Advent

Happy New Year! Today is the beginning of the liturgical year in the church. Advent is the first season. At school we will talk about advent and the story of Jesus' birth. This week, we're going to read a book called Jesus, Me and My Christmas Tree. It explains what we put on our Christmas trees and what each item symbolizes. We're going to decorate a small tree in class to act out the book. It's simple and delightful!

I'm Thankful For...

...the privilege of watching children grow, learn, share, create and play. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello, Veggie Man

How cute is this?!

One of the ways we explored the Stone Soup story was to paint with vegetables - corn, green beans, a potato, and celery. We even had little stones the children could glue on the gray paper pots. The children really enjoyed this activity, but Aaron particularly had a big smile of pride when he finished his art. He made us smile, too!

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

"Look, I can take pictures just like you, Mrs. O'Connor."

Is this a sign? Perhaps I photograph the children a little too much - but frankly, I didn't know that was possible. They are so adorable that I just can't help it!

Thirsty?

We observed some thirsty celery in a very simple science experiment.

We put concentrated water colors in two different containers - one red and one blue. We added the celery and closed the tops. I put the experiment on the science table in the window and we noticed small changes in very little time.
By Tuesday morning, we noticed big changes. Check out our blue celery!

Delicious!

There was lots of food preparation going on today at the playdough table - everything from cookies to turkey. It must be all that talking we've done about Thanksgiving. Audrey and I made pies. Yum!

Stone Soup

Today we became chefs. On the menu: Stone Soup.

Last week we read the story Stone Soup. Today we assembled the ingredients. Just like in the story, each person brought an ingredient from home to share. Mrs. Magee found a giant pot for us!

The children took turns putting their ingredients in the pot. Our actions were "opening", "pouring" and "stirring".

The girls discovered that it is really hard to stir and the spoon was very noisy in the pot when there were only veggies. They didn't like the scratchy squeaky sound (and neither did Mrs. O'Connor). Gabriel added broth and everything was better.

There was much stirring - oh so much stirring!

Then even MORE veggies went in the pot. We could already see and smell that this was going to be super soup!

And, oh yes, we put a stone in it. It's the main ingredient after all.

No worries, Parents. William scrubbed it with soap and water before he put it in the pot. It was the cleanest stone ever.

The very best part of all was that EACH CHILD tried the soup and all but one LIKED it! That's got to be a record. Mrs. Magee and Mrs. O'Connor were so pleased and proud.

Just like the book teaches - sharing what we have really does make us happy inside!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Using Our Senses

The sensory table is a VERY popular spot in the room. Because it is a small area and because we tend to have items that can easily travel beyond the boundaries, we limit this fun place to just two Bunnies at a time. Believe me, there is always a Bunny waiting for a turn.

Sometimes the children explore science concepts like sink and float.

Sometimes they just rub their hands in odd things like hundreds of plastic caps.Sometimes they handle food items like dried beans and rice and use cups or cooking utensils to fill and empty containers. (These two Bunnies weren't smiling for the camera, but I promise they were having fun!)

Fall Phone Conferences

This week I will begin calling families for a brief phone conference. The purpose is to simply touch base. I'll share some class observations and parents can share observations from home and/or ask questions. It's a great way to get a glimpse of how a child is managing life in a large group!

Woodworking

Woodworking is so much more than hammering and sawing. For preschoolers, it is an everchanging experience with materials that may be unfamiliar.

Woodworking is parts and pieces that can become a whole...
It is transporting items from one place to another using a tool...

It is taking ordinary objects typically only found in the hands of adults and creating something new - together.

Giving children woodworking experiences allows them to sample the work usually done by grown-ups. They LOVE it!

I Love Books!

One last reminder for the school book fair on Monday evening. I hear there are some fabulous silent auction baskets - some early Christmas shopping perhaps. See you there!

The Old Fashioned Way

Sometimes parents wonder what their children are learning while they are at school. When children bring home commercially produced worksheets, it's easy to tell what concepts they are being taught at school. At School for Little Children, we firmly believe that young children learn best through their senses and that if we give them experiences they will learn what they need to know. Worksheets do not provide experiences or information through the senses. Instead we give the children TIME and MATERIALS. They are the creators of their own experiences.

Imagine. If we had given the children worksheets, would we have gotten this...
or this??

We do it the old fashioned way. Children learn through play.

Election Day

Can 3 year olds learn about elections?

Absolutely!

One of the wonderful four year old teachers set up a voting booth on the playground and we took full advantage. Our hotly contested election was to see which animal we liked better - elephants or giraffes. The children voted by rubber stamping their favorite animal on a paper "ballot" and folded it up. When we returned to the classroom, we counted the votes and the results are in:

Elephants win - 9 to 6.

Pine Cone Rolling

Today at school the children did pine cone rolling in art. There were long white strips of paper stretched out horizontally on the table, four pine cones and four colors of paint.

Like this.

The children had to roll the pine cone in paint, pick it up and transfer it to the paper and roll it on the paper. OOOO! Just imagine all the sensory information the children received from touching the cool, gooey paint and from rolling those little prickly pine cones.

Also each artist got lots of practice rolling from left to right and crossing the midline of their bodies. It's not just art - it's art with purpose!

Friends

At the beginning of the year, the children tend to mostly interact in parallel play. That means that they often choose the same materials, but they actually utilize the materials alone without collaboration. One reason is that three year olds are just learning how to play collaboratively, but another reason is that they simply don't know each other yet. It takes a long time to make a friend. Now that they've had a couple of months together Mrs. Magee and I are starting to see more duos and trios at play. So delightful!

Class Creations

Playdough is awesome. It is such a simple material and with a child's imagination, it can become anything! Today Lexi made a necklace of stars. We counted them as she made them and we discovered there were 15 (not counting the center "jewel" she added later). Also someone made a person with a star bellybutton. I didn't see who made it and no one fessed up. It shall remain a mystery.

Homemade playdough is extremely simple to make and the playdough is far more pliable than the store bought kind. I'd be happy to share the recipe - just ask!