Tuesday morning found our housekeeping area transformed into a campsite! The children were excited to see a tent where the little kitchen once stood, a small basket of play food and utensils waited outside the tent, along with an old dutch oven to use for our play cooking. At Gathering, we sang songs about things we might see or experience while camping: Gray Squirrel, My Lady Wind, Little Birdies; and then we talked a little about some of the creatures we might see camping out in the woods: snakes, squirrels, birds, scorpions, and other interesting critters. Right after our Gathering ended, their open-ended play began. V commented that there was 'no fire' under the dutch oven, so we got right to work, making 'logs' from cut-up paper bags, rolled into tubes and taped tight to prevent unrolling. The children worked with the sticky, tricky masking tape to make a 'woodpile' of logs, which were then placed under the old cast iron pot. I cut out a red paper "flame" which V added to the logs, and a fire was lit for cooking.
"We need marshmallows!" noticed T, so some old take-out chopsticks were offered with a cotton ball stuck on one end for them to roast around the fire. The tent was the place to be today, and many activities took place inside: our baby dolls were cuddled and fed by V and B; T and V cozied in to read books; little goings-in and out happened throughout the day. Later, V remembered a book which showed a series of pictures of a snake eating an egg significantly larger than itself, and the conversation began to focus on creepy-crawlies. We looked through our Audubon book to see if T could identify the 'gardener snake' he said he'd seen at his grandmother's house, then took a look at scorpions, ticks (arachnid family here), birds and other creatures,and perused a big book with pictures of snakes. Spur of the moment, I cut out paper snakes for them to color and apply stickers too. We had some pretty fancy snakes around here!
Birdfeeders were our bigger project-du-jour for Tuesday, and this was a multi-step task. First, we each juiced half of a delicious orange with the electric juicer. Big fun for the kiddos! After drinking the juice at snacktime, we warmed some suet and took turns mashing hulled sunflower seeds and birdseed into the mix. V and T liked the sunflower seeds we had for tasting; B was less impressed. Then, we scooped the mixture into our orange-halves, attached a pipe cleaner hanger and voila! The birds in your backyard will be so grateful to have food this time of year, and be sure to hang the feeder near a window your child can see out of. (Mine's near my own kitchen window; a fine view for when I wash dishes!)
Our ice sculptures were brought back out, and the children used watering cans and a spray bottle to assist in the melting process. Tuesday afternoon, the sculptures were still intact, and I asked the children to make predictions as to whether they would be melted the next day, or still there. Wednesday, T took what was left of his ice and dashed it to the ground for fun. V also decided to 'break' her ice; she told us all to stand out of the way and then hurled it at the round, where it made a dull 'thunk' before breaking in two. B's ice is still melting, giving off the beads and trinkets hidden inside. The children have been enjoying examining them. We also have been noticing the little green shoots of the crocuses and hyacinth the children have planted in their pansy pots; the greens of the ground-planted bulbs are emerging as well, and we've been protecting them with crossed chopsticks or grapevine crossed over the shoots, so as to prevent their being stepped upon.
Wednesday brought us time for scissors work and large picture painting at the easel. I've begun offering paints with brushes as well as materials for printing. It's been interesting to see how the children use those items--and if they choose to at all. Thursday, we sat together, working on stamps and ink pads, and when T wanted his stamped dog to say something, I introduced the "speech bubble" most often found in comics. This was a fun development for them, and shows diaologue in whole new way. Thursday found us with playdough; when I used popsicle sticks stuck in the dough to make a sea urchin, V had loads of questions. After checking a couple indexes in books, we found some great photos, and then read "A House for Hermit Crab" and "How to Hide an Octopus", a book which invites the children to find camoflagued sea creatures.
Our time outdoor on Thursday was quite a delight: we took a 'trail walk' through the neighborhood, marking our path with chalk x's and then following them back to the school. They delighted in finding them again on our return trip, and are interested in doing this activity again.
