Read All About It

We took a break from boat building and camping out to read this rollicking good tale. Ask your child how the marshmallow battle started and what happened to the two towns in the end.

Map to the Party Boat

Sailing to "Corta Rico" on the Pirate Ship and Party Boat

On board the pirate ship they exclaimed, "We are sailing to 'Corta Rico' to visit Joshua!" They were then off to see Diego at the animal rescue house. Some created maps for their journey while others took pictures of the castle.

On board the party boat, they were all busy decorating for a graduation celebration! The only thing they said that was missing was party music which singing soon filled the void. Either ship they may have been on, it was surely an adventure.

Campfire Songs

Today in the classroom some of the students took to creating a campfire in the block area with their work buddies. It soon spread to other's in the classroom and became a "sleepover" around the fire. Miss Catherine brought out the guitar for some entertainment. Some songs were more traditional like "On Top of Old Smokey" while others sang more contemporary as well original pieces.

Camping With the Wild Things

Things move pretty fast around here. When this group built a campfire and began reading stories while their feet warmed by the fire, we brought in a big box, which they quickly began decorating, for their tent. Earlier that morning, Miss Teresa read Where the Wild Things Are and we had the idea of making some of the wild things out of clay. And then, here's where it really get's fun...camping trip meets Wild Things!I posed the questions "What if Max didn't come back home where his supper was waiting for him? What if he stayed with the wild things? Could we turn that tent into his tent? What if you stayed with him?" So, we began painting the tent.

Then, of course we had to build the boat, so they could said around the island. In circle this morning, Miss Teresa asked them where they would sail if they were Max. Most of them said "to where the wild things are!"
Where will we sail tomorrow?

Book Talk

We read this in two parts on Friday. The suspense was too much for some of them, who grabbed it off the easel and secreted it away to the book area to look at the pictures and try to figure out who helps the mouse out of the hole, and how. Ask your child about it...it'a fun story!

Before reading The Library Mouse, we asked the question,
“What does an author do?” Here are some of their answers:

“Get a pencil, draw some things, turn the page, draw some more.” –Joshua
“You write words.” – Zachary
“You say words…they write books.” –Makayla
“When you draw a symbol, you are an author.”

Been fiddling around with technology, trying to get video uploaded and such. In lieu of that, here's a few words about what we have been up to this week, so far.

We had a wonderful trip to the library this morning and came trudging back to school with great new books to share with each other.

We worked together as a class to follow a recipe and make chocolate chip cookie "cake"...an experiment of sorts, that turned out yummy...and good practice for our baking tomorrow (cookies for Facilities).

When we come in from one of our outside times, we have a short meeting in circle to talk about what we did outside, how we may have solved a problem, who we played with, and just otherwise re-enforce positive social skills and share discoveries.

And did you know that super-puppies wear high-heels?

Telling Stories

Sometimes, one hand is just not enough!

We have been spending much more time with our journals (notebooks). As they are working in them, we move around the room to hear and record some of the stories they tell to go along with their pictures. What looks like a straight-forward drawing suddenly becomes a wedding in the snow, a magic door that only a rabbit can open, or a dual between super-hero forces.

We miss our Beautiful Stuff!

Coming soon to a preschool classroom near you (very near!)...Bag Opening Day 2010.
Stay tuned for more details.

What do you love?

We asked this question in circle last week. Watch this video to see what some around Stephens love...including the preschoolers!

Vivian said " I feel nice on ice!"

A great project to kick off our recycled materials sculpture (that we are starting next week), these flowers brightened up our room for the party. We were busy during our short week making decorations, preparing the Friendship Tree, and learning the Chicken Dance!

We spent much time this week talking about what it means to be a friend, how friends solve problems, and of course sending messages to friends. We plan to continue with that next week and expand it a bit to the bigger Stephens community. Next week, we will be sending notes and expressing thanks to the people at the facilities department who help keep our building clean and well maintained. We will also visit Coach Pavlovich at the gym...have basketball, will travel!

Connections

Making a silhouette...

...appeared to inspire Zachary and Willa to work on another kind of portrait...together!

The snowy weather made for a slow start to our day. As the children drifted in, we decided to have one larger group, rather than break up into smaller groups. We read Snowflake Bentley and then went outside to try to catch and photograph snowflakes. Back inside, we used the overheard projector to enlarge a "snowflake". Check out the story at PBS for more on the man who photographed snowflakes.

Today at the art table, we re-visited this...Cathy Topal can say it better than I can. "Thinking With A Line shows you how the edge of a small rectangle of cardboard dipped into paint can become a tool for making lines. By repeating a single line, children discover they can print vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines. They also discover ways to extend, cross and space their lines. They find when lines connect they can form shapes. By combining lines and shapes children begin creating complex structures such as letters, alphabets, patterns and designs, trees and plants, buildings, boats, machines and vehicles." --from Thinking With a Line, by Cathy Topal

Starting Friday, Kim, Teresa and I will all start posting what we are doing in our small groups. Lately it has been story-acting, speech bubbles for animals, and book making. Many of them shared their work with the class. As we go into next week, we will be engaged in listening to them during worktime to hear what other interests are developing.

Coloring Mandalas

This is the preschool version of a "quilting bee"...everyone's hands busy working, engaged in conversation. And it's relaxing work too!

Valentines for Veterans

"Love is in the air...." We worked together with students from the Multi-age classroom to make cards for Veterans.

And our basket runneth over! These cards will soon be on their way to a Veteran.

In addition to using puppets to tell stories and making our own books, we have been talking about sending messages to others. We can use our symbols to "address" messages and sign them.

And, even "chalk rocks" can be used to write.

We have a new resident in our classroom--A magic mouse, who, it seems might also like to write messages given the "offerings" the children left for him. We read Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni and it gave me the idea to try to sculpt a mouse out of clay with the children. That lead to the secret mouse door...and beyond! Who knows what will be waiting for us when we return on Monday. Some of the children think the mouse may leave us a message, or even build something with blocks. Who knows?