Our dear friend B was home with a cold all week. Get well, B! We've missed you!
This week's fun was centered around food. In keeping with last week's Stone Soup play, at gathering on Tuesday morning, I asked T and V what sorts of things they liked in their soup: peas, noodles, red pepper, tomatoes and carrots were listed. Then we read "Feast for 10", a great counting book about preparing a family meal. Everyone counted the items aloud: pumpkins, pickles, chicken, carrots, pots, pans and so much more. Then, we looked at a couple Eric Carle books, because we'd use this idea of painted-paper collage for our Soup poster at the end of the week.
After this, we sat down to paint a single color, or mix two colors, on a whole sheet of paper. V chose to paint yellow and then mixed black and white to make a sheet of gray. T chose green, his favorite, mixed with a little yellow, followed by some yellow and red to mix into orange. Then after snack time, we clipped pictures out of the grocery store circulars for pages in our books about "What I Like To Eat".
Wednesday found us painting at the big easels. Although I offered both brushes and stamps, you could never tell-- the stamped-on color was met by another brush full of color and blended into the rest of the colors on their papers.
Thursday, we revisited the Stone Soup story, and made our poster: a big pot at the bottom of it (with a 'fire' drawn under it) , the children cut out the painted paper, which posed a new texture for cutting, being so thick. V said "I'm cutting out stones", making four stones for the pot, gluing each on as she cut them, and then added some yellow noodles to go in, and glued them above the pot. "They're falling in from the air!" T cut green shapes from his piece of paper and made a pile of the shapes. "What kind of vegetable could that be?" I asked. "I don't know yet" was the reply. After a few pieces of the green were glued on, he decided that they could be 'cabbages'. We learned that, in this case, the glue stick had to be rubbed onto both the paper of the poster, and the piece they just cut out, in order to get a good bond. A new process to learn, but both picked it up easily, and our poster looks very fun in our housekeeping area.
Our peas are in! We planted most of them on Tuesday afternoon; the children helped me dig a line of dirt, drop the peas in, and cover them up again. We've placed bird block over it to keep the birds and squirrels off them. When we return to school, we'll use a mortar and pestle to grind up eggshells to keep the slugs off.
Some other fun moments of our week:
T and V worked on another block skate park, and then both had strong ideas about what certain elements should look like. They checked in with each other before moving their friend's block placement.
"I've got a good idea. How about like that?"
"Could I make it like this cause it's more better please?"
They built 'tracks' for the skateboarders, with blocks stood on their ends to make little channels,which they then filled in. They embellished their park, but kept the original concept of the shape in place. Zoo blocks (from a few weeks ago) were added. Said V "Those blocks mean that animals are around."
Puzzles galore: spelling puzzles were out on Wednesday, two sets of words mixed into each pile, so the puzzles had to be separated as they worked. On Thursday, we brought out 48 piece jigsaw of dinosaurs and worked on it as a group. Then we gathered on the rug and I read a little bit of "Life Story" Virginia Burton's book on the history of the earth. The children laughed at all the funny names of the prehistoric dinosaurs and reptiles.
More pattern block play, with V using a center piece and working outward to make "a flower". T lined up six hexagons into pairs, then added squares on top of each piece, and a diamond in the space below between the hexagon pairs, to look like beaks. "They're owls, Hazel" he told me, and they did look like owls with square eyebrows!
Counting it out: we did some play with nuts, rolling them down a ramp into a big pot with a bowl placed in the center. How many nuts made it into the pot? The bowl? Now, how many all together? We also divided piles of nuts into two equal portions, the way your mother might have sorted out an equal share of candy "one, one, two, two," etc. We practiced counting to 13 and 15. Modeling this for our children will help them with this sort of social problem-solving in future years as well.
Games too: on Wednesday, we repaired our "Cariboo" game, which needed some new cards for the board, and then played this game, which focuses on matching shapes, letters and numbers. Thursday found us huddled around a spinner, playing "Forest Friends", an old game from my childhood in which children follow a sweet path of forest critters from beginning to end by spinning an animal and moving to it.