Sometimes, the most unexpected fun comes along. Spontaneously, V began to play 'school' on the big rug, singing the other children in to Gathering as the teacher, passing out instruments, and leading her little group in our Hello Everybody song before teaching them the words to "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?".
Some other moments:
B working with the small pegboard to create an a/b/a/b pattern around the perimeter of the board, which was quite a task. Very proud, she was, to show us her work!
Conversation in the tent: (V and T are reading "Dinosaur Bones")
V-What are these?
T-Those are the ribs.
V-I didn't know dinosaurs have ribs. It says "we look for bones".
T- I like bones.
At our Thursday gathering, we used the foam octagonal connecting pieces to make a couple cooperative creations, each of us taking turns to add pieces. What was our creation?
V-A caterpillar.
B-An airplane.
T-A stroller, with three babies. (all the children like this idea)
V- And it got 3 wheels.
B- It got 2 wheels.
V-(beginning to count specific parts) It got 5 wheels.
T-(point-and-counting the same parts) It has 2 wheels. And here's where the babies sit. (points to spaces in between pieces.) Wow! Our thing looks cool! I like it.
Conversations about camping:
Question: What animals would you like to see at camping?
V- Nice bears talking.
B-Tigers talking.
T- I wish I could see a giraffe and an elephant.
Question: What if we camped in a forest near here? What would you see?
V- A nice snake.
T- A plain bear with me.
B- A giraffe and a elephant.
Question: What is special about camping?
V- Tent. After dinner, we could have maybe marshmallows.
T- When you go camping and when you have dinner when you're camping, you roast hot dogs.
B- I did a sleeping bag!
B and T playing bristle blocks together, 'flying' a woman and a man figure on an "airplane", while I gave V a tour of some of the artwork in our home. We had an interesting conversation about it.
Overall, another great week. See you next Tuesday!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Great Big Stars
Tuesday arrived, and so did the children, clad in pajamas and ready for our Pajama Day Two. Coming to Gathering, the candles were lit, star cut-outs hung from the ceiling to their delight, cozy pillows and blankets on the big rug; we began our time together lying down, singing "Great Big Stars.... Way Up a Yonder". We played instruments as we sang about what we did over the weekend, (V "made finger paint", T "Played with my grown-up friend Ken" and B "went to the beach and did finger paint"). We built a pattern with our new colored stacking pegs, with B creating one first, and then V and T replicating it, then we created two reverse patterns and positioned the peg stacks in another alternating pattern. This would be a theme throughout our week...
With the thought of pajamas came the natural extension of the conversation: talking about Night. This, at our Wednesday Gathering:
Question: How do we know when it is nighttime?
V- Because the stars are up in the sky.
B- The stars are up in the sky.
T- Because you can see the moon. Actually, there's a circle moon.
V- Because it's dark.
Question: What happens at night?
V- Once, raccoons fight our kitties.
B- The raccoons fight too at my house.
V- Bats go up in the night-night time.
T- And they hang.
B- It's dark.
V- Owls keep up in the dark 'cause them catch foods.
Question: What do YOU do at night?
V- We reads books.
B- I do go to bed and read stories.
T- Read books.
Interestingly, no one mentioned sleeping. Perhaps this is too passive to qualify as something one 'does'!
We then did a group picture of a house in the night with bats, raccoon, cat, a person walking a dog, and of course, stars and moon. This was done with chalk on dark paper; later, the children asked to use these materials to make their own pictures, which they took home. I also offered "night colors" at the easel this week: black, blue and a dish of white paint with a star/flower shaped sponge for printing. We have adorned our walls with these pictures, and each child's work was very different: B created a 'waterfall', applying blue, then black over the blue, and a smear of white (the waterfall, as she pointed out); V covered her sheet with the darker colors and then randomly stamped stars everywhere; T created a blue background and four "flowers, glowing in the night" centered on the paper. Their time working individually at their art is working out well, and their unique interpretations are proof of this for me.
