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.

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!

Little Moments of Play

It's lovely to see those times when the children come together, creating their own stories, work and discoveries in the moment. Let's listen in...

After T and V make chains of our "Barrel of Monkeys" monkeys, they use the barrel pieces as phones, holding them to their ears and mouth.
T- What are you doing?
V- Oh, I'm just going to the store to get some chocolate. Do you want to come with me?

In the housekeeping, seated at the table~
B- Would you like to have tea party with me?
V- Pour me some tea please.
B- That's my tea. This is your tea.
V- Pour some tea. (slurp slurp, loud sipping) Sugar. Milk. Okay.
B- Pour some tea. And stir my tea. (lots of slurping sounds)
V-Thanks for the tea.

Packing the sewing grid projects into backpacks~
T- I really liked that sewing I did because it's so fun. Sewing is fun.

At the playdough table, V's playdough 'cake' has every popsicle stick stuck in for candles~
V- The candles are for everybody's birthday. Happy birthday to everyone...Happy birthday to everyone. Everyone can blow out the candles!

B, outside: It's a ghost! Watch out for the ghost!

Shapes seemed to be on some of our minds this week. At our Tuesday Morning Gathering, I placed stones around the cup which holds the stones as well as our little wastebasket to find the shape of those objects--once we removed the cup and basket, the circles of stones was very visible. Our crowns, now finished? Also circles. Then we sang "Ring Around the Rosy" and "Make New Friends...But Keep the Old". Later, we were wiping clean a basket of freshly gathered horse chestnuts, and there was some discussion as to the shape of the wiping clothes. (Square). The children had fun folding the chestnuts into the cloths just so, and explained their different techniques. "I fold it this way, and this way..."

We also saw squares in the sewing grids I offered on Wednesday. We used pipecleaners to attach beads and buttons to the grids. The children commented several times that this activity was "tricky". 

Another fine motor challenge was our snacktime that day; we had half-slices of toast, with butter to be spread upon it, and a little dish of almonds with a spoon for serving. T decided that he wanted to cut his toast in half and did so, with a little help.  There were a lot of "please pass" requests as the almonds went round the table.

We've done a lot of counting this week too. First on Tuesday, we counted how many discs went on each of the shape spindles the children had chosen to work with. (These were later played with and I heard counting then, too.) We took turns touch-counting fish in Lois Ehlert's book "Fish Eyes", going from one to ten. As usual, we incorporate counting into the different jobs the children have: gathering smocks for "how many children are here?"; setting out placemats,bowls/knives/spoons for "How many people are eating snack/lunch?" or asking the children to look and see if we have enough stools at the table for meals, etc.

On Wednesday, we used our Outdoors Time to take a neighborhood walk, by turns running, picking dandelions, and collecting leaves and 'pricklies' (pods from the Sweet Gum Trees) and met our neighbor's very sweet corgie, Lizzie Buttercup, who always wears a smile and adores kids. We visited a garden filled with five gorgeous, fat orange pumpkins, and one hidden besides, which we couldn't decide was green or black. T suggested that we take the leaves back and "put them in water to see if they'll float". We did do this on Thursday, and the leaves were used for all sorts of things-- it was especially fun for V and B to 'wash' the basketball stand with wet leaves; T liked just loading his with water and flinging it around, splashing everything. He eventually took his splattering water work over to a spiderweb in the raspberry bushes, and stood on a round to reach it.

We also had our easel out on Wednesday, and watching the children's different modes of painting is always interesting to me. V, as usual, was right there the second I opened the easel up, as she loves to paint. She worked quietly, loading the color onto the brushes (and enjoyed the sponge brushes I offered this time) and filling every space on the paper. T was a narrator, he told a story as his brush moved over the paper, and there was a lot of action going on. B thoughtfully painted a big circle on one side of her page, and a smaller circle to the left of it.

One of the funny things you might have heard from school recently is that we "practice arguing". I've been using this at times when we need a little levity, and a bit of distraction from the start of what could develop into an actual argument. When I begin to hear the "yes it is"/"no it's not" exchange, and if it's appropriate to what's happening, I might suggest "Oh, should we practice arguing? Here, you can say 'Yes it is', and then you are going to say 'No, it isn't' and we'll do this a few times. Ready?" After a few giggly exchanges, I then have the children switch their answers, and they really get into it. Make no mistake, this isn't teaching them to argue, but giving them a safe way to explore having differences, as well as diffusing a little tension that can sometimes develop over a day of playing side by side and the negotiations and sharing that go with it. ( I also do this with my son, by the way, and it can help smooth over a tense moment, as long as we keep it light.)

