Hello Families~ It was great to see each of you for our conferences this week. Our conversations gave me a more complete, well-rounded knowledge of each sweet, special child at our school. Thanks for your enthusiasm, great questions and most of all, thanks for coming!
Because this was a conference week, our group met just once on Tuesday--but what a busy day it was!
Morning Gathering found us all shaking maracas and clackers as we sang our "Hello Everybody" song, and then "Mary Wore a Red Dress", each child choosing an item they wore to sing about. Some of our conversation today was about how it is work to share space and toys, and to take turns, so we are learning how to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to help figure out such things like "who goes first" or whose ideas to play out first. Sometimes, our friends like to play with toys or to play a story differently than we might, and sometimes, even when we've really tried to work things out, we can still feel sad and mad. To this end, we have a new cozy space in the hallway, on a soft blanket with a few books and a basket of fine-motor activities. The children were very impressed with this new space, and one asked me later on if she could "use the little sitting room", she was so interested in trying it out.
We have brought out a little plastic mailbox to play with, for sending notes to each other. This is exactly what T and V got right into: creating 'notes' by scrawling blocks of color onto the small pieces of paper offered at the big school table, then popping them into the mailbox. B immediately asked for a "mail basket", so we dumped out the wooden animals and she got started with that, even moving her own school mailbox over into the housekeeping. T and V continued with the mailbox play, and B was wanting company at the tea party she'd set up. "I'm making tea for everybody" she told me, so I suggested that we send T and V an invitation, just like in the story of "Dandelion" by Don Freeman. I drew a big letter "B" and a teacup, then she folded it and put it in the mailbox for the others to discover. They were excited and brought it to me, wondering what it said. When they learned what the invitation offered, they headed right over to the set table in the Housekeeping and sat down to a nice cup. Our play continued in this vein; T made pancakes in the little kitchen and V asked some questions about making envelopes for her mail. Later, we gathered on the big blanket in the real kitchen for a popcorn picnic, munching on apples and chatting while the popcorn popped.
Our playdough stories were a continuation of the one last week. I made a little square dough box and offered it to the children. What could go inside the box?
V: Little seeds for the birds. Not bad seeds, good seed cause the bird not wants to get sick. The bird is a bad bird, but it's okay. It can have the food.
B:(points to three Popsicle sticks she's stuck in the playdough, all of different heights). This is the mommy and this is the girl. And this is a daddy. A pretend mommy and a real girl and a pretend daddy.
T makes a "waterfall". Then "a mommy on a snowboard!"
Lastly, our day ended with a lovely busy walk over to the big mailbox on 47th and Hoyt. I had a couple of postcards to send, and so we held hands walking along 47th and the children took turns pressing the buttons for the crosswalks. They were very impressed with the sheer size of the real mailbox and each child had a turn to help either hold the mailbox open or drop a postcard in. After our walk back to the preschool, we finished our day with several rounds of hide-the-shoe (we are introducing "hot and cold" hints) and of course, a story about Princess Pinkie and the Green Prince and all of their friends.
Don't forget, as we follow the Portland Public Schools schedule, we will be closed on Thursday the 11th for Veterans Day. I hope your families got out to enjoy the sunny times, raking in the yard or taking a walk to enjoy the beautiful color outside. See you next week!