Our Ice Sculptures were a big hit on Thursday. Because it was raining outside, the children wanted to explore the ice indoors, which we did on a large tray. A dish of salt, a small tub of water, paintbrushes and straws were offered to melt the ice. (The straws were for practicing using our fingers over the top to move the water from tub to ice, and lifting the finger to release the water.) We noticed the rough spots where the salt melted the ice away, and the rivulets dripping down the sides which froze and created new patterns. We also saw enough of T's sculpture melt away to remove one of the beautiful bamboo leaves, carefully preserved.
As I mentioned before, patterns seemed to be a recurring theme this week. Over the days, I have made pattern cards available to the children, offering both alternating (ABAB) type pattens and more complex repetitive (AABAAB) patterns to start. We will be continuing with this throughout the rest of the year. T really embraced the new pegboard set, first creating vertical repetitive patterns (ABCDABCD) and then using all the pegs on the board (There are five colors, so they were ABABABABABABCDCDCDCD- CDCDEEEEEE). B was engrossed with watching and enjoyed saying the names of the colors with him.
V worked on the dressing puzzle and watched, but was content to keep at her own work.
It's felt like a very busy week. We had time for playdough, spelling puzzles, bristle block play-- we added considerably to our collection over the weekend!, and even for building marble runs. I introduced the concept of Zero (it's a starting place, and the number for when there are 'none') as we did our math game of dropping objects onto a placemat with a smaller blue cloth in the middle. (We count the objects on the blue, the ones on the mat itself, and then all of the objects, concluding with "x plus y equals z".) We took a walk to collect 'pricklies' (sweet gum seed pods) and to see if some of the green shoots from bulbs are beginning to come up, and we were excited to see that they are. We spied purple finches from our back window, little and fat and cute, and the striking yellow-faced Townsend's Warbler, a new visitor to the suet feeder. We watched the etched edges of ice form on the saucer of water we leave out for birdies, marvelling at how cold it was on Tuesday, and then stayed in to play "Doggie Doggie Where's Your Bone?" and draw on a huge piece of chalkboard fabric we spread on the floor. V noticed, too, that when the chalk is used sideways, instead of on point, that the color is less intense.
Something magical has happened at preschool, too. The children are starting to tell me "Hazel, I touched my nose/mouth. I want to go wash my hands." Wow! This always gets a big smile and a "Thank you for taking such good care of your friends and our school!" We also have new lavender bar soap, which I think they prefer to the pump soap.
Our fine motor skills got a workout this week too. Our Montessori botany puzzles are tight-fitting and require us to use our pincer grip to hold onto the little pegs so that the pieces will fit into place. This is a directly supervised activity; I remind the children that they must use the pegs, or their fingers will get in the way (none of the pieces easily slide in, purposely) and give them labelling for their questions regarding animal body parts. The wasp has a thorax, the turtle a carapace beneath itself, and so on. The puzzle of the little child is most popular though, and the symmetry of the wasp is very inviting as well. On Thursday, we practiced squeezing little glue bottles and filled container lids with glue, then added beads, tissue paper, cut up ribbon, colored macaroni, sequins, buttons, etc. and offered glitter glue for a little sparkle. More than one child noticed that their 'hands were tired', but the children were very engrossed in this activity, prompting us to move lunch back a bit. They stayed at the table for this for 45 minutes!
Next week we'll bring our ice sculptures out of the freezer and into the backyard, where they will be the target of spray bottles! And we've got bird feeder-making on our horizon, too. Have a lovely weekend, and we'll gather together again on Tuesday!
With the thought of pajamas came the natural extension of the conversation: talking about Night. This, at our Wednesday Gathering:
Question: How do we know when it is nighttime?
V- Because the stars are up in the sky.
B- The stars are up in the sky.
T- Because you can see the moon. Actually, there's a circle moon.
V- Because it's dark.
Question: What happens at night?
V- Once, raccoons fight our kitties.
B- The raccoons fight too at my house.
V- Bats go up in the night-night time.
T- And they hang.
B- It's dark.
V- Owls keep up in the dark 'cause them catch foods.
Question: What do YOU do at night?
