Recent Literacy Activities:
     Itsy Bitsy Spider book--children illustrated a familiar fingerplay and song with items from around our classroom to symbolize the story...

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been enjoying a lot of our stories outside with the gorgeous weather we have been having.  We find a nice, shady spot and take a little break from running around.

 



 

Who says you need paper and pencils (or markers or crayons) to write?  

 

 

We are so lucky to have such a diverse population in our school and especially in our classroom.  Sometimes I forget how far these children have come with their verbal skills and English.  So I was cutting out the picture ABC cards (these would NEVER be used as flashcards, but rather for some different games with small groups with the children), this little guy asked what I was doing, and he started saying the words in his own language (I thought).  A lot of children won't speak their language to us despite any encouragement we give.  Once I realized what he was doing, I started trying to say the words to him, which made him laugh hysterically.  I wasn't sure if he was laughing at my accent or just happy that somebody was trying to speak his language--I'm still not sure.  



 

 

 

We use Conscious Discipline in our classroom, which in a nutshell means that we teach children to be responsible for their own emotions, whatever they are.  It's okay to be upset, angry, cry, or whatever, you just need to figure out what to do when you feel that way.  We spend a lot of time telling children things like, "Take a breath, you can calm yourself down." or  " Would you like to go to our safe place until you feel better?"  (It is ALWAYS their choice whether to go there and how long they need to stay--this is NOT a time out!)  

So today, I sat down at one of the tables in the classroom and banged my knee, which really hurt and I yelped, and one of my friends said to me, "Ms. Amie, take a breath!"  and she demonstrated how to do it--JUST LIKE WE DO!  So I took a breath and miracle of miracles!  I felt better.  Thanks T!


These are a couple of the centers I set up one day--this one had green Rosemary play dough that the class made and a bunch of materials to explore texture including rollers, bubble wrap, legos, wooden spools and popsicle sticks and seashells.

 

This child made an octopus...

 

 

This is a math center with paper, colored pencils (we like to make sure there are writing materials in every center), magnetic numerals, and various natural materials for counting or drawing or tracing. 

 

 

 

 

College students from the biology department came over and set up some ocean activities on our outdoor classroom.  We played Ocean Bingo, fished for different kinds of sea creatures, and played Sharks and Minnows. 

 



 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Our Week...2-10-2016



 

As usual, we have a lot of stuff going on in our classroom.  We have been growing some really awesome stuff in the garden and today, we had collard greens for lunch straight from our garden.

 



We also have been making kale chips in the dehydrator we have in our classroom--these are really good and the kids love to help make them.

 

Naturally, we've had some Valentine's Day activities.  We made predictions about how many candy hearts we thought we could pick up in our hand, then tried it out and wrote the actual number.  Interesting.

 

 

 

A little light table fun on Groundhog Day (figuring out shadows).

 

 

One of our friends is going to be a big brother soon, and apparently he's feeling for his mom having to carry that sister around in her tummy all the time, so he drew a picture of his baby and taped it to his own tummy to carry around for awhile... (you CANNOT make this stuff up, people!)

 

Since we started our bakery project, Ms. Mandy and I have heard about almost nothing but cake pops.  Cake pops, cake pops, cake pops!  So naturally we had to make.... cake pops!  For this no-bake recipe, we smashed up snack cakes, rolled them into balls, stuck a lollipop stick into them...

 

Rolled them in melted chocolate....

 

Added sprinkles.... and of course we ate them!  Did you ever see such GORGEOUS cake pops? 

 

We played a game called "Musical Hearts" (this is Ms. Daniella and one of our friends setting it up).   When the music plays we dance and walk around and when it stops, everyone has to find a heart to stand on.  There aren't enough hearts so we have to hug and squeeze on together to fit.  I just love a non-competitive game.

 

A Valentine's Day experiment... question:  What happens if you put candy hearts into different liquids? 

 

This is what they looked like after one day....

 

We did a graphing activity with candy hearts (can you sense the theme?) charting them according to colors.  Just look at the concentration in these little faces.