Where Do You Live?

While preschool is a special place for a young child, your family home is by far their most beloved. You, their parents, are there, and this gives their life the stability it needs. You also provide some delightful moments for your child. We explored this at Morning Gathering, as we made a list of Things We Like to Do at Home:

V: I like to play dress up.
B: I like to play dress up too, just like V. I like to do cooking.
V: Me too.
T: I like to watch my mommy cook. I like to watch her make pancakes.
V: I like to help Mama make pancakes. (pause) I think I like to watch movies. I like to eat pancakes with whipped cream.
T: I like to cook by myself on my pretend stove.
B: I like to do painting.
V: Me too!
T: I really like to do painting too.
V: I like picking flowers in our backyard.

One of our special one-on-one moments I had with the children this week was working on pages for their books. I asked each child the color of their house, which everyone knew. Then we talked about, and recorded, their addresses and telephone numbers. Some children chose to use a glue stick to create 'houses' from cut-out rectangles, squares and trapezoids (this shape makes a great roof and it's always fun to have that word reintroduced!) to add to that page.  Cut-out paper shapes were added to make doors and windows for their houses. We've also been reading stories about the right kinds of homes for different animals, as well as people. Going on a walk, each child received a card with one letter and one number of their choice printed onto it for a hunt. We used the address numbers, license plates, street signs and more to find these symbols; this activity was focused primarily on letter/number reinforcement and also made them a little more aware of the labeling of addresses and streets. Some street corners even have letters and numbers set into the concrete in our neighborhood. Very novel!

The idea of homes was also explored through the continuation of Nest and Bird play in the backyard. Dried grasses are gathered into piles and collected up, redistributed around the play yard as 'nests', and little flight courses for the birds have been created in the moment. They play 'follow the leader', those wee little birdie children, with one child leading, "flying" around the Children's House, up onto a cedar round, back down and behind the plum tree house or back to their nests. They take turns being the adult and younger birds.

Much of our time over the last couple of weeks has been spent trying new-- and sometimes challenging-- activities. We've been spending time before Gathering to learn a very basic group game of dominoes, which primarily involves matching the shapes and building the dominoes onto each other. We do this with the pool of dominoes face-up, for everyone to use. We are using our Fruit Dominoes, so this sparks some fun conversations about fruits we like, too. On other days, we revisited our "Dice: Most and Least" game I mentioned in the last post. One day, we used paper plates to create an over/under weaving. This activity contained many facets : the children followed instructions; used scissors to cut the edge from the plate; traced a circle in the middle, using a metal canning lid and pencil; cut out the circle, on the lines, did over/under weaving, which was challenging- most especially regarding the tension of the yarn (we had a little help); colored the plates and added beads. We rarely do such direction-oriented projects, and the children present that day really rose to the occasion. The next day, we used yarn, beads and feathers to make a decoration to take home. The beading and feathers were easier, the knots more tricky and requiring assistance. The purpose of that activity was 1-to-1 correspondence. ("One feather goes into one bead" as opposed to random amounts of feathers in each bead.)

Artistic opportunities were offered as well. Sticky paper and construction paper squares were offered for a mosaic craft, which the children assembled as they pleased. T liked to place his in rows and columns, V's were a bit more random. Their process was narrated. V hummed "Happy Birthday" and then tells me "It's a rainbow pattern", then the children decided that the squares looked like pages in a book. "Once upon a time there was a million fairies and they were all girls" V 'read' to us. "Once upon a time there was a forest and an owl spied...." T began a story as they walked away from the table, holding their creations.

The big easel was offered; with the tempera paints, V painted " an ocean". Lately, some children are choosing not to take time at the easel as they have been busy with other kinds of play. Everyone is given an opportunity to enjoy the easel, but no one is forced to paint. We've done some print painting with random objects and some exciting pictures came out of this activity. We revisited the eyedroppers and used our long easel to work wax resist 'drippies' pictures; two children worked on these independently and all three joined in for a group work, which was exciting to the children, especially when the paint 'jumped' over some big white patches of crayon which are relatively invisible. Play dough was offered as well. A few letters made it into friends' mailboxes, and watercolors were available too.