V- We reads books.
B- I do go to bed and read stories.
T- Read books.
Interestingly, no one mentioned sleeping. Perhaps this is too passive to qualify as something one 'does'!
We then did a group picture of a house in the night with bats, raccoon, cat, a person walking a dog, and of course, stars and moon. This was done with chalk on dark paper; later, the children asked to use these materials to make their own pictures, which they took home. I also offered "night colors" at the easel this week: black, blue and a dish of white paint with a star/flower shaped sponge for printing. We have adorned our walls with these pictures, and each child's work was very different: B created a 'waterfall', applying blue, then black over the blue, and a smear of white (the waterfall, as she pointed out); V covered her sheet with the darker colors and then randomly stamped stars everywhere; T created a blue background and four "flowers, glowing in the night" centered on the paper. Their time working individually at their art is working out well, and their unique interpretations are proof of this for me.
Our Ice Sculptures were a big hit on Thursday. Because it was raining outside, the children wanted to explore the ice indoors, which we did on a large tray. A dish of salt, a small tub of water, paintbrushes and straws were offered to melt the ice. (The straws were for practicing using our fingers over the top to move the water from tub to ice, and lifting the finger to release the water.) We noticed the rough spots where the salt melted the ice away, and the rivulets dripping down the sides which froze and created new patterns. We also saw enough of T's sculpture melt away to remove one of the beautiful bamboo leaves, carefully preserved.
As I mentioned before, patterns seemed to be a recurring theme this week. Over the days, I have made pattern cards available to the children, offering both alternating (ABAB) type pattens and more complex repetitive (AABAAB) patterns to start. We will be continuing with this throughout the rest of the year. T really embraced the new pegboard set, first creating vertical repetitive patterns (ABCDABCD) and then using all the pegs on the board (There are five colors, so they were ABABABABABABCDCDCDCD- CDCDEEEEEE). B was engrossed with watching and enjoyed saying the names of the colors with him.
V worked on the dressing puzzle and watched, but was content to keep at her own work.
It's felt like a very busy week. We had time for playdough, spelling puzzles, bristle block play-- we added considerably to our collection over the weekend!, and even for building marble runs. I introduced the concept of Zero (it's a starting place, and the number for when there are 'none') as we did our math game of dropping objects onto a placemat with a smaller blue cloth in the middle. (We count the objects on the blue, the ones on the mat itself, and then all of the objects, concluding with "x plus y equals z".) We took a walk to collect 'pricklies' (sweet gum seed pods) and to see if some of the green shoots from bulbs are beginning to come up, and we were excited to see that they are. We spied purple finches from our back window, little and fat and cute, and the striking yellow-faced Townsend's Warbler, a new visitor to the suet feeder. We watched the etched edges of ice form on the saucer of water we leave out for birdies, marvelling at how cold it was on Tuesday, and then stayed in to play "Doggie Doggie Where's Your Bone?" and draw on a huge piece of chalkboard fabric we spread on the floor. V noticed, too, that when the chalk is used sideways, instead of on point, that the color is less intense.
Something magical has happened at preschool, too. The children are starting to tell me "Hazel, I touched my nose/mouth. I want to go wash my hands." Wow! This always gets a big smile and a "Thank you for taking such good care of your friends and our school!" We also have new lavender bar soap, which I think they prefer to the pump soap.
Our fine motor skills got a workout this week too. Our Montessori botany puzzles are tight-fitting and require us to use our pincer grip to hold onto the little pegs so that the pieces will fit into place. This is a directly supervised activity; I remind the children that they must use the pegs, or their fingers will get in the way (none of the pieces easily slide in, purposely) and give them labelling for their questions regarding animal body parts. The wasp has a thorax, the turtle a carapace beneath itself, and so on. The puzzle of the little child is most popular though, and the symmetry of the wasp is very inviting as well. On Thursday, we practiced squeezing little glue bottles and filled container lids with glue, then added beads, tissue paper, cut up ribbon, colored macaroni, sequins, buttons, etc. and offered glitter glue for a little sparkle. More than one child noticed that their 'hands were tired', but the children were very engrossed in this activity, prompting us to move lunch back a bit. They stayed at the table for this for 45 minutes!
