Thursday, April 11, 2019

Shelly's House: Mission Accomplished!

After two weeks of discussion, negotiation, problem solving, patience, persistence, fine motor challenges, and brute  strength... Shelly's house is built!   Today children added the roof.   While pounding the nails, children noticed that nails went in more quickly when they used the heavier hammer.  Once the roof was added,  children began to decorate and play with the house.  The first additions were carpet squares and a large piece of lace.  James determined that Shelly needed a yard, and used other pieces of wood to fence in a play space for her.  Once this was complete, Louise pulled a chair over, sat down, and became the guard of the new abode.  By the end of our time together, more animals had come to live with Shelly, at least temporarily.  The structure is open-ended enough to accommodate many play scenarios and accommodations.  However, more building or embellishment may be in order:
     Grace - I think Shelly's house needs a rainbow on the roof.
     Tommy - We could get rainbow-shaped wood and paint it.

Thank you, Jessica Kuhn!

Although Jessica M. wasn't feeling well today, we were thrilled to have Jessica Kuhn working with us.  With her support (and frequent trips to the Tucker closet), children worked on small collages featuring bright spring colors.  Children choose to add these to their art journals, the collages are just the right size.   Children were encouraged to layer various papers and materials as they made their creations.  While it will be easier to add a mostly flat collage to the art journals, many children had a hard time resisting the brightly colored mini-pom-poms they found on the shelf!  After making many collages, some children used these materials to make messages.  Several friends will be surprised when they check their mailboxes in the coming days!

Being together

Last , but certainly not least, it was a great day to spend time with friends.  KW also provides an opportunity for children to interact with someone they may not have even seen during the morning.  Today we read a funny story, saw children build together outside and inside, witnessed children challenging themselves on the climbing wall, and played some wild and wonderful Zingo games!  
Thanks to  all who attended classroom stories last night.  The video is posted just below this blog post!