we read Lois Ehlert's "Growing Vegetable Soup", talked about which vegetables we liked, and filled out an illustrated check-mark chart with that information. Apparently, our children really like their veggies. Later, outside, we planted a big potful of carrot seeds. (We've also been reading Crockett Johnson's classic "The Carrot Seed".)We also planted chamomile seeds near the children's house, so we'll be checking to see what's coming up.
Outdoors, we've also been keeping track of those things we've planted recently. Our planter box of flowers has some buds growing already, and I'm glad that we'll have flowers before the children end school for this session. The sunflower seeds are coming up. Sadly, some of our other flower seeds were planted in what has become a mud flat; when the ground was saturated, puddle play ensued and the seeds didn't stand a chance.
The outdoors time has still been loads of fun. On Wednesday, T rediscovered a flat piece of driftwood and deemed it his "snowboard! Rock out!", and practiced his "tricks" by jumping off one of the cedar rounds and right onto it. This sparked a bunch of jumping play--all the kids were jumping off rocks and rounds, counting to ten aloud and then a big jump before their friend had a turn. I've also noticed that their games of "Hide the Shoe" are becoming less predictable. It used to be that the children often hid the shoe in the same place repeatedly. Now the shoe is being carried off to new and exciting places (behind the raspberries; tucked in under some grasses near the grapevines) and is harder than ever to find.
Some other moments:
S and T couldn't figure out how to use the dollhouse--S thought it should be a house, T wanted it to be a restaurant. I suggested the idea of a bed and breakfast and this was appealing; S ran the house side, while T managed the dining room and kitchen and a great inn-keeping team has been born.
Speaking of born, more baby play has been crawling and wahwah-ing through the preschool. This is one of V's favorite new activities, and she always has another 'baby' or 'parent' with her. On Wednesday, this turned into being baby animals, and our new picture book on the subject was explored.
We moved our ramps to the big wash bin full of beans. Tubes and funnels were also available; the children created their own experiments, standing the tubes vertically on the floor and pouring beans into them, then puling the tubes up to see what had happened to the beans.
T brought a cutting project to school and wanted to work on it. This sparked lots of scissors work at the table, which the children love to do. A table full of busy kids is a lovely sight!
Tuesday, our easel got a workout with large paper for markers on one side and watercolor sponge painting on the other. On Thursday we offered the watercolors again, only with chalk and dark paper opposite. The chalk side became a group work--no one asked for their own piece of paper, content to work side by side with a friend until it was their turn to paint.
Our week has been so busy that I didn't have time to get a lot of quotes, but there's always next week. And just to say--each of your children is truly a delight. They teach me so much. I wish I could spend my day tape-recording everything, because I hear such intelligence and imagination in how they play with each other, and in their stories and descriptions of their world. I am so grateful that my return to teaching has been with such a wonderful group of children. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing them next week. Have a great weekend!
