Hi All,
This week we are working on using our cooperative muscles in the block
area. We worked in large groups and small, building walls, and then
knocking them down. Some children began building alone and then
connected their buildings with bridges and tunnels. We talked about
everyone helping to put the blocks away before moving on to big room
play. Most everyone helped sort the blocks when it was time to clean
up. We sorted into three groups: soft colorful, big wooden, and small
wooden blocks. Additionally, the small wooden blocks have about 15
subgroups. That’s a bunch of sorting.
Blocks teach math skills galore: sorting, shape, size, weight, length,
height, balance, symmetry, and patterns, to name a few.
We asked people to tell us about their buildings. Responses:
underwater sea machine, a house, a fire station, a couch, rainbows, a
pie, “We’re building a ship, we’re building a ship!”, water, pizza for
the ship, a tall tower, a museum, and a bedroom.
During yoga with Frank, while half the class posed, the others drew
with markers. We practiced taking the caps off and listening for the
snap to make sure the markers wouldn’t dry out, also a decent fine
motor exercise.
We saw children doing crunches and sitting quietly with Frank.
We played Duck, Duck, Goose again and had fun running and laughing,
around and around. We also played Simon Says. He said to tippy toe
into the big room, crawl, slither, hop, gallop, and run.
We read When I Feel Angry, When Sophie Gets Angry, and A is For Angry,
Animal Feelings From A to Z. We talked about what to do when we feel
angry, one person said they look in their jewelry box and another said
they turn on the tv. We shook up a bottle filled with water and
sparkles to compare to our feelings swirling inside of us. We have
been continuing this conversation about what makes us feel angry and
things that help us to feel better.
Next week, we will begin talking about our families, more than we already do.
Have a restful weekend,
Therese
The Fruit Doesn't Fall Far
Hi Parents,
This week everyone glued their family photos to the oranges we painted
last week in preparation for our feast.
On Monday we made butter. The children knew that cream came from a
cow. We looked at the two cows on the cream carton and (sort of), sang
“brown chicken, brown cow.” When asked how long it would take to shake
our cream into butter one person said, “Three years.” Luckily it did
not take that long. We divided the cream into four containers and took
turns shaking like crazy while listening and dancing to disco. It
seemed like only minutes before we had butter.
On Tuesday the children helped wash sweet potatoes and put them in a
big pot to boil. We took turns going down to the kitchen to check on
them. We peeled the skins off and everyone had a turn using the hand
mixer. A few people said their mamas do the mixing at home. We added a
tiny bit of cinnamon, the butter we made, nutmeg, and milk. The next
day we heated them up and melted marshmallows on top. We also made
corn muffins, a vehicle for our butter.
On Wednesday, families came to put their fruit on the family orange
tree as we sang Way Down Yonder By The Orange Tree. The meal was
delicious.
Have a warm holiday weekend,
Therese