Our Last Week--Butterflies

I want to apologize for not getting these last two posts up sooner. We have had back-to-back weekends of family camping and family illness. We're all better now, so here are the last two installments. I look forward to keeping in touch with all of you over the summertime...


Our last week was a very busy one. Although we've been talking a bit about butterflies over the last months, they are such a lovely, fun creature to explore that it seemed perfect to have a butterfly week before our little ones flew off into the summer.

Some of our activities centered around butterfly art. On Tuesday, the children used glitter glue pens to decorate their butterflies; on Wednesday, they were offered more corks and paint for printing--and then folding--the painted butterflies. On Thursday, it seemed right to use up all the paint, and so V suggested cutting out flowers to decorate. She decided to print and fold, print and fold, while J and S were happy with using the corks to "paint" the flowers (less printing action, more smearing). We had some very beautiful creations emerge from this work.

While indoors, we looked at several books which document the metamorphosis of the butterfly, from egg to caterpillar, chrysalis to winged insect. Outside, we looked for caterpillars (none found) and spotted a few white cabbage butterflies in the garden. What was almost more interesting, however, was a bee tree we visited on our walk. Our neighbor's walnut tree is home to a honeybee hive and so we took a peek from a safe distance, watching as countless bees zipped in and out of the hole, noticing too that some bees hovered and waited their turn to go in as the entrance was so busy. In the backyard, we noticed the ladybug larvae hanging out in the plum tree, eating their fill of aphids. We also saw that some of the larvae were very small in comparison to the more mature larvae.

To honor our last week, we made popsicles for all the children. Tuesday was the "making popsicles" day with juice and an old-fashioned popsicle mold. The kids had loads of fun pouring the juice into the holes of the mold and putting the covers on. Wednesday and Thursday afternoons both, we enjoyed not only the popsicles outside, but also a follow-up snack of the yellow peas that we'd grown. I brought a bowl of them in for snacktime as well and they were devoured, but the kids really liked learning how to hold the vine with one hand and to pull off the pea with the other. We checked on our carrots too; they hadn't grown as much as I would have liked, so the root was still white and unrecognizable as a carrot--until they took a sniff of the root. Then we all agreed that it did, indeed, smell like a carrot. (Although no one wanted to try a taste...just didn't look quite right.)

Some other moments during our last week:

Puppy play. J had tied a string onto a car, and the 'puppies' idea from a few weeks ago was relaunched. Before it was over, S and V were busily bringing the puppies everywhere they went, tying them up before using the bathroom/washing hands or moving onto another activity. T, however, was more interested in creating a pulley with two cars, one string and using the grated sides of the milk crates in the block area to hang the string on, sliding the loose car up and down by pulling the string of the other car around the axle of the loose car, then up and down. (If it sounds complicated and thoughtful, well, it was!)

A great dramatic play story was built on the big rug. T used blocks to build quite an interesting, long low structure similar to a dock. He called this "a boat eater, where people can eat". J needed a place for cars to drive, and as T said that cars couldn't go on it, a road was built. Then small bowls were offered as boats and S filled them up with dollhouse people. It was a very busy place.

In the rice bin, T and J worked together to pour a large container of rice into another container, J held the second container close while T poured the first one out.

We played a counting game with our bears and their story mat (this has a meadow, apple tree, forest, pond and cottage illustrated on it). We started with six bears on the mat; each child could roll the dice and move that amount of bears to any places they chose on the mat, and then we counted how many bears were at each spot. This lasted for about two rounds, which was plenty of counting for the children.

V and S work, making long lines with the fruit dominos, sometimes matching them up, sometimes not. Later, S would make another line and call it a 'road'.

Working Cooperatively, once again. V and S were having some difficulty taking turns with a toy. As I was busy getting snack ready, I offered to put it up for a minute and told they could make a plan for how to use the toy and come back to find me, or that I could help them when I was finished with what I needed to do. Surprisingly, on our last day of school, the girls came up to me, so excited. "We made a plan" said V. "S will use it, and then I will." I was both proud and amazed as I watched the girls retrieve the toy and begin to carry out their agreement. What a big step!

