Families

Our study of creation and our desire to experience Christmas converge beautifully during the season of Advent.  It is the perfect time to talk about people and how God created families for us.

We had books, songs, props, and of course previous life experiences to help us construct comparisons between our families and Jesus' family.  We had a little project that we did over two days.  First, we talked about our families and together we made a graph of how many people were in our families.  Then the Bunnies represented the people in their families by gluing people shapes onto the top half of a large piece of paper.  You can see one child's family in the top half of his blue paper below.  He has three sisters and parents.

The next day, the children represented the people in Jesus' family buy gluing nativity people shapes on the bottom half of their paper.

Below is one example of the finished product.  As a reference, Mary is light blue and she and Joseph are kneeling and the Baby Jesus looks like a face peeking out of a white blanket.

We did not provide markers for this activity, but this particular Bunny asked for a marker and got busy adding faces to her people! 

Parents, I know it can be a challenge to share aspects of faith with your young children.  Faith is hard to explain, especially when we are constantly developing and refining our faith in our own lives.  Here is some food for thought and hopefully you will be able to seek opportunities to make your faith come alive in your young children in ways that are meaningful for their current stage of development. 

So many aspects of Christian life are abstract and young children are not abstract thinkers (yet).  They learn from what they experience through their senses and by what is right in front of them.  The key to faith development is to provide children with concrete ways to represent abstract concepts.  By making a simple visual comparison of two families, children can begin to conceptualize God's plan for Jesus to live as a human and for all His people to live in families He created especially for us.  They will never have as rich as a perspective as an adult who has heard and experienced principles of faith for many years, but they will have the perspective that is appropriate for their age and stage.  Each time they have chances to hear and experience faith they will internalize the ideas, and like rings on a tree, their faith will develop in layers upon layers, year after year.  How divine!

Benjamin Bunny

The children absolutely LOVE hearing about Benjamin Bunny's adventures as he visits each friend in our class.  Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Benjamin took a little break from his travels and he hung out with us at school (his home!).  The children got to read his journal and snuggle him every day.  Would it surprise you to know that several children memorize what Benjamin has done at each house?  That little bunny has gotten lots of loving from his sweet friends!

It may seem just a little silly to send a stuffed animal home with a journal, but it is so very valuable.  First, it's a fantastic way for parents to extend a school activity at home.  By spending a few minutes snapping photos and jotting down a few events, parents teach their children that what happens at home is important enough to share at school.  Secondly, the children love telling us what they did with Benjamin, and the rest of us get a peek into each child's family.  It's such a powerful connection between home and school.

If he hasn't been to your house yet, don't worry.  He'll be there in the coming weeks. 

Funny Bunnies!

The Bunnies have had so much fun being outside in cooler weather.  Luckily we have had a very unusually cool Fall.  Everyone is more creative, patient and pleasant when they are not sweating.  Amen!

A Visit from the Firefighters

Firetruck Day is always big fun!  We are fortunate to have a fire department that loves to visit schools and we love to interact with our community helpers as often as we can.  It's nice to read about them in books, but it's far better to make a personal connection with them.

The firefighters arrived in ordinary clothes, but they showed the children the clothes they wear for fighting fires.  One guy explained each piece of clothing and its function as the other guy put it on.  The purpose of doing this slowly and with explanation is so the children will (hopefully) not think the gear is scary.

They spent a lot of time talking about the mask.  They compared it to looking through a little window, and that it gave them the fresh air they need so they won't cough in the smoky air.  I had one little Bunny who didn't buy into one word of that.  She was up in my arms facing the opposite direction the whole time! :)

One thing the firefighters like to impress upon the children is that if firefighters ever appear at their house and something is wrong, the children should never hide.  They should jump out and say, "Here I am!" so the firefighters can help them right away.

We learned about the hoses and the tools they have on board like axes, hammers and big saws.  Very cool!

The very best part of the whole visit was that the kids got to climb through the firetruck!  In one side...

...and out the other side.

Just as we went inside the firefighters had to dash away to an emergency!  We were so glad we got to see them.