Next week we'll bring our ice sculptures out of the freezer and into the backyard, where they will be the target of spray bottles! And we've got bird feeder-making on our horizon, too. Have a lovely weekend, and we'll gather together again on Tuesday!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Ice Play
Happy New Year! Our return to preschool was a frosty one, with days of cold weather beforehand. Because the buckets and bins outside had been laden with rain, on Tuesday we found many different shapes of ice awaiting us for exploration and play. The children had fun dropping pieces and watching them smash apart on the ground, and then took turns loading the pieces up into the wheelbarrow and dumping them in one corner of the yard. Because of the different patterns in the ice, food coloring was brought out and dripped onto it, which helped to reveal the cracks, and we watched some colors slowly blend into each other. Beautiful.
On Wednesday, we conducted an experiment indoors. Using three small trays, two ice cubes placed on each: T ground some pepper onto the first tray of ice; V used a small spoonful of salt on the second, and B sprinkled some sugar onto the third. Then, we watched and waited. During this time, we worked on 'mail' for each others mailboxes, with stickers and crayons, checking the ice from time to time. In the end, the observations were that the salt had melted deep craters in the ice cubes, the sugar had also melted the cubes a bit but "not so deep", and the pepper? "Not so much" as the others, concluded T.
Thursday, too, we brought out the paints (it was a painty week.. as you'll see) for some Ice Painting. This was done similar to marble painting, but we used circles of paper in an old soup pot for this. The children each chose colors and we squirted them directly onto the paper, and then added an ice cube that was slightly melted so it wouldn't stick. Then the children tilted the pot back and forth to move the ice around. The water from the ice blended the colors a bit, creating swirly bits between the brighter tempera paint. I have the feeling that this will be another art activity we'll revisit, as the kids had a great time.
Tuesday's painting time was in the form of using foam letter and sun/star shapes to dip in paint for a group collage. There were plenty of "B"s where B stood, happily stamping out the letter of her name in various colors. T learned that he could use the letter "I" twice to make a letter T, and V enjoyed both printing with the shapes and using them to smear color around. The bright collage hangs on the wall in our Housekeeping area, so feel free to come in and take a peek.Your child would love the chance to tell you about it! Wednesday, we had our weekly Easel Time, and the children just lost themselves in the act of filling up their paper with bright color.
We had a lot of stories and dramatic play going on this week. On Tuesday, I told a story of how the elves had come and taken ALL of our blue stones. Those imps! We had a 'treasure hunt', where V and T delightedly dug out some stones hidden in the oatmeal bin while B very happily filled up little tubes into bigger containers. The children suspect there are more treasures hidden in the sandbox, but because of the cold weather, the frozen-clumped sand was hard to work, so they wait to be discovered. At our Gathering on Thursday, all the children did a bit of playacting, once being "a big brother and a sister" (both girls wanted to be sisters, so then there were two) "and the big brother tells the sister to go to bed. The sister doesn't want to..." the conflict added a little humor to the juvenile drama, and the sisters went to bed. In our second story, dictated by B: "A big sister and a brother and they are playing with B.They play toys." So the children pretended to do that, too. Dollhouse play introduced a kitchen stove which was dubbed a "television" and placed on it's back so the hood could be the screen. B's dolls went in and out of the doors and T's doll used the small coffee table piece as a 'skateboard', and rode the frame of the dollhouse like a teenager grinding sidewalks and curbs. (Our dollhouse is adjustable; it has slots and pegs together, thus it has no conventional roof, but great lines for a skateboarding boy doll!)