It's been such a great session with the children, and I'm looking forward to seeing those returning faces--and a couple new ones--next fall. Have a great summer!

Holes!

Recently there’s been quite a bit of speculation as to what might be in the holes we see on our walks. Taking my cue from the children, we’ve spent our week noticing and talking about holes. At our Gathering time on Tuesday, I read from “Animals and Their Hiding Places”, a book which features great photos of animals that live in holes and other hiding places. The children immediately made the connection between a picture of a muskrat lodge and the lodge in our “Busy Beavers” book, and enjoyed seeing the photos of critters commiserating underground in their burrows and tunnels. Later, we moved to on to using hole punches, glue sticks, scissors and crayons at the large table, creating pictures to take home.

On Wednesday, we took a look at some household items that have holes as a main feature of their function. Funnels, vegetable steamers, colanders, sieves…we talked about how these holes allowed water, steam and other things to pass through. The children played with the marble run, which is all about lining up holes to make the marbles pass through the chutes in the way each child planned. Later, we put a whistling teakettle on to boil and watched the steam pass through the small holes as the kettle made a train-whistle sound. Experimentation continued during our rice play; a marble run was brought over to see if the rice would go down as easily as the marbles. J and T tried spinning some of the whirligigs to see if this would push the rice along; S and J poured rice through tubes into containers and then lifted the tubes again and again to see the rice drop out below. Many treats were made in the rice bin, including muffins and cakes, and T tried out corking a funnel and filling it with rice, then letting the rice out. Which, of course, everyone else had to try because it was so interesting!

The holes, however, were nearly upstaged by the rain. Wednesday found us standing on the porch, marveling at the sun shining through the downpour. There weren’t just puddles outdoors; we did some large-brush watercolor painting that morning, the children heaping on color after color until large pools of paint washed over their papers. S was very interested in mixing colors as much as possible, and when her paper was filled, began dumping cups of color into each other. On Thursday, S was raring to go for a walk at eleven or so, and in the midst of a rainstorm. J and I were game, so we headed out for a spectacular puddle walk, culminating at “Lake Flanders”, a huge puddle at the end of the street caused by a clogged storm drain. So we puddle-stomped back to the house, grabbed a tool to clear the drain, and returned. Once a plastic bag and some tree debris was removed, how the water roared down into the drain! S and J waded in the receding puddle until it was quite nearly gone before heading back inside. And of course, the storm drain is a hole, too, so there was a lot of peering down to see the water sliding away.


Some other moments from our week:

Playdough…again, and again. S is excited-“Look! The playdough is flat. I’m squishing it with my hands.” She flattens the dough and then rolls it out. Flattening and rolling the dough is actually a bit of a workout, given the size of the chunk and the firmness of it. T offers an imaginary treat of chocolate, syrup and pancakes, calling it a ‘bun’. J makes a pancake. S squishes her playdough again while counting to twenty, and J makes “fingerprints with my fingertips”.

Many of us were really missing V this week; she was home with a virus. Everyone was very happy to make pictures and a get-well message to send. S was especially interested in the postage stamp I popped onto the envelope.

We played our “What’s Missing Lotto” game again. I was tickled to see that some of the new words we introduced last week were recalled.

We tried out a new cooperative game, “Snail’s Pace Race”. As simple as this game is, the real challenge wasn’t taking turns, it was having our snails move just one space at a time. Once our green snail won, S made sure that all of the snails crossed the finish line before the game was put away.

Because we had just two children on Thursday, and because they both love to work in the kitchen, we made some banana bread. S liked leveling out the scoops of flour so much that she continued the ‘leveling’ during the rice play later that day.