Wednesday also found us working together to fulfill an idea of V's: "I want to make a get better card for B" she suggested. We had an equal amount of fun dropping this, as well as another letter, into the big mailbox a few blocks away. Outdoors, we did quite a bit of chalk work in the driveway, walked in puddles around the puddle, used the side of the sandbox as a balance beam, and repeatedly hid and dug up 'treasures'. V would ask T to turn around, drop a sparkly gem into the sand, cover it and mark it with an "x" for him to dig up again. What a game!
On Thursday we had big fun washing off our paint trays from Tuesday. The dried paint flecked into the bubbles, coloring them. The children used wipers to scrub the trays and watched the color run and make a very muddy color in the water beneath the bubbles.
We'll see you all after Spring Break with more fun, an inspection of our pea sprouts, a visit to our huge flowering pots full with blossoming daffodils and other bursts of color. Spring is really feeling like it's here! Hooray!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Happy Birthday and Stone Soup Play
Tuesday morning brought a welcome treat: a birthday circle for T, who has turned four. After singing what we'd done over the weekend, we began our song about the Earth going round the sun (V was designated to be the sun) and then sat down to feast on strawberries and read the story of "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel". Once the strawberries had been devoured and Mike Mulligan and Mary and were safely ensconced in Popperville's new town hall, we moved over to the big table for some play dough fun. T made a "spiderman" with Popsicle stick legs, B practiced her play dough cutting (her very favorite play dough activity) and V made lots of 'pasta'.
Later that day, we sat down for some scissors work. I'd drawn lines on paper, and the children followed the lines with their scissors, cutting the paper into strips. This was where I could really see that all B's cutting practice paid off... she literally flew through the first piece of paper I gave her! We also worked on a "Birthday Page" for our books; each child was asked when their birth date was and I wrote it down. Then we drew the number 4 (which we either are, already, or will be at our next birthday) and counted out four stickers to represent the amount.
On Thursday, we came together at Gathering for some lively songs, to choose our jobs again (interestingly, T and B continue to choose mealtime helping jobs and V wanted to be a helper at art time, even if she was unsure what the task would be), and to read a new retelling of the traditional Stone Soup story by Jon J Muth. In this story, three monks wandering China come upon a village which has greatly suffered in recent years, and whose inhabitants are first and foremost concerned with self-preservation. Once the magic of the monks' stone soup takes effect, however, they are all able to come together, opening their hearts and homes to the monks as well as each other. While some of the ingredients of their stone soup were unfamiliar (lily buds and exotic mushrooms), the beauty of the story was very clear.
Our housekeeping area now includes the old dutch oven for the soup pot, various cups of sorted nuts, pretend noodles and the wooden fruits and veggies as well as the tea set. Just as soon as Gathering was finished, B and V went right over to begin making "stone soup". B was the mother and V, the child, and their interactions were true to their roles. B told V that the almonds were "dessert" and she couldn't have any "until you eat your dinner". The Soup Pot was soon full of everything one could add to it, and later we had fun as a group, sorting it all back out (some children used tongs to pull things out of the pot, just for fun and good practice) and making the little kitchen "beautiful" again.
On Tuesday, T had noticed that 'we haven't done mail in a long time', and so on Thursday, I offered folded cards and envelopes for the children to color with markers. Interestingly, none of them wanted to use them for mail at school, so they were put into backpacks and taken home.
Our play dough time on Thursday started with my making a pot to continue our stone soup play. "What could go in here?" I asked. V offered two stones and a carrot, and later, T added "strawberries, some lettuce and a banana". Pretty wild! Then T used cutters and rolling pins to make patterns in the dough and then cut it into strips, connecting them to make "a dragon". Then he mashed the dough back up and the following conversation began:
T: I wanted to smooth it because I kind of want to make something else. I made pasta.
V:I want to make pasta too. I'm going to squish it too. Everybody squoosh with me. Squish squish squish!
T: I'm making circles.
V: I'm making roll-outs. Do you know what roll-outs are? Does your mom make roll-outs?
B patted a mass of play dough onto a stick, and then used scissors to cut it off the stick. She made a game of doing this over and over again. The conversation about "roll-outs" continued, and then V asked "Does your mom cook your bread?" This sparked another conversation about where our bread comes from-- the oven or the store.