At our Thursday Popcorn Picnic, we created a new "Princess Pinkie and the Green Prince" story where our characters took a trip to the zoo to see a " giraffe" (T's suggestion), "Some Tiger Lights" (V's suggestion) and ride the Zoo Train, (B's contribution) as well as taking public transportation to get there. The children had great fun telling me what sorts of snacks the Princess and her friend should pack, including Hot Cocoa and Soup and raisins. Later, we looked at an old, colorful picture book of the San Diego Zoo, where T proudly announced that he "couldn't say 'flangos'" (flamingos) and we all had a laugh at that. V told me that the peacock in the book was like one she'd seen in her backyard, which leads me to believe that either Portland or our imaginations are becoming more exotic, which is fine in any case. One of the children also pointed to a picture of the polar bears and said "Oh, that's a winter bear". Interesting connections, kids make, naming it for the season its surroundings represent instead of the geographic locale.
Can you tell that I could just go on forever about what we do? Here are a few more sweet moments from our week:
Ice Cream Play: the Cone Puzzle was our ice cream supply yet again. All the children took turns being 'the ice cream seller'. When the play was over, I asked the children to put the toy away; V and B did this cooperatively. "Hazel! We did it together!" was B's delighted cry. V emphatically added: "We did teamwork!"
More playacting: we played several rounds of "Doggie, Doggie Where's Your Bone" and the kids hammed it up as dogs. We also read that classic "Caps for Sale", and the children were mischievous monkeys to my peddler, shaking their fingers, stamping their feet and shouting "tzee tzee tzee" liked those capped monkeys in the tree.
Lots of puzzles this week: a colorful alphabet butterfly puzzle was put together at Gathering, and several of our botany puzzles came out: turtle, wasp, a boy and a fish. These puzzles fit closely together, and as well as labeling the parts of these creatures, we also worked on holding the pieces by the pegs so our fingers don't get under them and in our way. Our color/shape graduated blocks were also brought out, to be used for patterning and matching shapes. The Pegboard, too, gave them opportunities to arrange pegs in rows of color as well as shape.
Songs: at Gathering on Wednesday, T asked if we could 'sing about what we did at home"... V sang about 'watching a movie', Be 'went on a great big slide at Mommy's old park' and T cracked me up, saying "I had a hard time this morning, but I feel better now", so we sang about that too. On Thursday, the children had a spontaneous jam session, getting out the basket of instruments and taking turns leading, singing ABCs, Old MacDonald, Yankee Doodle, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Row, Row Your Boat, walking in circles around the border of the rug as they shook their instruments.
It's been a busy, learning week, and I'm looking forward to next week, with Pajama Day and Ice Sculptures to look forward to. Have a great weekend!
Hazel
On Wednesday, we conducted an experiment indoors. Using three small trays, two ice cubes placed on each: T ground some pepper onto the first tray of ice; V used a small spoonful of salt on the second, and B sprinkled some sugar onto the third. Then, we watched and waited. During this time, we worked on 'mail' for each others mailboxes, with stickers and crayons, checking the ice from time to time. In the end, the observations were that the salt had melted deep craters in the ice cubes, the sugar had also melted the cubes a bit but "not so deep", and the pepper? "Not so much" as the others, concluded T.
Thursday, too, we brought out the paints (it was a painty week.. as you'll see) for some Ice Painting. This was done similar to marble painting, but we used circles of paper in an old soup pot for this. The children each chose colors and we squirted them directly onto the paper, and then added an ice cube that was slightly melted so it wouldn't stick. Then the children tilted the pot back and forth to move the ice around. The water from the ice blended the colors a bit, creating swirly bits between the brighter tempera paint. I have the feeling that this will be another art activity we'll revisit, as the kids had a great time.
Tuesday's painting time was in the form of using foam letter and sun/star shapes to dip in paint for a group collage. There were plenty of "B"s where B stood, happily stamping out the letter of her name in various colors. T learned that he could use the letter "I" twice to make a letter T, and V enjoyed both printing with the shapes and using them to smear color around. The bright collage hangs on the wall in our Housekeeping area, so feel free to come in and take a peek.Your child would love the chance to tell you about it! Wednesday, we had our weekly Easel Time, and the children just lost themselves in the act of filling up their paper with bright color.
