Over the last few weeks, we've been having fun exploring the concept of restaurants. Restaurants are often a big deal in the eyes of the children; not only are some of their favorite foods there for the asking, restaurants are one of a few places in which our adult world can overlap with the child's world. Much like a doctor's office or school, the roles of people are clearly defined: servers, cooks and customers. In this way, playing restaurant is an easier leap of imagination for the children, as they know how to be the customers, know what the servers do (take orders, bring food) and the cooks? Well, they see us cooking all the time at home.
In our housekeeping area, the furniture has been rearranged; a menu and the children's 'fine art' hang on the walls and a server's notepad has been added for their use. The children have been putting lots of orders in: pancakes, toast (which is especially popular) and eggs are big sellers here. Servers scrawl scribble-line 'orders' and an apron is donned by the cook, the customer sits on a stool at a small table and receives the food. At their insistence, forks and spoons were added for this pretend play to maintain the children's sense of legitimacy. T took a big first step in writing when he decided the restaurant needed a sign for "Closed" and "Open", and he wrote both words on paper (I spelled them out for him).
Sometimes, too, our dollhouse would come out to serve as a restaurant. Arranged to be a big dining area, a kitchen and a restroom, there was some discussion as to where to put the television "because a TV is for a house, not a restaurant", said V. "Well, some restaurants have TVs on the wall" countered T, and the block which was designated as a television was balanced upon the wall to be 'up'. V's doll was the mother, B's was the girl and then V decided to be a girl too. The dollhouse patrons watched TV, and there was again some conversation about who could watch TV, the grown ups or the kids, as well as a question about what you might see on TVs at restaurants. T and B discussed the placement of the little potty in great detail: should it be under the window, or in the corner for "privacy", which was T's concern.
As you can see, there is a great deal of social play and problem-solving that goes into this sort of exploration.
We sang a song (based on "Mary Wore a Red Dress") to tell about what we liked to order at restaurants. V and B both love to order mac-n-cheese, T really likes sushi. Then, a question which sparked a discussion at Gathering:
Hazel: What happens when we go to a restaurant?
T: Sometimes a mommy and daddy go to a restaurant with me to get sushi too.
V: Well, it's loud and has lots of people there. They cook food, they make all kinds of stuff.
B: I eat mac-n-cheese there.
T: One time I go to Hopworks and there's a train set and pinball but now it's gone.
V: Really?
What do the grown-ups do?
V: The grown ups order, but sometimes I order when girls are there. (if the server is a woman)
B: We have dessert for me. And mommy gets dinner.
V: What dessert do you get?
B: Vanilla ice cream.
T: Sometimes I go to the store and get some ice cream.
One of the books we've been enjoying as a group is Monica Wellington's "Pizza At Sally's". From growing her tomatoes in her community garden to making the sauce in her pizzaria to finally enjoying a slice of her own at the end of the day, Sally's little pizzaria inspired us. On this last Thursday, we walked up to our neighborhood pizza place at snack time for breadsticks with plenty of Parmesan. Most of these were devoured.. Returning to school, we then spent some time making 'pretend pizzas'. First, we mixed the "sauce", which was really glue and red paint, then the children spread it onto the 'dough' (paper circles) and added toppings of paper cheese, pepperoni and olives. Remembering the illustrations from the book, V and T decided to put some more sauce on the top of the toppings, because 'sometimes you see the sauce through the cheese'. Don't forget, too, if you're in a pizza mood, the book "Pete's a Pizza" by William Steig. This sweet story reminds us that our kids can pretend to 'be' food any day, if we're game too.
As I have mentioned before, two of our preschool families have new babies and when significant transitions like this happen, it's even more important for school to stay just the same. Be assured that we are keeping to our routines and that I am aware that sometimes, the children use the school space to have some 'down time'. Each morning, we've been reviewing our options for single player areas as well as reminding the group where the more social play is expected to be accommodated. Our Cozy Corner has a few more toys to add appeal for children needing to take a little break, and we have a total of four independent play areas and three group play areas. The four single player areas mean that there's always a choice, and when there are big things happening at home, having choices can become more important in the eyes of our little ones.