Some other moments from our time together:

Lots of circle play on the rug. The children sing songs as they go around, arms spread out: "Airplane Airplane go so fast, Don't fall into the air blast crash!" and all fall down. "Ring Around the Rosy", "The Earth Goes Around the Sun" and a made up songs about "Butterfly Butterfly Fly so High" which always seems to have new words in each singing of the song.

House play extends to the rug: B and V; B is the mom, V is the little girl. B makes pancakes for V. They decide they "are cold". B wears an apron as a shawl tied about her shoulders and V wears a silk scarf tied around her middle, which she dubs "a warm up thing". V then "practices" her dancing and brings out instruments.

T and B building with the magnetic blocks. "I'm building a skate park" says T. B says "I'm not building a skate park,  but I'm playing." She makes a car with three seats.

V builds a Princess Castle with blocks, then she and B dance next to it. They are Dancing Princesses.

The silliest play dough time ever! This started out with cutting pieces of the dough with scissors, "bake in the oven" says V, baking a 'cake'. T makes a game. "If the ball (of play dough) goes across and it can't go into the sharks and this (the scissors) will eat it up". He has two pieces of play dough connected with a 'bridge'. V imitates this. The balls are very dramatic as they meet the fate of the scissors. "Oh no, I got snipped!" cries V in a silly voice, pretending to be the ball of dough. "Whoa! Whoa! I'm gonna be eaten!" hollers T.

B: Which ice cream to you want?
V: Cinderella. (pretends to eat. They both giggle.)

We created an outfit for our paper dolls, which went home. If any parents feel like expanding on that play at home, please let me know and I can provide some easy tips.

Outdoors, carrots have been planted. The children were inspired afterward to play "going to a plant festival", pretending to plant 'seeds' in 'pots' in the sandbox. Containers are the  pots, stones are the seeds and sticks are the plants. Watering cans came out and all of the 'plants' were watered liberally!

More fun next week as we explore the creepy, crawly, wiggly world of bugs!

Kids!

Sometimes, there is nothing more interesting to our children than other kids.

At our Morning Gathering last week, I introduced "Kids", a book by Catherine and Laurence Anholt. (Their books are wonderful. We've also enjoyed another of theirs called "What Makes Me Happy", which has really opened up our conversations around this topic.) Your children are, by turns, thoughtful, serious, gleeful and goofy, frustrated and then delighted when a solution is found to end the frustration. They watch each other carefully, direct each other in their play, and strive to master the challenges in life by play-acting those situations regularly.

Playing school is happening each day now. V or B will start the game by handing out instruments and leading the group through their version of Morning Gathering. As it has been our school ritual, now it becomes theirs. The "Hello Song" is now sung repeatedly through the day, at the onset of a child assuming the 'teacher' role. Then, many directions are given. V regularly addresses her class as "You kids" and the 'teachers' enjoy handing objects to the other children to use as they are directed. There are many variations on this theme: V leads the group through our "Weekend Song"; B 'reads' them a story; B brings the bowl of nuts to the "Gathering" she's leading, and shows the group how to "crack them" by hitting one on the other; V follows this theme, but instead instructs the group in a sorting nuts exercise: "Find two (which) are the same". And they do. (It's always a little odd to have to interrupt the 'teacher' to move on to our next transition, so this is done respectfully, of course!)

The Housekeeping area is also one where roles of adult/child are explored. In the little restaurant, everyone played together. T sat down at the table-- he was "a customer and a daddy", V was 'the kid' and also sitting with her 'father' while B was 'the kid and the cooker'. Daily, V and B play "being the mama and the girl", dressing up in scarves and necklaces, usually making something interesting to eat in the little kitchen or walking through the kitchen to some imaginary adventure.

Collaborative work goes on too. Outdoors, the children take turns being the snapping crocodile for their "Crocodile Chase". Our big piece of convex driftwood has curves perfect for using it as a catapult: the children regularly help each other situate the board on just the right part of the grass so it's at its most tippy, and then pine cones are placed on it--some have soared as high as the top of the children's house. We had a group discussion about why pine cones were the best materials for this instead of rocks or sticks and all agreed that no one wants to be hit with by a flying rock or stick, but the pine cones were light and soft enough that they were safe. We also went on a Collection Collage walk around the neighborhood: anything from nature that was on the ground was allowed for collection. We found some hyacinth flowers another child had discarded and gathered those up, a mass of pine cones big and small, some sticks, fallen mosses and lichens, and of course dandelions were allowed for picking. Then we went back to school, where an artistic assemblage was made; sticks framed the top borders of the collage, rocks from school and the collection bag were added in too. Borders for the collage were made by placing pine cones in a line at the bottom of the work and it was done.