On Thursday, it seemed that all the imaginative play during the week exploded into something very enjoyable. We started out gathered at the dollhouse, where once again there was some discussion as to how the pieces of furniture 'should' be used. The vanity sink was deemed a "water fountain". B had her dollies going potty, laying on beds and walking through the doors, carefully closing them afterward. V wandered over to the horse chestnuts. "They're doing a water fountain" she said, dropping them. She then brought one of them over to the vanity sink and placed it in. "This is the water." V and T then noticed the cone puzzle and began 'feeding' each other ice cream (the top piece of the cone) while B looked on. "You can have chocolate, vanilla or vanilla." V offered.  "I want gummi bears." T replied. The dolly basket was then emptied out to be the 'gummi bear basket', and the play continued with lots of horse chestnuts being distrubuted via tongs onto trays and containers and baskets. T squeezed the tongs together, laid them flat, then balanced a nut on the depressed end. Then he let go to spring up the nut several times. B kept busy with the dollies, and then worked with the big pegs, filling up every hole.

Our shakers were a fun project too. The children helped to tape the ends of the tubes, used a scoop and funnel to pour in the rice, pulled hard on the cloth ends to help tie the knots and liked choosing the strips of autumn-themed fabric to wrap the tubes in. I also received several requests for activities next week, so we'll be revisiting the spiderweb play and marble painting will be coming back soon. Have a great weekend and we'll see you all on Tuesday!

Stories...All the Time

These days, our group is book-hungry, story-hungry. It seems that every time I turn around, there's a child sitting in the little wicker chair in our book corner, remembering a story as they turn the pages, or someone's pushing a book my way with a request to "read it to me". T has been perusing "I Am A Backhoe" by Anna Grosshinkle Hines; B is fond of carting around "Pancakes Pancakes" by Eric Carle and considers it "her" book; V loves "First the Egg" by Laura Vaccaro Seeger and brings it to me daily. Everyone is enjoying  the sing-along book "A Hunting We Will Go by John Langstaff, and V is pointing out the rhyming words in each verse. "A Tree Is Nice" by Janice May Udry wears its Caldecott award deservedly--this is another book that has become well-loved and brought to me regularly. It makes me excited to see the children so engaged in the world of books and reading, because this is something I love dearly as well.

On Tuesday we began our week reading "Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea". If you haven't introduced your child to Portland author Cynthia Rylant's Mr. Putter and Tabby books, they are a must. After this story,we had a lovely snacktime inspired by the story. We poured peppermint tea into dainty chinese cups and worked hard using butter knives to spread cream cheese onto cinnamon raisin bread. Delish!

On Wednesday, we read Lois Ehlert's "Planting a Rainbow" before heading outdoors to do just that! (Well, it's likely only part of a rainbow, but still...) Each child now has a large round planting pot of their own which will live at school. On Tuesday, the children helped to scoop compost in to mix with some potting soil. The next afternoon, each child helped to plant a hyacinth bulb, 4 daffodil bulbs and 6 crocus corms into their pots. It was tricky work making sure they went in pointy-side up, especially with the crocus corms, which took some careful investigation before planting. Thursday we heaped on more potting soil and compost and topped the planters off with bunches of winter pansies. These will provide a little color and the bulbs can grow in around them next spring. Heading outdoors on Thursday afternoon, one child asked "when the flowers going to come up?" Wait and see....

Last week we took a shady break in the sandbox and a child asked me to tell a story. So began the adventures of Princesses Pinkie, Red, Yellow and Purple. I thought nothing more of the story, but on Tuesday afternoon, as school was winding down, V reminded me of the story and wanted more. Enter the Green Prince, who has taken the Princesses to visit his land in the Green Kingdom and tells them of the Magic Green Mountain, where a Cave of Treasures (emeralds, of course!) is protected by a wise and gentlemanly Old Green Bear. The Princesses practice remarkable restraint in just looking at the treasures but not taking them! Next week, we will meet the Friends of the Green Prince, who like skateboarding. At the mention of this newest development, T lit up with a huge smile. Perhaps they'll all snowboard down the Green Mountain?