When we returned to the classroom, we got into a discussion about what we had seen.
Here are some of their responses:

Mrs. O'Connor: What did you like about the firetruck?

E.B. - I liked when the firefighter put on the mask.

R.L. - I didn't like the mask.  I liked when the firefighter took OFF the mask.

N.M. - I liked going through the firetruck.

E.R. - I liked to go through it, and my favorite thing was looking at their tools.

S.S. - the mask

J.A. - I liked the firetruck.

K.R. - Well, I liked when we walked around.

J.I. - My car don't have smoke in it.  My daddy has fire at home on the skillet.  You turn it on and it's yellow and blue and Daddy cook pancakes and rice.  My cousins have fire.

E.L. - I liked the air in the mask.

O.P. - I liked when I jumped out from the inside.

D.V. - I like the jumping.

E.S. - engines

Phone Conferences

Parents,
This is the time of year when Mrs. O'Connor will call you for a little phone conference.  It is your opportunity to chat about how school is going.  It's informal and casual and about 10 or 15 minutes.  If you have any topics for discussion you might want to jot them down so we are certain to cover them.

Thanks!

The Annual Great Pumpkin Experiment

Every year in Bunny class we have a huge pumpkin to check out.  It's a great thing to do when we are talking about the plants God created for us.  We don't carve our pumpkin.  We do something way more amazing and scientific.  Mrs. O'Connor cut the top off the pumpkin and everyone got to smell it and see the seeds and even touch all the slimy stuff if they desired.  We don't clean out the pumpkin.  We leave the seeds and slimy stuff right in there.

Then the Bunnies took turns filling the whole pumpkin up with dirt scoop by scoop.

Once it was full, they watered it.  Helpful tip: if you want to control the water your little helper gives a plant, provide a squirt bottle.

The pumpkin becomes a planter and the seeds sprout right out of the top!  It takes about two weeks so in the meantime we have lots of conversations about what might be happening under the dirt and we can observe changes once the sprouts appear.

We planted the pumpkin in the garden, but a few days later we had an unusual light freeze and our sprouts died.  Boo.

Bird Art

Every now and then we try to have an art project that spans several days.  We think it gives the children an opportunity for delayed gratification and for a chance to change their plan or enhance their plan as they go.

One day the children used a koosh ball roller to paint on a paper plate.  The koosh ball gives a great texture to the paint and it looks a little like feathers.  The paper plates were super goopy so we let them dry for the week.  When they returned on Monday, we had dishes with google eyes, buttons, feathers, construction paper triangles and a few other doo dads - plus some glue.  We told the Bunnies they could use the materials to make a bird.  Below is one example.

At our school we value process art meaning that the process or journey of creating is superior to the final product.  Notice above that the owl has one feather, one beak and about 4 eyes.  We can't be bothered with silly details like how many eyes a bird should have! :)  I guarantee the Bunnies have more fun and feel more pride in themselves if they do it their way!

Birds Part 2

Children's literature is heavily peppered with birds.  Probably everyone is familiar with these books:
 
 Love these!

We read these in our room, but we also spent time with Owl Babies.  It's a sweet book about three baby owls who aren't sure if their mommy is coming back.



We had a bag of props to go along with the story.  On Monday Mrs. O'Connor read the story and used the props, then prompted the Bunnies to retell the story and the props helped jog their memories.  On Tuesday the props and the book were in a basket in the book area of the room. 

All morning scenes like the one above played out again and again.  The children role played and practiced the language and dialogue they heard in the book. Yay!

At our "Office" table, there were pictures of birds in a basket.  Most of the pictures were from old calendars, nature magazines, or Christmas cards.  Joseph used the materials available to him and his wonderful imagination and made something fantastic.
He used scissors to snip around the edges of his paper. 
He used the stapler in the corners.
He used a glue stick to attach bird pictures.
He wrote the first letter of his name on a leaf and glued it on, too.
And, he even used some tape on the back side.

