Just a reminder for parents: We'll be playing outside every day, even when it's rainy, so please don't forget to send your child in warm layers, warm hats and waterproof boots and shoes. The days can be very cold when we are out for our half-hour or so!
This week was a bit of a topsy-turvy one, with two children each spending a day at home due to the those nasty bugs that are going around. Be assured that we are doing plenty of hand-washing, encouraging kids to use tissues instead of sleeves, covering our coughs and then...washing hands again!
With all the blustery weather present, it only made sense to enjoy and explore it. On Tuesday morning, I asked the question "How do we know the wind is blowing?"
V: Because it's windy.
B: Because the wind is blowing the leaves.
V: Because it's almost wintertime. The wind doesn't blow in the summer because the sun is out.
With those conclusions, we decided to watch for a sunny winter day to see if the wind blows. At each gathering, the children loved trailing streamers back and forth as we sang about "My Lady Wind", who blows around the house, through all the cracks and crannies. Arthur Lobel's classic "Owl at Home" features a short story of how Owl invites Winter into his home as a guest, only to regret it when the wind and snow take over. We also spent time over our week constructing windsocks from card stock and crepe streamers to take home. The children had fun decorating them with crayons, peeling off the little star stickers, gluing on the streamers and helping to punch the holes for hanging. Just find a place at home to hang your child's windsock over a heat register or near a ceiling fan and let the fun begin.
Wednesday came along, and so did our Pajama Day! The children looked very sweet wearing their favorite jammies, sitting on comfy blankets, and we kept with the theme, having peppermint tea and toast for snack time and a nice wood fire going besides. Since this was so anticipated, and since some children couldn't be here, we will revisit this in January, after the novelty of the holidays has passed. We read a new story called "The Quilt" about a child's quilt that's made up of her old clothes, and how their patterns inspire her to dream of a fantastic landscape of gardens, forests and even a circus. We also played "What's Missing" lotto, where the children work to match cards with pictures of everyday objects on them to larger cards, which featured the same pictures with one part missing. Along with the work of matching the cards, the children were asked "what's missing", which gave us an opportunity to recall or newly learn the names of the different parts of these objects: the 'teeth' of a comb, the 'stem' of a cup, the 'spoke' of a wheel.... this game is a great vocabulary builder and encourages the children to think of how the parts of each object work to make the whole.
Dried rolled oats were introduced into our sensory bin, and the children became engaged immediately. On our first day, V shaped the pile of oats into a mountain slope up one side of the bin, working to pile them up as high as she could before they slid down. B loved filling up containers; we've some old lids of different shapes and sizes to use as scoops this week. Later in the week, the cardboard tubes in the bin were explored as "phones" by the children, one child holding their tube up to their ear, and another putting a separate tube to their mouth and holding the extended ends near each other. All of the kids explored the sounds blown through the tubes, which mimicked gargling or blowing raspberries. (Big laughs, there!) Then, T uses the tube in a different way: "Look, I have a telescope," he said, holding the tube up to his eye.
I love our time each week at the playdough table. This Thursday, B started us off with our usual "Happy Birthday" song, two popsicle sticks poking straight up in the dough, and singing everyone's names to celebrate. This week, I fashioned a "Lake in a Crater" and invited the children to add things to it. When B offered a couple of 'skateboards', a path was made at the crest of the crater. B then added some 'snakes' to the lake. T made some snakes, and V decided she wanted to make a crater lake too, and asked some questions about the process before trying it herself. The table became quiet as the children concentrated intently on their work. T then announced he'd made a "Big Circus Ball" and V was happy with her lake and showed it to us. "Is it to swim in?" asked T.
A few more peeks into our week:
Twice this week we headed out on walks around the neighborhood with 'treasure hunt lists'. (The 'treasures' are finding the listed items which the children chose themselves, seeing them and crossing them off.) Holly berries, pumpkins, snowman decorations, green leaves and cats were found; spiders, scarecrows and squirrels weren't seen as we walked round the block. This is a great activity, by the way, when you need a walk and your reluctant child doesn't want to go. A lovely distraction.
We revisited a question V posed a while ago, about cotton and clothing, and read a book titled "From Field to Blue Jeans", which depicts every stage of this transformation. Hopefully I'll be finding other materials as well for us to explore this topic, because it is certainly an interesting one. At home, you can show your child the labels in the clothes they wear and talk about where the fabric comes from: cotton, flax, silkworms, bamboo or petroleum. It really is fascinating.
In the block area, B takes apart the cone puzzle, recreating last week's play. "Who wants ice cream?" she calls to us.
T working the dressing puzzles and beading with the ribbon and lacing grids.
During journals time, B stacks and counts crayons. Our block crayons are irresistible when it comes to playing with them. The kids almost have more fun organizing them than they do coloring.
Gathered round the bristle blocks, all the children building. V and T take turns making airplanes from the same blocks. Children wander in and out of this and a side-by-side mailbox play, with wooden fruit dominoes for the 'mail'.
V makes a neat rectangle with small pegs on the pegboard. Then she and B work the shape spindles and pieces, some of them are used for the mailbox.
Lots of little moments of observation from our big window overlooking the back yard. The shoes area has been moved beneath the kitchen table so that all the children have room to stand near the window. We watched the usual birdy goings-on and saw some surprising drama-- a squirrel had been caught by the beefy neighbor cat. I ran out to chase it away before our rodent friend was any the worse for wear, and was grateful that we'd been present to save the little critter.
This upcoming week is our last for this calendar year. In keeping with our school philosophy, we'll be focusing on our seasonal curriculum instead of the upcoming Christmas holiday itself. Oh, and those paperwhites your children have taken home? Don't forget to give them water up to the tops of their roots. Now that they are blooming, they may be a bit pungent, so you can remove them to a sheltered spot on your porch for longer-lasting flowers. See you Tuesday!
