Dear parents,
The children worked all week with wood. They stacked, glued, stacked, and glued some more. We used Christmas tree stumps, alphabet blocks, spools, and other small pieces of wood. On the third day, we painted the sculptures with metallic paint.
Friday we did the Hokey Pokey at the start of circle. We listened to New York, New York and danced our way to snack time. We listened to different kinds of music, jazz and acoustic Arabian, during snack time and heard guitars, trumpets, and maracas. We read Rap A Tap Tap and Ben’s Trumpet to get ready for the music unit starting next week.
In the big room we played babies and fire, and ran, ran, ran many laps saving babies.
A few children decided they had boo-boos on their fingers and walked around with a tissue to soak up the pretend blood from the cuts. Maybe inspired by a bloody hangnail a few days ago.
We listened to a few stories at lunch, and everyone had good listening ears and chewing mouths. We read and sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider before quiet time with quiet voices, everyone loved the long story version of the song. By popular demand, we finished We Built A Climber. A few kids remembered exactly where we left off the day before.
Thanks for the boxes. We have plenty!
Have a fantastic weekend,
Therese and Anna
New Cassius clay
Hello all,
This week we are using different types of clay everyday. Monday we started with a little (Model) magic. The children rolled, squeezed, squished, stretched, and patted it flat. Everyone got to choose a color to add to theirs and then after breaking it and sticking it back together repeatedly, they mixed the color in. Some decided to share pieces of their Model Magic so they each had two colors. In the end everyone made a sculpture.
After setting them out to dry, we played in the big room. Block building, tricycles, and jungle gym were the top choices.
We mixed glue, water, and Borax to get our second non-clay-ish medium. The children helped mix and chose green and yellow food coloring to add. They noticed it was white and then greenish, that it felt cold, and moved slowly. We played with it for a bit before snacks. Some children rolled it into worms, some made thick islands, while others held it up and watched it s l o w l y fall to the table.
Wednesday we used modeling clay. The children said it was harder to shape. It is a great hand strengthening tool, as are all these mediums. We counted the number of people in our class, and broke the clay rectangle in halves, counting and recounting, until they equaled the same number as students. Four rows of four. We started with red and added yellow. Some people kept the colors separate, some twisted them together, and two kids mixed it so well, they came up with a new color.
Thursday we used gray clay. The children surmised it was heavy, moist, and hard just by looking at it and listening to it drop. They used strong hands to manipulate the clay into snakes, mountains, snowmen, dinosaurs, and caterpillars. While the sculptures dried we played in the big room. The next day we painted them.
Sightings in the big room: children were playing Mary Poppins, using the cash register, pushing grocery carts together, pretending to be dinosaur/cannonballs on trikes, ROARING, hopping on “those blue things” (bean bags), pretend eating, wearing goggles and helmets, sharing the computer keyboard, hiding keys in high places, wearing construction hats, playing ball, and caring for babies. Whew! Lots of activity.
We continue to talk about and remind friends of the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you; if you don’t like it, don’t do it. This includes thinking about not hurting friends’ feelings or bodies.
Next week we work on wood sculptures.
Shoeboxes please. More shoeboxes.
Stay warm,
Therese