Sometimes there is nothing more interesting or satisfying than watching the birds and squirrels busy in the backyard. Tuesday morning, I scattered a few handfuls of mixed seed on the ground as the children came in, and we have been watching the activity all week, taking little breaks in play to check the scene out the back window. Lots of sweet little juncos are present, a chickadee or two, and we still see that nutty upside-down squirrel having a grand time devouring the suet we hung out on Tuesday afternoon. My favorite part is hearing the children yell to me: "Hazel, there's a big blue bird (scrub jay) on the feeder!" or "Come and see the birds! They're eating the food!" These conversations are full of exclamations and enthusiasm, and I love sharing something I love so much with the children.
On Tuesday morning we came together to sing about our weekends; these songs always seem to reveal what's memorable to the children, because we know that they often have a hard time recalling and sharing what happened even a couple of hours ago. V sang about going to playgroup; T "built a plane with mommy" and B "read a fancy-dancer book". Then we worked together to take apart a bird puzzle, identifying the parts of the bird (head, bill/beak, body, wing, tail feathers and feet) and then reassembled it in its frame. The children noticed, too, that the puzzle bird had "no neck", but that other birds like ducks and flamingos do have long necks. We played a game, reading Ruth Heller's "How to Hide a Parakeet", taking turns to find camouflaged birds hidden in their native habitats--the children very obviously enjoyed this. We also have some resin birds for them to play with and examine, nestled snugly in a bowl of mixed birdseed on the sharing table, too.
In keeping with our theme, I had told the children we were making birds, and they chose two different colors of paper; one, I traced their hands on, and the other was a bird stencil. Once these were cut out, the children were given clean feathers and paint to make their birds beautiful.The children noticed how the feathers changed shape as they became saturated with paint, and I observed that some children began to use them in a different way, dragging them over the paper instead of brushing the paint on.On Thursday, the children put their birds and hand/wings together with fasteners and some real fun began! Our scarves became nests on the big rug, pattern blocks became bird food; V and B played having "tea" with their birdies, then told me they were "having a picnic and a sleepover". The tea turned into a full-blown affair, with the entire contents of the little kitchen arranged picnic-style on the scarves. T moved in and out of the play, and also experimented with using his bird like a paper airplane and flying it around the room. "I wish it had a remote control. Then it could really fly!"
We also did some triangle study on Wednesday, making triangles with our bodies at Gathering (three children holding hands is a triangle!), putting together our Big Barn puzzle to find and count the triangles hidden in the doors of the hayloft, and during our walk to see the big kiwi vine (complete with orbs of frostbitten kiwi still attached), we looked around for the triangles on houses. While we found many pointed rooftops, V also observed that the sword ferns were full of triangles. I also offered some cards which showed how we can use four of our small pattern block triangles to make one big one.
One of our big delights this week was playing with water and ice in the big bin. We started with warm water, and a tray of ice cubes, placed in a couple separate containers for the children to add in as they desired. Long handled slotted spoons were offered. T and V held the ice in the spoons over the water and told me they were "roasting marshmallows", while B decided that she was "fishing". Two questions and their responses:
Hazel: Is the ice as big as it was when you first put it in the water?
T: It's kind of getting smaller.
V: (reaching into her spoon) I don't feel any.
Hazel: What happened to the ice?
B: It's getting smaller now.
V: I think it all melted.
T: But this is warm water.
V: The ice needs to have cold water.
Isn't science fun?
A few more moments from our week:
We had a great idea come up at Gathering on Tuesday: what if we wore our pajamas to school? The kids thought this was a grand idea, but were a little confused as to the 'when' of it. On Wednesday, they loved helping to make backpack tags for this event. So don't forget-- next Wednesday the 8th is Pajama Day!
T, B and V gathered together on the big rug. T has the cone puzzle in front of him assembles "ice cream cones" for his friends.
B sits, cutting strips of paper happily as we practice using our scissors.
Big tea parties this week with alphabet cookies, horse chestnuts, tongs, spatulas and trays upon trays of goodies.
V and T have another skate park creation, which B later joins. Cars are used as skateboards. T and V tell me all about it~
T: We had cars.
V: And then we had white things. (Block boards.)
T: And then you go through an arrow and jump up.
V: And then you then you jump across the rug.
T: And then you know what we did? We goed in the dirt and got mud all over us.
V: And then we went through a wash-through (car wash) with water!
Lively dancing with felt snowflakes as we sing the "Snowflakes, Soft Snowflakes" song, and boisterous clapping as we sang "Eliza Jane", rolling a ball back and forth to each other while singing a verse with each child's name.
T brought a sweet 'treasure hunt' type book called "Pip in the Grand Hotel" that we all enjoyed. Thanks for sharing it with us!
We have some new daily jobs for our special helper board. Folding clean place mats, being a helper with coats for our time outdoors and picking out a book for storytime. Some are for skill building, and some just for fun.
Our playdough time was a delight, too. I flattened a piece down and counted out to twenty, while pressing a dowel end into the dough to make circles. "What could go here?" I wondered aloud. B took up the idea. "Here's two little snakes" she said, passing them to me. V began her own twenty circles and T contributed more snakes, B, another rock and it all ended up with endless birthday parties, once again!
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Let it (sort of) Snow
Tuesday surprised us all with a nice dusting of snow on the ground and the coldest weather we've seen this season, which delayed our morning start. Since our Gathering Time is so important, we started our day instead with some playdough, rolling big balls to make snowmen and using the patterned rolling pins to create lines, which were furrows for "a farm"; V and I spent several minutes rolling tiny balls to place on the furrows as seeds. A little bit of a backward day, once everyone arrived, we had our snack a bit early and then rounded up for the Gathering, where we made up some little stories and counted bears as we moved them back and forth from their cabin, the snowy meadow, the frozen lake and the pine tree forest. Reading a book on weather, I showed the children a picture of a snowed-in town and asked them "what happens when there's too much snow". Everyone agreed that "cars can't go" and V added that "everything is white". What do you like on a cold day? B: "I like to play on snow days." V: "I like to eat snow on cold days" and T said "I really like to play in the snow". Afterward, the children were given paper snowflakes with holes and a length of yarn for lacing; T liked to loop his around his neck and announced it was a guitar, V followed suit.
This week, our water play bin was open, and we added color on both days, a straightforward blue on Tuesday and a mix of red and green, which the children decided looked more purple than brown. Our marble run pieces are still out and available. B connected many of the support tubes together then declared "Look at this big tower I made for the princess!" T and V spent a lot of time, trying out pieces to see if they connected and observing to figure out how they worked together.
Over in our little housekeeping area, the Alphabet Cookie play continues. I offered the puzzle frame to load the cookies onto, and T announced "Coming in for landing" as he placed the letters into their rightful places. B worked to get them back out of the frame and into her kitchen, and offered me a tray of them, correctly identifying several letters. The children came together at a few different times in this area, spreading trays all over the little kitchen, an extra stool serving as another counter, and used tongs and spatulas to distribute both cookies and horse chestnuts to all. In keeping with our letter-recognition, we played our Name Game at Wednesday Gathering, but in a new way; this time, the children were asked to choose 3 letters each from a pool of all the letters before receiving their name cards to match them on. It's apparent that the letters of our names are becoming a little more familiar, as only two letters of the entire group weren't correct matches. We finished out our cards, still working both on matching the letters as well as correct orientation.
Speaking of letters, we had some time on Wednesday to work with the stamp pads on pieces of paper cut specifically to accommodate the little mailboxes. B and V decided spontaneously that they wanted to mail their artwork home to their mothers instead of taking it via backpack, which T was very proud to do. He later confided this to a neighbor, that he "liked to take it home in my backpack for my mommy today", on our walk to the big mailbox. The girls enjoyed picking out a pine cone stamp and licking/sealing their envelopes. Our walk was a brisk one, but we did spy the neighbor, out chopping wood, and a lone hummingbird, visiting the fuchsia's near 47th. "Do you think the nectar in the flowers is frozen?" I asked, and there was a unanimous "yes".
