Happy New Year!  I know it's well past the new year, but we have been SO BUSY in EE5 that I haven't found time to blog at all since we came back after winter break.  We have been having a lot of fun though. 

 

 

We made our own musical instruments.. colored water in glass jars.  It was pretty amazing how they each made different sounds.

 

 

We made a HUGE map of our playground, labeled and drawn by our friends.  It was amazingly accurate and they were very thoughtful about where everything was placed on the map--not really an easy concept!

 



 

 

We do a LOT of reading every day.  (Sorry about the clarity, but I had to take this picture from across the classroom...)

 

Guess what we were reading that day....!

 

Taking time out to do a little natural art.  These were sweet gum pods that I collected  and we painted them by dripping paint over them, and sprinkling a little glitter on them for good measure.

 

We had an ABC Hunt in our classroom.  After a lot of discussion, the children decided that the best way to see if we had all of the letters was to put them in order.  Geniuses!

 

 

The light table and the projector (remember these?) are always fun for the kids.  And I'm sending out a special thank you to my husband who always calls to ask me, "Do you need this for your classroom?" before getting rid of anything interesting he comes across.   They have so much fun writing on the white board and tracing the items they put onto the projector.

 

 

We have been engineering a lot lately.  We build forts, pig's houses, zoos, cities, towers, animal habitats, and a lot of other things with paper-covered boxes.  

 

 

A lot has been going on outside too.  The garden looks as gorgeous as ever, and we are all enjoying eating the herbs and produce with our lunches.  You can't get any fresher than that!

 

 

 

Our class had a nice time planting seeds in pots.  We planted radishes, lettuce, peas, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  Nearly every seed sprouted, which is amazing, and we have been enjoying watching how much they grow each day.  We hope to be eating some yummy vegetables soon!

 

 

 We planted to peas out in the garden so they can grow up the fence, now we wait.  Won't it be fun to pick peas right off our fence?

 

 

 

We've also decided that the children love the garden so much that we are going to start a Garden Project with them that will probably last the rest of the year.  We have a lot of ambitious ideas, and we will see where their interest lead us. 

 

 

We made zero waste birdfeeders.

 

 

We have been bringing special activities out every day.  This is a writing activity, we can't seem to get enough writing.

 

Outside provides a different perspective on art.

 

 

I just want to mention how much we enjoy every one of these kids--they are ALWAYS engaged and interested, and it's amazing how much they have all grown already.  We can't wait to see what lies ahead this semester!

 

 

 

 

 

 

December Fun...

We have been super busy these past few weeks!  My friends have been having a great time building with all kinds of materials--foam blocks...

 

 

 

Natural Tree blocks, which add another dimension to building because all the sides aren't straight... 

 

 

Our sensory table has been full of sparkly white "snow" and jingle bells of all different sizes.  

 

They collected and sorted (and sometimes hoarded!) the jingle bells...

 

We dropped the snow, which really falls like real snow.  

 

 

We decorated our tree with our favorite things... pictures of our pumpkins.  They loved finding their pictures and moving them around to a different place every day. 

 

We made paper chains--remember those?  

 

 

Dramatic play is always fun.  Just ask the reindeer...

 

And guess who this one is!

 

We made gingerbread houses out of boxes and decorated them fantastically.

 

We celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by having Ms. Amy (the other Ms. Amy) come and read to us.  Also, the newspaper was there to take pictures.

 

 

We found a friend out in the garden.

 

 

We did a little dreidel spinning.

 

 

 

We had some of our families come and share their own traditions with us, and found out that even though we celebrate different holidays, we all kind of do the same things...spend time with friends and family, eat special foods, light candles and decorate, and sometimes give each other gifts.  Isn't that nice?  I certainly think so.

 



 

 



Nature Education...

I'd like to thank all of our families for the lovely parent-teacher conferences this past week.  It's been truly wonderful to hear your feedback and the wonderful stories about your kids and how much they love school. 

