Monday Happenings

The morning began with an intentional look at the book, Circles, Squares, and Triangles by Tana Hoban. In small groups, children visited a center filled with materials such as popsicle sticks, small wooden pieces, small round glass stones and pebbles, and toothpicks. After doing a picture walk through the story, the children each seemed to be inspired by the photographs highlighting the shapes in the world around us. They immediately took to creating the shapes depicted in the book, explaining these are like the triangles in the bridge or I would like to make the road signs. It was interesting to see the children identify each piece of the photograph and through creative selection, chose similarly shaped materials to assemble their own interpretation.

Learning centers such as this easily can be supported by a teacher as the children have grown in their relationships with each other and independently choose other areas of work in the classroom. Building with the Magnet Tiles continues to provide the children with a three dimensional experiences with shapes. As the children connect squares and triangles of different sizes together, they compare heights and positions to create a stable structure. This has led to imaginative play scenarios where animals are now being added as character. Problems such as storms arise as well, that need to be solved through reworking and moving of pieces.

Lilly's Mom Alix had the opportunity to spend time with the children reading stories this morning. As a professor at Temple, Alix is on Spring Break this week and this provided a special experience for her to share free morning time with us in the Cardinal class. The family-school connection is something that is so vital to the children's learning experience at this age. Opportunities such as this provide support and the comforting feeling that school is just an extension of the home environment where every child is valued, loved, cared, and respected. 

At Morning Meeting, we were introduced to the artwork of the abstract painter, Piet Mondrian. Much of his art consists of only vertical and horizontal rectangles and lines. As the children listened and watched closely as the teacher turned the pages displaying many of his pieces, they noticed his paintings primarily were put together using black, white, gray and the primary colors. During Morning Meeting, we extended our conversation and participated in a discussion identifying shapes in areas of our house such as the bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Many ideas were shared that clearly illustrated the children's awareness. The teachers then challenged the children as they sat down for their  journal time in asking them to recall and illustrate shapes that they saw on their drive to school today. The journal topic of the day led to making deeper connections with shapes in the world around us.  Take the opportunity to read your child's journal at pick-up or drop-off and see what stands out to them.

Creative expression is something the children truly enjoy and they identify with the role of the artist. They have grown in their feelings of ownership and connecting with the studio. Today, painting at the easel was opened and the children were able to use large movements in their strokes. Color mixing and shading are two types of experimentation happening in this area right now.

The children are really starting  to connect with shapes and color. The question of the day was: Can you find any shapes on your face? The children loved looking in a mirror that we placed near the graph to see if their facial features resembled any familiar shapes.  As they stopped by the mirror, they were quick to point out aspects of their face and seemed quite surprised at just how many shapes they could identify! 

What a way to finish the day than with a shared time together engaged in outside play:

Wishing everyone a Happy Monday as we all adjust to Daylight Savings Time! Tomorrow, we will be attending Lower School Assembly at 8:30 in the Muller Auditorium. The Cardinals are excited to be part of the audience for this community experience filled with a packed schedule of:

-Kathy and Beverly's Kindergarten Play -"State My Name" Game with 4th Grade Students

-Flute/Piano performance of Bach's Minute in G from Drew Arteaga and Charly Avril

It is sure to be a heartwarming experience showcasing the talents of our students here at AFS.

If you do arrive after 8:30, feel free to bring your child to the Muller Auditorium to join us.