Feeling the Love

We celebrated Valentine's Day in several ways.  The Bunnies made lots of interesting things with hearts.  The most popular item to make was heart garland.  They figured out how to use tape to connect hearts together in long strings.  There were some hearts in the window with the letters L O V E and some of the children copied the letters on to their garlands.  Yay!

  The Bunnies exchanged Valentine cards with each other.  This was so fun!  They just couldn't wait to see what was inside their own Valentine bag.  Don't you remember the anticipation from your days at school?  I do!

The children also made a HUGE heart mural.  It took several days and this photo shows one of the middle stages.  They had opportunities to contribute to the mural with paint and rollers, with tissue paper, with glitter, and with foam shapes.

Busy, Busy

Two seconds before Mrs. O'Connor snapped this photo each child was busy.  Head-down, focused-on-the-task, BUSY!
On the red tray is an alphabet pop-up toy.  On the blue tray is a fine motor activity in which you use small tongs to pick up little dog bones and puppy paws and place them in a tiny tray.  On the yellow tray is another fine motor game in which you use tongs to feed bananas to a monkey.  On the green tray are Oreo shape puzzles in which you must match two shapes and fit the top and bottom together to make a cookie.

In our class, we refer to these as "puzzles and games".  They don't fit the narrow definition of a puzzle (such as a jigsaw puzzle), but they fit the broader definition as a task that is puzzling and needs solving.  These types of activities rotate each week so there is plenty of opportunity to try new and challenging tasks. 

Something Different

This week in Bunny Rabbit class, there were some neat Fisher Price toys.  They are little buildings, people and furniture for various facets of city life.  They are called Sweet Streets, but I don't think F-P makes them any more.  Anyway, the scene on our rug this week looked much different than usual.  GIRLS!! 
What a welcome change!

Sign Up!

Parents, we have two exciting things for you! 

First, you may sign up for a week to take home Benjamin Bunny.  Our stuffed bunny will come to your house for a week and experience life in your family.  Parents should snap a couple of photos and include them in Benjamin's journal with a brief description of what occurred.  Simple and fun!  This children LOVE reading about Benjamin's adventures.

Second, sign up for a Parent/Teacher conference.  The dates are Friday, February 25 and Monday, February 28.  Conferences are brief (20 minutes) and are an opportunity to visit about your child.  Please make plans to attend without your child.

Look for a pink sign up sheet for Benjamin Bunny and a green sign up sheet for conferences!

Teamwork

This is the time of year when we really begin to see children collaborating together.  These two Bunnies worked as a team to solve this darling puzzle of Little Bear characters.  They were so proud of themselves when it was all done!

Light and Joy

I adore this photo.  Just look at the joy on her face as she plays at the light table.  Can't you just imagine how good those little stars feel falling through her fingers!

A Complete, Correct Example

When children are introduced to a new toy or puzzle, they don't necessarily know how to play with it.  For open ended toys with infinite possibilities, free exploration is the best way for a child to learn what to do.  That means, just dump it out on the table and have fun. 

For toys that have a specific purpose or order, it is important to provide a complete, correct example.  A child may not follow your example, but at least he or she will have an idea of the reason for the toy and an idea of what the end product can be as a reference point.  In the photo above, we provided a complete, correct example.  The tower on the left is stacked in size order and the other towers should be stacked in a similar way.  Guess what?  Not ONE child followed the example to solve the puzzle of stacking. 

And that is perfectly fine. 

Creativity in the Class

This little Bunny is new to our class and she's still experimenting with all the materials we have to offer.  We have so much to do in our class that the possibilities are endless.

These Bunnies have had lots of experiences with the materials in our class and they still have creative uses for familiar items.  The possibilities are endless for them, too.

Each day the children can count on some new materials mixed in with some familiar materials.  Having both allows them to really shine!

Carpentry Continued

The Bunnies continued their carpentry experiences by using hand drills.  We've never used these particular tools in Bunny Rabbit class before so we weren't sure what to expect.  My goodness, the children thought the drills were so neat.  We're definitely going to use them again!

Precarious

Check out this way cool structure.  If you look closely you will see just how precariously placed the blocks are on the top.  Only two or three small cylinders stacked on two or three large cylinders are supporting the weight of the entire top level.  All the other blocks on the rug are part of the overall design but offer no structural support. Materials and opportunity allowed these guys to learn about weight and balance through play.
Awesome!

Silly Sally Day

Every year in January when we have just one day to meet as a class, we have Silly Sally Day.  Get yourself a copy of Silly Sally.  Kids love it!
To celebrate Silly Sally Day we turned things upside down - literally - and we did a few unexpected wacky things.  Art was under the table.  We had huge white butcher paper taped to the bottom of the table and a bucket of markers.  The children crawled under the table, laid on their backs and colored up in the air.  Mrs. O'Connor and Mrs. Magee also got under the table to color, but there is no photographic evidence.  We even had a few puzzles and games under the table.  Some children had fun with that idea right away.  One little Bunny girl kept moving the games to the top of the table when no one was looking.  heehee.  She had a hard time understanding that we put the games under the table purposely!  Any guesses who it might have been?  At the easel, the children used dot markers to decorate an upside down girl as Silly Sally.  At the sensory table we had fake snow.  Not glitter or plastic-y fake Christmas snow.  We call it "real fake snow".  It is powdery white like sugar until you add water.  Then poof!  It becomes snow - cool to the touch, delicate and smooth.  It's an unexpected delight for Southerners like us.

