Something Smells Good...

What's that on the air? The scent of winter baking, and all the seasonally-favored spices, was part of our Morning Gathering on Tuesday. Tubes of scent: vanilla, cinnamon, clove and pepper, were all passed around the group to be sniffed and examined. T recognized  the pepper, as he likes it on his popcorn during our picnics, and the children asked a few questions about the chunky cinnamon stick sitting in the tube with a little ground cinnamon as well. From there, we moved over to the school table to make clove and cinnamon stick sachets. B liked wrapping the rubber bands around the top; V worked hard to tie the knots with the rick-rack ribbon and T's mom was visiting for the morning, so she and T made his together. Soon everyone had a nice-smelling sachet to take home.

On Thursday morning, we gathered around a plate of shelled nuts, and each child was given 4 whole nuts: walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds and brazil nuts. Then we went around and tried to match the shelled nut on the plate to the whole ones; each child held up the nut they thought was the match, and after Gathering, we sat down and began the best part: cracking and eating nuts. V loved this activity so much from last session, I knew we'd have to do it again, and there was no less enthusiasm this time around. The lighter-colored walnuts, the almonds and the hazelnuts were most popular, and it was fun to watch and see if there was actually a nut in some of them; a few hazelnuts were 'duds' and so we began shaking the whole nuts first to discover if there was a nut inside before bothering to open them.

We played a lot of games too: our "Animal Mothers and their Babies" matching game was offered on the table,  and it was lovely to hear the children remembering how to ask for pieces from their friends to match up the pairs. At Wednesday Gathering, we played our New Name Game, where the children continued to select the letters of their name from a pool, match and orient them onto their name card. We did a little tricky thing by asking the children to raise their hands if the card/letter was not in their name, and encouraged each child to spell their name aloud. On Thursday, we played our "What's Missing Lotto"; the children remembered the names of some of the 'missing' parts that we learned from last week, "handle" being the most useful and easily remembered. Game playing reminds the children to take turns (and keep track of them) and during our What's Missing game, when a child couldn't find the picture on their own card, I asked if anyone else could see where the picture was, which gave the children a chance to help each other.

You might have noticed an envelope of cut-out snowflakes come home last week-- or not. B embraced the activity of cutting, and her snowflake ended up looking like a pile of tiny flakes indeed. T and V were interested in cutting out the colored origami and decorative papers I had offered for this activity and took their snowflakes home. T made a snowflake which he declared "looks like a windmill". Perhaps they are taped up to window, or are being sent off enclosed in holiday greeting cards. I never do know what sort of life the children's artwork has once it is taken home...

Speaking of art, we had our usual Wednesday easel time this week, and with a new twist: the children are now going in one-by-one to use the easel and work. While we have had the group hanging out and watching in the past, I've noticed that this can be distracting for the artist, and a bit crowded to boot.  Something to share, too: when we are talking with our children about their artwork, asking questions and telling your child what you see can be helpful in encouraging them to continue expressing themselves creatively. While our kids like to hear "oh, that's beautiful" and other kind things, when we focus more of our attention toward what's on the paper ("I really like blue, and I see you made five blue circles, all in this corner. Tell me about that...."), this lets them know both that their work is worth notice, and tells them what you personally found interesting. "I see you used some bright colors, right next to each other. So many bright colors makes me feel like...." Children are much like adult artists; they like discovering how you, their beloved parent, relates to their work. When we give our children this sort of feedback, they are more encouraged to take chances in their artwork and to express themselves more authentically.

Outside in our sandbox, T and V were digging trenches for water to flow through. We talked about how a part that circled around looked like an island, and recalled one part of the story "The Little Island", where a kitten asks the island, and later, a fish, how it is that the island is surrounded by water and is still connected to the land. Then, we dug our trench deeper, and filled it with water for a live demonstration of this very concept. Their eyes grew wide as the lone island in the water appeared. (These are the moments teachers live for!) Amazing what one can learn in a sandbox!

