Exploring Fairy Tales

During work time, some decided to explore the Little Mermaid and create their own collection of things. They picked different characters from the story like Ariel, mermen, and a cowboy as well to add a little to the mix.

Signed by the Artist

I showed several artists in our room how other artists sometimes sign their work--with the other end of the paint brush. But why stop with just a small signature? It's a great way in itself to work with paint.

Look What the Overhead Projector "Swallowed" Today!

Now that our Beautiful Stuff has taken its rightful place in our room, adorned the castle, and been used as pirate treasure, it was time for another exploration. We pulled a couple tubs of it off the shelf, sat on the floor and after Catherine noticed that she could see through some of the things in the collection, I jumped up to plug in the overhead projector. Last week we played around with black and white paint at the art table and the experience today has me thinking about more ways to explore black, white, transparency and shadows.

Exploring Fairy Tales

Today in the classroom we started discussing fairy tales. We talked about what makes a fairy tale. Some of them said there had to be a princess, a king and a castle. We also talked about that most of the stories begin with "Once upon a time" and end with "and they lived happily ever after." The castle was brought out for them to use during work time which they enjoyed. At the castle they were busy baking cookies and making mexican lasagna. Some of the students worked at another table creating princess hats, wizard hats, and armor. I can already tell this unit is going to be very exciting!

Creating Flags

This morning in circle the question of the day was, "Where have you seen flags?" Some of the answers were on buildings, by schools, on ships, Puerto Rico, on golf courses, and several other locations. We then talked about what was important to us and what we might want to put on a flag of our own. Some had more traditional answers like stars and stripes while others said they wanted butterflies and super heroes.

Bag Opening Day

Since Wednesday was so jam-packed, we decided to move bag opening day to Thursday. They had fun sorting them various ways. One group thought we should sort them by shiny and old dirty stuff. Another group said they should be grouped by color. The third group chose to sort them in three groups which were circles, wooden or natural materials, and plastic.

Clay Museum

Mr. David discussed animals in circle. They took a closer look at colors the animals were and then went to the tables to create their own. Some of the animals included a scary snake, a girl butterfly, a skunk, a seal, a green kitty and many more. They then compiled all of their creations to make a clay museum.

Visit to the Family Tree

On Wednesday, some of the students wanted to go visit our adopted tree. They referred to it as our family tree. They had fun collecting acorn tops and running around for a while.

Indoor Tent

Zachary and Tyson decided to work with Ms. Catherine during worktime. They decided to create a tent in the block area using their blankets and big blocks. They were having quite a good time if you couldn't tell from the smiles on their faces.

Library

A lot of the children have shown an interest in checking books out from the library so we have decided that every Wednesday we will take a trip over to Hugh Stephens Library on campus. We will walk over in the morning for our literacy groups around 9 a.m. Also, with the beautiful weather what a wonderful excuse to take a stroll outside :)

Flags, Flags, Everywhere!

We have been taking a closer look at flags. Today we discussed different kinds of flags, what they are for, and the different colors that are used. Everyone shared their favorite color and we talked about how the flag they were creating would represent them if they used a lot of that color.

Beautiful Stuff Countdown

Just a friendly reminder that we will have our bag opening day for beautiful stuff on Wednesday! I know everyone is excited for all of the new items. Thank you for all of the great things that have already been brought in.

Invention at Play

Check out this inspiring and interactive site. We will definitely try our hands at Tinker Ball next week. I couldn't stop playing it this morning...it's trickier than it looks!

Bartholomew and the Oobleck

Recipe for Oobleck

2 cups of corn starch
3 drops of green food coloring
enough water to make a thick mixture (about the texture of pancake batter) I usually measure equal amounts of water and corn starch, but mix water in slowly.

Mix all ingredients together. This makes a fun mixture to play with textures. Use different utensils, such as a spatula, bowl, and funnels, to see what form the mixture will take.

To celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, Ms. Kim created oobleck and read "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" which was a hit with some of the kids.

A Letter About the Parent Group

March 5, 2010
Hello parents,
A small group of parents have been communicating about starting a parent group. The purpose of the group would be to support the school by coordinating several social and fundraising events and to serve as a conduit to address common parent questions. (Any funds raised would be used for teacher appreciation, teacher wish lists, and extracurricular events such as school wide picnics or parties.)
We are currently planning several bake sales for this semester. The first bake sale will be on March 17 and 18. In the past, parents have provided goodies for the children to sell to the Stephens College community. To that end, sign up lists will be posted at the school to solicit your support with this endeavor. We hope you will participate by baking or purchasing items for the children, teachers, and college students to sell.
Additionally, we are planning on having a teacher appreciation event on May 5. Venus Morris will be heading that effort and will be seeking volunteers. So, please be on the lookout for more information about that in the near future.
Of course, no parent group will be successful without the support of the parents. If you have any ideas, questions, or concerns please feel free to contact either of us.
Sincerely,
Erika Fadel (Manny and Olivia’s mom – multiage) erikafadel@hotmail.com
Mellissa McAllister (Jackson’s mom – multiage) melissamillmcallister@yahoo.com
Venus Morris (Marvin’s mom – multiage) ygmorris22@hotmail.com
Chimene Schwach (Zachary’s mom – preschool) cschwach@hotmail.com
Jeanne Sullivan (Joey’s mom – multiage) Jeanne@more.net

A New Addition in the Classroom

How does it feel?

"It feels like rubber inside.

It feels so soft and slippery."

What do you hear?

"I hear the ocean and the waves!" said Willa.

"I hear the crab's snapping inside," said Vivian.

"I heard a tiny baby," said Catherine.

Work Buddies

On board the pirate ship they sailed to find the buried treasure. Vivian said she would have the parrot on her shoulder and Zachary would have one eye. The pirate talk they used included, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and "scerby dog." Zachary created a flag for the ship. When asked where they should fly their flag, Zachary replied, "To Tennessee! "

Joshua and Brandon worked together to find an area that they both wanted to work at. A lot of the options appealed to them but they decided to work at the sensory table.

Kalen and Catherine worked together to chose which activity they would like to do together for the work buddy time. She created a ''fancy mailbox" for Kalen that could send the mail flying to the postman.

Kalen created a wall fan that he said needed more power. He said that his finger was what powered it.

Creating the Ocean!

The beautiful creation.

Several of the students enjoyed painting outside to create an ocean for our classroom on a shower curtain. They were busy using their imaginations with the three colors. Sebastian said to Ellery, "Yours is the green ocean." Ellery asked Makayla if the yellow was the sand for the ocean. Sebastian suggested that we should add black while Ellery thought red would be a nice addition as well.

Hard at work creating a beautiful display for the classroom.

Seuss-a-thon!

Students from Sharon's Children's Literature class came in to share Dr. Seuss books in celebration of his birthday.

We have put the camera in their hands...a museum-style showcase of their pictures is in the works!The overhead projector gets a new lease on life in our room.

Team lego building