Other outdoor activities this week included setting out more suet and water for the birdies (we are now seeing goldfinches, along with juncos, sparrows, a scrub jay and one fat flicker) and watching the acrobatic antics of a squirrel or two. We observed how the bigger animals knocked suet crumbs onto the ground and how the smaller birds, chased away from the suet cage by those larger creatures, ate the crumbs in relative peace. We also noticed that the birds don't visit when we are close by, but if we stand over by the gate or are inside, they'll stick around. Ice was a big attraction, too; the tarp over the sandbox had collected puddles which then froze, as did the water in the bottom of the ball bucket. The patterns in that ice were fascinating, taking the shapes of the different knobbly and patterned surfaces of the balls; it was fun matching 'which ball?' to the icy patterns.The children liked to drop and break pieces of the ice, and used sticks to 'write' in the snow that had accumulated on the rounds. We also noticed how our breath makes steam, although the children still confuse it for "smoke".
A quiet little week--here are a few more moments:
Painting at the big easel~ V says "This is a picture of a beach with blue water and red sand because there is no yellow". All the children sit around, watching her paint. Later at the easel, T continues the theme. "I'm making a big beach with lots of water. See the water?"
Playing "Doggie Doggie Where's Your Bone?" on Tuesday, all the children imitating panting, cute dogs.
We had the wood fire ablaze on Wednesday, and moved our Popcorn and Pears Picnic to the big rug. The children giggled as we sang "Way up High in the Apple Tree", shaking down apples, pears, lemons ("oooh! they were sour!") and kiwis, for which we adjusted the song to become "Way up high on the kiwi vine tree". Later, we read "Katy and the Big Snow" while playing with lacing cards.
T and B, then T and V, working with the nuts and bolts puzzles; T creating another game with his bolt, a couple nuts and some blocks.
All in a row: sometimes we have a series of nonsequitors that arise spontaneously. We were listening to some old Miles Davis, and listening to the sounds of the different instruments. The children identified a piano (which started us off, I'm sure) a horn, and drums. T starts us off: "The piano flied out of my house because I left the door open. So then I got a new piano, but the new one was yucky So I got another one and it was the same." This was followed by V announcing "Itsy Bitsy Spider!" and then B following up with an excited series of "Ta Da! Ta Da! Ta Da!"
As I said, a quiet week. As we sang our farewell song on Wednesday, I asked the children what they were glad and thankful for. T mentioned "skis" again, as he did last week. B, who loves to be the helper at lunchtime, brightly said "Lunch!" and V tickled my heart: "I am thank you (thankful) for school." I hope you have all had a happy Thanksgiving holiday and I'm looking forward to our next week of birds, triangles and so much more!
This week, our water play bin was open, and we added color on both days, a straightforward blue on Tuesday and a mix of red and green, which the children decided looked more purple than brown. Our marble run pieces are still out and available. B connected many of the support tubes together then declared "Look at this big tower I made for the princess!" T and V spent a lot of time, trying out pieces to see if they connected and observing to figure out how they worked together.
Over in our little housekeeping area, the Alphabet Cookie play continues. I offered the puzzle frame to load the cookies onto, and T announced "Coming in for landing" as he placed the letters into their rightful places. B worked to get them back out of the frame and into her kitchen, and offered me a tray of them, correctly identifying several letters. The children came together at a few different times in this area, spreading trays all over the little kitchen, an extra stool serving as another counter, and used tongs and spatulas to distribute both cookies and horse chestnuts to all. In keeping with our letter-recognition, we played our Name Game at Wednesday Gathering, but in a new way; this time, the children were asked to choose 3 letters each from a pool of all the letters before receiving their name cards to match them on. It's apparent that the letters of our names are becoming a little more familiar, as only two letters of the entire group weren't correct matches. We finished out our cards, still working both on matching the letters as well as correct orientation.
Speaking of letters, we had some time on Wednesday to work with the stamp pads on pieces of paper cut specifically to accommodate the little mailboxes. B and V decided spontaneously that they wanted to mail their artwork home to their mothers instead of taking it via backpack, which T was very proud to do. He later confided this to a neighbor, that he "liked to take it home in my backpack for my mommy today", on our walk to the big mailbox. The girls enjoyed picking out a pine cone stamp and licking/sealing their envelopes. Our walk was a brisk one, but we did spy the neighbor, out chopping wood, and a lone hummingbird, visiting the fuchsia's near 47th. "Do you think the nectar in the flowers is frozen?" I asked, and there was a unanimous "yes".
Other outdoor activities this week included setting out more suet and water for the birdies (we are now seeing goldfinches, along with juncos, sparrows, a scrub jay and one fat flicker) and watching the acrobatic antics of a squirrel or two. We observed how the bigger animals knocked suet crumbs onto the ground and how the smaller birds, chased away from the suet cage by those larger creatures, ate the crumbs in relative peace. We also noticed that the birds don't visit when we are close by, but if we stand over by the gate or are inside, they'll stick around. Ice was a big attraction, too; the tarp over the sandbox had collected puddles which then froze, as did the water in the bottom of the ball bucket. The patterns in that ice were fascinating, taking the shapes of the different knobbly and patterned surfaces of the balls; it was fun matching 'which ball?' to the icy patterns.The children liked to drop and break pieces of the ice, and used sticks to 'write' in the snow that had accumulated on the rounds. We also noticed how our breath makes steam, although the children still confuse it for "smoke".
A quiet little week--here are a few more moments:
Painting at the big easel~ V says "This is a picture of a beach with blue water and red sand because there is no yellow". All the children sit around, watching her paint. Later at the easel, T continues the theme. "I'm making a big beach with lots of water. See the water?"
Playing "Doggie Doggie Where's Your Bone?" on Tuesday, all the children imitating panting, cute dogs.
We had the wood fire ablaze on Wednesday, and moved our Popcorn and Pears Picnic to the big rug. The children giggled as we sang "Way up High in the Apple Tree", shaking down apples, pears, lemons ("oooh! they were sour!") and kiwis, for which we adjusted the song to become "Way up high on the kiwi vine tree". Later, we read "Katy and the Big Snow" while playing with lacing cards.
T and B, then T and V, working with the nuts and bolts puzzles; T creating another game with his bolt, a couple nuts and some blocks.
All in a row: sometimes we have a series of nonsequitors that arise spontaneously. We were listening to some old Miles Davis, and listening to the sounds of the different instruments. The children identified a piano (which started us off, I'm sure) a horn, and drums. T starts us off: "The piano flied out of my house because I left the door open. So then I got a new piano, but the new one was yucky So I got another one and it was the same." This was followed by V announcing "Itsy Bitsy Spider!" and then B following up with an excited series of "Ta Da! Ta Da! Ta Da!"
As I said, a quiet week. As we sang our farewell song on Wednesday, I asked the children what they were glad and thankful for. T mentioned "skis" again, as he did last week. B, who loves to be the helper at lunchtime, brightly said "Lunch!" and V tickled my heart: "I am thank you (thankful) for school." I hope you have all had a happy Thanksgiving holiday and I'm looking forward to our next week of birds, triangles and so much more!
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Cozy Days are Here
Thank you, dear families, for your flexibility in moving our week back one day. Hopefully we are past the worst of this cold and flu season!
Sometimes, in the quiet after school, I find myself marveling at all that has taken place during the day: how much the children are learning in so many realms--physical, cognitive, social--and the progress I see; how their questions keep becoming more interesting and in-depth, and frankly, how much I enjoy spending time with this group, each child very unique in themselves as well as their contribution to the group.
So now, an hour or so after the children have left, I want to share a lovely moment with you: this afternoon, a rosy fire glowing in the wood stove, your children were so engaged in their own activities that all I could hear was the ceiling fan whirring round. B, content on the rug near the puzzle and manipulatives shelf, lost in concentration working a cord through holes in a horse lacing card. V, sitting at our group activity, a collage on sticky paper, focused solely on the scissors in her hand and some magenta curling ribbon. And T, working silently at what he calls 'the tangled book', which is a skill-building quiet book: he was poking laces through holes in a 'shoe' and tying them into tiny knots between holes. This quiet, cozy afternoon time lasted for about four minutes before the children came together again, but it reminded me how much a well-fed, well-exercised child can get lost in playing.
