Our Bodies, Ourselves

Dear everyone,

We began our week doing whole body tracings. We counted arms, hands, legs, and feet, as we traced. Everyone got turns to work in the big room using watercolor to paint their bodies. The third day we added more paint and some glitter paint. The fourth day we used glue, lots of glue, to add sparkles. We read I Like Me!, I Like Myself!, and All By Myself.

In the yard we discovered roly polies, more worms, and many colored leaves. One person decided to collect leaves to make a salad. A group of children were playing firemen, or in this case, fire women. Some were talking on their cellphones/wood-chips. In the sandbox a hole, or was it a river, was dug out. And as usual, there is tons of running, chasing, climbing, sliding, and swinging.

We will be tracking the seasons by observing a tree in the yard. We call it Our Tree. We took our first group photo, a couple weeks ago, under our tree and noticed its green summer leaves. We have been watching it each week to look for signs of fall. Someone noticed one tiny patch of yellow leaves. We're waiting, waiting, waiting for more. Meanwhile we are noticing many fallen colored leaves and acorn caps from other trees.

Next week we will write our classroom rules, talk about friends, work on "me" books, and have our first yoga class.

Have a restful weekend,

Therese

Eye Spy an eye pie

This week we began studying our five senses. Makes sense. We started
the year with an All About Me unit,  and things we can do with  our
hands and feet. We continued learning about ourselves and each other
through our senses. Monday we read My Eyes, and a book appropriately
called All About Me.

We played I Spy. This game helps with looking and listening skills. It
encourages verbal and language skills as well. How many words can we
use to describe an object? What color is it? What shape? Is it high or
low? What does it feel like?

In the yard people were seen digging in the sandbox, making pies and
tea. Two were swinging up a storm trying to blast off. Five were
pretending to cut trees. Two friends were play-watching Beauty and the
Beast, silently staring at a wood chip. Some children were running and
laughing.

Quiet time is still quiet with six to eight sleepers, while others
relax and look at books.

We looked in mirrors to see what color eyes we have and everyone got a
crayon to color eyes for our Eye Pie. We guessed which color had the
most eyes and then counted to see if we were correct. We talked about
our eye parts and shapes: pupil, iris, eye lashes, eye brows, circles,
and almonds. Some children added pupils to their eyes when coloring.
One person told us their eyes were yellow.

After reading My Five Senses we took turns smelling boxes to see if we
could identify the scents. The guesses are written in the classroom.
When everyone had had a turn to smell we opened the boxes to see what
was inside. We were able to taste some of the contents using our sense
of taste.

Everyone helped make snacks Wednesday. We used our fine motor skills,
hand-eye coordination, and strong hand muscles to cut apples and
bananas. Then we used our sense of taste to eat them. We talked about
which fruit was hard or soft, crunchy or not, and what each one felt
like.

We read Listening Walk and then closed our eyes to use our sense of
hearing to listen for sounds. We heard: a car, a baby, a truck, a beep
beep, a bird, and much more.

Friday we used the Feely Box again and our sense of touch to identify
what was in the box. After all guesses were made, we looked in the
box. We played a listening game to descriptions of fruits and
vegetables. The children were great at this game!

Next week we work on our whole body tracing.

Have a pleasant weekend,
Therese