J showed S how to make a chain of monkeys to hang from a drawer pull. (Remember the Barrel of Monkeys toy from yesteryear? It’s a pretty challenging game for a three year old!)

We had some fun ball play outdoors on our sunny Tuesday. We also enjoyed snacking on our yellow peas. And at long last, our blue-podded peas are starting to make an appearance.


I want to note that, while we have had some disappointing “June-uary” weather, I’ve been offering other gross-motor activities in lieu of the exercise we’d be getting outside. Besides the physical engagement of playdough, we’ve also been having fun with games like “Doggie Doggie, Where’s your Bone?” and learning some new songs, including the “Hokey Pokey” and other full-body moving tunes. I’m crossing my fingers for some dry skies for our last week of school. We’ll see you next Tuesday!

Cuckoo!

Parent News: I'd like to remind families that the end of our session is before us; our last day will be Thursday June 17th. I can't believe this time has gone so quickly!

On Tuesday, June 8th, we will have a visitor to the school. Jane Bush will be here from 9:30-11:30 to observe and to provide me with some professional feedback at my request. Jane is a retired teacher, having taught first grade in the Portland Public School system for years. Although an observer, she will be interacting naturally with the children. My hope is to gain some constructive feedback, which is important for a teacher flying solo.




This week brought a surprise to the preschool. An old-style cuckoo clock now hangs in the hallway near the bathroom. Once the first "Cuckoo!" was heard, the children were enchanted. About five minutes after seeing the cuckoo appear, T was stopped in the doorway, staring at it. "When is it going to come?" he asked me. I replied that it would come out for one cuckoo in a half-hour, thirty minutes. "Is that long?" he asked. I replied that I didn't know, and that I would ask him his question after we saw the cuckoo and see what he thought. Thirty minutes later and he decided that yes, it was a long time.

This was a typical conversation for our group this week. There were many questions about the clock, as well as other aspects of time. We looked at an illustrated chart and discussed how our preschool day has different times for different activities (Gathering time, Snack time, Art time, Outside time); and read "Kathryn Goes to Nursery School", making connections with Kathryn's nursery school and our own. We also used the chart to assign special helper jobs to each child. These tasks are things the children generally enjoy and include: wiping the tables dry before/after meals when they are cleaned, counting out how many smocks are needed for all the children and then distributing them, gathering up the wooden-handled tools outside, or being a special helper at clean-up time by giving an extra look around and helping to see what else needs to be put away. The children have adopted the idea of having special jobs and take pride in being a special helper, even if the task is something as simple as gathering mats together after our Gathering. I remind them of the positive contribution their task gives to the group and their faces light up.

Time isn't just a number on a clock, so we also discussed the ideas of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, explaining it with concrete examples on Wednesday. "Yesterday, V did not come to school. Today, V is at school. Tomorrow, V will come to school too", following through with all the children. Using explanations like "the day before you woke up, when you went to bed last night...that was Yesterday" can help at this age. You might also hear these words in combination with other phrases like "a long time ago yesterday" and such. It may take a long time for your child to understand exactly what these words mean (J likes to say "this day" in lieu of today), because they are still so precisely in the here and now.

On Wednesday we sat down for a group game of "What's Missing Lotto". We've been playing this as a matching game for a while, and had a lot of fun identifying the missing parts. Some of the children found that their missing parts needed labels, and thus a great opportunity for vocabulary enrichment fell into our laps. Spokes, rungs, tines, spouts, and teeth were just a few of the words we discussed; there was a lot of giggling, too, especially in regard to a comb having teeth. Your child may have even shared a joke about it with you, which made all of it even funnier.

On Thursday we headed out for an exploratory walk, taking in all the blooms~ roses, hydrangeas, dandelions and peonies, lavender and spirea were all inspected with noses and fingers. We came across a backhoe/excavator and two workers staring at a hole in the sidewalk, and noticed the shape of the hole (square) and the many cones in the street. This turned into a conversation about road safety, which is an ongoing discussion from our weeks looking at car and truck books. We also found some smaller holes in a neighbor's yard. "What's down there?" I asked. S thought there might be a rabbit. Who knows?