It's been a busy week for your children. We are moving into thinking about winter, how the weather affects the animals around us as well as the neighborhood itself. On Thursday I shared one of our family winter traditions with your children,:we planted paperwhite bulbs, filling up glass jars with pebbles and water, then placing a brown paperwhite bulb on top. We are looking forward to watching their roots emerge and the shoots growing green and tall, eventually to be crowned with those white, star-shaped flowers. Today, our time outside was pushed earlier, after our Popcorn Picnic snack time, so that we could get out before the storms came. While we did get rained on, the children thoroughly enjoyed several rounds of "Hide the Shoe", which is very challenging right now, as the leaves falling from the grapevines are of similar colors. These leaves also reminded the children of umbrellas (with their stem) and butterflies (without) and the children played an informal game of chase with their butterflies. You have never heard such gleeful shrieking! Later, we took a walk down the block and checked the storm drains, clearing leaves with a turning fork from one of them to ward off the development of "Lake Flanders", the giant puddle that can form at that intersection which is a neighborhood low point. We talked about how leaves can become a plug, just like they have in their drain at bath time.
Another cozy moment was on the rug, all the children engaged in experimenting with the marble run. It's fascinating to me how some children like to just run a marble from the top to the bottom of a single piece of track, or to rock that piece back and forth with the marble going along, while others are becoming more interested in building. Identifying the purposes of certain pieces and their names is of interest; the support tubes are hugely popular for making "old man sticks" (this was V) and just putting them together for long, long pieces and rolling the marbles through them or trying to stand them up. (Interestingly, one child suggested the tubes together "looked like a sword, but we don't play swords at school". It's never come up before, but no, we don't!) Our dollhouse was set up on the large school table, too, and B spent quite a while having her dollies go in and out through the doorways before moving over to the marble play.
On Thursday, the weather was decidedly uncooperative, and so we played "Doggie Doggie, Where's Your Bone?", a group game that involves one "dog" who must suss out who is hiding the "bone" in their hands. Because there was so much disappointment around missing Hide the Shoe, we played an indoor version of Hide the Slinky; here I have to say that your children are getting very crafty at finding hiding places. We also did some play acting again. Here are their stories, as they told them to me.
B: A girl and a mommy and Sophie and a daddy. they play with B with her toys. B will tell the story about the bears in it with the girl and the mommy and Sophie and the daddy.
V:Once upon a time there was V and B and T doing a spiderweb in the kitchen and T and B and V are going to be the spiders. (perhaps recalling our first episode of play-acting?)
T: Once upon a time there was a B and V and V and they were kitties. They played with some kitten things.
The imagination of these stories was only trumped by the hilarity of today's Morning Gathering discussion. We read a book called "Thank You, Thanksgiving" about a child who is sent off to buy the whipping cream for Thanksgiving dinner dessert. Along the way to the store through the park, she thanks everything she notices. We talked along through the story about what she might have appreciated about the things she was thanking. (pretty clouds. rabbits, snowy hills) Afterward, I asked the children what they might be thankful for. V replied "I am thank you (thankful) for Christmas is coming soon." T seconded that idea, then added that he was "thankful for skis". V decided to support this statement too, then added, "but I don't never use skis before".
Other sweet, busy moments:
Fingerpainting! On Wednesday, everyone had a chance to fingerpaint. B used her fingers, T used the tools available, choosing a popsicle stick and a fork to mix the colors and make big/skinny lines. V did two pictures, one with fingers and one with all sorts of tools. Big fun.
Cutting folded origami paper for "snowflakes". All the children got very busy, practicing their cutting with each other at the big table. V chose some paper the same color as her friend. "T, I'm having green too", to which he replied "Oh, what a treat!"
B, scooping rice in the bin: "I'm making a cake and it's hot!" Later, she and T sit and work on the large wooden Nuts and Bolts toys. T uses his bolt to knock a puck-shaped Nut around, and blocks become the 'goal'. B sits and watches, happily threading and removing a few Nuts on the other Bolt.
All the children spreading cream cheese or butter on bagels for snacktime. Hard work, figuring out how to hold the bagel and use the knife to spread.
Poring over a nature book's illustrations: V had proposed that it would be neat if "your sweatshirt came from a flower". When I mentioned that it was made of cotton, which was a flower, we had to check out the book. No pictures of cotton, but we got out a few cotton balls to show how cotton is spun into thread, and enjoyed looking at flax flowers as well as more familiar herbs like rosemary, sage and lavender.
B, coloring. What are you making? I ask. Her reply: "Breakfast!"
The big easel with blue, white and black paint. Amazing how their techniques differ. Their stories and various observed techniques will go home with pictures next week.
Morning Gathering on Wednesday. We are singing a new version of "Mary Wore A Red Dress" which instead recounts what they remember from their days off school. B wanted to sing about falling on the sidewalk, T shared how he bit his lip and V "ate mac-n-cheese at a restaurant with daddy".
I'll be interested to hear what happens on our off-days next Tuesday. Have a great weekend!
Sometimes, in the quiet after school, I find myself marveling at all that has taken place during the day: how much the children are learning in so many realms--physical, cognitive, social--and the progress I see; how their questions keep becoming more interesting and in-depth, and frankly, how much I enjoy spending time with this group, each child very unique in themselves as well as their contribution to the group.
So now, an hour or so after the children have left, I want to share a lovely moment with you: this afternoon, a rosy fire glowing in the wood stove, your children were so engaged in their own activities that all I could hear was the ceiling fan whirring round. B, content on the rug near the puzzle and manipulatives shelf, lost in concentration working a cord through holes in a horse lacing card. V, sitting at our group activity, a collage on sticky paper, focused solely on the scissors in her hand and some magenta curling ribbon. And T, working silently at what he calls 'the tangled book', which is a skill-building quiet book: he was poking laces through holes in a 'shoe' and tying them into tiny knots between holes. This quiet, cozy afternoon time lasted for about four minutes before the children came together again, but it reminded me how much a well-fed, well-exercised child can get lost in playing.
It's been a busy week for your children. We are moving into thinking about winter, how the weather affects the animals around us as well as the neighborhood itself. On Thursday I shared one of our family winter traditions with your children,:we planted paperwhite bulbs, filling up glass jars with pebbles and water, then placing a brown paperwhite bulb on top. We are looking forward to watching their roots emerge and the shoots growing green and tall, eventually to be crowned with those white, star-shaped flowers. Today, our time outside was pushed earlier, after our Popcorn Picnic snack time, so that we could get out before the storms came. While we did get rained on, the children thoroughly enjoyed several rounds of "Hide the Shoe", which is very challenging right now, as the leaves falling from the grapevines are of similar colors. These leaves also reminded the children of umbrellas (with their stem) and butterflies (without) and the children played an informal game of chase with their butterflies. You have never heard such gleeful shrieking! Later, we took a walk down the block and checked the storm drains, clearing leaves with a turning fork from one of them to ward off the development of "Lake Flanders", the giant puddle that can form at that intersection which is a neighborhood low point. We talked about how leaves can become a plug, just like they have in their drain at bath time.
Another cozy moment was on the rug, all the children engaged in experimenting with the marble run. It's fascinating to me how some children like to just run a marble from the top to the bottom of a single piece of track, or to rock that piece back and forth with the marble going along, while others are becoming more interested in building. Identifying the purposes of certain pieces and their names is of interest; the support tubes are hugely popular for making "old man sticks" (this was V) and just putting them together for long, long pieces and rolling the marbles through them or trying to stand them up. (Interestingly, one child suggested the tubes together "looked like a sword, but we don't play swords at school". It's never come up before, but no, we don't!) Our dollhouse was set up on the large school table, too, and B spent quite a while having her dollies go in and out through the doorways before moving over to the marble play.
On Thursday, the weather was decidedly uncooperative, and so we played "Doggie Doggie, Where's Your Bone?", a group game that involves one "dog" who must suss out who is hiding the "bone" in their hands. Because there was so much disappointment around missing Hide the Shoe, we played an indoor version of Hide the Slinky; here I have to say that your children are getting very crafty at finding hiding places. We also did some play acting again. Here are their stories, as they told them to me.
