On Wednesday morning we opened our doors and welcomed your kiddos back to school. T and V have returned from their summer off and I am glad to welcome B into our group. We have had a busy two days, and I'd love to share some of what we are doing here at school to start off as well as some glimpses into their playtime.
Name recognition is important to the children, for their hooks, artwork and cubbies are all labeled with their names. For many young children, letters are perceived as mysterious symbols whose meanings must be learnt through relevance, and helping a child recognize the letters of their own name gives these 'symbols' meaning. We started at our first Gathering by looking at name cards, one for each person in the group. The next day, each child was presented with their name cards, and then the first letter in their names was held up to be recognized and matched to the one on the name card. Because the children enjoyed this game so much, next week I will be sending a "Name Game" home with your child for them to play with as they like.
Our first art project was a collaborative collage piece. The children worked together at the table with scissors and a variety of paper scraps, cutting them and placing them onto the sticky paper in the center of the table. We added some sequins for a little sparkle, then hung their creation up in the window near the housekeeping. It was lovely to sit down with all the children together and to see them working so intently on their cutting and placement of the collage items.
Later that first day, we moved on to our playdough time, which drew all the children once again to the big table. "Snoodle Boodle Bloodle" sang T as he began making a series of birthday cakes, using three popsicle sticks for candles, and then cutting the 'cake' into pieces for all of us. B and V followed suit, making cakes, and we sang the happy birthday song several times. When T and V's workspaces got a little too close to each other, T made a line with the popsicle sticks between them and dubbed them "gates". It's great to see such creative problem-solving and the play continued happily until lunch.
Mealtimes are such a wonderful time for our little community. Last year's game of "Raise your Hand if you Like..." returned. On Thursday, this conversation was heavily centered around pie. Everyone at school likes all kinds of pies, most especially cherry pie, from the enthusiastic responses this suggestion received.
Thursday's artwork and activities allowed the children to be together while working on their own independent projects. Cardstock, crayons and a variety of stickers were provided first, and this resulted in many decorated messages to be sent home. Some of the stickers were cut into very small pieces, and believe me, getting those tiny stickers off the paper backing was work! (Once again, fine motor skills are being exercised.) The children dictated their messages to their parents, and were happy to take them home. Your children are so proud of the thought and care they put into their work, so be sure to find a spot on the fridge or another place they can see their work at their eye level at home.
Later we had fun trying out some marble track painting. Each child places a sheet of paper into a box, then uses spoons to pull marbles out of cups of paint and drops them into the box. A lid is placed on top, the box is shaken by the child and Voila!- a bright, colorful picture emerges. The children noticed how the marbles began to pick up all the colors that were available. We'll hang up some of these for decorations in the preschool.
Outdoors, we looked for spiders, picked raspberries and had a grand time in the sandbox, creating "lakes" and putting wooden bridges over them to walk across. A few sandcastles were formed, then stomped down. On Thursday, we watched as our neighbor's Rhus tree was slowly cut apart. When one branch let out a loud 'crack!' before it's plummet to the ground, T was excited. "That's awesome!" V and B were less than enthused about the noise of the very-intermittent chainsaw, which was not awesome, but we tried to focus on playing and berry-picking, as well as poofing calendula petals from our lips, to flutter down on us all.
A few other moments from our week:
V and B played with the babies, and then T and V took turns making eggs and toast in the little kitchen. Our housekeeping space was rather busy!
B worked on lacing beads at the puzzle table; I had fun joining her and making a pattern red/yellow necklace.
V and T worked to load up the truck with nuts, then created a cover for it with a tri-fold burp cloth from the housekeeping. After a few attempts at pushing the truck and losing the cloth because it dragged on the ground, V figured out how to fold it along the seams and made a cover which worked.
B, V and T worked together-but-separately at the table on puzzles, everyone very busy.
T and V used a basket of magnetic shapes to create a skatepark, using the little magnet people on long rectangle pieces as their skaters.
At snacktime on Thursday, our toothpicks 'sang' about the foods they were wearing as hats, the apples and raisins.
V, B and T all working together on the carpet, engaged in various lacing activities with wooden beads and big, colorful buttons.
I am looking forward to seeing the leaves your children will be bringing next week, to our requested Popcorn Day on Tuesday, and all the fun we will be having as we continue to play and explore together. Have a great weekend!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Calendar Of Back to School Events
I'd like to welcome everyone back to the blog, and almost back to school. Because there are a few events coming just around the corner--and because sometimes checking online is easier than finding paperwork--I've posted the dates and times below.
September 1st, 10-11:30a.m. Playtime in the Garden All children and their immediate family members are welcome to come and play in the garden. This will be a chance to reconnect with familiar faces and welcome new families to our Plumtree community. A healthy snack will be provided.
September 7th, 9:30-10:30a.m. New Student Orientation New students and their parents are invited to come and familiarize themselves with the preschool space and explore a bit.
September 8th, 9:30a.m.-1:15p.m. School Begins. This first day is a full day and starts our school year.
On a separate note, we currently have one student space available for a boy, aged between 3 and 4 years old. If you happen to know of anyone looking for a program like mine, please don't hesitate to send them our way.
Have a great week and we'll see you all next Wednesday morning!
September 1st, 10-11:30a.m. Playtime in the Garden All children and their immediate family members are welcome to come and play in the garden. This will be a chance to reconnect with familiar faces and welcome new families to our Plumtree community. A healthy snack will be provided.
September 7th, 9:30-10:30a.m. New Student Orientation New students and their parents are invited to come and familiarize themselves with the preschool space and explore a bit.
September 8th, 9:30a.m.-1:15p.m. School Begins. This first day is a full day and starts our school year.
On a separate note, we currently have one student space available for a boy, aged between 3 and 4 years old. If you happen to know of anyone looking for a program like mine, please don't hesitate to send them our way.
Have a great week and we'll see you all next Wednesday morning!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
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!
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!
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!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
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!
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!
Friday, May 21, 2010
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!
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!
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