At Gathering Thursday, we talked a little bit about crowns. The conversation went something like this:

Hazel: So, I was wondering, who wears a crown?
V (excitedly): I DO!
B: I do too!
(T just frowns and shakes his head at them, which makes me want to laugh.)
Hazel: Why do people wear crowns?
V: You put on a crown and it makes you pretty!

With that definitive explanation, we moved to the big table to make crowns out of feathers, pompoms and a big letter for their first name right in the middle. They are very, very cute and I have a feeling they'll be worn home next Tuesday. We followed up later with straw piece necklaces, which helps the children to practice lacing and those ever-important fine motor skills.

More moments from our week together:

B, T and V all gathered together around the table in the housekeeping, pouring tea and making pretend food for each other.

V and T chasing each other around the soapy table, running their cars through suds and then using foam sponge brushes to wash the cars. V singing happily: "Washin' my car, washin' washin' my car!"

B and V shrieking happily in the hallway and laughing at themselves in the mirror. At preschool, the hallway is the place to go make loud sounds.

B working steadily at the big pegboard.

T and V linking the Barrel O' Monkeys carefully to create chains of monkeys dangling from the blocks shelf.

Everyone gathered on the carpet building marble runs; T later experiments with marble run slides in the bean bin. "They go down, Hazel!" he yells to me, excited.

B, V and T working with scissors, crayons, stickers and paper. B studiously works on cutting her paper into teeny bits while T and V use stickers on theirs. They begin counting the stickers on each paper in Spanish.

Dollhouse play on Wednesday. This time, there were lots of different ideas on how to use the furniture. Is it a stove, or a television? Some children like to use the bed with the cushions and pillow, and some prefer not to. There was a gentle ongoing coaching about taking turns, and how, when it's your turn, you can use the toys how you like.

At our weekly Popcorn Picnic, T said "Let's talk about something", so we did. There was a bit of discussion about babysitters and "who watches you when Mama and Daddy go out"-- this group has some very beloved grandparents, relatives and babysitters. Halloween also came up too, and the children talked about what they thought they might be dressed as. "What are you going to be?" one child asked me. "I'll be a Mommy" I replied. (If any of you have ideas for a Fire costume to pair up with my son's Firefighter homespun costume, let me know!)

Have a great weekend!

Learning...in the Moment

Hungry to learn, curious and so willing to experiment— this description fits so many young children. Mister Rogers has a song called “Did You Know?” in which he tells us that it is in those moments of wonder and marvel that our children learn so much, if we give them the opportunity to let the learning unfold. While our focus on autumn is still in full swing via lesson plans, I wanted to share with you some of the spontaneous learning your children delight in. Much of this is started through a question or observation on the part of a child, and piggybacked on through either hands-on exploration or, in some cases, quality reference materials.

On Tuesday, during our outside playtime, T was leading an effort to create another lake in our sandbox. The huge stock pot was filled with water for the proposed project, and V noticed the sunlight reflecting off the water, dazzling a patch of white light onto the side of the house. “What’s That?!” she asked excitedly, pointing. I only briefly explained that it was a reflection, just like in a mirror. What could we do with it? I suggested kicking the side of the pan of water to see if the light did anything different, and then more exploration continued with covering the pan, standing in different places next to the pan, and watching as the light moved, became still, or disappeared altogether. T and B joined in on the action, and keeping track of what the light was doing became the center of attention for a while before the group’s efforts to fill the lake (taking turns filling and dumping a large container with the water) moved them along in their play.

“Would you eat a snake?” We were playing “Raise Your Hand if You Like….” at the snack table, asking about all sorts of yummy treats, when T asked me this question. My “yes” answer drew their surprise and distaste, until I explained to them about eels.  Reveling in the ‘eeww-yuck’ creepy factor and giggling, we looked through one of our nature books for pictures of eels. When one page showed an illustration of not just eels, but other underwater creatures, the questions came quickly. What was that one? What do you call that? What’s this one doing? Anglerfish were interesting, with their forehead-lures lit up to draw in other fishes; sharks were inquired about; the odd gulperfish, all mouth with a skinny body following behind was a fascinating creature. Other, more familiar creatures like lobsters and prawns were also asked about until their curiosity was satisfied, as were their stomachs, and they left the table to go play. It’s these cozy moments that, I hope, will augment their love for books and interested perusal, and teach them to keep asking questions, no matter how silly they seem. You never know what the answer might be!