B: A girl and a mommy and Sophie and a daddy. they play with B with her toys. B will tell the story about the bears in it with the girl and the mommy and Sophie and the daddy.
V:Once upon a time there was V and B and T doing a spiderweb in the kitchen and T and B and V are going to be the spiders. (perhaps recalling our first episode of play-acting?)
T: Once upon a time there was a B and V and V and they were kitties. They played with some kitten things.
The imagination of these stories was only trumped by the hilarity of today's Morning Gathering discussion. We read a book called "Thank You, Thanksgiving" about a child who is sent off to buy the whipping cream for Thanksgiving dinner dessert. Along the way to the store through the park, she thanks everything she notices. We talked along through the story about what she might have appreciated about the things she was thanking. (pretty clouds. rabbits, snowy hills) Afterward, I asked the children what they might be thankful for. V replied "I am thank you (thankful) for Christmas is coming soon." T seconded that idea, then added that he was "thankful for skis". V decided to support this statement too, then added, "but I don't never use skis before".
Other sweet, busy moments:
Fingerpainting! On Wednesday, everyone had a chance to fingerpaint. B used her fingers, T used the tools available, choosing a popsicle stick and a fork to mix the colors and make big/skinny lines. V did two pictures, one with fingers and one with all sorts of tools. Big fun.
Cutting folded origami paper for "snowflakes". All the children got very busy, practicing their cutting with each other at the big table. V chose some paper the same color as her friend. "T, I'm having green too", to which he replied "Oh, what a treat!"
B, scooping rice in the bin: "I'm making a cake and it's hot!" Later, she and T sit and work on the large wooden Nuts and Bolts toys. T uses his bolt to knock a puck-shaped Nut around, and blocks become the 'goal'. B sits and watches, happily threading and removing a few Nuts on the other Bolt.
All the children spreading cream cheese or butter on bagels for snacktime. Hard work, figuring out how to hold the bagel and use the knife to spread.
Poring over a nature book's illustrations: V had proposed that it would be neat if "your sweatshirt came from a flower". When I mentioned that it was made of cotton, which was a flower, we had to check out the book. No pictures of cotton, but we got out a few cotton balls to show how cotton is spun into thread, and enjoyed looking at flax flowers as well as more familiar herbs like rosemary, sage and lavender.
B, coloring. What are you making? I ask. Her reply: "Breakfast!"
The big easel with blue, white and black paint. Amazing how their techniques differ. Their stories and various observed techniques will go home with pictures next week.
Morning Gathering on Wednesday. We are singing a new version of "Mary Wore A Red Dress" which instead recounts what they remember from their days off school. B wanted to sing about falling on the sidewalk, T shared how he bit his lip and V "ate mac-n-cheese at a restaurant with daddy".
I'll be interested to hear what happens on our off-days next Tuesday. Have a great weekend!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Alphabet Cookies
This week found our housekeeping space transformed into a cookie bakery! We are using the large alphabet puzzle pieces as ‘cookies’ and together with a baking tray, tongs, a spatula and little plates, the children got right into our new cookie play. The tongs and spatula give the children another opportunity to work on their fine motor skills and when I offered a bag for the children to pack the cookies in, the counting play began as well. Here’s one scene:
B makes tea at the table. T is placing some of the cookies on the tray and puts them into the kitchen cupboard (which doubles as an oven). “Now we cook them for twelve minutes” he announces. B then counts out 10 cookies for a bag. Then B calls out to us “T, Hazel and V, I’m baking some cookies and they’re hot!”
I am calling attention to each letter of cookie I am ‘served’. If you decide to continue this play at your own house, keep it fun and remember that we are just introducing the names of each letter to the children. If we begin to quiz them about what they remember (other than a few letters in their name) they’ll often clam up and want to move on…
We also played a new Name Game at Gathering on Wednesday. This game goes as follows: each child is asked to recognize their name on a card I hold up. The child then receives the card and begins to match up letters from a pool of them on the floor. (All the letters in the pool belong to our names.) We then line up the letters either above or below the name on the printed card, taking care to orient them correctly. This can be tricky with some letters (e and l were noticeably challenging and took a few tries). Sometimes, too, some letters can become confused with other ones- a lower-case‘t’ and ‘r’ are a good case in point. We are focusing on names because these are the words that hold the most relevance to your children right now, and I’ve also been inviting the children to sign their letters to each other with their first initial.
At the easel, too, I drew big letters of each child’s first initial for the children to print-paint, using a tube and some corks. They’ll be bringing these cut-out letters home next week.
Play on the big carpet this week took on some new themes. We’ve been doing a lot of work on ‘skateboard parks’ recently, but when V was home sick on Tuesday, this prompted T to say “If V was here, I’d build a skateboard park. (With the magnetic blocks) Now what can I do?” I invited him look at the blocks and “see what you think they could make”. Two minutes later he presented a little car with three seats in a row: “This one is for the mama and this one is for the kid and this one is for the baby”. B joined T, making a car too, drove her car along the dark border of our rug, singing “I’m going around in circles! It’s going around in circles!” Then, of course, we did have to move into skate park play. B watched T build his park, arranging and then rearranging blocks, and then followed suit, lining up three blocks in a row, two inclined on the first block. T then imitated B’s work for his already-existent park.
On Wednesday, the block play continued: T and V were making rocket ships. The children began by using the colored blocks, and when they ran out of the sizes they needed, I reminded them of the shelves of unit blocks. T’s creation had “these yellow things are so there can’t get cold inside it. So it can lift off.” Then V and T talk about making an airport. Lots of discussion follows, and B builds “something to make chocolate things. I’m making a tall tower.”
A few more interesting moments from our week:
We worked with glue sticks at the table, making ‘leaf pictures’ by pasting lovely paper leaves onto paper. We’ll be sending this home soon. It was interesting to observe how some children were specific about putting a lot of glue onto a designated space while others ‘drew’ with the glue sticks.
At the big table this week: stamp pads and stamps; some children make ‘mail’ with this while others took their work home. Also, soapy fun as we ran our cars through the suds on top of the table. Lots of dramatic play conversation emerged from this.
Tongs and horse chestnuts at the little puzzle table. The children loaded the nuts into a plastic artists palate from a beautiful blue bowl. Just in case you want to do some of this sort of work at home, I’ve found wooden tongs at Finnegans for around $3. Your child may need a little help in positioning their hand on the tongs. (they tend to want to hold it up near the top instead of the center, and some children try using two hands to hold it; I ask them to place their second hand on the table or in their laps once their first hand is positioned correctly.) Puff balls, nuts, round stones are all great props for this activity. They can be pulled out/ put into bowls, egg cartons (place in is easier for this), Kleenex boxes, muffin tins, palates and more.
At the rice bin, T asked me for a cap to a container. I handed him three to try out (only one was correct, or so I thought) and another one worked. The kids are always teaching me too…
As I made a real cup of tea in a clear mug, we observed the sugar crystals as they were in the sugar bowl, at the bottom of the mug, and after stirring for a moment. Were they still there? Some were, and then, stirred again, they all dissolved. And the color changed when milk was added…interesting…Your house, too, is filled with ‘everyday’ teachable moments.
We had fun at our Tuesday Gathering, each of us with a wooden spindle of different shapes, onto which different shapes and amounts of pieces fit. All the pieces were in a pool on the rug, and as we chose our spindles, we fitted the pieces on, talking about the shapes as we went. We also read a great book entitled “Owl and Woodpecker”, about two forest creatures whose living habits cause conflict. What happens when a day-sleeping owl moves into the tree next to a noisy woodpecker? Can they resolve their disagreement and become friends? Even when their forest friends chime in and attempt to help, nature has it’s own way of bringing creatures together.
Next week, we’ll be moving into some Thanksgiving and giving-thanks stories and planting jars of paperwhite bulbs to observe. I’m looking forward to our time together. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you Tuesday!