I love the conversations we had at Popcorn Picnic time too. Spiderman and getting shots were the big topics of conversation. It turns out that different families do different things when kids get shots. Some get a sticker at the doctor's office, some get a sweet treat later on.
A few other moments from our week:
B and V on Tuesday, playing in the Heart Cookie Bakery. B was the mom again, and V was the child.
T works on our new house puzzle (which must be built with posts and walls, then roof) and then V took a turn playing with it. B then brought over the little dolls and they were placed in the house too!
V and T work on our big Noah's Ark floor puzzle together, spotting flamingos, zebras, giraffes and elephants and learning the name of those white birds flying-- snowy egrets.
Lots of play outside, singing around the Children's House, playing in the plum tree house--going in and out of it, and peering over the branches to 'look out the window'.
We are digging out our planting area for our snow peas. V was especially interested in my procuring earthworms for her to hold for a moment, then wanted to help me pull weeds. While we were set to do our double-checking for our peas (this means consulting the seed packet, measuring to make sure the stakes they picked out will be high enough and that we've enough room for our seeds to grow), the fickle rain on Thursday produced enough puddles to postpone our planting work. Instead, we went for a long puddle walk around the neighborhood, marvelled at the daffodils and crocuses coming up, and upon our return, checked our big pots in the backyard, where a hyacinth bud is emerging from the center of T's pot. Let's hope we can get our peas in next week, or we'll truly be running behind!
We'll see you next Tuesday with more fun about food, planting and so much more!
Hazel
Later that day, we sat down for some scissors work. I'd drawn lines on paper, and the children followed the lines with their scissors, cutting the paper into strips. This was where I could really see that all B's cutting practice paid off... she literally flew through the first piece of paper I gave her! We also worked on a "Birthday Page" for our books; each child was asked when their birth date was and I wrote it down. Then we drew the number 4 (which we either are, already, or will be at our next birthday) and counted out four stickers to represent the amount.
On Thursday, we came together at Gathering for some lively songs, to choose our jobs again (interestingly, T and B continue to choose mealtime helping jobs and V wanted to be a helper at art time, even if she was unsure what the task would be), and to read a new retelling of the traditional Stone Soup story by Jon J Muth. In this story, three monks wandering China come upon a village which has greatly suffered in recent years, and whose inhabitants are first and foremost concerned with self-preservation. Once the magic of the monks' stone soup takes effect, however, they are all able to come together, opening their hearts and homes to the monks as well as each other. While some of the ingredients of their stone soup were unfamiliar (lily buds and exotic mushrooms), the beauty of the story was very clear.
Our housekeeping area now includes the old dutch oven for the soup pot, various cups of sorted nuts, pretend noodles and the wooden fruits and veggies as well as the tea set. Just as soon as Gathering was finished, B and V went right over to begin making "stone soup". B was the mother and V, the child, and their interactions were true to their roles. B told V that the almonds were "dessert" and she couldn't have any "until you eat your dinner". The Soup Pot was soon full of everything one could add to it, and later we had fun as a group, sorting it all back out (some children used tongs to pull things out of the pot, just for fun and good practice) and making the little kitchen "beautiful" again.
On Tuesday, T had noticed that 'we haven't done mail in a long time', and so on Thursday, I offered folded cards and envelopes for the children to color with markers. Interestingly, none of them wanted to use them for mail at school, so they were put into backpacks and taken home.
Our play dough time on Thursday started with my making a pot to continue our stone soup play. "What could go in here?" I asked. V offered two stones and a carrot, and later, T added "strawberries, some lettuce and a banana". Pretty wild! Then T used cutters and rolling pins to make patterns in the dough and then cut it into strips, connecting them to make "a dragon". Then he mashed the dough back up and the following conversation began:
T: I wanted to smooth it because I kind of want to make something else. I made pasta.
V:I want to make pasta too. I'm going to squish it too. Everybody squoosh with me. Squish squish squish!
T: I'm making circles.
V: I'm making roll-outs. Do you know what roll-outs are? Does your mom make roll-outs?