Some other glimpses into our week together:

J and T working playdough. Lots of pretzel making, as well as a few worms.

We revisited using the stamps and ink pads. Orienting the stamps and pads were a challenge at first, and I noticed the children trying different methods of applying pressure to the stamps, with the heels of their hands, fingers on both paper and pushing the stamps, or the simple one-handed technique.

Our stampy table needed a good soap up. The cars came out to drive through the suds, then we introduced popsicle sticks to move the bubbles around and make new lines.

S, V and T throwing balls back and forth to each other, standing on the rounds (and gladly climbing down to get the ball again and again), or on their feet in the grass.

Our carrots and peas are still growing strong. Tiny little yellow peapods are developing now, and the carrot tops are getting fuller. We also planted some nasturtium seeds near the house in the backyard.

Painting this week, twice. We revisited our print painting with circular props, and offered easel time. What a variety of pictures and methods of painting!

We worked giant puzzles several times this week. This seems to be far more popular right now than using our bin for beans or rice, so we've temporarily designated the kitchen floor for this activity. S and T especially like to get right in on these puzzles.

V and S snuggling babies and carrying them into the 'house' under the kitchen table.

S and J playing dress-up kitchen play with necklaces, aprons, pasta and lot of "silly"...giggling, rolling on the floor and having fun.

V, T and S singing "Ring around the Rosie" on the rug. More giggles.

J, V and S together outdoors, using discarded grapevines to "fish" in the raingarden again; grape leaves torn up with collected flowers from our walk...all this became a soup, seasoned with sand and cooked in a flowerpot!


We'll have another great week ahead of us. See you then!

A Chain of Conversations

Often as we sit down to eat together, T will ask "What do we talk about?" This question alone usually brings up several topics, and it's these conversations that I so enjoy as a teacher. I see the children connecting, relating to each other in the context of shared experiences and being curious about the unfamiliar.

Our topic this week was focused on weather. When we began talking about rain, last week's disappointment about losing our outside time came up. T chimed in about having gone to a fair and how his family saw some people painting faces. "When we went back, they were gone." It was clear that even though the rain and the missed face-painting opportunity were different events, they could still produce the same feelings of sadness and disappointment we could all understand.

On Wednesday, I asked the question: "What do you like to do when it's cold?" T, V and S all agreed that they liked to make snowmen. "A carrot nose" was necessary, T and V agreed, and S chimed in that she liked "hot chocolate".

Conversations were also instructive, whether the topic was real or imagined. Lots of talking was heard as the children spontaneously began working together on the giant farm puzzle, taking stock of the pieces and figuring out how to share the space. Deep negotiations took place on the placement of long blocks for a road as T and S often like to build similar items with different ideas in mind. Later, T built a bridge so "the alligator wouldn't get them"; there was a line of animals on the bridge, which led me to ask the children if they knew which animals were first and which were last. (First is by far easier for the children to determine.) But the alligator wasn't the last scary critter to avoid this week: as V, S and J took their baby dolls to the zoo to look at the chicks, V directed them to gather in 'the farm' (really under the kitchen table), telling them "We have to hide because the dinosaurs are coming!"

Storytelling also crept into our time together; S told us a story about a goat who had moved to a new meadow to "eat new flowers and the goat was very happy". On Wednesday T brought a story about Curious George visiting a chocolate factory, and a most delicious discussion about chocolates carried on as we read.