B makes tea at the table. T is placing some of the cookies on the tray and puts them into the kitchen cupboard (which doubles as an oven). “Now we cook them for twelve minutes” he announces. B then counts out 10 cookies for a bag. Then B calls out to us “T, Hazel and V, I’m baking some cookies and they’re hot!”
I am calling attention to each letter of cookie I am ‘served’. If you decide to continue this play at your own house, keep it fun and remember that we are just introducing the names of each letter to the children. If we begin to quiz them about what they remember (other than a few letters in their name) they’ll often clam up and want to move on…
We also played a new Name Game at Gathering on Wednesday. This game goes as follows: each child is asked to recognize their name on a card I hold up. The child then receives the card and begins to match up letters from a pool of them on the floor. (All the letters in the pool belong to our names.) We then line up the letters either above or below the name on the printed card, taking care to orient them correctly. This can be tricky with some letters (e and l were noticeably challenging and took a few tries). Sometimes, too, some letters can become confused with other ones- a lower-case‘t’ and ‘r’ are a good case in point. We are focusing on names because these are the words that hold the most relevance to your children right now, and I’ve also been inviting the children to sign their letters to each other with their first initial.
At the easel, too, I drew big letters of each child’s first initial for the children to print-paint, using a tube and some corks. They’ll be bringing these cut-out letters home next week.
Play on the big carpet this week took on some new themes. We’ve been doing a lot of work on ‘skateboard parks’ recently, but when V was home sick on Tuesday, this prompted T to say “If V was here, I’d build a skateboard park. (With the magnetic blocks) Now what can I do?” I invited him look at the blocks and “see what you think they could make”. Two minutes later he presented a little car with three seats in a row: “This one is for the mama and this one is for the kid and this one is for the baby”. B joined T, making a car too, drove her car along the dark border of our rug, singing “I’m going around in circles! It’s going around in circles!” Then, of course, we did have to move into skate park play. B watched T build his park, arranging and then rearranging blocks, and then followed suit, lining up three blocks in a row, two inclined on the first block. T then imitated B’s work for his already-existent park.
On Wednesday, the block play continued: T and V were making rocket ships. The children began by using the colored blocks, and when they ran out of the sizes they needed, I reminded them of the shelves of unit blocks. T’s creation had “these yellow things are so there can’t get cold inside it. So it can lift off.” Then V and T talk about making an airport. Lots of discussion follows, and B builds “something to make chocolate things. I’m making a tall tower.”
A few more interesting moments from our week:
We worked with glue sticks at the table, making ‘leaf pictures’ by pasting lovely paper leaves onto paper. We’ll be sending this home soon. It was interesting to observe how some children were specific about putting a lot of glue onto a designated space while others ‘drew’ with the glue sticks.
At the big table this week: stamp pads and stamps; some children make ‘mail’ with this while others took their work home. Also, soapy fun as we ran our cars through the suds on top of the table. Lots of dramatic play conversation emerged from this.
Tongs and horse chestnuts at the little puzzle table. The children loaded the nuts into a plastic artists palate from a beautiful blue bowl. Just in case you want to do some of this sort of work at home, I’ve found wooden tongs at Finnegans for around $3. Your child may need a little help in positioning their hand on the tongs. (they tend to want to hold it up near the top instead of the center, and some children try using two hands to hold it; I ask them to place their second hand on the table or in their laps once their first hand is positioned correctly.) Puff balls, nuts, round stones are all great props for this activity. They can be pulled out/ put into bowls, egg cartons (place in is easier for this), Kleenex boxes, muffin tins, palates and more.
At the rice bin, T asked me for a cap to a container. I handed him three to try out (only one was correct, or so I thought) and another one worked. The kids are always teaching me too…
As I made a real cup of tea in a clear mug, we observed the sugar crystals as they were in the sugar bowl, at the bottom of the mug, and after stirring for a moment. Were they still there? Some were, and then, stirred again, they all dissolved. And the color changed when milk was added…interesting…Your house, too, is filled with ‘everyday’ teachable moments.
We had fun at our Tuesday Gathering, each of us with a wooden spindle of different shapes, onto which different shapes and amounts of pieces fit. All the pieces were in a pool on the rug, and as we chose our spindles, we fitted the pieces on, talking about the shapes as we went. We also read a great book entitled “Owl and Woodpecker”, about two forest creatures whose living habits cause conflict. What happens when a day-sleeping owl moves into the tree next to a noisy woodpecker? Can they resolve their disagreement and become friends? Even when their forest friends chime in and attempt to help, nature has it’s own way of bringing creatures together.
Next week, we’ll be moving into some Thanksgiving and giving-thanks stories and planting jars of paperwhite bulbs to observe. I’m looking forward to our time together. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you Tuesday!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Big and Little Mailboxes
Hello Families~ It was great to see each of you for our conferences this week. Our conversations gave me a more complete, well-rounded knowledge of each sweet, special child at our school. Thanks for your enthusiasm, great questions and most of all, thanks for coming!
Because this was a conference week, our group met just once on Tuesday--but what a busy day it was!
Morning Gathering found us all shaking maracas and clackers as we sang our "Hello Everybody" song, and then "Mary Wore a Red Dress", each child choosing an item they wore to sing about. Some of our conversation today was about how it is work to share space and toys, and to take turns, so we are learning how to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to help figure out such things like "who goes first" or whose ideas to play out first. Sometimes, our friends like to play with toys or to play a story differently than we might, and sometimes, even when we've really tried to work things out, we can still feel sad and mad. To this end, we have a new cozy space in the hallway, on a soft blanket with a few books and a basket of fine-motor activities. The children were very impressed with this new space, and one asked me later on if she could "use the little sitting room", she was so interested in trying it out.
We have brought out a little plastic mailbox to play with, for sending notes to each other. This is exactly what T and V got right into: creating 'notes' by scrawling blocks of color onto the small pieces of paper offered at the big school table, then popping them into the mailbox. B immediately asked for a "mail basket", so we dumped out the wooden animals and she got started with that, even moving her own school mailbox over into the housekeeping. T and V continued with the mailbox play, and B was wanting company at the tea party she'd set up. "I'm making tea for everybody" she told me, so I suggested that we send T and V an invitation, just like in the story of "Dandelion" by Don Freeman. I drew a big letter "B" and a teacup, then she folded it and put it in the mailbox for the others to discover. They were excited and brought it to me, wondering what it said. When they learned what the invitation offered, they headed right over to the set table in the Housekeeping and sat down to a nice cup. Our play continued in this vein; T made pancakes in the little kitchen and V asked some questions about making envelopes for her mail. Later, we gathered on the big blanket in the real kitchen for a popcorn picnic, munching on apples and chatting while the popcorn popped.
Our playdough stories were a continuation of the one last week. I made a little square dough box and offered it to the children. What could go inside the box?
V: Little seeds for the birds. Not bad seeds, good seed cause the bird not wants to get sick. The bird is a bad bird, but it's okay. It can have the food.
B:(points to three Popsicle sticks she's stuck in the playdough, all of different heights). This is the mommy and this is the girl. And this is a daddy. A pretend mommy and a real girl and a pretend daddy.
T makes a "waterfall". Then "a mommy on a snowboard!"
Lastly, our day ended with a lovely busy walk over to the big mailbox on 47th and Hoyt. I had a couple of postcards to send, and so we held hands walking along 47th and the children took turns pressing the buttons for the crosswalks. They were very impressed with the sheer size of the real mailbox and each child had a turn to help either hold the mailbox open or drop a postcard in. After our walk back to the preschool, we finished our day with several rounds of hide-the-shoe (we are introducing "hot and cold" hints) and of course, a story about Princess Pinkie and the Green Prince and all of their friends.
Don't forget, as we follow the Portland Public Schools schedule, we will be closed on Thursday the 11th for Veterans Day. I hope your families got out to enjoy the sunny times, raking in the yard or taking a walk to enjoy the beautiful color outside. See you next week!
Because this was a conference week, our group met just once on Tuesday--but what a busy day it was!
