f is for fraction (pizza style)
one pizza cut in 8 pieces is still one pizza.
two halves make one whole.
if a pizza is cut into four pieces, each piece is a fourth.
these are the concepts we explore this week.
the pizzas we painted had a couple of days to dry and were ready to cut.
i drew lines on the back and the preschoolers could decide how many pieces they wanted.
then the pieces were arranged and glued on mat board to take home.
delightful 3d art.
p is for pizza
we painted paper plates with red paint (sauce) and added torn paper bits (toppings).
i wanted some traditional “pizza parlor” music while we painted and couldn’t find what i wanted on pandora. i googled “pizza song” and found dear uncle moishy.
maybe some of you know him, i didn’t until now. but this song hasn’t left my mind.
it is a general policy of mine that i don’t show screens (tv or computer), but we did get a peek at uncle moishy’s “pizza song movie.”
after viewing it, i adapted the computer so we could hear it but not watch it. : )
v is for valentine corner
thanks to families, the corners of my house and the thrift shop, our valentine corner is growing.
this is a free for all creating space.
can’t you feel the love?
c is for cutting playdough
i love the feel of scissors cutting playdough. do you do this? we often make put scissors on the playdough table and if we don’t, they are on the project shelf where kids can get them. this was a new use, though:
: )
g is for groundhog
well, they look more like monsters. i didn’t plan for them to be realistic groundhogs, but these REALLY don’t look the part.
a piece of fake fur, google eyes on a clothespin so you can take your groundhog monster with you. happy day.
r is for roll
our giant tape ball had some action a few weeks ago.
from the sanctuary (also known as “big church room”) down to our classroom.
(i was on my back taking these and the ball rammed the camera into my face. yikes.)
and if the ball made it’s way around the corner like this to the classroom, that was a “goal.”
k is for kansas
kansas turns 149 today (and no, i did not stay up until midnight to post this…i usually do a bunch of posts and schedule them for later).
our kansas celebrations this week include making butter to eating zweiback brought by families. its such a simple process, i don’t know why i don’t do it more often.
we used fancy local cream that came in a glass bottle, poured it in another jar and shook, shook, shook.
suddenly you hear a thunk, thunk, thunk and you know the butter is flopping around in there!
we sang happy birthday by “candlelight” (thanks for the inspiration, tom!) and enjoyed our feast.
it’s been a cozy week.
s is for sunflower
all i could find was a slightly neon-toned yellow paper. we put out yellow crayons and pens to soften the color a bit.
then snowflake style, we offered the preschoolers a paper folded in fourths with one petal shape drawn on.
some thought they worked better as airplanes.
then gluing them around a center and adding an O shape for the middle with a cardboard stem.
our state flower!
n is for (lots of) nuts
we were graced with hundreds of nuts. perfect for lots of sorting, counting, moving and hauling…
a nutty good time indeed. thank you, families.
w is for wind
i was in charge of an intergenerational sunday school time on the topic of the holy spirit. we made these wind catchers to demonstrate that even if you can’t see the wind, you know it is there because the fabric moves. with church and preschool sharing space, we share these now too.
the children are surrounded by streams of color that move with every passerby.
i am surrounded by the reminder that goodness and peace are moving with us.
p.s. to make one you need a panel from old wire shelving units and about 20 thrifted scarves. : )
n is for nut buddy
totally crafty.
totally not child-centered (all they did was choose a nut with eyes already hot glued on and an acorn cap for the teacher to glue on).
except for the moment they carry their nut buddy around the room and it enters their play.
w is for winter animals
we discussed ways that animals adapt to winter and hid some of our nuts to eat at home.
a paper “cave” glued to old mat board, covered with kleenex and paper towels, then nuts hidden inside.
we covered the cave hole with another kleenex.
that way families didn’t know we had nuts in there.
l is for lame
seldom do i set up a project that is so lame that we don’t continue on. don’t get me wrong, almost every project evolves once the children get going with it. what i have in my lesson plans is almost never exactly what we end up doing.
this project was supposed to provide pages and pages of wood-stamped “nuts.”
but the wood pieces didn’t hold much wood for printing or rolling, the paint wasn’t a warm brown-more of a greenish gray, the paper kept tearing. i abandoned it almost immediately.
truly a process-only experience.
t is for tube
i had no idea the joy this tube would bring. i expected cars racing through. i expected blocks racing through. i’m surprised it hasn’t been colored or covered with tape.
but i didn’t expect kids to figure out how to launch cars simply by slamming it down on a shelf. yes, it was loud.
and i sure didn’t expect the sheer JOY that the kids show in simply hauling this thing around. all classes. they just walk around with it. all around the room. no one has been knocked down yet. no tables cleared either.
amazing.
thank you, mr rob, for taking a break from cootie to bring us the tube.
h is for haiti
when a preschooler’s mama has traveled to haiti, it provides the perfect opportunity to hear what kids know.
just like the public service announcements on pbs cautioning parents in terms of children seeing too many images of the destruction of haiti, i hesitate to burst bubbles of protection that parents have created.
but in vague enough terms with plenty of compassion, preschoolers shared what they knew about the devastation in haiti.
and dr. jenny, we wish you well as you travel home. thank you for sharing your gifts with the world.
f is for friendship wall
the greatest thrill seems to be that the friendship wall is taller than the preschoolers.
i heard someone say, “and that isn’t even all our friends!”
