Thursday News

Throughout the Day on Thursday...

*We had Spanish with Alicia and experienced naming and recalling of body parts in Espanol. We also sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" using the Spanish terms we learned for head: cabeza, shoulder: hombro, knee: rodilla, toes: pies. 

Here are the full lyrics if you would like to practice and invite your child to sing with you:

Cabeza, hombros, rodillas
y dos pies
Cabeza, hombros, rodillas
y dos pies

Ojos, oidos, boca y una nariz
Cabeza, hombros, rodillas
y dos pies

*Shared sculptures and participated more in the creation process: The confidence and pride of the children in their artistic work is displayed as they often ask "Can I show this during Morning Meeting?". After Hannah walked around with her recycled sculpture today, the children were inspired to return to the studio to work. Children learning from children is an intrinsic form of motivation that sparks curiosity in a new way. This time, we introduced two new tools that Hannah used in her more complex sculpture including a stapler and exacto knife (with the aid of a teacher). This led to many children choosing to work in the studio during Choice Time.

*Journal Dictation and Drawing: In response to our prompt, "Draw a picture of something you like to do with your friends". The children enjoyed sharing daily activities and experiences with the Cardinal peers through their drawings and descriptions.

We spent the rest of the time connecting with each other and our surrounding environment in our outdoor space!

Thinking back on Thursday...

As the Cardinals entered our classroom this morning, they quickly began following the Morning routine by participating in our daily emerging literacy activities. This includes signing in, reading and casting their vote for question of the day, and working in their journals. The cold weather inspired our journal writing today, as the children enthusiastically drew a picture in response to the question, "What do you like to do when it is cold outside?" The children dictated various stories that illustrated their home experiences. The work of the children in their journals is growing in detail as they are drawing faces and structures, depicting the setting and characters of their stories. Their verbal dictations clearly connect to the specific shapes and colors seen in their work.

Our morning continued and flowed to our meeting together which began with the sharing of our "cold weather" stories. This acknowledges the work of the children and allows them to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride as their work is read aloud to the larger group. This sense of acknowledgement and recognition continued as Kate brought in a plastic dinosaur and was very interested in sharing it with her friends during Morning Meeting. Throughout our day, learning experiences often arise such as this, that may be unexpected. We used the dinosaur, "Don" as a tool to continue our study of sculptures. "How?", you may ask! The teachers began by discussing a step in the sculpting process that artists may go through. We talked about observation and identifying a thing or a "model" that we may want to make a sculpture of. This led us back to "Don", as we used him as a model for sculpting. With the help of the Cardinals identifying the different parts and shapes of Don, the teacher molded and shaped a dinosaur sculpture. Following Morning Meeting, many Cardinals tried out this process using wooden cars and blocks as models for sculpting at the play dough center. 

The children took in the fresh, crisp air by running, jumping, and climbing in our outdoor play space. After strengthening our large motor muscles, we warmed up inside with a shared read aloud on the rug. Shannon introduced, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by John Scieszka and Lane Smith. This story changes the point of view with the Big Bad Wolf telling his side, defending  himself with the explanation of "a bad cold" which led to sneezing the houses down. This story led to a meaningful discussion of right and wrong, demonstrating an emerging understanding of ethics among the children. After the story, the teacher posed the question, "Do you think the wolf was really a big bad wolf or not?" The answers show the higher order thinking process that the Cardinals went through to determine their answer. Some responses included, "He was a nice wolf because he didn't mean to do that.", "I think he was kind of nice and kind of mean because he was making the cake for his grand mom but he still ate the pigs.", "A bad wolf because he sneezed so hard and the houses fell down.", "A nice wolf because he was trying to get sugar from the pigs for his granny.", and "He was a nice wolf because he didn't mean to do that." The story posed a different perspective to a familiar story which challenged the children to also look at it in a new way. 

The morning quickly came to a close with children exploring our large space in our downstairs common area, beading on our collaborative art sculpture, painting at the easel, cutting shapes, and participating in dramatic play!

What a Wednesday!

A Wednesday with the Cardinals

As the Cardinals entered the classroom this chilly morning, they welcomed a visiting child into the room, who was coming to experience our school. The children showed their developing social skills and comfort level in meeting new people as they engaged him during our Morning Choice. We then held our Morning Meeting on the rug and were sure to share with our friend all the fun things we do. The Cardinals show pride in being a part of our class and school community and approach new experiences such as this with growing confidence and independence.