Our playdough story this week started with a yellow flat circle of playdough, which one child dubbed a "magic golden meadow". A popsicle stick was laid across and then, B added green balls to the playdough to become "tigers". V and T were busy creating replicas of the original work, figuring out how to hollow out small pieces of dough and stick them  upside down to look like 'big rocks'. V discovered that when the dough sticks to the bottom of the red-handled rolling pins, that you can make it go back and forth on the bottom like a pendulum. B gave me a playdough cake with a candle in it, for my birthday, and T told me "I'm working on a wormhole. Here's a worm to go in the wormhole. See, the worm have protection in here and then the worm can stay in there."  Even worms need shelter too.

On Thursday, we celebrated V's 4th birthday together. Her mother and little brother brought delicious fruit skewers and a book to share, and the children were very, very happy to have a birthday time at school! We sang a song about the Earth going round the sun; B was the sun V traveled around, and we honored each year with a verse of its own. Thanks for the yummy nibbles!

Some other moments:

Wild weather drove us indoors on Wednesday, so we gathered to read William Steig's "C-D-B" ,a book made up of phonetic little sayings that the children chimed in to help me read when they could. Fun!

V and B like two peas in a pod, sitting close together on the rug to look at the "Dinosaur Bones" book, and then wrapping up babies and carrying them around. V told me that "both the babies are girls", and their little girls were wrapped snug in scarves and blankets.

The rubber-band pegboard was out again. We talked about the different shapes they made: triangles, squares, parallelograms and trapezoids (these big words made them giggle), and T made an "H" out of rubber bands, which was 'an H for Hazel. See?"

V working methodically with the magnetic crane truck and  shape blocks, using the crane to neatly unload, and then reload, that set of blocks back into their 'trailer'.

T and B worked with the other set of magnetic blocks to make cars and skateboards; V joins in too.

Sandbox treasure hunts outside were a blast, along with playing "Find the Shoe" and shooting baskets with the balls.

I wish all of your families a peaceful and fun winter break. We'll see you in the new year!

Wind!

Just a reminder for parents: We'll be playing outside every day, even when it's rainy, so please don't forget to send your child in warm layers, warm hats and waterproof boots and shoes. The days can be very cold when we are out for our half-hour or so!


This week was a bit of a topsy-turvy one, with two children each spending a day at home due to the those nasty bugs that are going around. Be assured that we are doing plenty of hand-washing, encouraging kids to use tissues instead of sleeves, covering our coughs and then...washing hands again!

With all the blustery weather present, it only made sense to enjoy and explore it. On Tuesday morning, I asked the question "How do we know the wind is blowing?"

V: Because it's windy.
B: Because the wind is blowing the leaves.
V: Because it's almost wintertime. The wind doesn't blow in the summer because the sun is out.

With those conclusions, we decided to watch for a sunny winter day to see if the wind blows. At each gathering, the children loved trailing streamers back and forth as we sang about "My Lady Wind", who blows around the house, through all the cracks and crannies. Arthur Lobel's classic "Owl at Home" features a short story of how Owl invites Winter into his home as a guest, only to regret it when the wind and snow take over. We also spent time over our week constructing windsocks from card stock and crepe streamers to take home. The children had fun decorating them with crayons, peeling off the little star stickers, gluing on the streamers and helping to punch the holes for hanging. Just find a place at home to hang your child's windsock over a heat register or near a ceiling fan and let the fun begin.

Wednesday came along, and so did our Pajama Day! The children looked very sweet wearing their favorite jammies, sitting on comfy blankets, and we kept with the theme, having peppermint tea and toast for snack time and a nice wood fire going besides. Since this was so anticipated, and since some children couldn't be here, we will revisit this in January, after the novelty of the holidays has passed. We read a new story called "The Quilt" about a child's quilt that's made up of her old clothes, and how their patterns inspire her to dream of a fantastic landscape of gardens, forests and even a circus. We also played "What's Missing" lotto, where the children work to match cards with pictures of everyday objects on them to larger cards, which featured the same pictures with one part missing. Along with the work of matching the cards, the children were asked "what's missing", which gave us an opportunity to recall or newly learn the names of the different parts of these objects: the 'teeth' of a comb, the 'stem' of a cup, the 'spoke' of a wheel.... this game is a great vocabulary builder and encourages the children to think of how the parts of each object work to make the whole.

