Sometimes a few new ideas and props make all the difference in the play.
Last week, as the children were busy working some puzzles at the big table, I brought two large orange acorn squashes, a bowl of nuts, some cockle shells that V's family gifted us with last year, some pine cones and our wooden animals to the big rug and began creating a little scene: the squashes were placed upside-down like houses, the nuts were lined up to become the borders of paths, the animals situated randomly amongst these items. The children finished their work and came close. "What do you think you could do with these things?" I asked them. Here's what unfolded:
V decided to make a 'river' with some rectangular blue blocks.
V: Ducks are eating a pine cone.
T: Ducks can go underwater and get things out of the ground too.
V: And they're eating in the water.. They're dunking their heads down in the water. I'm pretending they are.
B placed some almonds near the squirrel. The materials were rearranged to suit the children's vision. V uses a pine cone to "play catch" with the dog. Dollhouse people are brought into the story. T's boy doll is "Watching the ducks--just like the football game--that's the name of our football (team)."
V tells us that "when it's nighttime, people can eat out of these pumpkins (the squashes)." There is some discussion if the squashes should be eaten.
At this point, the play turned to using the cone puzzle for 'ice cream' play, and they used the nuts for 'money' to pay the ice cream seller.
This Tuesday and Thursday, construction was a big focus. We read "Truck Driver Tom" and I brought out two large pieces of cardboard, with the suggestion that these pieces might be used to build bridges or ramps for our cars. V and T jumped right into experimenting: T with a ramp, V with a bridge. First, the smaller colored blocks were used to support and modify the bridge and ramp, but the children noticed that they were moving around too much. I suggested they try using the heavier wooden blocks instead, and once this switch in materials was made, their work began to see some success. "These blocks are much stronger' observed V. She built a bridge with support on both ends (stacks of blocks, like legs of a table, plus large round cylinder blocks for central support) and ramps on both sides. T built a ramp with a little "jump" at the bottom. The children also did a lot of trial-and-error work to see how to get the slightly wider cars to go down the narrow ramps on V's bridge. (During this time, B was happy cooking up food in the little kitchen and brought V some toast while she worked.) When the children revisited this activity on Thursday, the bridge construction went more quickly and blocks were placed on the ends of the bridge, near the ramp, as "gates", V told me. T chimed in-"Yeah, so you don't just fall off the sides." During this time, B built a "house for the people", and situated a dollhouse mom and girl on a few of the blocks.
We also created sailboats on Thursday, with plastic containers, plasticine, paper and a chopstick for a mast. We took turns floating each of them in our large tub of water, and we sat around the tub, blowing on the sail to make the boat go where we wanted it to. Then, we stuck some plasticine (that's modeling clay, which is great because it doesn't fall apart in water) to the bottom of some apple juice containers to keep them floating upright, and marked the water line when the containers were empty. After this began the fun task of 'loading' our bobbing boats up with marbles, glass 'gems', and beach stones, all the while observing the gradually-sinking water mark. Finally, our boats were so loaded up that they sank, sending up big air bubbles which really excited the children.
Last Thursday, we had a fun time re-reading "All the Colors We Are" by Katie Kissinger. This book discusses how our skin gets its color: from our parents and ancestors, from whether they lived in warm and sunny or cooler and less sunny places, and from melanin. (This is one of those fantastic teacher resource books and is a great way to teach simple facts about differences in skin color in a positive way.) Then we created a new page for our books: we used paint samples and a mirror to help each child find colors that matched their skin, lips and eyes. We noticed that all the skin tones were shades of brown, too, and after we selected the colors which best matched, I read the name of each color printed on the back of the sample: "Cave Painting", "Fortune's Prize" and "Antoinette Pink" were the titles of the 'skin' colors they'd chosen. Other fun names were enjoyed, and the children came up with some of their own names: V liked "ice cream cupcake" to describe her brown eyes; T liked "construction paper blue" for his. This Wednesday, we read Lois Ehlert's "Hands" and then traced our own hands, coloring them in, and I asked the children what they liked to do with their hands and wrote these short answers down.
Some other things we've been doing:
Fingerpainting in trays, with fingers and wooden popsicle sticks; we made some 'prints' of their work for fun, and had the big tub full of soapy water for washing hands and trays.
Car track painting this Tuesday, which morphed into some fingerpainting.
Digging out a 'river' in the sandbox, using a piece of wood for a 'bridge', and sailing our little boat in the sandy water.
Pattern blocks: B declares a trapezoid to be a 'slide', then balances a skinny white diamond block onto a blue diamond block. "and I make two slides". B uses all of the pattern blocks vertically, standing them up and placing them as she liked. T created his "houses" again, using trapezoids for roofs and squares for the lower parts. "Like my four houses?" he asked. V worked a pattern all by herself, starting in the middle and finding places for pieces to fit in the negative spaces of what she's already created.
Body Play: Singing the "Hokey Pokey"; we are talking about our hips, elbows, knees, and some of those trickier parts: thighs and calves, ankles and wrists. I drew a huge person and the children were happy to "run to the ears! Run to the tummy!" Taking turns to call out the directions or run, either way it was fun and we've learned a few more words to describe places on our body.
Our neighbor's eaves are home to a robin's nest. We took a peek at it one morning, and when we only spied a tail, re-read Lois Ehlert's "Pie in the Sky" to see that just like in the book, there are eggs in the nest and sometimes, the tail is all we see of Mama Robin.
B and V dancing together, first on the rug, then in the kitchen so that the rug can be used for block play. Then they join T and become engaged in helping to build a 'skatepark'. B sets up a little 'picnic' nearby on the floor, and V bridges the two activities by telling us "I'm a park dog".
"Oh, what would you like to ask me?" Preschool is a lovely place to keep practicing the good manners we will need throughout our lifetime. More and more often, as our growing children feel more confident in asserting themselves and their needs, they forget that there's a difference between asking for something and demanding it. I noticed that we were a little out of balance in this area when at snack time, a child held their hand in my face with a look of upset. "Oh, do you want to ask me for something?" I inquired; "Yes, can I have a napkin?" they answered. I am placing less emphasis on the 'please' part of this, and just focusing on helping the children think about getting from "I want" and "I need" to "May I please have" or "Could you..." I do notice, too, that their tone of voice changes when they move from demanding to requesting. If their request is made in a whining voice, I have them try it again in a "Friendly Voice". You can help your little ones at home develop these important habits by modeling this as much as possible and by giving them positive feedback when you like what you hear: "I really liked the friendly way you asked me for that glass of water"; or take a moment to help them: "Use your friendly voice, please", or "Let's try that again. What would you like to ask me?" Our children need our support and guidance as they learn to navigate social interaction in their world, and as parents it's often easier to just get them what they want instead of asking them to rephrase. So pick and choose your times for this practice, and do keep it up. When your child is readily asking for what they need in a friendly way, this will ease their upcoming transitions to new schools, teachers and friends in September.
Have a great weekend!