Morning Gathering found us all shaking maracas and clackers as we sang our "Hello Everybody" song, and then "Mary Wore a Red Dress", each child choosing an item they wore to sing about. Some of our conversation today was about how it is work to share space and toys, and to take turns, so we are learning how to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to help figure out such things like "who goes first" or whose ideas to play out first. Sometimes, our friends like to play with toys or to play a story differently than we might, and sometimes, even when we've really tried to work things out, we can still feel sad and mad. To this end, we have a new cozy space in the hallway, on a soft blanket with a few books and a basket of fine-motor activities. The children were very impressed with this new space, and one asked me later on if she could "use the little sitting room", she was so interested in trying it out.
We have brought out a little plastic mailbox to play with, for sending notes to each other. This is exactly what T and V got right into: creating 'notes' by scrawling blocks of color onto the small pieces of paper offered at the big school table, then popping them into the mailbox. B immediately asked for a "mail basket", so we dumped out the wooden animals and she got started with that, even moving her own school mailbox over into the housekeeping. T and V continued with the mailbox play, and B was wanting company at the tea party she'd set up. "I'm making tea for everybody" she told me, so I suggested that we send T and V an invitation, just like in the story of "Dandelion" by Don Freeman. I drew a big letter "B" and a teacup, then she folded it and put it in the mailbox for the others to discover. They were excited and brought it to me, wondering what it said. When they learned what the invitation offered, they headed right over to the set table in the Housekeeping and sat down to a nice cup. Our play continued in this vein; T made pancakes in the little kitchen and V asked some questions about making envelopes for her mail. Later, we gathered on the big blanket in the real kitchen for a popcorn picnic, munching on apples and chatting while the popcorn popped.
Our playdough stories were a continuation of the one last week. I made a little square dough box and offered it to the children. What could go inside the box?
V: Little seeds for the birds. Not bad seeds, good seed cause the bird not wants to get sick. The bird is a bad bird, but it's okay. It can have the food.
B:(points to three Popsicle sticks she's stuck in the playdough, all of different heights). This is the mommy and this is the girl. And this is a daddy. A pretend mommy and a real girl and a pretend daddy.
T makes a "waterfall". Then "a mommy on a snowboard!"
Lastly, our day ended with a lovely busy walk over to the big mailbox on 47th and Hoyt. I had a couple of postcards to send, and so we held hands walking along 47th and the children took turns pressing the buttons for the crosswalks. They were very impressed with the sheer size of the real mailbox and each child had a turn to help either hold the mailbox open or drop a postcard in. After our walk back to the preschool, we finished our day with several rounds of hide-the-shoe (we are introducing "hot and cold" hints) and of course, a story about Princess Pinkie and the Green Prince and all of their friends.
Don't forget, as we follow the Portland Public Schools schedule, we will be closed on Thursday the 11th for Veterans Day. I hope your families got out to enjoy the sunny times, raking in the yard or taking a walk to enjoy the beautiful color outside. See you next week!
Friday, October 29, 2010
They've Got Mail!
What a busy, beautiful week we've had! We kicked off our art time on Tuesday with the much-requested marble track painting; the children each had a chance to make three creations, choosing different colors of paint and paper each time and shaking the box of marbles hard. On Wednesday, we gathered by the easel to create colorful leaves: each child chose a leaf from some that we'd pressed, I drew an enlarged leaf of the same shape onto a sheet of paper for them to paint in as they pleased. Once the 'leaves' were dry, they were cut out, and the children remarked how they looked like real leaves we find outside.
Thursday, we focused on mail and mailboxes. Each year, we create mailboxes for the children and I to leave notes to each other. Sometimes, these are simple pictures, scribble drawings, and sometimes there's more intention and the children ask me to write the messages they have for each other, or make a go of it themselves. At our Morning Gathering, B brought in a wonderful sharing item-- a sweet Jack-o-Lantern card, complete with envelope and stamp, sent to her. The children passed the card and envelope around. We noticed the address on the front, how B's name and the name of her street and city were all there. (They all know we live in Portland, by the way.) We saw the stamp and talked about how it is the 'money' that pays for sending the card from one place to the other, and then read a book on Postal Carriers and what they do.
After Gathering, we began to get things ready for making our mailboxes. First, a little fun with hole punches (both hand-held and the larger 3-hole punch kind) and colored paper, and lots of bright curling ribbon for cutting with scissors. After gathering up our tiny circles and ribbon bits, we took a break for our popcorn picnic, and then returned to make the mailboxes. We used sticky paper, adding a name tag and plenty of our little bits from our morning work, then finishing it off with a marble track painting of their choice. These are by far the most beautiful mailboxes I've ever seen! Then, the real play began. V and T wanted to put mail in the boxes, so they used ink pens to decorate scraps of paper. V moved her mailbox into the housekeeping to "pretend a mailbox is at my house", where B was setting out tea and treats for herself and her friends, T delivered the mail to her. Then, V and T switched roles; V dumped out a basket of magnetic blocks and put several pieces of 'mail' in, before delivering them. Soon, all the children had a basket for mail delivery, and were sticking pieces of hastily-scribbled paper into each other's mailboxes. They had a blast!
We are enjoying a new storytime book called "The Little Wood Duck". In this tale, a mother wood duck has six ducklings, who love to swim in a straight line through the reeds on the lake--all except the littlest duckling, who will only swim in circles and "can't do it any other way", despite the impatience of his mother and siblings and the teasing of other forest creatures. A wise owl notices how one of the duckling's feet is larger than the other, and chides the animals for their unkind and foolish remarks. When a hungry fox comes to call, the littlest wood duck becomes a hero and saves them with his dizzying circles. This tale of inclusion sparked a lunchtime conversation where the children noticed what each child 'was good at'. T said that B was 'good at learning how to be at school, cause she is new', which was true and made B smile with pride. V said that T was 'good at playing', and he commented too that he was good at 'not being sad when I say goodbye anymore' , and then V told us that she was 'good at being friends and listening to the teacher'. I love conversations like these, where we can be thoughtful and reflect positively back to our friends what we like so much about them (or ourselves), and for each child to know they are an appreciated person in our little group.
You might have noticed, too, that your child may be eating more at school. I've begun using a timer set for 20 minutes to encourage the children to eat more (instead of eating a few bites in order to get back to playing) as well as developing table-conversation skills. The children are asked to sit with the group until the timer goes ding before running off to play. This has created a more relaxed lunch time and gives us opportunities for the more productive chats like the one above.
Here are a few more glimpses into a wonderful week~
Ramps and counting at Morning Gathering on Tuesday: we rolled seven horse chestnuts down the ramps, and counted how many landed on a placemat and how many rolled onto the carpet.
Spelling puzzles at the school table. Each word has a separate piece for each letter, the completed puzzle creates a picture of the word. V calls to B "Hey hey, come over here on this stool and watch me. I'll show you!"
Some experimenting with pattern blocks, which we tried stacking atop each other-- they are too tippy to stack-- and then the children each made a 'sunshine' with very different interpretations of what a sun should look like, and even how many suns there were! Some children liked to create random patterns, B liked to scoop and feel the soft, smooth wood of the blocks and to pile them onto her tray before sliding them back into the basket.
Rice play in the bin-- it seems the children never tire of this. What giggles I heard when the air vent poofed the floor blanket up, billowing. We are still engaged in playing 'ice cream' in this area and hiding our hands in the rice.
V and T playing babies and princesses, while B dresses up in layers upon layers of dress-up clothes.
Gathered around reading "Leap!", a book about how animals move. With it's blown-up text, the children began a spontaneous game of letter recognition, telling me which letters they saw that they recognized from their own names.
We've revived our game of 'Hide the Shoe" outside, which was a huge hit. Some of the children are starting to find some very tricky places to conceal the searched-for shoe, and I'm introducing "hot and cold" type hints.
Lastly, we learn so much about how to be together at the playdough table. This week our play started with birthday cakes. I made a wee playdough bowl and asked the children what could go in it. The conversation that followed:
V-"a treat, candy"
T-"chocolate, vanilla ice cream" (the conversation takes a new direction)
V-"It's for a bird. For a clockwork bird." (points to cuckoo clock)
T- (placing a piece of dough in the bowl) "It's vanilla cream sauce. It will make the bird get sick."