Dried rolled oats were introduced into our sensory bin, and the children became engaged immediately. On our first day, V shaped the pile of oats into a mountain slope up one side of the bin, working to pile them up as high as she could before they slid down. B loved filling up containers; we've some old lids of different shapes and sizes to use as scoops this week. Later in the week, the cardboard tubes in the bin were explored as "phones" by the children, one child holding their tube up to their ear, and another putting a separate tube to their mouth and holding the extended ends near each other. All of the kids explored the sounds blown through the tubes, which mimicked gargling or blowing raspberries. (Big laughs, there!) Then, T uses the tube in a different way: "Look, I have a telescope," he said, holding the tube up to his eye.

I love our time each week at the playdough table. This Thursday, B started us off with our usual "Happy Birthday" song, two popsicle sticks poking straight up in the dough, and singing everyone's names to celebrate. This week, I fashioned a "Lake in a Crater" and invited the children to add things to it. When B offered a couple of 'skateboards', a path was made at the crest of the crater. B then added some 'snakes' to the lake. T made some snakes, and V decided she wanted to make a crater lake too, and asked some questions about the process before trying it herself. The table became quiet as the children concentrated intently on their work. T then announced he'd made a "Big Circus Ball" and V was happy with her lake and showed it to us. "Is it to swim in?" asked T.

A few more peeks into our week:

Twice this week we headed out on walks around the neighborhood with 'treasure hunt lists'. (The 'treasures' are finding the listed items which the children chose themselves, seeing them and crossing them off.) Holly berries, pumpkins, snowman decorations, green leaves and cats were found; spiders, scarecrows and squirrels weren't seen as we walked round the block. This is a great activity, by the way, when you need a walk and your reluctant child doesn't want to go.  A lovely distraction.

We revisited a question V posed a while ago, about cotton and clothing, and read a book titled "From Field to Blue Jeans", which depicts every stage of this transformation. Hopefully I'll be finding other materials as well for us to explore this topic, because it is certainly an interesting one. At home, you can show your child the labels in the clothes they wear and talk about where the fabric comes from: cotton, flax, silkworms, bamboo or petroleum. It really is fascinating.

In the block area, B takes apart the cone puzzle, recreating last week's play. "Who wants ice cream?" she calls to us.

T working the dressing puzzles and beading with the ribbon and lacing grids.

During journals time, B stacks and counts crayons. Our block crayons are irresistible when it comes to playing with them. The kids almost have more fun organizing them than they do coloring.

Gathered round the bristle blocks, all the children building. V and T take turns making airplanes from the same blocks.  Children wander in and out of this and a side-by-side mailbox play, with wooden fruit dominoes for the 'mail'.

V makes a neat rectangle with small pegs on the pegboard. Then she and B work the shape spindles and pieces, some of them are used for the mailbox.

Lots of little moments of observation from our big window overlooking the back yard. The shoes area has been moved beneath the kitchen table so that all the children have room to stand near the window. We watched the usual birdy goings-on and saw some surprising drama-- a squirrel had been caught by the beefy neighbor cat. I ran out to chase it away before our rodent friend was any the worse for wear, and was grateful that we'd been present to save the little critter.


This upcoming week is our last for this calendar year. In keeping with our school philosophy, we'll be focusing on our seasonal curriculum instead of the upcoming Christmas holiday itself. Oh, and those paperwhites your children have taken home? Don't forget to give them water up to the tops of their roots. Now that they are blooming, they may be a bit pungent, so you can remove them to a sheltered spot on your porch for longer-lasting flowers. See you Tuesday!

Bird Business

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!