Shhhhhh...Don't Tell Ines
Creating a Gift for Ines Cate and Capers use the overhead projector to create designs with flowers and then sketch their creations
After the children traced their arrangements using the overhead projector, they painted over their work. Some friends came back to add pollen, details or new ideas to their work. "I put pink pollen on!" "What's that yellow thing?" - Cate "It makes the flowers." - Capers "Maybe that can be the sun." - Cate What if We Made a Garden With Our Flowers? - LilyAnother children led project was drawing a garden as a background for the photoshoot with Ines. Children decided to each draw their own flowers to add together. Some children decided to use pictures of flowers for inspiration. Lily: What if we made a garden for Ines? We could put all our pictures together to make something new. Cate: We could cut them out. I don't know if we can. Our Garden Indoor Bowling: It's Right up Our Alley
A Clay ExperienceOne thing the children knew about Ines was that she likes working with clay. We thought we would try to make clay flowers for her. Since Rainey children have not worked with clay much this year, there was a great deal of enthusiasm for exploring the material.
Wilder - I’m making a boat. Finlay - I’m making a bed. Jade - I’m making a flower for Ines. Cate - I’m making a flower for her, too! Finlay - This is how you make a lego (with a block of clay). (A bit later) I’m making a bracelet. Jade - I was thinking about this (she demonstrates pinching and poking techniques with her fingers). Finlay - I’m making a mountain. Wilder - (Working with a clay knife) I’m trying to scrape off parts of the volcano. Cape - Here’s the snake that I made. I cut it and I rolled it. (He attaches his small snake to a ball of clay.). I’m making a turtle. A big turtle. Lily - (Rolling a coil of clay). Now that looks more like a flower. Wilder - I made part of a jellyfish.
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We hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. Here's a look at the week ahead!We also hope that your will join us for the KW Gallery Walk this Friday! Rainey Room families can check out the artifacts from our program from 8:15 to 8:45 on the front lawn. Tucker Room families can take it all in from 8:45 to 9:15! We can't wait to share the children's work with you!
Building for StrengthTucker children thoroughly enjoyed making large, stable buildings that supported their weight last week. On Thursday, some children were hopeful that it could happen again. Instead, we altered the challenge slightly. Could the children build structures with unit blocks that would support heavy, concrete shapes? Last week, we determined that starting with a conversation and a plan proved successful. We began our process the same way this week. Children looked over the concrete shapes. Giacomo: The heaviest of the heavy. Janie: (Looks at the wooden contraction blocks). There aren’t enough blocks. Jack: I have an idea. Build first. We can put (the concrete columns) together and then (the heavier concrete bowl) on top Giacomo: That will be on top of the structure. Jack: Giacomo is the best builder in the whole school so he might have an idea. Jack and Giacomo draw plans to create a structure to hold the concrete pieces CC: Definitely not these (picks up small, thin blocks). Look how small they are. We need these. (She picks up square, hollow blocks). Nora: I know what’s strong. The table we made before. Giacomo: But we don’t have the hollow blocks. CC: Oh! I didn’t see these! (she shows everyone the long blocks) Nora: We can criss cross build. Let’s make a floor. Jack: (Jack adds the columns to his first building) My idea worked! It looks like a bank. This is where you go in and get money. Giacomo: (Jack starts to add the heaviest piece) There’s more weight on one side. We have to move it or it will fall. Nora: It’s a bank with a sign on it. Nora and Giacomo build a large structure together but disagree on how to proceed. Giacomo begins adding a ceiling to the structure. Nora tries to go inside but it seems unstable CC:(grabbing the structure and testing it) I see it wobble. Part of the ceiling collapses. CC: See. It could have fallen on someone’s head Jack makes a second structure following his original plan. Jack: I did it! Look, it holds them. Giacomo adds some blocks to Jacks work. Jack: Wow, you added a lot. I love it, Giacomo. Giacomo's drawing showed horizontal stacks of blocks. These became the walls as the children built together. As the children built together, they definitely explored strength and stability. Children also demonstrated their understanding of size and equivalence as the buildings came together. The collaboration with others and support for others was high during the process. In addition, Jack and Giacomo were able to translate their ideas from a two dimensional representation to a three dimensional structure. Friday..... Building Continues! With a lot of people out of town, we had a smaller than usual Friday Group. After lunch, the children were given a choice on how to spend their time. It's probably no surprise that there was a lot of interest in building. Today's big idea was a large enclosure. Giacomo - What if we make it across the whole table? There is general agreement from the group. Giacomo - What if we use all the materials to go all the way around the table. The taller we have (walls) in one spot, the less (blocks) we have to make it around. Let's do a pattern. Small blocks then large blocks. C.C. - This is a door. Jack - That's a great idea. The builders enjoyed going in and out of the structure they had built. Before we cleaned up, we decided to see if all KW children could fit inside. They did! The children suggested that there was even room for Jordan and Jill. As usual, the children were right! Boy Colors? Girl Colors?On Thursday, we played a game allowing us to explore children's associations with color. Two hula hoops were placed on the table with some overlap (the preschool version of a Venn diagram). Children were given a number of different colored squares and asked to put them in either the girl/ green circle or the red/boy circle. Jack understood that colors that could be both for girls and boys could go in the area of overlap. The children enthusiastically put their colors in place. There was some discussion and respectful debate about where certain colors belonged. Children brought up the concepts of fairness and favorite colors. In the end, it was determined that all the colors were appropriate for both boys and girls. We have a video of this experience that we will be showing next Friday during the gallery walk. We hope to see you there! Inventing GamesOur group games have become one of our favorite parts of the day. Many are organized by the adults, but children also make up games during their time in the outdoor classroom. Last week, the Tucker crew played a monster game that involved capturing other monsters with the hula hoops. We wondered if there was another way to play this game without the hula hoops, which might lead to children tripping and hurting themselves. Some other materials were suggested. Audrey - I would like to use the noodles. Reed - We tag someone with the noodle and not catch them with the hula hoop. You could choke them with the hula hoop. We found one noodle. Could the game still work? C.C. - We could pass the noodle to someone else, after we tag them. The game worked well and a good time was had by all who participated. A Quick Look at Everything ElseThe message center has been hot lately! Reed is perhaps our message queen, and today it paid off! She found a pile of messages in her mailbox! While some children built big yesterday, others worked with watercolors and collage. The children are also enjoying building, swinging, and taking on physical challenges in the outdoor classroom. Enjoy these images and have a great long weekend!
