Dear parents,
We read the poem Ant City and thought about ants. We talked about what observing meant and while outside we looked for and observed ants. The children said: “We found a whole family!”, “Going down that hole!”, “He’s crawling to eat some food.”, “Why that one went in his home?”,
“They’re crawling.”, and “He just touched together.” The entire list is in the classroom. When outside on Tuesday, the children noticed many, many more ants than the day before. Someone said, “There are a 100 thousand!”
We reread The 512 Ants Of Sullivan Street. After reading the children wondered if we could see inside of an ant hole. Someone said, “No, because it’s too dark.” Other children thought maybe we could shine a flashlight in the hole, when outside we tried but couldn’t see much.
We played Ant Ant Hole, instead of Duck Duck Goose. The children thought of it because during our observations the last two days we have seen ants going in holes. We decided to crawl like ants instead of running. A much slower, sillier, version of the game.
We made ants on a log for snacks. The children smeared peanut butter on pretzels and let the ant raisins crawl on. We made so many ants on a log we had some for snacks, more after lunch, and then again after quiet time. In the yard we have been digging, swinging, finding many insects, and some are finding new stunts to do on the jungle gym.
Molly started tilling the dirt for our new grass. She pulled up a giant root which several children carried around for about twenty minutes. It was long enough for six or seven children to hold!
While people drummed in music with Alex, the rest of us searched books for pictures of ants. An ant has three body parts. We practiced repeating the names of the parts aloud many days to save it to memory. We thought about how we could make ants. We happened to have some black clay and tiny leg-like pipe-cleaners that were perfect. The children set to work creating ants, though some thought theirs looked like spiders. Either way, they’re crawling around the classroom now.
We’ve been able to eat lunch outside on many warm days.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful children with us! It is a joy to spend the days with them.
Have a finally spring weekend,
Therese
Our tree, our plants
Dear parents,
We began our week outside drawing pictures of our tree. The children noticed almost all the white flowers were gone and replaced by green leaves. We sat on the brown square to draw before getting up to swing, slide, and dig in the sandbox. The next day we did tree rubbings on our tree using crayons. We noticed how bumpy the bark is. Some people used one color, others many.
Wednesday we had music with Alex. While half of us were in music the other half painted pots to prepare for planting. We started with blue and yellow. We talked about how they make green! We had ideas of what types of things we find outside that are these colors: the sun, dandelions, sunflowers, the sky, water, grass and leaves were some of our ideas.
We used big and small brushes. After we painted with blue and yellow, we had the option to add some gold and sparkles. We painted inside and outside the pots.
Outside the sandbox remains a favorite activity for all.
Quiet time means ten sleepers, or at least half the class, pretty regularly.
Molly came to plant with us. First we put a scoop of soil in our pots. Next we sprayed water on the soil. Then we added our seeds: we noticed they were very small. Finally we added a small scoop on top and a little more water. Our plants are in the planters near the bench if
anyone wants to visit them. Molly left us a spray bottle to water our plants. We talked about different things we like that have mint: ice cream, lemonade, toothpaste etc. Apparently we planted mint seeds.
In circle Friday we talked about our kidney bean and popcorn plants. We noticed how much they grew and talked about gently feeling the soil to see if they needed more water. We read The Owl and the Woodpecker, and listened to the sounds made by woodpeckers and owls. We closed
our eyes to listen for sounds outside. We heard birds, an airplane, and a construction truck.
After snack we decided the kidney bean soil felt dry and needed a drink. We felt the popcorn soil and decided it felt wet. Someone also noticed one popcorn looked too wet and was growing a little mold. We decided not to water the popcorn because we didn’t want the plants to drown. One friend said, “The leaves might turn yellow and it will die.”
Outside we brought our spray bottle, and friends took turns giving our new plants a drink. We didn’t find any sprouts yet! We played in the sand box making pizza, cakes, and concrete.
The conference was interesting as usual and included several sessions on mindfulness and self-care.
Have a great weekend,
Therese and Anna