B patted a mass of play dough onto a stick, and then used scissors to cut it off the stick. She made a game of doing this over and over again. The conversation about "roll-outs" continued, and then V asked "Does your mom cook your bread?" This sparked another conversation about where our bread comes from-- the oven or the store.
I love the conversations we had at Popcorn Picnic time too. Spiderman and getting shots were the big topics of conversation. It turns out that different families do different things when kids get shots. Some get a sticker at the doctor's office, some get a sweet treat later on.
A few other moments from our week:
B and V on Tuesday, playing in the Heart Cookie Bakery. B was the mom again, and V was the child.
T works on our new house puzzle (which must be built with posts and walls, then roof) and then V took a turn playing with it. B then brought over the little dolls and they were placed in the house too!
V and T work on our big Noah's Ark floor puzzle together, spotting flamingos, zebras, giraffes and elephants and learning the name of those white birds flying-- snowy egrets.
Lots of play outside, singing around the Children's House, playing in the plum tree house--going in and out of it, and peering over the branches to 'look out the window'.
We are digging out our planting area for our snow peas. V was especially interested in my procuring earthworms for her to hold for a moment, then wanted to help me pull weeds. While we were set to do our double-checking for our peas (this means consulting the seed packet, measuring to make sure the stakes they picked out will be high enough and that we've enough room for our seeds to grow), the fickle rain on Thursday produced enough puddles to postpone our planting work. Instead, we went for a long puddle walk around the neighborhood, marvelled at the daffodils and crocuses coming up, and upon our return, checked our big pots in the backyard, where a hyacinth bud is emerging from the center of T's pot. Let's hope we can get our peas in next week, or we'll truly be running behind!
We'll see you next Tuesday with more fun about food, planting and so much more!
Hazel
Sunday, March 6, 2011
All In A Day
This post covers our activities for March 1st, our one day of school this week. Thanks so much for a wonderful set of Spring Parent/Teacher Conferences. Through your communication and sharing, I continue to learn so much about the children we love so well.
Our Morning Gathering on Tuesday was very musical: we started off with our usual "Weekend Song", where the children shared yet again what they found memorable about their time away from school, and then we each chose a song to sing: V loves "Row, Row Your Boat", and as we rowed our boats, we thought about what we "saw" around us. In the water, T spied an "alligator", B and V imagined a Princess and a Ballerina (respectively) were on the shore. T suggested the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and B loves her "ABC's", so we sang this as well.
I've been beginning to offer the children their choice of Special Helper jobs, (we rotate who gets to choose first, just to ensure that everyone gets a fair turn) and could see that each child really likes certain activities. T often chooses to set out mats and lunch bags for our noon meal; V, our art lover, chose art time to be her special helping time and so she spread out oilcloth and got out trays and smocks for everyone. B loves to choose a book for storytime and this is one of her favorite jobs; "Jennie's Hat" by Ezra Jack Keats is one of her current picks.
Last week we did some color mixing after reading "A Bird or Two", the story of Matisse and how he used color. While cleaning up last Wednesday, I'd noticed how dramatically their pictures had darkened as the color had dried. So during our art time, we looked at the original color of the paints we'd blended, and compared them to the dried pictures. I asked the children if they wanted to change their colors and lighten or darken them. While T and V adjusted their color to lighten it, B decided to add blue and white to her deep emerald green, creating a more turquoise color. Although all the colors were available for the children to use, each painted with 'their' own color. Though I did pass these along to parents during our conferences, I forgot to provide their narration, so here it is:
V's picture, a piece of yellow paper covered entirely in pale purple--"it's a princess castle".
T's picture of pale green on green paper--"It's a glass to drink wine. It's got a handle to hold."
B's big patch of turquoise on green paper, said "My work is pretty unusual". What an interesting observation!
We had a lot of puzzle play available, as well as the Lite Brite on the small table. The big carpet was a great place for dramatic play. "I'm being a squirrel!" said B, and she and V frolicked like squirrels, pretending to eat nuts and romping around, much the way squirrels will chase each other.