Working with crayons at the big table on Thursday, I was transcribing T’s comments about his pictures on the back of his page. When I flipped it over and set it aside, V noticed the lines of color on the paper below and her eyes grew wide. “What are those lines?” I asked her if she’d like to try it. We re-created the process of this crayon-color carbon-copying, first coloring a sheet of paper with crayons (our block crayons were rubber banded together in sets of three for a little fun this day) and then using a ballpoint pen on the reverse to create the ‘copy’ onto a paper below. Her face wore an expression of being very impressed and pleased with herself.

In all of these instances, just giving the children an explanation would have been ‘enough’, but offering opportunities to explore their own questions makes this learning so much more relevant for them. On my end, it is deeply rewarding to see the children immerse themselves in pursuing the answers to their questions.

One of our ongoing topics is trees, and this week, we explored the question “What lives in the trees?*” At Thursday Gathering, we used the whiteboard to draw a tree and then add in all sorts of critters: a bird with a nest; a squirrel with a nest too; a ladybug, spiders, and bees rounded out our local tree inhabitants. Then we took a walk to investigate the trees in the neighborhood and discovered that something else lived on the trees—mosses and lichens made their homes their too. On another tree, seedlings were growing in its hollow, four feet up off the ground, and there were the telltale sings of ants, their neat holes scarring the exposed wood near the hollow. We heard, but couldn’t spot, a well-hidden squirrel in a large evergreen and noticed both the nascent and mature pinecones above our heads. We spotted huge spiderwebs, fat spiders waiting in their centers, searched for a hole high up in a bee tree, and spied a small family of immature crows on a walk, plucking up breakfast from between the blades of grass. The children watched for several minutes, squatting low and quiet as the crows came ever closer, until we decided that it was time to head back for a snacktime popcorn “picnic”.

A few more glimpses into our week:

The playdough table is dramatic play central! T begins with making burritos for one and all. B makes herself a birthday cake, complete with a popsicle stick candle, and sings a Happy Birthday to herself. V decides to fete herself as well, and plunks four popsicle sticks into her cake, declaring that she’s “three and a half”, then offers cake to everyone. T is on to making pizza while B works with scissors to cut up her orange-colored playdough into “macaroni and cheese”. T’s work turns experimental, using the sides and ends of different tools to see what sorts of impressions he can make in the dough, and V is a ‘bug’ and ‘going to eat a pretend snack’.

Spiderweb play! Using balls of yarn, the children moved like spiders through the kitchen, fixing their yarn to various drawer and door knobs and letting their trail of ‘silky thread’ follow behind them. It took no time at all before the random wanderings became enough of a web that we had to crawl under it. Now we know why it’s so easy for a fly to get stuck!

Outdoors, we are gleaning the last few weeks of berries. I love watching the children wander over to pick a few berries and then run back off to play. B especially seemed happy to plunk down and enjoy a handful of blueberries in the shade.

We are still working at extracting sunflower seeds from the giant sunflower head with tweezers. On Thursday we got a big surprise when we found that a squirrel had devoured our activity for breakfast! The seed head was empty, but we have more… We are also offering different activities that ask the children to use tongs to manipulate materials. We have offered cotton balls (easier) and our shiny blue glass ‘gem’s (more difficult) to be pinched, grabbed up, and placed into various sorts of trays. This encourages both fine motor skills, counting and arranging. I heard lots of counting and saw rows of the gems being arranged and rearranged to make them even.

In the housekeeping area, B has been loving up the dollies, while T and V have some interesting culinary creations cooking!V and B play dress-up, festooned with aprons and lacy doily-type shawls and necklaces.

T and B huddled over the water play bin. B using small tubes to pour minute amounts of water back and forth while T works with the bigger scoops pouring water into the mill.

Check out our autumn leaf paintings on the window of the preschool door, and the preschool space is showcasing some of the bigger art done at the easel.


As usual, I'm looking forward to another fun and busy week with your children. Have a restful weekend and we’ll see you Tuesday!