We also found ourselves trying out a new dramatic play space, an "office" in the hallway. S and V were playing they had a baby and S announced that she needed to 'go to work'. Then she looked around for an office, but the only reasonable single-person space at the puzzle table was being used. I suggested we could move the teacher stool into the hallway and asked her what she needed to do. "Read" was the reply. I then gave her a blank book and she asked for a pencil. This seemed to do the trick and sparked the curiosity of the other children. After a few minutes of watching, T asked to try it out and S handed off the book and pencil. All the children had fun visiting this spot and 'working' by drawing lines on the paper. Between the dolls and the children pretending to be babies, we made up extra beds on the floor with pillows, rugs and blankets. The kitchen has lately been busy with food being made for the babies, so expect to see the restaurant gone next week with more baby-play props available.


We had many other great moments this week:

On Tuesday we had fun print painting. We dipped all sorts of circular props into paint; the children were deeply engaged in both the printing process and using the materials to smear the paint and mix colors on their paper.

We explored a couple of our homemade shakers to see "what do you think makes this kind of sound?" No guesses, but the answers delighted the kids--some sea salt for the quieter shaker, and a small length of necklace chain for the louder one. The chain was examined by everyone ("does it make the same sound if you just shake it?") before it was returned to the shaker.

Singing in our Loud and Quiet voices. We did this at our Wednesday gathering to giggles, especially when T suggested singing "Yankee Doodle" quietly; S wanted it reprised with "cheesy pasta" substituting for the word "macaroni". Way to invent a new song game, S!

Giggles again around the table as I read "Caps for Sale", a children's classic. If you haven't read it, please do. The tale of the peddler and the monkeys cracks kids up and makes for a great allegory of the dynamics of the parent/child relationship too.

T and J working hard in the bean bin, filling up egg cartons with little scoops.

Our carrots are starting to form the first leaves of their fluffy, ferny tops and our peas have some beautiful purple flowers on them. The vines are now far taller than any of the children. Our planter of flower seeds is now a planter of flowers.

Watery sandbox play. With all the rain, we've had to bale out the sandbox nearly every day. On Tuesday, the water was baled out and then poured back into "Lake Plumtree" with watering cans. On Wednesday, the watering became so busy that everyone needed dry pants before heading home; on Thursday the watering cans took a rest while we did some great sandcastle work and ran around the yard screaming before running into the plum tree house, just because it's so much fun.

On Thursday we took a neighborhood walk--our Gathering was so boisterous that it was our best idea to get out of doors. V and S ran through grass, shouting "We're running through a meadow!" We had several chances to see the recycling truck in action and it was impressive with all the noises, piles of boxes and big banging bins. We picked dandelions, stalked a robin and notices a squirrel. "It flew into a tree!" said V.


We'll have more adventures next week, check on our growing things and will revisit our stamping and print-painting again. Have a great holiday weekend!

Dear Rain

"I am so upset!" S stomped over to a chair and began taking off her boots. We'd just finished getting dressed to go outdoors and the sky opened up like clockwork for its usual 12:45 dumping of heavy rain. We'd gone on a walk earlier, just in case our regular time outdoors was rained out, but for S it wasn't enough. She's a hale and hearty kid who would gladly play outside in any weather, and this was a disappointment.

Perhaps a letter to the rain, just venting, might be appropriate.After getting the children settled in to work some playdough, I got out a blank card, drew an umbrella on the front, and asked the children what they would like to tell the rain.

"Dear Rain," began S, "Please don't do this again, rain. We don't need you. We can't be ever."

V seconded the appeal. "Rain stop. I want to play outside and S wants to play outside so S can play."

J was to the point. "Dear Rain, Don't pour again."

This launched into a discussion about how the rain would get the letter. S suggested putting the card into a mailbox. J countered that "the mailbox is at the cafe" (he was referring to our neighborhood mailbox). S then decided that "The mailbox for the rain is up in a tree". After this, the talk moved onto their playdough creations, namely lots of lollipops, ravioli and teddy bears.