Game of the Week: Fake OutThis week's game is called Fake Out. Fake Out is a one - on - one tag game that supports body awareness, speed and strategy.
This is so easy for me! - Finlay
Outdoor Games. Building Skills Through PlayThe "bunnies" sneak up on the "Hungry Fox." Outside this week, KW has been playing a lot of movement games together. Our current favorite is Mr. Fox (also called Hungry Fox). As we play, we practice our counting, one to one correspondence, boy awareness and listening skills. Here's how we play:
Making New ColorsCate: "This red is getting a little darker. It's purple."
Tandem painting with our new colors "You know what this could be? A rainbow catcher!" - LilyLily - We should make the rainbow first. Wilder - These (the gems) would make a good rainbow. Finlay - (With small colored canisters) I’m making a rainbow catcher. Lily - Mine is going to go in here, through the gems, and it traps them. Wilder - (With colored egg halves) It already has two rainbows in here and the mountain catches them. They can’t escape. Finlay - So you see these ones (tubes) that don’t have holes in them, when they get all filled up, they flip. After you flip them, they’re trapped! There’s no way out! Lily - Mine gets trapped in here (under egg shapes). Lily and Wilder use the strategy of matching symmetrical containers to top the rainbow gems. Frannie - I’m going to put the gems in here. I’m making a little home for the gems. Wilder - (Stirring a bowl of the gems) I’m trying to make gem juice! Cape - (Loading up egg shapes with gems) Now they can’t escape. Frannie - (Building a tall tower with gems inside) Now they’re really trapped. Cape - (Building with the cage-like pieces). These have to go in the cold area. There’s a top and bottom cold area. How About We Build a CastleToday we decided to work on our teamwork and problem solving with some large scale cooperative building. Finlay, Wilder and Lily decided to build a castle. Although our first attempt was unsuccessful, we realized our mistakes when we did not reinforce the taller blocks. With that in mind, we restarted with Capers help and created a new, stronger castle. They keep falling down! - Finlay Capers New Strategy Capers: My strategy is a little different. My strategy is this. (He turns his arms sideways to indicate using long blocks to reinforce the ones that are already up). Capers shows Jade and Wilder his idea. Jade: I want to help. Building OutsideFinlay: Where is the train going?
Lily: Chugga Chugga Choo Choo Finlay: The train is going chugga chugga choo choo! Several friends: It's going to Disney World and Legoland! A Look at our Week!We're looking forward to building, rainbows, and building with rainbows! We will also be mixing colors and painting, as well as electing ideas from the children of materials and experiences that they would like to include in Kids' Workshop!
Yesterday, the Rainey children tasted the pumpkin bread baked by the Tucker KW crew. The reviews were (mostly) positive! Similarities and Differences
Collaborative Building.... Take TwoLast Thursday, we brought in a number of blocks in order to encourage collaborative building. At the end of the afternoon, the builders had expressed some frustration. They felt liked they needed more blocks, including the hollow blocks. There also seemed to be some breakdown in the communication process which made it difficult to work together. The teachers started the day with these questions: What can we do to encourage and support communication and negotiation among the builders? What can we do to encourage and support collaboration among the builders? We started by talking before we built Giacomo definitely wanted to build the same type of building that had been so successful in the middle room a few weeks ago. As he describes the process to his peers, he demonstrates his knowledge of what would make a building strong and stable. Giacomo - I see you brought the big blocks in. It has to be strong and wide, and not too tall. The wider it is, the taller you can make it. The (wider) platform would be strong enough (to support a taller building). Lochie - It would be more sturdy if we built it on the floor. After some debate, the group decides to build on the platform, and just not move or shake the platform . Maxon - (Starting with the large hollow blocks). There's four of these. Giacomo - Four will be enough. (After setting up the four pillars) We need the boards from the middle room. Lochie - You can help us Jack, there''s more work to do! After this building was built, the children tested its strength and stability by standing on top of it. The building was strong, and the children were taller than the teachers!
Introducing the People Cards to Tucker FriendsEarlier in the week, the Rainey Room children explored our set of "People Cards." These cards feature people of different gender, ages, races, and nationalities. The provide a way to continue our discussions about diversity as children choose to sort them, tell stories about them, or form them into families. Nora begins by choosing the pictures closer to her. Nora - Look at that spooky man (the photo is quite shadowy). He has blue lips and blue hair. We should not choose him, We should choose a nice man. (Nora arranges a family.... photo on the left. Naming them right to left). Daddy, mommy, big sister, little sister, cousin... Audrey - Cousin! Nora - Grandpa. Nora -(Brings out the man she previously identified as spooky). Grandpa! Audrey - But he's spooky! Nora - He's not spooky. Pumpkin Bread!
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April 2024
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