As mentioned earlier, we are also talking a bit about feelings. Everyone has them and it's important to name them well: one parent recently pointed out to me that sometimes kids label their sad feelings as being 'mad', and this is true. These discussions were kept very light and grounded in "If You're Happy and You Know It", with some verses added. "If you're sad and you know it, you can cry-- Boo hoo" "If you're frustrated and you know it, ask for help--Help please!" "If you're mad and you know it you can growl--Grrrr Grrr" (not what we suggest when we're really upset, but this was more about the feeling of being upset). Later, I sat with each of the children to work on a page for their books. "I feel X when...." and they filled in the rest. Here are a few of their answers:

"I feel happy when I go to a swimming pool. I feel proud when I go to school." --V
"I feel proud when I run around and skateboard (I love to skateboard!); maybe when the wind is out and I can fly a kite but I don't have one. I feel happy when I have some milk; mommy snuggles me; somebody plays with me."--T
"I feel happy when I go to the bee's castle. I feel sad when I go to get my glasses fixed and my daddy comes. Because I don't want to wear my glasses."--B

We are also working on paper dolls. The template for the body is a little cartoony, but the faces were drawn under each child's direction, and the rest is their own creation. We'll be working on clothes for their little dolls over the next weeks. I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of dresses and skate park clothes!

We hope you Moms enjoyed your Mother's Day gifts! The children each scented the foot soak salts themselves, and the stencils were something new for our group. I really enjoyed writing down each child's appreciation for their mothers. You all do a wonderful job as parents in supporting your children, and I so appreciate it too!

On the big rug, the squashes, nuts, rocks and shells were brought out again to make a simple park for the wooden animals. V and T immediately brought blocks into the play to make gates "so the animals can't run away" (T). V then was concerned that the animals will 'jump over' so higher gates are added. J was visiting and commented "So animals can't jump over the moons", to which T replied "But cows can jump over the moon. Just kidding!" Later, T added ramps to the park so that nuts could be rolled down into it.

Some more moments from our time together:


At Morning Gathering, while we waited for friends, each child was given a die. We all rolled them, then counted to see which dice showed the "most" and the "least". More and Less are newer concepts, so we are beginning to give language and concrete examples for this.

An Inside/Outside collage was created this week, and hangs in the window of the school door. A yarn rectangle was placed on the sticky paper first and the children were given scissors and materials for filling in the space "inside" the yard. Then, they were given sequins to place "outside" that yarn border. (By the way, 'sequins' sounds a lot like the game "Sequence" and there was much discussion about this. Ah, homonyms!)

V used pattern blocks to make another "all around" pattern, and is beginning to count out how many of each she will need from the basket of blocks before assembling them into her work.

We are now playing our Animal Babies game as a Memory type game. Big fun!

We constructed boats out of foil and filled these up with stones too, to see if the long broad boats would sink slower or faster than the container boats. They sank at the same rate, but we did notice that the broad boats tended to list to one side, being sunk more my taking on water at one side than the weight itself.

Straws were brought out for some scissors work; straw-piece necklaces and bracelets went home.

An interesting conversation was sparked by T's question "How does the food make our body strong?" This was a perfect invitation to talk about villi, "They are part of your small intestine, and they're like little fingers, grabbing all the good parts of the food and they help it to go into your blood.The rest is waste and comes out the other end, because your body doesn't need it." After a quick sketch of villi, we looked at a picture of the digestive system from a reference book.

Silly marble run play: T and V each built a marble run and after using their own creation, traded runs. Their marbles began to compete with the other marbles of their own 'teams'. (Each child had three marbles, so there were parallel competitions going on.) The children cheered their own marbles on, then each child's marble talked about winning, using silly voices. "We are faster than you guys!" "No you're not, I'm gonna block you!" (One child's marbles talking to each other. ) V tells T "Say 'no fair!'"

And one lovely idea: "We could go to the Milky Way and drink milk!"

Have a great weekend!