V-"No. These are good bird food. It won't be sick forever."
B-"This could be the bird. (places yellow playdough knife next to bowl) This could be a squirrel".(adds blue scissors to scene)
T-(has made another bowl) "This is sick food. It's not for the birds. It's only for the squirrels. And it goes up way in the trees in a nest."
A big story, and T decided that if he didn't like what was in the first bowl, to make another one. I love how they all joined in. Next week, we'll see what can go into a playdough box...
Don't forget! We have conferences next week and will have school on Tuesday only. See you then~
Thursday, we focused on mail and mailboxes. Each year, we create mailboxes for the children and I to leave notes to each other. Sometimes, these are simple pictures, scribble drawings, and sometimes there's more intention and the children ask me to write the messages they have for each other, or make a go of it themselves. At our Morning Gathering, B brought in a wonderful sharing item-- a sweet Jack-o-Lantern card, complete with envelope and stamp, sent to her. The children passed the card and envelope around. We noticed the address on the front, how B's name and the name of her street and city were all there. (They all know we live in Portland, by the way.) We saw the stamp and talked about how it is the 'money' that pays for sending the card from one place to the other, and then read a book on Postal Carriers and what they do.
After Gathering, we began to get things ready for making our mailboxes. First, a little fun with hole punches (both hand-held and the larger 3-hole punch kind) and colored paper, and lots of bright curling ribbon for cutting with scissors. After gathering up our tiny circles and ribbon bits, we took a break for our popcorn picnic, and then returned to make the mailboxes. We used sticky paper, adding a name tag and plenty of our little bits from our morning work, then finishing it off with a marble track painting of their choice. These are by far the most beautiful mailboxes I've ever seen! Then, the real play began. V and T wanted to put mail in the boxes, so they used ink pens to decorate scraps of paper. V moved her mailbox into the housekeeping to "pretend a mailbox is at my house", where B was setting out tea and treats for herself and her friends, T delivered the mail to her. Then, V and T switched roles; V dumped out a basket of magnetic blocks and put several pieces of 'mail' in, before delivering them. Soon, all the children had a basket for mail delivery, and were sticking pieces of hastily-scribbled paper into each other's mailboxes. They had a blast!
We are enjoying a new storytime book called "The Little Wood Duck". In this tale, a mother wood duck has six ducklings, who love to swim in a straight line through the reeds on the lake--all except the littlest duckling, who will only swim in circles and "can't do it any other way", despite the impatience of his mother and siblings and the teasing of other forest creatures. A wise owl notices how one of the duckling's feet is larger than the other, and chides the animals for their unkind and foolish remarks. When a hungry fox comes to call, the littlest wood duck becomes a hero and saves them with his dizzying circles. This tale of inclusion sparked a lunchtime conversation where the children noticed what each child 'was good at'. T said that B was 'good at learning how to be at school, cause she is new', which was true and made B smile with pride. V said that T was 'good at playing', and he commented too that he was good at 'not being sad when I say goodbye anymore' , and then V told us that she was 'good at being friends and listening to the teacher'. I love conversations like these, where we can be thoughtful and reflect positively back to our friends what we like so much about them (or ourselves), and for each child to know they are an appreciated person in our little group.
You might have noticed, too, that your child may be eating more at school. I've begun using a timer set for 20 minutes to encourage the children to eat more (instead of eating a few bites in order to get back to playing) as well as developing table-conversation skills. The children are asked to sit with the group until the timer goes ding before running off to play. This has created a more relaxed lunch time and gives us opportunities for the more productive chats like the one above.
Here are a few more glimpses into a wonderful week~
Ramps and counting at Morning Gathering on Tuesday: we rolled seven horse chestnuts down the ramps, and counted how many landed on a placemat and how many rolled onto the carpet.
Spelling puzzles at the school table. Each word has a separate piece for each letter, the completed puzzle creates a picture of the word. V calls to B "Hey hey, come over here on this stool and watch me. I'll show you!"
Some experimenting with pattern blocks, which we tried stacking atop each other-- they are too tippy to stack-- and then the children each made a 'sunshine' with very different interpretations of what a sun should look like, and even how many suns there were! Some children liked to create random patterns, B liked to scoop and feel the soft, smooth wood of the blocks and to pile them onto her tray before sliding them back into the basket.
Rice play in the bin-- it seems the children never tire of this. What giggles I heard when the air vent poofed the floor blanket up, billowing. We are still engaged in playing 'ice cream' in this area and hiding our hands in the rice.
V and T playing babies and princesses, while B dresses up in layers upon layers of dress-up clothes.
Gathered around reading "Leap!", a book about how animals move. With it's blown-up text, the children began a spontaneous game of letter recognition, telling me which letters they saw that they recognized from their own names.
We've revived our game of 'Hide the Shoe" outside, which was a huge hit. Some of the children are starting to find some very tricky places to conceal the searched-for shoe, and I'm introducing "hot and cold" type hints.
Lastly, we learn so much about how to be together at the playdough table. This week our play started with birthday cakes. I made a wee playdough bowl and asked the children what could go in it. The conversation that followed:
V-"a treat, candy"
T-"chocolate, vanilla ice cream" (the conversation takes a new direction)
V-"It's for a bird. For a clockwork bird." (points to cuckoo clock)
T- (placing a piece of dough in the bowl) "It's vanilla cream sauce. It will make the bird get sick."
V-"No. These are good bird food. It won't be sick forever."
B-"This could be the bird. (places yellow playdough knife next to bowl) This could be a squirrel".(adds blue scissors to scene)
T-(has made another bowl) "This is sick food. It's not for the birds. It's only for the squirrels. And it goes up way in the trees in a nest."
A big story, and T decided that if he didn't like what was in the first bowl, to make another one. I love how they all joined in. Next week, we'll see what can go into a playdough box...
Don't forget! We have conferences next week and will have school on Tuesday only. See you then~
Friday, October 22, 2010
Pumpkin Play
There's nothing more interesting to a child than the children around them. Babies demonstrate this to us, watching their playgroup cohorts and older siblings, and while our kids get busier and enjoy spending time with adults, getting to play a story their friend has created can sometimes be more fun than anything a teacher could ever dream up.
We've started doing some very basic storytelling and play-acting with our group this week. The first opportunity was spontaneous in origin: the children were having a blast playing under our newly made spiderweb of yarn which created a low canopy of sorts, V and B pretending to be spiders crawling in a web. I asked them to share their stories with me, and after writing them down, the children acted them out.
V's story: "Once upon a time there was two spiders and the spiders went to find some food." V and B were spiders and they ate their 'food' with large scooping hands and loud 'Owp! Owp!' sounds.
T's story: "Cluck Cluck. Once upon a time there was five cluck clucks they were playing they were running a race and they hit a straight corner and they said 'mommy mommy' and they had to go to the hospital and then the end." T said he wanted to act his story out with horse chestnuts, so we counted out five from the bowl, lined them up and then they all had a turn 'hitting the straight corner', which is actually the edge angle of two adjacent walls. The little cluck clucks did cry for their mommy, and the story was finished.
B's story: "About a fish. They swim. It has a buddy. It swims with the camel." B was the fish and V offered to be the camel; as I read their story back to them, they wiggled around on the floor, laughing, under the spiderweb.
On Tuesday, we read a sweet book on cooperation called "The Biggest Pumpkin Ever" about two mice who have differing intention for the same pumpkin. Later, we painted pumpkins with their choice of colors. B commented as she painted "I'm coloring a lot!" and T, perhaps observing the curved surface of the pumpkin, said "This is like painting yourself". We are working on holding our paintbrushes in our fingers, not our fists, and I think the children are noticing that they have better control of their work with their fingers. On Wednesday I brought the dry,colorful pumpkins to Gathering and asked the children to tell me some Pumpkin stories for us to act out.
B's story: "My Mommy she cooks it and puts it on a plate." To act this out (as I read it, bit by bit), B decided to be herself and V wanted to be the Mommy. We used an imaginary plate, and V repeated her 'lines'. "I put it on a plate for you and now you can eat it." They noisily pretended to eat the pumpkin.