As I was thinking about what to write about for this blog post, I decided that I would write about something very near and dear to my heart--NATURE EDUCATION.  Most of my families probably don't know that I do trainings for the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County (they are almost always full to capacity) on this topic mostly, and I also travel all over the southeast (so far) to conferences for early childhood educators on this topic as well.  I'm just going to throw out there that I absolutely believe it is my responsibility to provide nature exposure in any way I can to the children I care for every day.

I challenge you to think about your childhood and what you loved about it.  Take a moment to think about this.... my favorite memories are of playing in the woods behind our apartments (can you IMAGINE?!).  I would no sooner send my grandchildren into any woods than cut off my own arm--the world is just a different place.  So I have committed to providing nature exposure to my class every opportunity I can.  I want them to have the body confidence that comes from climbing irregular surfaces, jumping from high places (high to them), rolling down a hill, building with blocks that are as big as they are, feeling weird textures from plants and trees, experience the sights and smells you can only find in nature, and all the other amazing things we grownups don't see or do every day.   

I see firsthand the benefits this has for children.  The ones who need to move more, the ones who need exposure to sensory experiences, the ones from other countries who get off a plane and come to my classroom the next day, the ones afraid to get dirty or touch bugs; they NEED this.  It makes them feel comfortable.   The garden is an amazing place at our school, and I don't know one single child who does not walk through there to see what's going on at least once a day.  I do the same thing.  I like to smell the herbs. 

Along with these benefits, I see how children are better able to focus when there isn't a bunch of florescent plastic everywhere, and the reason I can see this is because that's what my classroom USED to look like.  It was cute, in a very color-coordinated kind of way.  Now it's pretty sedate except for exuberant children's work.  I stick to natural colors that are muted and throw in colors here and there.  My furniture and bins are wood or baskets. 

What's more, I have made a shift to working WITH children instead of trying to make them conform to my schedule and what I want them to do.  I promise you that I can teach your child everything they need to know without forcing my will on them. 

Our classroom is not the free-for-all that it may sound like (or possibly look like from time to time).  It's a learning community where we all learn to work together and help each other, and find out where to look for the things we want to know.  I personally learn something new every day. 

Trick or Treating through Thanksgiving....

This is an ACTUAL discussion that we had in our morning meeting one day last week....

Ms. Amie says, " If we are singing our good morning song and somebody doesn't have a group, please let them into your group." 
Small Child says, "Yeah, and if everybody did that then everyone in the world could be happy and we'd all have a LOT of friends."

If only, my friend...if only.  (And I know I always say I'm working on World Peace in our classroom, but doesn't this prove it?)

So we did a little trick or treating at Millican Hall right here on the university.  It was a lot of fun and I'd like to PERSONALLY thank our photographer who took these amazing photos...since I forgot made a choice to leave our camera in the classroom....

We had our own election in EE5, as some of you already know.  We decided to avoid the negativity but help the children understand a little about the process of making a choice based on what you think.  Our candidates were Oreo and Chocolate Chip.  We had campaign posters and a debate where each candidate's representative could explain why we thought you should vote for each one.

We made a voting booth with a curtain for privacy because you can keep your vote secret if you want to....

Our volunteers at the polling station were very helpful.  Anyone could vote and we had visitors from other classrooms all morning.  

After voting, our campaign helpers gave each voter a sticker that said, "I voted in EE5!"  

As a side note, I was pretty sure I would have to station an adult  at the voting booth to help our volunteers guide the voters, but they were having NONE of that!  They took right over, kept things organized and moving and there was never a line waiting.  Amazing.   All in all it was a wonderful experience and a clean campaign.  (Chocolate chip won 38-36!)

Today I walked around a snapped a few pictures of what was going on....

I also want to let you know, that Mr. Oscar and I are VERY thankful to have these wonderful little people in our lives.  Thank you for sharing them with us!  We couldn't love them more!