Taking On Tuesday!

January 8, 2014

 The transition back to school has been  seamless! The growth and maturity is clearly observed as we have experienced these first few days back after a long winter break.  The children are interacting with each other in more collaborative ways and we have noticed that they are playing in small clusters throughout the day.  We began our morning with a few new Choice time activities and our children were totally thrilled at the choices today! An invitation to explore water was created at one of our Choice tables and the children loved mixing, pouring , filling jars and experimenting with the water in individual tubs. We put soap and small plastic animals in the tubs to further extend this exploration. 

Math Games

Donny's Dad, Don had a few extra minutes this morning and was able to spend a  little time in our classroom with us.  Donny was so happy to share his school life and friends with his dad and the children loved getting to know Don better. The children have been more interested in board games lately and we decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to play a game .  We have been talking at length about shapes over the past several weeks, as our study of building has developed. Playing Shape and Color matching game is a wonderful way to support this area of our curriculum.  Some of the skills that the children were able to practice through playing this game were shape recognition, color recognition and visual discrimination.  Playing board games  involves taking turns and cooperative social skills which were clearly observed during this time.  We played this game in the Math Center and after the game, a few children were interested in working with the magnetic number puzzle board. 

Art Class With Sam

When we walked into Sam's studio this morning, we found that the Cardinal class had not forgotten our Art Class routine over break. Everyone put on a smock at the door and found a seat already set up for us along the art room tables. The first thing we noticed were the water colors set up between our papers and since water colors is something all of our Cardinals love to do, we got started right away. As we created works of art with our watery paint brushes, Sam revealed that today's project had another part to it! She began putting in front of us all sorts of different objects along with trays of paint in the three primary colors we have been learning about this year. She told us we would then be able to do some printing over our water color pieces! Everyone jumped right into this printing project and the beautiful works of art that came out are sure to amaze.

 Trash Can Sculpture

Interest in working on this larger than life sculpture has been enthusiastic! Please stop by and enjoy the art with us!  We have beads and pipe cleaners near the sculpture for you and your child to enjoy together!

Election Day and Flubber Fun

Morning and Election Time:

Morning Meeting and Moment of Silence - 

Letter Making -

Our morning began with Cardinals arriving at school eager to join friends at Choice Time. As the children played, wrote in their journals, and explored forming letters, conversations began about the special day it was: election day! A few Cardinals told about their special experiences of going to vote with family members early this morning. This sparked the teachers to sign the Cardinal Class up to participate in our school mock election. The teachers gathered the children on the rug and explained the process of voting. We talked about how this was one day where we each made a choice on a person to vote for! The teachers shared their own experiences of going in the private booth and pressing the button for the candidate of each important position. We discussed how each of us can make our own choice and may not agree to vote for the same person. This led to a discussion of respecting each other and the importance of opinion. After our discussion, we ventured to the Lower School library to cast our votes. With the help of schoolmates in our community, we each made a decision and had a chance to practice the right to vote!

Flubber Fun (or fiasco)!

We returned back to the classroom and discovered ingredients and cooking bowls, measuring cups and spoons. The children became excited about the opportunity to use all of this to create Flubber, a sticky dough to manipulate with our fingers. We combined warm water, glue and borax together, each taking a turn to stir and the gooey mixture started to form. The children stretched, molded and immersed themselves in sculpting with this material. As we engaged at this center, we discovered the dough was stickier than usual and attached its self to clothes and shoes, showing how interested the Cardinals were in using it! After all the fun, we cleaned up, changed clothes if they were too sticky and enjoyed the rest of our day connecting with the outdoors! Be sure to check your child's cubby for messy clothes that may need to be washed (the flubber should come out with soap, water, and possibly a little vinegar for some tough spots!)

We have been enjoying the time outdoors even though it has been a bit chilly!  The warm outer clothing, gloves and hats are appreciated! 

Connecting To Construction...

 The childrens' interest in building, construction, tools and builders has been growing steadily as we watch the final days of our amazing outdoor classroom play structure completed before our eyes ! At lunch yesterday , Wyatt was talking with his friends about how his dad is also a builder and has lots of the same tools that our "school builders" have.  We asked Lauren, Wyatt's mom if she could bring in some of the tools from home  that Wyatt thought would be interesting for the children to see.   At Morning Meeting today, Wyatt shared the tools he brought from home and described how they worked.  We looked at a hammer, screwdriver, combination square and a stick rule. Lauren joined us for our meeting and helped out in our discussion about tools. Wyatt was so proud to lead our meeting discussion and seemed to love making the connection between home and school.

 We set the tools out for further exploration at a table during Choice Time and the children were especially interested in looking at the set of blueprints that Wyatt's father uses in his building projects.  Wyatt explained that his dad puts his ideas in a drawing and we came to the realization that the drawings are like the directions for the builder ! We invited children to make their own blueprints using large paper and blocks to trace the shapes of "buildings". When we were finished working inside, we decided to go and take another look at the construction site.  Marty, one of the builders offered us wood pieces to bring back into the
classroom . We are thinking that we may use the wood scrapes to create our own buildings !

 

Interest in the  block area has been growing as well.  The children are learning to work cooperatively and collaboratively and are exploring blocks in many  ways.  Some children are starting to build vertically and are exploring concepts relating to balance.  

 We placed dry, shredded paper mache on trays with small cups of water in the art area today.  We recognized that the children need a variety of sensory experiences everyday and decided to dedicate one of our tables in the Art Studio for sensory exploration.  Several of the children were excited to touch, squeeze, role and shape the dough,while others enjoyed  merely watching their friends sculpt. We learned that some of our Cardinals do not like to get their hands mess!  Children sculpted nests and we experimented with making letters of the alphabet with the dough.