As mentioned before, we have had some out-of-order days this week, taking our time outside earlier than usual. On Tuesday afternoon we were soaked, and so Wednesday found us outside right after Gathering, while we still had a chance for sun and dry weather. The S and V made numerous sandcastles; T, S and V spent a lot of time jumping off the rounds. All the children played with the both the watering cans and the big washtub of water. The plum tree house was visited and played around. I've also noticed a secret stash of chalk and colored rocks down at the base of a grapevine. And the driftwood 'snowboard' is in demand lately. It's lovely to see the children adopting the outdoors area as their own space, assigning meaning to some objects and creating little worlds of their own.

We played several games this week at our Gathering times. Some games focused on how to ask another person for something they have, while other games required patience through taking turns. Staying in the activity while taking turns is a challenge for young children and some days we don't all have the patience for it. These activities also help me reexamine where the group is in this season and what the children are needing from me. At present, we are in time of actively revisiting skills around sharing toys and taking turns. Our activities become a little smaller so that I can be very present with them. Like any group, we have weeks that seem very smooth and others that challenge, and knowing how the group will be best served is of utmost importance to me. Being patient for things when you are three years old can be very, very hard!

Some other peeks into our week:

Imaginative play is alive and well! After working on open-ended collages, the children each took long lengths of crepe paper streamers and 'flew' them around the room. "This can be a big kite!" said S, while T used his as a blindfold, covering his eyes. Later, T brought me the lacing tree, with just a string hanging off it; the round end of the string was a "microphone" and I was instructed to sing ABC's while he played the tree "guitar".

On Thursday we tied strings to our cars to be used as pull-toys. The children decided then that the cars were dogs and spent quite a bit of time walking their dogs and tying them up before bathroom and snack breaks. These dogs were very well cared for!

On the art front: we revisited the texture cards to make rubbings; made some mail for each other with paper bird and umbrella shapes decorated with markers and stickers; made more watercolor-eyedropper 'drippies' pictures and spent a lot of time working playdough. T-(working, making depressions in a big piece of the dough and placing little balls into them, then pushing them flat.) "It's a box. It goes open, see, and closes like that." then later, "It's a goalie and it goes like this". (shoots a dough ball a few inches) "You flick it." J makes worms and ravioli while S makes a pancake. The children are experimenting with making depressions with the ends of tools and rolling pins.

S cooks in the restaurant. T and V are babies. (We have also added a baby basket to our housekeeping area, so we'll see what becomes of this.)

Lots of train and truck play this week. The children have discovered that the train can hook up the truck trailers too, and are still enjoying the cargo of 'gems' and nuts. S likes to be in charge of the cargo distribution and T built a station.

Music, music, music: we got out the drums and shakers and sang several of our favorites, including Twinkle Twinkle Motorcar, the ABCs and our Hello song. At one point, the everyone again had long-block guitars before the band called it a day.



Hopefully the sunshine will return next week. We have a new cooperative game to try and so much more fun to be had. Have a great weekend!

Trucks and Trains, Numbers and Noodles

The weather is getting warmer. Please consider including sunblock and a sun hat in your child's backpack. We will also be happy to store these items at school if need be.

Last week's interest in trucks and trains is still going strong. We introduced a wooden truck toy to go with our train, which was a huge hit. S and T spent a lot of time in this; glass stones were offered for cargo and the dark border around the rug became the track. We looked at books which identified various kinds of trucks and utility vehicles (including the previously discussed car carrier) and the children regularly brought me truck books to read over the week. "Truck Driver Tom" is still a favorite; the pictures are pored over, questions asked and different modes of transportation identified.

At our Morning Gatherings we continue to work on counting items. On Wednesday we used a ramp; each child rolled five items down to the floor, where we then counted how many stayed on the mat at the bottom of the ramp and how many rolled off. Then I wrote the numbers in two separate columns on a white board so that the children could see them. Our dot counting cards were available too, and the children seem to have warmed up to them. I've also been having them practice counting out items to share. Asking a child to count out three or four of something to pass on to their friend gives them a bit more control in 'how' the sharing will take place and provides yet another application for making counting relevant.