We had a lot of stories and dramatic play going on this week. On Tuesday, I told a story of how the elves had come and taken ALL of our blue stones. Those imps! We had a 'treasure hunt', where V and T delightedly dug out some stones hidden in the oatmeal bin while B very happily filled up little tubes into bigger containers. The children suspect there are more treasures hidden in the sandbox, but because of the cold weather, the frozen-clumped sand was hard to work, so they wait to be discovered. At our Gathering on Thursday, all the children did a bit of playacting, once being "a big brother and a sister" (both girls wanted to be sisters, so then there were two) "and the big brother tells the sister to go to bed. The sister doesn't want to..." the conflict added a little humor to the juvenile drama, and the sisters went to bed. In our second story, dictated by B: "A big sister and a brother and they are playing with B.They play toys." So the children pretended to do that, too. Dollhouse play introduced a kitchen stove which was dubbed a "television" and placed on it's back so the hood could be the screen. B's dolls went in and out of the doors and T's doll used the small coffee table piece as a 'skateboard', and rode the frame of the dollhouse like a teenager grinding sidewalks and curbs. (Our dollhouse is adjustable; it has slots and pegs together, thus it has no conventional roof, but great lines for a skateboarding boy doll!)
At our Thursday Popcorn Picnic, we created a new "Princess Pinkie and the Green Prince" story where our characters took a trip to the zoo to see a " giraffe" (T's suggestion), "Some Tiger Lights" (V's suggestion) and ride the Zoo Train, (B's contribution) as well as taking public transportation to get there. The children had great fun telling me what sorts of snacks the Princess and her friend should pack, including Hot Cocoa and Soup and raisins. Later, we looked at an old, colorful picture book of the San Diego Zoo, where T proudly announced that he "couldn't say 'flangos'" (flamingos) and we all had a laugh at that. V told me that the peacock in the book was like one she'd seen in her backyard, which leads me to believe that either Portland or our imaginations are becoming more exotic, which is fine in any case. One of the children also pointed to a picture of the polar bears and said "Oh, that's a winter bear". Interesting connections, kids make, naming it for the season its surroundings represent instead of the geographic locale.
Can you tell that I could just go on forever about what we do? Here are a few more sweet moments from our week:
Ice Cream Play: the Cone Puzzle was our ice cream supply yet again. All the children took turns being 'the ice cream seller'. When the play was over, I asked the children to put the toy away; V and B did this cooperatively. "Hazel! We did it together!" was B's delighted cry. V emphatically added: "We did teamwork!"
More playacting: we played several rounds of "Doggie, Doggie Where's Your Bone" and the kids hammed it up as dogs. We also read that classic "Caps for Sale", and the children were mischievous monkeys to my peddler, shaking their fingers, stamping their feet and shouting "tzee tzee tzee" liked those capped monkeys in the tree.
Lots of puzzles this week: a colorful alphabet butterfly puzzle was put together at Gathering, and several of our botany puzzles came out: turtle, wasp, a boy and a fish. These puzzles fit closely together, and as well as labeling the parts of these creatures, we also worked on holding the pieces by the pegs so our fingers don't get under them and in our way. Our color/shape graduated blocks were also brought out, to be used for patterning and matching shapes. The Pegboard, too, gave them opportunities to arrange pegs in rows of color as well as shape.
Songs: at Gathering on Wednesday, T asked if we could 'sing about what we did at home"... V sang about 'watching a movie', Be 'went on a great big slide at Mommy's old park' and T cracked me up, saying "I had a hard time this morning, but I feel better now", so we sang about that too. On Thursday, the children had a spontaneous jam session, getting out the basket of instruments and taking turns leading, singing ABCs, Old MacDonald, Yankee Doodle, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Row, Row Your Boat, walking in circles around the border of the rug as they shook their instruments.
It's been a busy, learning week, and I'm looking forward to next week, with Pajama Day and Ice Sculptures to look forward to. Have a great weekend!
Hazel
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