All Things Autumn

“Oh, I’m as happy as a big sunflower

  That nods and bends in the breezes

  And my heart is as light as the wind that blows

  The leaves from off the trees-es”

In a week where we have been celebrating all things autumn, this movement song seemed to sum up the fun we’ve been having at school. On Tuesday, we took a walk around the block, gathering leaves of all colors, admiring the tall cornstalks in a neighbor’s garden and marveling at the fat spiders and their enormous webs, hanging from trees and strewn through our backyard as well, where we returned to pick the golden raspberries and blueberries for our snack. Of course, we had to read Robert McCloskey’s classic, “Blueberries for Sal”, and this story of prompted B to ask repeatedly, “Where’s the mom?” Quite a legitimate concern for a child…

Wednesday, too, found us on a short walk, this time on a different block. The main attraction on this venture was a fallen apple that had been claimed by a colony of sugar ants. V pulled back the grass at the edge of the sidewalk to expose the swarming little workers, taking invisible bits of apple back to their home under the ground. V was impressed that the ants carried their food back and forth in their mouths. Returning to finish our day outdoors, B played with sidewalk chalk and V made sandcastles, inviting B to stomp them down.

Other autumn-related activities have been keeping us busy and happy: we’ve been singing about gray squirrels swishing their bushy tails, leaves and nuts waiting for the cooler days of autumn to fall down to us, and of Itsy-Bitsy Spiders. At Gathering, and at a few meals, we have enjoyed the light of a ‘corncob’ candle made of beeswax—V declared that “the candle smells like honey!” On Thursday, we had our snack picnic-style on a blanket in the kitchen, enjoying apples and popcorn and talked about warm and cozy things. What’s cozy? B says “a blanket”; V says that sheets and a soft teddy bear make her feel warm and snug. Indoors, we played with seed pod shakers from a tree, and outdoors, we used tweezers to pull sunflower seeds from a huge sunflower head.

Don’t you just love fall? Keep bringing those leaves, seedpods and other treasures…

Here are some other moments from our week, which was a girls-only week as T was out of town. We are looking forward to welcoming him back next Tuesday!

V and B played with our wooden animals and a couple of dollhouse dolls, which were a Big Sister and a Little Sister. (The dolls were assigned to me—“You be them” said V.) I asked them to make up stories about the Dog and the Beaver (V’s animals) and the Duck, Gray Bird, Squirrel and Cat (B’s) which we then acted out with our toys. Our stories centered on the animals hiding under baskets and the Sisters finding them.

Lots of art: large easel paintings, print painting on paper with corks and lids, and using watercolor pencils on soaked-watercolor paper umbrellas. We also had our usual playdough time, where V and I made “beetles” to feed the hungry bird in our cuckoo clock. Artistic and exploratory arrangements were made on trays as we played with pattern blocks during a storytime too.

Dollhouse play was a big hit. The children assembled the dollhouse with pegs, then put furniture in the various rooms. B and V had their dollies visiting the bathroom to go potty and wash their hands repeatedly. (The dollhouse toilet is one of the most continuously fascinating and attractive pieces of furniture, I’ve noticed.) At one point, B had all the dollies in the bathroom (6 of them!), showering, using the toilet and washing hands…she even added chairs into the bathroom to accommodate her crew of characters! Then several dollies played “Ring Around the Rosy” together.

V used blocks in random arrangements to create “a skating project for boys and girls”. Interestingly—and appropriately—she used only the curved and angled blocks for this project, leaving the rectangular and square blocks on the shelf.

Sometimes, the children’s questions unfold to great moments. Reading “First the Egg”, V wondered about the tadpole which becomes a frog. This led to our reading a book about frog development from “frogspawn” (egg clusters) to the mature frog. Then we brought out our frog “teacher puzzle” to examine frogs in a different way, labeling the parts of their bodies (fore and hind legs, etc.) and seeing how the smaller legs are in front while those large and powerful jumping legs are in back.

There’s been a continuing interest in lacing activities, so we had fun making up a story with our lacing tree, then stringing the leaves and animal ‘beads’ for the tree into a long strand.

Thursday we got very silly washing the paint from the big school table with bubbles, and then driving our cars through the suds to make tracks. Big fun!

The rice bin is still Ice Cream Central, and B offered us ‘chocolate ice cream’ while V made ‘pink ice cream’. We’ll be offering water play next week, so you might find wet clothes sent home in your child’s backpack!


I’m so looking forward to next week. Have a great weekend, and enjoy the gorgeous signs of autumn!

Trees!

Regretfully, back-to-school is the beginning of Virus Season, and we were closed for two days due to family illnesses. Please know that we are recovering and school will reconvene next Tuesday. Tuition accounts will be credited for those days we were closed.