We are also moving on in our exploration of our selves, and doing a few activities to explore our 'selves', some of which will become pages in the children's books. Last week, we spent time at Morning Gathering focused on measuring with length and weight with rulers and scales. First, we used a ruler to measure lines of nuts by inches and made predictions as to which lines of nuts would be longer: hazelnuts, Brazil nuts or walnuts. We learned to our surprise that the same number of Brazil nuts and walnuts measured an equal length, and the hazelnuts were correctly predicted to be obviously smaller. (We charted this using both numerals and corresponding amounts of dots.) Then, we used a scale to measure blocks and books, also asking a question at the start: which would be heavier, the blocks or books? We also discovered that they seem to have evened out poundwise. Lastly, we measured each child's height in inches with a tape measure (which they thought was really neat, especially as it self-retracts very quickly!) and their weight in pounds on a scale and recorded these. Next week, we'll be thinking about the colors of our skin, eyes and hair, and working on a project around this topic.
Several more glimpses into our past two weeks:
Name Pictures: the children were each given cut-out letters of their names, some simple shapes and glue with swabs for spreading. Each child put their name onto their paper in their own way, orienting the letters as they chose. We have one name running in a counter-clockwise circle, one name running left-to-right with a few letters upside down letters and one in a jumble with lots of other shapes worked in to create a burst of letters. These hang on the wall of our puzzle and games area.
Silly, silly play: The children have some 'scaring each other' games going in the most benign, funny way. Two of them will walk by the sharing table and their 'line' is "What a beautiful day" and then another child hides on the other side, jumps out and 'scares' them with a big "BOO!" This elicits shrieks of pretend fear and much laughter. This play was continued in the dollhouse, when T's doll boy began 'skateboarding' on the top of the dollhouse frame and then falling down, saying "What a nice day....OWW!" which was very entertaining to his friends. The safety of the little doll was sacrificed for laughs. Then the other children began to imitate this, with giggles and gales of laughter, dolls tossed into the air with cries of "Hot Lava!" and "Hot Water!" and "What a nice day!" in silly voices.
Lots of opportunities for water play with funnels and beach stones. Scoops were loaded with colorful rocks; some were successfully used to plug up the water mill.
Painting at the big easel with 'daffodil colors'. V tells me her picture is "a big big outer space with all kinds of nice creatures". (With an open mind like that, she's the first one I'm nominating for intergalactic ambassador!) T tells me "I don't know what it is. I mixed all the colors up."
Complicated skate park designs are requiring the children to do more planning, thinking about the traffic flow of the skate park before they use the their cars to 'play' it. Everyone is in on the skate park play these days, and this means that we are learning how to leave the built-in areas as they are and find other areas to build onto it. When a builder leaves, their work may be rearranged to suit the remaining players.
We've been continuing our work with droppers of color. This time, we dripped color onto paper in a pan, then added marbles for a new sort of marble-track picture.The children especially enjoyed tipping the pan to watch the colors swirl and blend.
Paper work: we've had markers and scissors available lately. Some pictures have been going into the mailboxes of friends. T drew a straight line, and then chose cut on it, following the line with scissors. B cut out a triangle shape, so we talked about that as well.
Playdough was another reflection of our restaurant theme: T was "spreading butter on this toast". B had a popsicle stick standing up from the center of her ball of playdough. "I'm making a tall building" she stated. V jumped in on the food play "I'm making toast too" and then B made me a "breakfast of cereal". At the table, I heard a lot of polite questions as the children asked each other for tools.
Outdoors, our sweet planters have gone home to make room for containers of carrots. Last year's Forget-Me-Not plant had set out enough seed to start some more of these small plants with little blue flowers, and we are counting them as they emerge, as well as noticing where they are popping up. How did some of those seeds travel so far? Our peas are thriving, and we are observing where 'more' and 'less' have come up. We've a children's fact book about composting, and one day we walked up to the local coffee shop for their coffee grounds; some of the kids really enjoyed scooping them out of the big bag and throwing them into the heap! (Dirty work is the best fun.) Chasing games have ensued, and we took a lovely scent tour through the garden. The winter daphne is beginning to fade, but the rosemary, pieris, spicy yellow currant, lavender and lemon balm all have their own perfume in this season. And we're observing the plum tree, sporting a few white blossoms, and the cherry tree with its fat buds just waiting for a bit more sun. Books like Lois Ehlert's "Pie in the Sky" help them to understand the cycle of the fruiting trees, and "The Good Brown Earth" by Kathy Henderson reminds us that while we might plant, weed, water and marvel at our gardens, the soil has it's seasons for rest and growth, and it's own magic and mystery: "And the good brown earth got on with doing what the good brown earth does best."
Have a beautiful weekend, rain or shine. I am looking forward to Tuesday with your special little persons!
