Self Expression

Journal Writing

As journal writing has easily become a part of our morning routine, the teachers have noticed how the Cardinals are becoming immersed in their work. They display great concentration and patience while drawing and creating images of stories that are in their minds. The children enjoy visiting the journal table and take their time dictating their thoughts to a teacher as she writes their own words down. Today, Lilly even allowed Paula the opportunity to share her journal story with the group at Morning Meeting! This led to a discussion of the people and animals in the story and we learned that they are called characters. We counted and identified the four characters in Lilly's story that were all part of a bug family.

We noticed during journal writing how influenced the children are from each other.  The children are stopping and paying attention to the stories that their classmates are dictating and it is amazing to observe how this process inspires the children in their own work.  Today's journal entries were much more elaborate and descriptive .  The joy that the children glean when listening to their words read back to them is such an important aspect of this process.

Self-Portraits 

The intent and focus of the children was clearly evident as we began a new activity in the classroom. We started putting together our self portraits by drawing with colored pencils and multicultural crayons. At this center, we started by looking into a mirror at all the features of our faces. Individually, each child identified the parts that they saw and explained which color they thought would be best to use for the different aspects of the face. It was wonderful to hear the children's words as their emerging ideas about geometry came through. They stated, "My face is a circle", or "I think my mouth is a line". The children also shared their beginning ideas about diversity as they mentioned the colors of their skin, or different colors of eyes and hair among themselves and that of their friends. 

We finished our morning with a walk around campus.   The Cardinals' interest in nature is growing and growing!  They loved exploring our beautiful campus and were fascinated  and curious with each new area.  We collected lots and lots of things from nature on our adventure today and the children had lots of questions about the items we found.  We will add these questions to our I Was Wondering board and it will be both interesting and exciting to see where these interests may lead us.  The days are flying by so quickly and we are so happy to observe friendships developing and a clear sense of community evolving. 

Exploring Together as Cardinals

Our Morning together began with choice time. Our Cardinals engaged in many activities and conversations were heard in each center. Gluing letter squares on long white stripes of paper became a conversation starter as the children shared the letters in their names and other familiar words such as "Mom" and "Dad". After choice time, we gathered together on the rug and discussed who was here today. The whole group immediately noticed that Paula was missing! Shannon explained that today was Rosh Hashanah and Paula was home honoring the holiday with her family. Then, we decided to read a book to find out more about the day and how Paula might be celebrating. We learned that this is the start of the new year in Jewish Tradition and many people eat apples and honey on this day so we decided to have apples as a choice at Snack Time!

Forming Friendships as we explore the outdoors...

The Sand Area was a place of art today. A group of Cardinals worked with our substitute teacher, Heidi, to mold and form sculptures. Jewels were added to the top to further the design. The Cardinals showed patience and cooperation as they worked together to form each part of the creation!

Walking around Campus...

As we ventured on a walk today, many Cardinals stopped to peek in the large windows by the library. Observing all of the books, the Cardinals decided that this might be a nice place to go inside to read a story and cool down. We walked in and met Toni, and found a calm spot to read together!

Exploring fields, running, chasing, and enjoying the outdoor weather!

We ended our morning with a group story about a bossy baby and then recited the silly rhyme, "Hey Diddle, Diddle". We discovered that the poem ended without telling us where the dish and spoon went!  We took turns being the author of the story and took part in identifying a setting for the end of the story. Each Cardinal shared their thoughts on where they may have went:

Kendall: "The ball"

Kate: "The fair"

Radha: "The room"

Stella: "To watch baseball"

Xander: "The park"

Chelsea: "To have a party and eat cake"

Violet: "To the ball"

Trace: "To the cow fair"

Carlito: "Home to watch TV and movies, then home and back to the hotel"

Wyatt: "Back to sleep"

Jacob: "To the moon"

Evan: "To school"

Donny: "To a cow"

Lilly: "To home"

Samuel: "To Old McDonald"

Have a wonderful night and see you tomorrow!

Cardinals' Second Day...

It was remarkable to observe how much more relaxed and comfortable the children were entering the classroom on the second full day of school.  The flow of the morning and the hum of children actively engaging with each other was a true joy to see.  We began with an earlier morning meeting where we greeted one another , listened to a favorite story ( Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too by Eric Carle) and discussed our plans for the day.  It is most important to us that the children no not feel rushed and that we create an environment where our thoughts and ideas can be respected and expressed.  Morning Meeting is a treasured time of our day and we discovered that gathering the children on the earlier side of the morning was a much more meaningful way to support this goal.

The children were involved in all areas of the classroom and their comfort level was clearly observed as they moved from one learning center to another. Collaboration and cooperation in play was also more noticeable on the 2nd day of school.  We have introduced  Open Snack to the children where they can choose to enjoy snack during the morning Choice Time when they feel they are hungry.  We believe this process supports independence and the joy of sharing meals together with friends.

 The pictures reflect a glimpse of our day in our classroom this morning....enjoy!

We decided to continue our walking adventure that we had begun yesterday and started with a walk  towards the cafeteria grounds and soccer fields. The children loved running in the open space even though it was quite hot!  We realized that we needed to be in a more shaded area and ventured over towards the Meeting House .  On our walk we noticed really cool equipment near the Meeting House and were lucky enough to meet Dave, the grounds keeper of our beautiful campus. We even met one of Dave's cats, Kitty.

 Walking back to our classroom we ventured through Middle and Upper School. We stopped by Rich Nourie's office and had an unexpected fun visit with Nancy and Rich!

 Walking back through Lower School we bumped into our music teacher Jason.  He invited us into his amazing music room and the children absolutely loved this impromptu experience!

 Our walk towards our Cardinal classroom included a glimpse of our Lower School Library and Gwen, our Lower School librarian graciously invited us to visit with her too!  What a day and what a wonderful unexpected adventure!