We are so fortunate to live in Portland, where trees are everywhere. I had invited the children to bring a leaf to share from their neighborhood, and on Tuesday morning at Gathering, we had fun examining them. T brought a leaf from a bamboo plant in his backyard; B's was from "a walk", and I shared a brightly colored one from a sweet gum tree. We noticed the different colors and shapes, then had fun building a tree puzzle which featured the different parts of the tree--the roots, trunk, branches and foliage--as separate pieces of their own. We helped to take it apart and build it together; this is part of our new set of "Teacher Puzzles"*.

In keeping with our discussion, we moved over to the table to do some painting of paper leaves. Holding a small paintbrush can be work, and the children all worked differently. Some mixed colors; some painted just a bit while others used the entire space. I let the children work as they choose on these activities, for as long as they choose, and it shows in how different each child's work looks.

Popcorn was a big hit at snacktime! T hung out in the kitchen to hear the kernels popping in the pan.

Playdough time always seems to gather the children right away. Today, there were lots of different activities going on. B spent most of her time cutting the playdough with scissors, right from the huge piece I'd given her; she'd cut off little bits and put them in the cups of a palate and we'd count them from time to time. V and T were working mostly on forming balls of playdough, and T invented a flicking game in which little balls of dough were aimed at a hole in a container. "SCORE!"

Rice play was turned into 'making ice cream--cookie dough ice cream' by T. B and V played in the housekeeping for a while, V dressing up and B making food and taking care of babies. Later, T and V built towers with the boxy stacking blocks, loading up nuts and stones into them.

At storytime we read a Henry and Mudge book that T had brought to share and the children sat working on lacing activites as I read; we had beads and big buttons available. This was very satisfying for everyone, and I enjoyed the side chatter as the children offered things to each other. "You want the purple button? Here." was the gist of the little conversations back and forth.

Outdoors, we went on a spider hunt--Huge Spiders!-- to find the webs and remove them before descending on the raspberry and blueberry bushes. The children ate most everything they picked, and some quality time was spent in the sandbox as well. Lots of digging!

I wanted to add a note about your children's lunch boxes and messy faces. When they arrive home, you might wonder at the disarray. Along with other areas of self-help that we develop at school, I am allowing them repack their lunchboxes at the end of lunch without a lot of direction and only assisting if asked. Your children need to be able to practice these things without micromanagment on my end, and this is something that other preschools support as well. If you are feeling challenged by a messy lunchbox, please come talk to me about options for containers, etc. that will encourage your child to do more of this themselves. Messy faces are par for the course as well, and while I do ask the children to use their napkins, they might have other ideas or may not quite 'get' the smears of food on their face. The point of it all is that I am giving your children the chance to do things on their own, and sometimes what's important to us (clean faces) isn't significant to them. Rest assured, if there is a food that does cause rashes, such as cinnamon or tomato sauce, I will ask them to follow up on their cleanup!

I'm looking forward to next week-- I was disappointed to have to cut our time short, as I have some very fun lesson plans laid out that I'm excited about. Let's hope all of your families are healthy too, and I'll see you then!


*"Teacher Puzzles" are Montessori puzzles which teach the nomenclature and assemblage of a variety of living things. Because the puzzles have very small, snug pieces, we work with them as a supervised activity. This also augments the practice of labeling the parts and discussion of the function of the individual parts. These puzzles cover a range of plants, insects, mammals, and fish and birds. And, of course, a child!

Supporting Scissors Work

Every day at preschool, children are offered a variety of opportunities to hone their fine-motor skills. Using lacing cards, eyedroppers for dripping color, peeling small stickers off paper, constructing puzzles with small pieces--all of these activites help to increase their manual dexerity, which supports the development of their self-help skills, such as using zippers, buttons and snaps, and eventually tying their shoes. Add to this the creative expression of cutting paper into strips, zigzags, and other small pieces--when children cut up paper, they will often direct our attention to a small pile of scraps, instructing us to "look at what I made". It's easy to see why scissors work is a great way to help our children develop essential skills in a potentially creative way.

Here are some tips for making your child's scissors work time fun for them and comfortable for you:

Setting the Stage: Plan ahead to sit with your child while they work, and understand that a child who is very engaged in scissors work may sit for 20 minutes or more. Find an easy-to-clean place where dropped paper scraps won't be trouble to clean up, and know that as your child becomes more adept with the scissors, they will be able to focus more on keeping their work over the table. For now, however, their focus will be on manipulating the scissors and paper, which will take nearly all of their concentration, so leave the television off and keep distractions ot a minimum.