No where in our lesson plans did this appear as an art or literacy activity.  This was completely child-directed and independent.  We could have never planned for something this wonderful.  It was spontaneous and told us so much about Joseph and his skills.  When we give children time and materials, they create amazing things!

Birds

One fun aspect of learning about creation is learning things about birds.  You might not think there's really all that much to gain with a rather narrow topic.  It's really not easy to observe birds because they don't let you get up close to them.  They all basically do the same things and they all pretty much look alike.  All of that is true, BUT we can still use one topic and cover many many different necessary skills.

Let's start with math and science.  These two areas of learning often go hand in hand.

We had several fun activities including this wooden bird patterning game called "Happy Birds".  There is a perch with room for 4 birds and a tray with parts and pieces of birds in different colors.  The Bunnies can make their own birds or they can choose to create birds identical to the ones on the pattern cards.  This is great for visual discrimination skills (translation: can they look at a 2D picture and replicate it in 3D?)

We had a simple peg board with pictures of birds and little tags with the same pictures of birds all jumbled in a dish.  The Bunnies sorted and categorized the birds by attributes and put them in their proper places on the peg board.  Everyone who tried this game liked it!

Sorting, categorizing and patterning are all preschool math and science skills learned through play.

Stay tuned for birds in literacy and art...

Everything Old is New Again

Remember record players?

We have several at school, and we use them for spin art.  The children put a paper plate on the turn table, turn the record player on, and hold markers so that the tips make circles as the plate spins.  The Bunnies love this and we always have a long line waiting for a turn.

Perhaps you've wondered how we introduce new and exciting experiences like this without the kids getting frustrated or intimidated (or the reciprocal: super worked up!) by the excitement and number of steps involved.   Well, we began by choosing the location wisely.  We put the cool new thing in a place where it can be heavily supervised by a teacher (in this case, the art table).  An important step is to demonstrate it ourselves.  Mrs. O'Connor demonstrated how to do it to the first few kids who were standing nearby.  Then one by one the children got verbal and visual instructions.  As each child tried it out, several others were gathered around so they benefited from the instructions, too.  As more and more children took turns, they began to learn from each other rather than from the teacher, which is exactly what we want to see happen!  Once everyone has had a turn, the exciting thing can move to a place with a little less supervision giving an opportunity for a little more independence for the children.  Independence is one of the very best self-esteem boosters!

Ocean Animals

Most children already have a fascination with ocean life and fish so it was easy to get them excited about extending their learning.

The puzzle below has ocean animals with a little magnet on each and a fishing pole with a little magnet at the end of the line.  The children used the fishing pole to solve and "unsolve" the puzzle many times.  It was super for visual spatial development and aim.

The Bunnies created their own oceans by mixing colors of paint to become the background of their own ocean art and they added sand and shells.  They also used fish stamps and ink pads to create interesting work in the office center.

Stamping looks like art, but it is really literacy.  Being able to organize items on a page is a very early literacy skill.

Everything we provide for the children to do has a specific purpose and value for development, but is looks and feels like play.  Children learn best through play!

Fun and Games

We are beginning to teach the Bunnies how to play games.  It's a process, and we are at the beginning.

We put out a simple little, preschool game called Go Fishing.  The fish are face down in the ocean and there are 4 different colored boats and one fishing pole.  The children must take turns with the pole to catch a fish, turn it over and match the color of the fish to the same color boat.  When all boats are full, the game is over.  No winner, no loser - just turn-taking and filling boats.

What we are really going for here is the pattern of thought "I have a turn, now you have a turn" repeatedly.  This is the first and most important skill of playing games.  Once we have that well under way, we can introduce the many other skills of game playing.

Noah's Ark

No chat about the creation of land and water would be complete without exposure to Noah and his big boat.  Look closely - do you see the best part?  I absolutely adore the pair of ostriches hanging off the side of the ark by their toes!

God Made Land and Water

In our continuing efforts to learn about the world God made for us, we've spent time talking about land and water.

The children represented land and water by watercoloring coffee filters with pipettes instead of paintbrushes.

They also tried a neat activity called "pour painting".  They each had a large rock and poured paint over it to resemble a globe - land and water.

