Thursday Happenings

May 16th, 2013

While it drizzled outside, the children were creating an exciting spring scene in our classroom. We started our morning in library with Gwen reading a funny story about prairie dogs which had the children glued to the action packed story.

Returning to the classroom, everyone was excited about the progress we have made on our beautiful spring mural. Yesterday and early this morning we set up the sky, the grass, a beautiful tree, and even soil under the grass. Noticing our attention to all the important aspects of the natural world we had set up, Stella's mom Kristina, a science teacher here in the AFS Upper School, asked if she could come talk to the children about soil. After library, Kristina came into our class and talked to us about soil and all the ways that soil is necessary for all growing things. She not only talked with us about how you might need soil for gardening, but also all the interesting organisms that live in soil! She asked us to think about how important all the living things in the soil are, and how important it is to take care of the soil. She left us materials to look at that show us magnified pictures of these tiny organisms, and we look forward to exploring them and researching them further! She even shared an interesting idea for the soil on our mural which we will be beginning soon, so we will incorporate all of this as we add to our beautiful display. After our visit with Kristina, the children became busy in the studio creating flowers and assisting in adding their depictions of spring to the collaborative mural in progress.

The fondness of flowers blossomed fully as the children became engaged in our new flower shop in the dramatic play area. Equipped with bases and flower pieces, the children created bouquets. Other children found their roles in this area as well, using clipboards and pencils to take orders from their teachers and friends or over the phone. A great display of cooperation and appreciation for each other was felt as the children interacted in this transformed space.

We enjoyed our outdoor time, soaking up the sun and bonding with one another as the freedom to move and explore created limitless games with the children running, climbing, digging or gathering and socializing.