Considering Which Kind of Scissors to Use: Know, first of all, that even scissors labeled "safety scissors" can cut flesh. The only kinds that can't are suitable only for playdough; generally, the plastic-blade safety scissors can only cut construction paper, and not very efficiently; this product usually provides more ripping than cutting. That said, you do have two choices: providing coils of playdough for your child to practice cutting with the blunt scissors, or using safety scissors with appropriate materials.

Create Clear Guidelines and Expectations: Just as adults need to learn safety precautions for their tools,  children need much guidance in scissors safety. Every time you sit down with your child, be clear which materials are for cutting and which aren't. Children using scissors must be sitting down in a chair, so make sure all your materials are at the table before starting. Children should be taught the safe ways of holding scissors for work (with the correct fingers in the holes) and for carrying/passing scissors to others (holding blades and presenting handles to the other person). Note: if you must remove scissors from a child's hand, don't grab the blades to do this. You can be badly cut. Trust me on this--I know this from personal experience!

Not All Paper Is Created Equal for this Task: Young children often need their paper selections tailored to their level of skill. The size and thickness of the paper do matter; generally, children can cut things between tissue/crepe paper and cardstock, and the thicker the paper is, the larger the paper can be. Avoid thicker papers like cardboard and tagboard, which can 'trap' scissors; instead, offer full or half sheets of cardstock, standard-weight printer paper, and similar sizes of gift wrap or construction paper. Lighter-weight materials like tissue or crepe paper should be presented in smaller pieces or strips for cutting, as they have a tendency to tear. Tearing paper, in and of itself, is a fun activity, however, it isn't necessarily supportive of this particular skill. Scraps can be offered in a box or paper bag, and don't forget that much of your recycled junk mail  is suitable for this purpose. Children love cutting into catalogues and circulars, as well as ribbons on gifts and other packages. Fun!

Use their Work: Consider if some of their larger scraps can be used for little notes, and set these aside in a small basket. This not only teaches the importance of reusing materials before they hit the recycling bin, but also gives your child a sense of having been helpful by creating something useful and necessary. If we focus primarily on the process and less on the product, your child may feel pride in having "done the job" of creating scrap paper. They can be instructed later to get paper from this basket for lists and notes, which adds to the value of their work.

Inspire Your Child: Folding paper and cutting out 'snowflake' type patterns or doll chains for our children is fascinating to them. They may, of course, continue your work by cutting it apart, however, these sorts of activities intrigue children as they are curious about these sorts of things. Once they have some dexterity with scissors, show them how to press a fold into paper and cut on the fold. They'll be delighted with their work!

Playdough Activities: For some children, and some settings, offering safety scissors may not be your safest or best first choice. Nonetheless, all children need to have practice with this tool. Playdough allows us to present scissors practice in the safest way possible, with plastic scissors especially made for the purpose. I've regularly seen young children while away large chunks of time happily cutting up coils or strips of playdough into empty muffin tins, containers or palates and playing candy shop or bakery. If you are working with a group of children, be sure each has their own container/s for this activity. This is a great activity for children who may be prone to acting out physically when they are upset or frustrated, or in larger group settings where one-on-one supervision can be a challenge. Be sure to offer other play props, too, such as popsicle sticks or caps and corks  for making impressions, so that if the child becomes upset or frustrated with the scissors, they have other options immediately available and can take a break from the scissors work if need be.

Lastly: Understand Your Child's Perspective on Scissors and Cutting. I can't stress this enough. While we adults have lots of understanding about which materials are for cutting and which aren't, your child may think that everything can be for cutting. This is for two reasons: first, our children just don't have our experiences and cannot critically judge which items are suitable for cutting and which should be left alone; second, we ourselves model some of the cutting we don't want our children to do. If your child sees you using scissors on food in the kitchen--say, preparing chicken or snipping herbs-- they may likely want to try cutting their food with scissors. Many of our children have had the experience of an adult cutting their hair with scissors and might want to try this themselves. Likewise, if you have occasion to cut fabric or clothes while you sew or modify clothes, your child may think this is interesting too. The point of all this is to sit with your child as they work and to store the scissors out of reach when they aren't in use. When I was four or five, I cut my own hair as well as my sister's, and hid the hair in a crayon box so that the adults "wouldn't find out". While these incidents (and their resulting hairdo's--or hair-don'ts!) result in stories and photos for the family, know that this sort of cutting is rarely an act of defieance...at least, not until they are significantly older!