Exploring Science and Sculpture

The excitement over creating sculptures and models with our hands has become an intriguing exploration. This curiosity intensified today as the children explored with an intentional invitation of packing peanuts, glue and water set as a center during Choice Time. The teachers watched and supported the children as they worked with these materials to create connecting pieces representing the different items they had decided on. Boats, a cactus, a fire station and a boy playing soccer were some of the sculptures created. As the children patiently assembled their creations, they noticed how the water allowed the peanuts to stick together creating a very real and meaningful science experiment. The texture of the peanuts changed as water was added and one obstacle to overcome was determining the right amount of water to allow for connecting. If too much was added, the Cardinals noticed the material would quickly dissolve creating transforming liquids and solids showing the different phases of matter. Through explorations such as this, the children are connecting to beginning science concepts and forming questions that guide their learning and development.

Following our Choice and Center time, the Cardinals exercised their large motor skills briefly in front of our school on the lawn area. They chose to challenge themselves in running back and forth using trees as their starting and finishing lines. The cold sparked our moving spirits as we headed indoors and visited the Black Box, a room dedicated to theater and other arts practices. In this room, the feelings of creative movement flourished as the children initiated a dance party modeling ballet moves, break down steps and participated in games of "Freeze Dance". 

The shared experiences amongst our class such have strengthened their bonds with each other and Abington Friends School. We look forward to watching the Cardinals take on new ventures each day as they grow closer as a community.

Tuesday

January 22, 2013

The were bundled as they entered the classroom this cold, cold Tuesday morning and were delighted to see each other after a long weekend away from our classroom activities.  We began our morning with Open Choices that included journal writing, Magna Tiles, books and blocks.  We asked the children to think about what they did on the weekend and in particular how they may have spent  MLK day and then asked them to draw a picture in their journals reflecting these thoughts. Story dictation follows the drawing experience and our children have become more verbal and descriptive in their story dictations.

During our longer Choice Time today the children were involved in work/play in the following areas in the classroom: sculpting with playdough in the Art Studio,  creating sculptures with paper tubes, copy paper, cardboard and tape in the Studio, building with Magna Tiles, Dramatic Play and blocks.  The children suggested that we have a buffet snack (as we had prior to winter break!) and we spontaneously changed our snack plan for the day and set up a lovely buffet of fruits, crackers, pita and hummus for the children to enjoy during our Choice Time activities. The social component of our snacks and meals together has evolved into a very special time where we all feel a strong sense of community and connections. It was especially heartwarming today as the children initiated this more intimate gathering around food.  We are now thinking of ways to continue to support this joyful shared time together.  We are actually thinking about planning a special breakfast  together where we will  make waffles and have favorite breakfast foods at our buffet. We will involve the children in all of the steps in planning a special event such as this!

Also, during Open Choice, a few children chose to explore our middle common area and immediately began construction with interlocking ramps and blocks. They created a maze of connecting tubes that allowed for a rousing game of bowling. Their cooperation and teamwork allowed them to navigate problem solving as they encounter obstacles with ramps not lining up or a ball stuck in the middle of the course!

To continue our exploration of sculptures, the teachers are helping the children become more aware of shapes that may be seen in different creations. Today, the teachers invited the children to play a game of Shape Bingo helping the Cardinals to independently identify shapes and colors as they filled up their Bingo game board. Activities such as this intentionally create connections with the Sculpture work that has become such as huge interest in our classroom.

In Music class today we had a new friend, Olivia, subbing in for Jason. She took us through the songs we sing every music class and then introduced us to an exciting instrument. She held up this towering string instrument and asked us if anyone knew what this massive music maker is called. After a few guesses she revealed the large instrument was a double bass! It's hollow, wood, body helped to make the large, low sounds from plucking the strings. The Cardinals even had a chance to try out their plucking technique themselves one at a time! Olivia then revealed to us that there is another way this instrument can be played, with a bow. She showed us this long stick looking tool that can be used to slide across the strings to make a strong, continuous sound. Jayden mentioned that the bowing motion, "looks like you're trying to saw something." After exploring all the fun sounds a standing bass can make, the Cardinals listened to a fun reading of The Jazz Fly about a fly who played jazz drums in a funky band. In the story, there was highlighted one of the fly's band mates playing the double bass! We all loved seeing this new musical instrument!

We used our lower level activity area for active play and are reminded how fortunate we are to have so many varied spaces for our children to play in at AFS.  The  Extended Day space supports our  children's needs for more active, large motor play when it is just too cold to go outdoors.

To end our morning together, we examined a new surprise material provided by Kristina, Stella's mom, for our sculpture making. These small foam peanuts support us in building 3-D creations as we decide how to assemble the pieces together. With just a small dip in water, the peanuts magically stick together! The Cardinals enjoyed experimenting with this process and immediately began identifying what the foam peanut representation looked like to them with ideas such as a, "Mouse closet", "chair", "car" and "bed".



Enjoy your chilly afternoon as we did on our Tuesday morning together!