Buster Williams and More

January 30, 2013

The Buster Williams Concert!

Buster Williams musical performance was scheduled this morning  in the Muller Auditorium for Lower School and Middle School students. Our children had thoroughly enjoyed his visit in the music room on Monday and after a wonderful group discussion, we decided to that we wanted to join the Lower School students and attend this very special concert as well.  We talked about what we thought we may see and hear and discussed a few important  things to remember when attending a larger group concert.  The children were so excited to be included and in joining our larger community for this event. They clearly felt "so grown up!"  The performance was fantastic and having the opportunity to experience  a live musical concert was wonderful.  Buster Williams interacts so beautifully with all ages of students and we were thrilled that the Cardinals had the opportunity for this unique encounter !

Collaborative Work 

3 Dimensional Art

Our work in exploring sculptures has taken several new directions. This week we noticed that a few of the children were especially interested in  creating sculptures and 3 dimensional art using paper and tape.  The children have become more resourceful in their use of materials and are self directed and  initiate their own projects and work. They have been working in groups and have figured out how to create their art in a collaborative way where everyone seems to be satisfied!  It is quite amazing to observe as the children  cut, glue , tape and wrap paper and tubes together and navigate the complexities of shared ideas and space. 

 Magna Tiles and Lego's

Children are very interested in creating structures and sculptures with Magna Tiles and Lego's.  The joy of working in small groups is observed daily and the children are having so many meaningful opportunities to practice and develop social skills.

The Cardinals are back in business...

Today the children were excited to return to school and they were eager and ready to dive into the classroom to talk, bond and play with their peers. Immediately, a group of Cardinals visited the library rug and started to look at a collection of books that had been displayed on the rug.  They chose their favorite books and snuggled up on the big comfy chair to read together! The joy and delight in seeing each other this morning was a reflection of the friendships and bonds that have evolved   throughout our classroom. What a fantastic way to re-enter the 2nd half of the school year!

Our building study took off just where we had left it as a few of us began to bring in our creations from the sticks and wooden shapes that were sent home. We invited the children to bring in their creations all this week to share with the class and help us begin to expand our discussion around buildings and see what other questions might arise. The spirit of building spread to different centers as well as children were seen cooperating in the Magna Tile center and working with goggles, hammers, nails, glue and wood in the studio area to create wood  structures. We also used skinny tubes and small connectors to create objects and representations.  For example, the children connected the long straws together to make numbers, structures, and carousels.  

 The group gathered together for a short Morning Meeting. We shared some experiences from Winter Break and some of our wooden sculptures. We  talked about the name of the new month and year and Paula showed us what the date looked like in print with letters and numbers!  The children are beginning to recognize sight words and they became very excited to accurately 'read' words from our chart paper!  The children take pride in their own growth and development and we feel so fortunate to be able to experience this joy with them in our classroom.  The children especially loved when we kept saying, " Did we walk into the wrong classroom ? Is this really the kindergarten class?"

Also at Morning Meeting, a new cooperative art project was introduced with colorful wastebaskets, beads and pipe cleaners. The children worked side by side as they experimented with the layout of each piece and discovered ways to connect each of the baskets  using pipe cleaners as an attaching tool. Once they had a sturdy structure with multiple levels, the children showed impressive fine motor coordination as they began adding details to each pipe cleaner with beads. This interest was seen at the table and on the rug as groups of children traveled back and forth, cooperating and showing patience with their careful placement of each new piece.

After enjoying our Choice Time and spending some time exploring outside in the welcoming sunny weather, we closed our morning together with journal writing. We sat down to talk about special experiences, visits, and happenings over Winter Break. Then, we sat down at the table and began drawing pictures of our winter break experiences. After our drawings were complete, we dictated our stories to the teachers. We had a wonderful morning together reconnecting with each other and continuing to express ourselves through conversations, interactions and play. Welcome back in the New Year 2013!

Happy To Return To School!

Back in Action

The children were so happy to return to school after a long four day weekend!  The confidence and sense of belonging is so apparent and a true joy to see.  The Cardinal classroom has clearly established strong connections with each other and their teachers. We began the day with a special celebration for TWO Cardinals' birthdays. We recognized Carlito's and Violet's birthday by singing them a song and reading The Special Birthday Message by Eric Carle. We also learned how to say "Happy Birthday" in Spanish, which is Feliz Cumpleanos. Your child can assist you in learning how to make the sounds in this Spanish phrase. Violet and Carlito then passed out a delicious and decorative snack of cupcakes on the rug to each friend as we dined together!

As we chose centers during Choice time, many of the children began to notice the building that had taken place and was continuing to happen right outside our classroom window! This led to building structures with our own wooden blocks and then a visit to the construction site. The children showed a strong interest in the workers and began asking questions such as, "What is that arrow for?" and "Are you going to paint the roof red?" We are becoming more aware of the people in our classroom and school community and as we continue to interact and talk with them, we gain deeper insight into jobs, roles, and other responsibilities in the larger Global community.

Our busy morning included a visit to our Second Grade partners in Sandy's Class. We delivered a "Thank You" card showing our appreciation for the kindness they showed when coming to visit our class. The children expressed a sense of happiness as they smiled and looked around in awe at the Second Graders and their classrooms. Their bond with the group is only just beginning but is showing growth as many friends asked, "When can you visit us again?" We look forward to sharing our classroom with our new friends sometime soon.

 

 

 

We ended our morning together exploring centers in the basement. Relationships continued to grow over common interests as friends were drawn to centers that sparked their curiosity. Social interactions were abound with the children practicing conversation skills, role playing, acting out different choices and initiating problem solving ideas!

We hope everyone had a great day after the long weekend and look forward to what tomorrow will bring!

Acts of Kindness

Continuing our conversation from yesterday around the topic of thoughtfulness and kindness was so natural this morning when Radha  arrived at school with her mom.  A few weeks ago Subha  mentioned that she loves to sew and that if we ever needed anything in that department for the classroom that she be glad to help us out.  We talked about wanting to change the seat covers on the comfortable chairs in our Library.  Subha graciously offered to take on this project!    Today she surprised us with our new, beautiful chair covers!
After Subha left for the morning, we felt that this was a perfect opportunity to continue yesterday's discussion about kindness at Morning Meeting.  Our conversation led to thoughts of ways we can express our appreciation when we receive acts of kindness from others.    A few of the children's ideas were:

• give them a hug       
• say thank-you
• tell them you love them
• draw them a picture
• take them to Chuckie Cheese 
• write a message and put it in an envelope and put on a stamp and mail it

We decided that the idea of writing a message would be a wonderful way for us as a group to express our appreciation to Subha. We created a large Thank -You card and at Choice Time, the children had the opportunity to collage feathers, tissue paper and decorative paper on the card.  This communal, group art experience helps the children learn to work collaboratively and cooperatively with each other.     When the artistic part of the card was completed, we felt that writing a message was a meaningful way to support our Language and Literacy component of our program. Later in the day, each child had the opportunity to work with a teacher individually and think about the message they wanted to express in our class thank-you card.  The children's thoughts and feelings were recorded in the card and collectively we created a thoughtful message.  The children were so proud of their  collaborative work together and decided that they wanted to surprise Subha when she came to school to pick up Radha.

Needless to say, Subha was very touched and the children had the joy of experiencing first hand the gifts of giving...