Guess what! Jesus Grew Up

Through the years we have learned that most children know Jesus was a tiny baby born in a stable.  They also know Jesus was a grownup who did wonderful things. 

Most of them are super surprised that Jesus was a little boy!

We have a fantastic book called If I Had Lived in Jesus' Time.  It shows drawings of modern life and ancient life.  It's perfect for comparing and contrasting they way we live today with the way Jesus lived.  The Bunnies were amazed that Jesus probably slept on a mat on the floor - no bed!!! 

In our class, we learn the things Jesus probably learned like carpentry and sewing.

Jesus learned carpentry from his father, Joseph.  For us, carpentry involves lots of glue.  The children each added small wooden bits to a large piece of wood.  They will continue to work on these from time to time and then we'll send them home.

Jesus probably learned a bit of sewing from his mother, Mary.  Can young children learn to sew?  Absolutely!  We use burlap, yarn, a big plastic needle and a large embroidery hoop.  The Bunnies love it!  We will have sewing out from time to time and by the end of the year we'll have a fancy mat.

Good-bye and Hello

We are beginning the second half of our school year with some good-byes and some hellos.
Henry and Jaina left our class and Yeremi and Rebecca joined us.  Parents, we will get new photo rosters to you soon!

Happy New Year and Brrr!

I hope eveyone has greeted the new year with a smile and is ready to feel showered with blessings!

  Did you know that this is the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese calendar?! 

I have lots of pictures to post, so stay tuned to see some neat things the children did right before our Christmas holidays.

The weather has gotten significantly colder.  Even on very cold days, we go outside to play.  It may surprise you to know that cold weather gives children excellent sensory information!  Please be sure to send warm coats, hats, gloves or whatever else you think your child would need.  LABEL EVERYTHING!

Merry Christmas

Mrs. O'Connor and Mrs. Magee had some fun activities planned for celebrating Advent in the classroom.  Turns out the Bunnies had some fun plans of their own.  They had a blast making cards and ornaments for our big tree.  They used recycled Christmas cards and cut them up, added a pipe clearner as a hook and decorated our tree from top to bottom.  Charlie made so many ornaments that Mrs. Magee was calling him Christopher Radko. heehee!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

At School for Little Children, we keep our eyes focused on the real meaning of Christmas.  We try to give the children some reasons for the traditions we have in our homes and in our community.  There is a wonderful little book called Jesus, Me and My Christmas Tree.  It uses rhyme to explain what goes on a tree and why.  We have a teeny tiny tree and lots of decorations that follow the book.  The children got to decorate the tree and then we sang a cute song with motions to get us moving.

Chimes

Mrs. Vaughn, our music teacher, does a fantastic job!  She has been introducing the Bunnies to a variety of musical instruments.  One day she brought chimes and taught them a little song.  Each child got to play the chimes and Mrs. Vaughn sang along with their beat.  What a hoot!  Some kids played really fast and some played slowly.  The Bunnies really look forward to music.

Creation

Our focus on creation lasted the entire first semester of school!  It seems like ages ago that we began with light and dark.  Here's a recap of the activities you can see in the children's art above.
light and dark - marble art
sun - painting on paper plates
stars - fingerprints in paint and glitter
the world - water color on giant coffee filters
birds - owl faces on paper plates
plants - rubber stamping ferns, leaves
animals - farm animal stencilling and wild animal stamping
people and families - die cut shapes of Jesus' family and each child's family

The best way to teach children about creation is to allow them to be creators!

Construction

In every class there is a great builder.  We never know who it will be.  Usually a few months into school the identity of the great builder emerges.  What's neat about having a great builder is that they inspire other children to be great builders, too.  When kids see cool structures being built, they can't resist pulling blocks off the shelf and building one of their own.  It's a win-win!

According to the builder, this house has "lots of rooms and bathrooms and roofs and a loooong sidewalk".  Usually the child who is the great builder has very creative ways to play with other block enrichment toys.

Recognize that little blue tennis shoe?  He's our great builder!

Making Literacy Meaningful - A Three Part Series with a Fourth Part

Recently we read a fun book called Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm.  In this book, the farm animals don't like getting baths, so they run away to the big city.  It's a classic fish-out-of-water story and when they return to the farm, they decide baths are just fine. 

To reinforce the concepts in this story, we had story props.  We had a bucket, little stuffed animals, felt patches to represent mud and a little scrub brush.  The Bunnies chose an animal, and pretended to scrub the mud off.  It was fun and they liked it.  However, it was a little limiting. 

To further the bath experience, we filled our sensory table with bubble bath and added our play farm animals and some small sponges. 

This was a big hit - everyone loved giving the animals a real bath!  We overheard one little Bunny talking to an animal saying, "See, a bath isn't so bad!" 
There are so many ways to connect to books!  At School for Little Children we provide a variety of play opportunities to develop literacy.  This is how children learn through play!!