o is for outdoor dreams
i want this (all images from progressive early childhood….i wish i could visit in real life!):
i also want a huge pvc pipe for the kids to roll around in. and huge boulders for the kids to climb on. and a little stream running through the playground.
i am so grateful for what we have. safe equipment, lots of green space, sidewalks for rainy days, big trees…
and for the new rock that will protect while jumping and be loaded in dump trucks.
but seriously, if you are close enough to drop some of this other stuff (logs, tree trunks, slices of tree trunks, tractor tires, an old wooden boat, pvc pipes, a concrete tube…)off on our playground, please do.
thanks for the inspiration and the reminders of what we have.
d is for dry erase
some dry erase boards erase so nicely.
some do not.
our display cases erase beautifully. here we are using one that aren’t on the wall.
huh, i don’t know what they were all looking at.
n is for nut math
we reintroduced the concept of “math sentences” again.
after using real nuts to demonstrate that no matter how you group them, ten nuts will always add up to ten nuts, the children had paper nuts to glue in and/or out of the basket.
for some reason, this one is the “silly” one:
but not quite as silly as when there are no nuts in the basket.
r is for remodel
what do you do when your house isn’t big enough and money isn’t an issue? you add on. : )
p.s. i will admit, when i see their little legs on that hard floor, i want another big carpet.
n is for nut
with no nut allergies this year, we are going nutty!
show and tell this week is “nuts in shells or acorns.”
we have quite a collection for sorting and counting, feeling and, of course cracking.
m is for martin luther king for preschoolers
what i say:
people with darker skin and people with lighter skin could not go to the same school (or restaurant, park, etc). even in a room full of white kids with a white teacher, i DON’T say “they couldn’t come to our school.”
people with skin like dr. king are sometimes called “black” and people with skin like mine are sometimes called “white.”
there were people with all different colors of skin agreed with dr. king’s ideas. (so often i still sense that preschoolers think only people of color agreed with dr. king).
there was a man who was so angry with what dr. king was saying that he shot him with a gun. dr. king was hurt badly enough that he died. (this only strengthens our conversations on the realities of guns)
we used to just listen to excerpts from dr. king’s 1963 “i have a dream speech” that i bought via itunes. but this year we’re back at the church with wireless internet, so i found the speech on youtube.
there were wonderful images of the crowds as well as dr.king. i did hear some kids say they were looking for the man with the gun until i explained that dr. king wasn’t killed during this speech.
since we don’t have movie or computer time at preschool, this was especially exciting. some children stayed for the duration of the speech and when it was over, one said: ”we’re ready for another movie!”
we ended the days with a dance party (thanks for the music, annie). mc hammer made it perfect.
oh, dr. king, i think your soul would be settled a bit by the hearts of these young ones.
m is for martin collage
brown supplies (cardboard, milk lids, plastic bags, paper, sugar packets, clif bar wrappers, paper bags, tape…) and glue:
can you tell?
of course! it’s a dr. king collage.
3 bottles of glue were used to adequately shellac dr. king’s image into place.
real wool was added for hair, eyebrows and moustache.
favorite overheard: ”wow. he looks just like me,” said a blond girl.
m is for martin
we’re taking time to remember the reverend doctor martin luther king junior.
these coloring sheets are a favorite activity of some. i heard a little friend say, “yeah! this is like real school!” hmmmm.
we’re bringing in photos of friends to add to a “friendship wall” for show and tell all week…we’ll leave the photos up for a while.
later this week we’ll make a class list of things we would say to dr. king if he came to our class. i can’t wait.
m is for martin (luther king jr blocks)
yes! this wasn’t in my lesson plans, but it made a way for dr. king to enter into our dramatic play a bit more.
“look, dr. king, this is you!”
i heard murmurings of why he was smiling sometimes and why he was serious sometimes.
we spend a lot of time looking in mirrors during our M is for Martin week.
all of us. : )
i is for inspired
at the first circle time i invited preschoolers to start thinking of something they wished they could do. about an hour later we gathered again and wrote down the ideas. then there were paper strips to glue (a bit like new years fireworks?). these are posted in our display cases, so i want to have them here for families who don’t make it down to the classroom.
happy new year.
p.s. we have a few more preschool friends to hear from, we’ll get there!
w is for why not?
when i found this photo taken by ms. carol, i smiled.
i wonder what prompted this friend to climb up to perch here. did he get a stool? a chair? was this a solo gig? a cooperative game? what is he thinking? how long did he stay there? is he just trying to reach the cash register? how did he get down?
i will suggest that too often we as adults instinctively say no. we limit children’s ideas and desires. we don’t trust their intentions and motivations. as a mother of my own three children, i hear myself saying no to them very often. i’m too tired, the house is already too messy, supper needs to be made, etc. i work on this. but at preschool, this is my job. teachers: this is our job.
find out why a child is sitting on the shelf. find out why she wants to take her shoes off. find out why he has left his snack on the table but he is looking for a book. find out why paper is being unrolled all over the floor. find out why the playdoh has been placed all over the doll. find out why and i hope that we can respond, why not?
b is for banner
nearly 8 years ago, in winter of 2002, our church had a fire which destroyed the contents of our preschool.
one of the amazing results was replacing what we had with new, beautiful things. i remain grateful for all the help in those stressful weeks and months following the tragedy. as i’ve said before, i like to use banners and fabric to provide softness and color to our room. this set we use one at a time, changing with the seasons. welcome, winter.
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