T worked puzzle after puzzle, and then got busy working to build with the magnetic blocks. Soon, B joined him, then she and V worked on the shape spindles, taking the pieces off the spindles methodically and then putting them back on. V brought "Growing a Rainbow" out and 'read' it to those around her. She and I also had fun looking at the newest seed catalog, poring over the colorful and unusual vegetables and their funny names. Long beans called "Red Noodle" and knobbly gourds were interesting, as well as an endless array of flowers. We'll be planting peas in the next week, once we've readied the ground and built our trellis.
Our day ended with a long trail walk around the neighborhood, and we marked our 'x's everywhere. The children especially love the "up and down place" near the school a block away or so. We looked for signs of spring on our walk-- the hellebores are the most obvious at present, as well as some emerging daffodil leaves, pale yellow as they were only recently uncovered from some groundcloth. I explained how the plants needed sunshine to turn green, and we decided to come back in a few days to see if they had darkened up a bit. Tiny pine cones were collected as well, and tucked into raincoat pockets, so you might find a few unexpected treasures.
Next week will find us exploring the story of "Stone Soup" and playing it as well, indoors and out. See you then!
Our Morning Gathering on Tuesday was very musical: we started off with our usual "Weekend Song", where the children shared yet again what they found memorable about their time away from school, and then we each chose a song to sing: V loves "Row, Row Your Boat", and as we rowed our boats, we thought about what we "saw" around us. In the water, T spied an "alligator", B and V imagined a Princess and a Ballerina (respectively) were on the shore. T suggested the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and B loves her "ABC's", so we sang this as well.
I've been beginning to offer the children their choice of Special Helper jobs, (we rotate who gets to choose first, just to ensure that everyone gets a fair turn) and could see that each child really likes certain activities. T often chooses to set out mats and lunch bags for our noon meal; V, our art lover, chose art time to be her special helping time and so she spread out oilcloth and got out trays and smocks for everyone. B loves to choose a book for storytime and this is one of her favorite jobs; "Jennie's Hat" by Ezra Jack Keats is one of her current picks.
Last week we did some color mixing after reading "A Bird or Two", the story of Matisse and how he used color. While cleaning up last Wednesday, I'd noticed how dramatically their pictures had darkened as the color had dried. So during our art time, we looked at the original color of the paints we'd blended, and compared them to the dried pictures. I asked the children if they wanted to change their colors and lighten or darken them. While T and V adjusted their color to lighten it, B decided to add blue and white to her deep emerald green, creating a more turquoise color. Although all the colors were available for the children to use, each painted with 'their' own color. Though I did pass these along to parents during our conferences, I forgot to provide their narration, so here it is:
V's picture, a piece of yellow paper covered entirely in pale purple--"it's a princess castle".
T's picture of pale green on green paper--"It's a glass to drink wine. It's got a handle to hold."
B's big patch of turquoise on green paper, said "My work is pretty unusual". What an interesting observation!
We had a lot of puzzle play available, as well as the Lite Brite on the small table. The big carpet was a great place for dramatic play. "I'm being a squirrel!" said B, and she and V frolicked like squirrels, pretending to eat nuts and romping around, much the way squirrels will chase each other.
T worked puzzle after puzzle, and then got busy working to build with the magnetic blocks. Soon, B joined him, then she and V worked on the shape spindles, taking the pieces off the spindles methodically and then putting them back on. V brought "Growing a Rainbow" out and 'read' it to those around her. She and I also had fun looking at the newest seed catalog, poring over the colorful and unusual vegetables and their funny names. Long beans called "Red Noodle" and knobbly gourds were interesting, as well as an endless array of flowers. We'll be planting peas in the next week, once we've readied the ground and built our trellis.
Our day ended with a long trail walk around the neighborhood, and we marked our 'x's everywhere. The children especially love the "up and down place" near the school a block away or so. We looked for signs of spring on our walk-- the hellebores are the most obvious at present, as well as some emerging daffodil leaves, pale yellow as they were only recently uncovered from some groundcloth. I explained how the plants needed sunshine to turn green, and we decided to come back in a few days to see if they had darkened up a bit. Tiny pine cones were collected as well, and tucked into raincoat pockets, so you might find a few unexpected treasures.
Next week will find us exploring the story of "Stone Soup" and playing it as well, indoors and out. See you then!
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