Along with our numbers, we have been exercising our fine motor skills this week with some challenging--but fun--activities. On Tuesday and Thursday we revisited using small droppers and watercolor. Tuesday's activity involved dripping the color onto a piece of paper, then moving the paper so that the drips made tracks. Thursday we worked outside as a group, dripping color onto a large piece of paper on an easel. The process of getting a full dropper of color out of the bottles is still a challenge, and I saw a lot of improvement from the last time we had tried this activity earlier this year. On Wednesday I made up a batch of pasta dough and we worked at making noodles. Each child helped me crank it through the rollers of the pasta maker to flatten the dough and then they were given a butter knife to practice cutting strips with. I gave them very little instruction, other than showing them how to hold the dough flat with one hand while using the butter knife in the other. The strips were rather irregular and a couple of children ended up using the dough more as playdough, which was fine. Like most everything we do, this was all about the process and very little to do with the product!

Thursday ended up being one of those days that takes on a life of it's own. At our Gathering we heard the recycling truck outside and so we headed out onto the porch to watch the action. The sunny day, the flowers and passing butterflies inspired us to head out for a walk to sniff flowers, pick up masses of "pricklies" (the sweet gum seed pods) and just explore all the different things the neighborhood has to offer. The kids were especially captivated with a cartoony "no dog poop" sign in a neighbors yard and spent a great deal of time discussing it amongst themselves.
Because the day was so beautiful, we returned to the school and washed our hands, then headed outside for snack and our eyedropper/paint art and lots of sandbox play. J played drums with two sticks on the watering cans while S and V worked at the drip painting for quite a while. Plenty of plum tree house play ensued. A few buckets of water were fetched so that V could make 'soup' in a flowerpot. The big washtub was brought out with the small water play toys to be used just for that purpose, and J and S spent a lot of time there. V and I spent some time inspecting the peas; there were plenty of aphids and a few helpful ladybugs. It was lovely to be outside for so much time that I'm sure we will be moving school to the backyard more often in the coming days.

Other moments of fun from our week:

T and J playing with the wax block crayons. They stacked them up into towers. At one point, J stacked his on their narrow sides and deemed it a 'piano'. S and J stacked them into 'a crane'. S and T cut up their pictures into pieces because scissors are just so much fun to practice with.

On Wednesday we did some texture rubbings with the crayons. Again, they were stacked up. The rubbings, however, turned into mail and the mailboxes were busy once again. S sent her mail to V, and T sent his to S; I transcribed notes and enjoyed watching the children identify each child's mailbox based on the letters in their names.

S and J playing restaurant while also playing with the drums and shakers. Later, everyone joined in for an impromptu jam session. Maybe they're recreating the old "Dine and Dance" restaurants? One can only hope...

V and S playing baby and mama. The baby is very squeaky these days, and the mama is very attentive!

A quiet moment: S and J working on dot counting cards; V building a shape puzzle. All heads were down with focus and concentration.

T in the backyard, balancing the driftwood 'snowboard' on the edge of the sandbox, piling sand onto it and then tipping it over.

Our carrots have sprouted at last! We all agreed that it felt like it took a long, long time. I hope we have some baby carrots to harvest before the school season ends.

All the children like little frogs, hopping up and down off the rounds, and rock, counting to ten before they jumped off.


Here's looking toward next week, more open-ended artwork and more fun together. Until then, cheers!

Counting it Out

While most of our children can say their numbers 1-10 or even higher, knowing what each number means is another thing entirely. This week we introduced some games and story problems that can give the children a little practice with counting objects in an engaging way. At our puzzle table I’ve introduced dot cards; these cards each have one numeral and a corresponding number of dots as well as a cup of wee colored teddy bear counters to cover the dots with. This gives each child an opportunity to practice counting independently. During our Morning Gathering, we’ve been using toys and other objects to create stories which invite counting. On Tuesday, we had a family of three bears who started off at their cottage and then traveled around a drawing (cottage, forest, pond, fruit tree and meadow) to do things such as collect honey, go fishing, or look for apples. Sometimes one bear stayed back while the others ventured out, so counting practice included variables of One, Two and Three. We worked up through Four this week; and this allowed me to see each child’s ability in both sight counting and pointing-and-counting items.