T's story: "At the house. It gets so so little. It got this little. They cut it up and put it in the fridge and then then grind it up and then it goes into the corn patch." T decided to act this one solo, using his hands to demonstrate how little his pumpkin became; the chopping and grinding were quite lively.
V's story: "This pumpkin will be in a cornfield and it will grow big and I'm going to take the biggest pumpkin to the pumpkin place. Mallory will cook the pumpkin and V will eat it." V was herself, B was Mallory; V used her body to show how big her pumpkin became, stretching her arms to the sky.
We'll be doing more play-acting in the weeks ahead.
Later on Wednesday, our easel painting offered a pumpkin-shaped paper and some red and yellow paint for color mixing. Some painters relished this and created some orangey hues. Not to limit our art time to brushes, I also offered paper, crayons and scissors; their activity seemed to center on doing a lot of cutting and finding envelopes to put the pieces in to take home.
Other moments of our week:
Our little group loves the newest song "Five Little Pumpkins"* and gets very excited before we sing it at Gathering. We also enjoyed a cooperative matching game of Baby Animals and Their Mothers.
Outdoors, we dug holes in the ground a planted a few daffodil bulbs around. The children had fun placing the bulbs in their holes and covering them back up. We've also been "poofing" the calendula petals all over the place, especially happy when the orange flowers fall into our hair and faces.
V and T finish lunch early and build a "track" with blocks for their cars to go on. Once B finished her lunch, she too joined in the fun. Then we had fun being cranes and bulldozers, scooting all the blocks back to the shelf to be put away.
B and V working together on the letter and numbers puzzle. B stood next to V and helped her find the correct places for pieces.
T and V again playing 'skateboards' with magnetic blocks.
Long fun conversation overheard at the rice bin~
V- Ice cream! Who wants ice cream?
seconds later...
V-Help! Where's my hand? Where's my hand again? (hand buried in rice)
T-I'll find it.
B-There it is!
B offers us chocolate ice cream.
V-I'm hungry. Can you give us something to eat please?
B-You want me to make some food for you?
V-Yeah. (B gets busy putting rice into cups. I ask what she's making.)
B-Chocolate.
T, scooping rice. "I'm a cement truck. I can go beep beep beep so deep. Cement can go deep and become hard as a rock. It actually goes for the cement."
I couldn't have said it better myself! See you next week!
*For those of you who are familiar with the Five Little Pumpkins song~ I've changed a lyric line from "'The second one said 'There's witches in the air'" to "The second one said 'It's chilly in the air'". I know that many children can have different feelings about the decorations they are seeing around Halloween time and I want to be sensitive in that respect. Kids can somewhat appreciate explanations about being "silly" or that some people like to 'get the shivers' or 'feel creepy crawly'. With so many more realistic-looking decorations these days, finding safe language that doesn't go into detail about those characters but instead discusses the feelings they might inspire can help.
We've started doing some very basic storytelling and play-acting with our group this week. The first opportunity was spontaneous in origin: the children were having a blast playing under our newly made spiderweb of yarn which created a low canopy of sorts, V and B pretending to be spiders crawling in a web. I asked them to share their stories with me, and after writing them down, the children acted them out.
V's story: "Once upon a time there was two spiders and the spiders went to find some food." V and B were spiders and they ate their 'food' with large scooping hands and loud 'Owp! Owp!' sounds.
T's story: "Cluck Cluck. Once upon a time there was five cluck clucks they were playing they were running a race and they hit a straight corner and they said 'mommy mommy' and they had to go to the hospital and then the end." T said he wanted to act his story out with horse chestnuts, so we counted out five from the bowl, lined them up and then they all had a turn 'hitting the straight corner', which is actually the edge angle of two adjacent walls. The little cluck clucks did cry for their mommy, and the story was finished.
B's story: "About a fish. They swim. It has a buddy. It swims with the camel." B was the fish and V offered to be the camel; as I read their story back to them, they wiggled around on the floor, laughing, under the spiderweb.
On Tuesday, we read a sweet book on cooperation called "The Biggest Pumpkin Ever" about two mice who have differing intention for the same pumpkin. Later, we painted pumpkins with their choice of colors. B commented as she painted "I'm coloring a lot!" and T, perhaps observing the curved surface of the pumpkin, said "This is like painting yourself". We are working on holding our paintbrushes in our fingers, not our fists, and I think the children are noticing that they have better control of their work with their fingers. On Wednesday I brought the dry,colorful pumpkins to Gathering and asked the children to tell me some Pumpkin stories for us to act out.
B's story: "My Mommy she cooks it and puts it on a plate." To act this out (as I read it, bit by bit), B decided to be herself and V wanted to be the Mommy. We used an imaginary plate, and V repeated her 'lines'. "I put it on a plate for you and now you can eat it." They noisily pretended to eat the pumpkin.
T's story: "At the house. It gets so so little. It got this little. They cut it up and put it in the fridge and then then grind it up and then it goes into the corn patch." T decided to act this one solo, using his hands to demonstrate how little his pumpkin became; the chopping and grinding were quite lively.
V's story: "This pumpkin will be in a cornfield and it will grow big and I'm going to take the biggest pumpkin to the pumpkin place. Mallory will cook the pumpkin and V will eat it." V was herself, B was Mallory; V used her body to show how big her pumpkin became, stretching her arms to the sky.
We'll be doing more play-acting in the weeks ahead.
Later on Wednesday, our easel painting offered a pumpkin-shaped paper and some red and yellow paint for color mixing. Some painters relished this and created some orangey hues. Not to limit our art time to brushes, I also offered paper, crayons and scissors; their activity seemed to center on doing a lot of cutting and finding envelopes to put the pieces in to take home.
Other moments of our week:
Our little group loves the newest song "Five Little Pumpkins"* and gets very excited before we sing it at Gathering. We also enjoyed a cooperative matching game of Baby Animals and Their Mothers.
Outdoors, we dug holes in the ground a planted a few daffodil bulbs around. The children had fun placing the bulbs in their holes and covering them back up. We've also been "poofing" the calendula petals all over the place, especially happy when the orange flowers fall into our hair and faces.
V and T finish lunch early and build a "track" with blocks for their cars to go on. Once B finished her lunch, she too joined in the fun. Then we had fun being cranes and bulldozers, scooting all the blocks back to the shelf to be put away.
B and V working together on the letter and numbers puzzle. B stood next to V and helped her find the correct places for pieces.
T and V again playing 'skateboards' with magnetic blocks.
Long fun conversation overheard at the rice bin~
V- Ice cream! Who wants ice cream?
seconds later...
V-Help! Where's my hand? Where's my hand again? (hand buried in rice)
T-I'll find it.
B-There it is!
B offers us chocolate ice cream.
V-I'm hungry. Can you give us something to eat please?
B-You want me to make some food for you?
V-Yeah. (B gets busy putting rice into cups. I ask what she's making.)
B-Chocolate.
T, scooping rice. "I'm a cement truck. I can go beep beep beep so deep. Cement can go deep and become hard as a rock. It actually goes for the cement."
I couldn't have said it better myself! See you next week!
*For those of you who are familiar with the Five Little Pumpkins song~ I've changed a lyric line from "'The second one said 'There's witches in the air'" to "The second one said 'It's chilly in the air'". I know that many children can have different feelings about the decorations they are seeing around Halloween time and I want to be sensitive in that respect. Kids can somewhat appreciate explanations about being "silly" or that some people like to 'get the shivers' or 'feel creepy crawly'. With so many more realistic-looking decorations these days, finding safe language that doesn't go into detail about those characters but instead discusses the feelings they might inspire can help.
Five Little Pumpkins
Five little pumpkins sitting at the gate
The first one said "Oh my, it's getting late"
The second one said "It's chilly in the air"
The third one said "But we don't care"
The fourth one said "Let's run and run and run"
The fifth one said "I'm ready for some fun"
SO~Whoosh! came the wind and
Out! went the light
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!
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