Celebrating in EE5

We've had a really busy few weeks! 

We celebrated National Plant a Flower Day at school by, well...PLANTING FLOWERS!   Everybody got in on it, digging holes, planting, patting the ground, and watering.  It was exactly what the gardens needed, a little bright color, plus some food for the pollinators as they get started on their work this spring.

 

We also started working on a recycling project in EE5 called Carton to Garden--we collected tons of milk cartons that we saved from lunch, washed them out really well, and we are painting them (of course the children are mixing their own colors) and will use them for a little garden art that we will submit to a contest and hopefully win a prize, but even if we don't win, we will have a lovely recycled collage to show for it

 

 

You might remember a few weeks ago when we planted lettuce, carrot, and radish seeds in pots outside--here is our harvest!

 

 

 

The carrots got dumped several times by the little kids, which is a chance we take when we plant in pots, and the radishes did not grow at all.  Except one that somehow ended up in the lettuce pot.  We did get enough lettuce to have a nice salad for lunch--SCORE!!!!

 

 

We like to celebrate everything around here, so we celebrated the Festival of Colors.  A parent came and read us a story about how this holiday started in India, and brought us powdered colors to throw (think color run without the running).  It was so fun, and even the babies got in on the fun!

 

 

 

 

We were all a colorful mess when we were finished!

 





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Wrapping Up Our Space Study...

We wrapped up our Space Study this week, but I had some pictures to share.  Look at these astronauts working on blast-off sequences...

 

 

 

Looking out the porthole into space...

 

 

Trying on super cool space helmets...

 

 

 

This is how astronauts sleep, but I don't think they have quite so much fun with it!  You would be SHOCKED at how much these kids know about space!

 



 

 

 

We threw together a few space sculptures, including a robotic arm, a space shuttle and several space cats.  

 

 

 

Space bingo was super popular, as are all games.  

 

 

 

So, all the kids can talk about is pumpkins and Halloween, so we are going with it.  We have a BUNCH of pumpkins in our classroom, some real, some fake, some jack 'o lanterns,  some trick or treat pumpkins, as well as a bunch of gourds.  We will be doing a TON of activities with these over the next couple of weeks.  Can't wait.  In the meantime, we filled our sensory table with straw and pumpkins and small treasures.   Yes, it's messy. Yes, it gets all over the floor.  No, we don't care.

 

We did a little writing outside this week, since the weather's been so gorgeous.  We have quite a bunch of prolific writers.

 

We also found this guy outside and followed him around while he visited all the flowers in the garden, pollinating his little heart out.  And yes, my class of four-year-olds know what pollination is and why it's important.  This is my plan to save the earth.  I also have a well-developed plan for world peace, so if you would like to know about that, message me.

 

 

We made pumpkin pie play dough this week, the kids are having fun with it already.  They love the smell.

 

Playing with pumpkin pictures on the light table and adding features to demonstrate different emotions.  

 

 

 We measured how many pumpkins tall we are....

 

We went on a spooky walk (which is very similar to a Bear Hunt).

 

Can I just point out how lucky we are to have all the grownups we have in our classroom each day?  These college students add so much to all that we do.  This is Ms. Elise, who works in our classroom twice a week and really brings something special to our classroom.  

 

 

Ms. Amanda is an intern in our classroom, and helps us all in so many ways.  

 

We also have three other interns, as well as our regular work study students, who have been in our classroom for years and help us do all the amazing things we are able to do with your children.  So, thanks!

 

 



 

Inside the Classroom, and Outside the Classroom...

This week we did some early documentation with our class.  We got name-writing samples from each of them, they made a self-portrait, took their own selfies, the children started signing in as well as their parents, and we talked about their favorite things, which we are compiling into a class book (coming soon!).  Why would we do all these things?  Are they "assessments"?  Are they tests?  Are we comparing your children's abilities to everyone else's?

NO!  We want to have documentation so that at the end of the year, you can see exactly how far your child has progressed.  Imagine comparing your child's self-portrait from the beginning of the year to the one they will do at the end.  It will AMAZE you.  The only comparing we will do is your child's work over time.  That's all the comparing I hope you will do too. 

So what did we DO this week?  Lots of things....we went on a Bear Hunt together.  (Please note that if children choose not to participate, it's okay with us.  Some children need to watch and make sure things are okay to do for them--we're good with that)

 

 

We read about a million stories.  Which we love to do.

 

 

We built with translucent blocks on the light table--very hard to photograph.

 

We played in the water table.  I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH... If your child is having a hard time, fill up the sink, pull up a chair for  them to stand on and dump some plastic utensils into the sink.  Done.

 

 

Each week, our class has a gardening lesson.  This week we walked around the garden and identified the things that are growing there right now.  We saw watermelon, papaya, banana trees, a lime tree, eggplant, a big weird squash, and we tasted some Muscadine grapes right off the vine. 

 

 

We also ate some sunflower seeds that were still soft.  Did you know you could eat them like that?

 

The other part of our lesson was learning about the plant life cycle which we did by telling a story similar to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by   It was called Sunshine, Sunshine, What Do You See?  and it had felt board pieces that we all got to add to the story board.

 

After that, we ate a watermelon from the garden and saved the seeds to plant next summer.  I'd say that was a great day in the garden!





 All in all, we had a great week. 

Documentation...

I LOVE documentation.  This blog is documentation, displays in our classroom are documentation, discussions with the children are documentation.  Documentation is making the learning VISIBLE. 

For example, we are learning about great artists and different styles of art.  Over the next few weeks, you will probably see a good amount of art on here and coming home, as well as all over the walls (and hanging from the ceilings, and in the windows) in our classroom. 

First we asked the children what they know about art, this is what they said....

 

We looked at some pictures of the Pointillism style (at the top of our dry erase board) and talked about how we can make dots.  We decided together (or THEY decided, rather) that we could use Q-tips, our fingers, the dot painters, pencils, or markers.   We read a really good book called "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds.  Our first project was using Q-tips....

 
 
 

 

We also did some color mixing and each child made at least one card with their own personal color on it.  I personally think these look amazing together.  

 

 We painted some Kandinsky-style circles--trees and abstracts.

 

Easel painting galore!  I think this particular painting is VERY interesting.  Obviously a square face...

 

 

A little transient art, which is temporary, then left for someone else to add to or change.

 

 

 

More transient art on the light table, with shapes.

 

 

 

Makin' Mud in our outdoor classroom during Gardening time...

 

 

And painting with said mud.

 

 

More outdoor classroom photos--this is the mud kitchen, or should we say the SAND KITCHEN?!

 

 

Reading a story with some good friends outside is really good for whoever wants to join us.

 

And of course, a little art outside.