Along with counting shells, cars and bears, we had a lot of imaginative play happening this week. On Tuesday, the playdough table was full of different creations and plenty of conversation.

S- “Want some scissors? Here are some scissors for you!”
J- “I have two holes for the lollipop.”
T- “It’s good to play with it in your hand.”
S- “I’m making a pancake.” (presses a pattern into it) “It’s a waffle. Here, Hazel.”
J- “I’m making T some food.”
T- “Look. I made it into a snowboard.” A minute later: “Here’s some ice cream for you. It’s for licking. It’s sausage. And it has spiders in it. I tricked you!”

Sometimes children inspire each other. On Wednesday, J was using a block as a straight-edge for drawing lines with a pencil on one of the restaurant ordering pads. I offered him a ruler, markers and paper and this piqued the curiosity of the other children. As we have only two rulers, bringing out a handful of craft sticks accommodated everyone’s needs. Soon everyone had a stick or straight-edge and they were drawing lines, coloring their paper or coloring the craft sticks.

On Thursday, Train Play and Baby Play crossed paths. S pushed the train, loaded with ‘treasures’, around the room while V followed along, playing baby and making baby noises. S brought over pieces of the small foam puzzles for her baby to play with and then asked me a rather serious question.

S: “My baby is coughing. What should I do?”
Me: “Take her to the doctor.”
S: (looking squarely at me) “I did.”
V: Cough. Baby cry.
Me: “Oh, am I the doctor?”
S: “Yes.”
Me: “Give your baby lots of water and lots of hugs.”

The baby play continued throughout the day, with S as the Mommy and V as the Baby.

This week, the rice bin was the place to be. On Tuesday, we worked on coloring up some fresh rice to add in. T and J both chose green, then added some yellow to it later. S wanted purple to start, then added in a little red later. On Thursday, S was making cupcakes. V used her finger to alternately poke rice through the hole at the top of the mill or to stop it up like a plug.

Some other glimpses into our little world:

Unpredictable weather drove us indoors on Tuesday, so we tried out a cooperative game called Harvest Time.While the game itself was a little too long, the children easily took turns and had fun ‘harvesting’ the veggies indicated on the color-dot dice they rolled.

On Wednesday we headed out for a dandelion walk, picking the yellow flowers around the block. Once we returned to the school, we had time to try some Dandelion Painting, rubbing the flowers onto white sheets of paper. There was quite a bit of enthusiasm as the children saw the color appearing as if by magic.

We painted little craft paper birdhouses on Tuesday and created little treasure boxes on Thursday, with markers, stickers and pictures. One child stickered on a picture of flowers, and then slowly began to cut it off, completely uncommitted to any sort of idea of a finished product. Just goes to show us that once again, their art is often not about the product but the process!

T explains to S and V which mallets go to which drums, which is can be a complicated sorting task. Then they all play together singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Motor Car” while J jams on a guitar fashioned from a long block. Soon the drums are abandoned and an all-block-guitar band has been formed.

S and V colored a corner of a cedar round with chalk, making a “rainbow” of mostly yellow.

Lots of great storytimes this week, and lots of good questions to go with the stories. Reading “Truck Driver Tom” by Monica Wellington, S noticed a car carrier. With all the cars jumbled up, she asked “Is that an accident?” T noticed that Tom pays for his gas and snack with dollar bills, and asked about the paper money. While I’m reluctant to initiate money play at school (it’s fine if the children do), we’ll definitely be spending some time next week exploring trains, cars, and other vehicles. And we’ll check our carrots to see if they’ve started sprouting yet. See you then!