They really loved it and we had high participation in this activity.  We'll look for more opportunities to provide pour painting!  It was fun to watch the paint move and slide over the rocks.  These were entirely too gloopy, gloppy wet to send home (you're welcome, parents!) so they will spend the week drying at school. 

We also took the opportunity to learn about the properties of water by experimenting with items that sink and float.

On Monday, the Bunnies had a bucket of items and a bucket of water for simple experimentation.  We spent time with the children exposing them to the concepts and vocabulary in a very casual conversational manner.

On Tuesday, we increased the complexity by changing the items slightly and by providing sorting mats and more independence.  See how these guys tested the objects and placed them onto the mat representing each property?  By allowing the children to begin with simple exposure to the concept and then progressing to a higher level of complexity we give them the opportunity to take charge of their own learning.  Sink/float is a fun activity to do at home with things beyond the typical bathtub toys.  Try it!

Little Fingers

One of the most important things we do is help the children develop motor skills.  Each week they have opportunities to work their little finger muscles in a variety of ways.

Stringing beads is not easy.  We find that Bunnies are typically successful at stringing large beads, but struggle with small ones.  By using pipe cleaners for stringing, they are better able to control the beads.  The stiffness of the pipe cleaner adds support in a way that floppy string can't.  Success!

Everybody loves hammering!  Giant styrofoam block + plastic hammer + golf tees = fine motor development disguised as endless fun!

Creation

This fall we will be learning about the world God created for us.  Obviously that is a topic of life-long study, so we begin in small ways.  Reading and talking to children about creation is important and we do that.  However, we find that the most profound way for children to learn about the wonder of creation is to let them be creators!

This little Bunny is learning about the creation of light from darkness by marble painting with white and silver paint on black paper.

Mrs. O'Connor and Mrs. Quinn have many more activities planned to help children learn about creation by being able to create with open-ended, interesting materials.

Learning Together

The beginning of the year is exciting and surprising, and also not-so surprising.  It is very typical this time of year to see the children play along strict gender boundaries.  Notice in the photos below that girls are playing in the housekeeping area without any boys nearby, and boys are playing with cars on the rug without any girls in sight.

I can't say with certainty why this happens, but it happens every year.  I can only theorize that it relates to the children's level of comfort with each other.  Here at the beginning while everyone is getting to know each other, they make connections by searching for commonalities and build from there.  Right now their main commonality is their gender.  As their repertoire of commonalities increases (such as by discovering similar interests), their play branches out, too.  I love that at SLC we provide an enormous variety of play materials to appeal to children for a variety of reasons.  It won't be long before the children are interacting together in more balanced play.

Duos

Normally we don't see the children playing together this early in the year.

Considering that they really don't know each other yet, this is unusual and exciting.

This is a sure sign we are off to a great start!

First Day Fun

The first day of Bunny Rabbits is always a mix of excitement and trepidation for the children.  They don't know us, they don't know each other, and they have no idea what to expect, BUT it always works just fine!

Please check here from time to time to see how these fabulous children learn through play!

These two guys found some games to play.

Remember Viewmaster?!  It's a timeless toy and children absolutely love it!

You'll see lots of playdough in our room.  It's fantastic for strengthening little hands, for encouraging conversations and most importantly, it's just fun!  See how this little Bunny snipped the playdough into little bits?  Excellent fine motor practice.  Feel free to try it at home, too!

Welcome to a Wonderful New Year

Mrs. O'Connor and Mrs. Quinn are excited to begin a great year with the Bunny Rabbits.   Hop on in...

Thank You

Thank you for a wonderful year!  Mrs. Magee and Mrs. O'Connor had a great time with your children and we are grateful you shared them with us!
Have a wonderful summer and please remember to come visit us in the fall.
Bye!

Water Play Day

Water Play Day is a fun tradition.  We have one day in May when the children wear bathingsuits and play outside all morning.  We have a variety of activities for them including fishing, car washes and shaving cream.  We wrap up the day with popsicles on the porch.