Snowmen and Circles

M/W/F

Although we didn't get any until the end of the week, much of our curriculum this week centered around snow.  I used snowmen to facilitate a few projects.  We identified the small, medium and large circles traditionally used to create a snowman.

We all sat at the table to pick our circles and then went about gluing them onto the paper and adding our own interpretations of faces, buttons and arms...

We, again practiced our face-drawing skills by filling in pre-drawn snow people.

Another activity I put out to encourage that all-important development of the pencil grip, was taking child chopsticks and picking up puff balls and feathers with them.  This proved a bit challenging, but fun too.

We had a lot of fun and teamwork outside as Gunnar decided we should fill the empty white bucket.  This became the "job" of the morning outdoors. Coincidentally, the T/TH group, when they saw the full bucket, decided it MUST be emptied!  Thus compelling their "job" that day...

They worked hard and got the whole thing full!

Karsten enjoyed balancing on the perimeter of the playground.

We are getting very good at going down the stairs so carefully!

Kaden and Karsten are talking on the phone together - good exercise of verbal language!

Another snowy activity we did was cooking up our own "snow".  We took heavy whipping cream, some sugar and coconut and whipped it til it was fluffy!

Despite a long week away, the children were excited to be back to school and continued to play with a wonderful sense of community (and silliness - see below).

T/Th

Our T/Th group took a turn with the kid-chopsticks and enjoyed the challenge of picking up the puff balls and feathers - this took a lot of concentration.

I have been putting the children's names many places to encourage them to identify their own...

Zoe added a great face to her snowman!

One day the kids all of the sudden discovered the "smelly markers"...

Soon it was quite evident...

I told Zoe she looked like Rudolf!

This group did great at picking out a small, medium and large circle to create a snowman.  The gluing is still a bit tricky...

On snowy Thursday I was so proud of the kids for helping themselves to put on their gear so well!

We enjoyed our messy snack of "snow" - whipped heavy cream with sugar and coconut...

This time we had hot chocolate with a BIG marshmallow!

A great week!

Our M/W/F week before Thanksgiving break began with imitating the story of The Three Pigs.  Above, we used popsicle sticks and sugar cubes to construct little pig homes, and then each child had a paper version of a pig to play act the story.

Oh, there's that mean wolf who likes to chase pigs! 

We connected these homes with a book about homes all over the world.  The children enjoyed figuring out what materials were used to build each house.  We decided we really wanted to build an igloo next time it snows a lot!

One morning, when I had all these activities laid out on the tables, Gunnar initiated some train play.  He wanted to make a really big track, so I suggested he start on the other side of the room.  Soon our whole class was involved. . .(and actually our friend Lilya was still sick, so no pics of her)

The children had to share trains and, then figure out how to have several trains on a track.  Everyone seemed to want to go in and out of the tunnel (interesting) - I eventually suggested they make more tunnels out of some blocks . . . 

This little event of train play was another excellent example of emergent curriculum, or allowing the children to take time for self-initiated activities that encompass their immediate interests.  This is a large component of the Reggio philosophy as well.  As a teacher, I find these opportunities invaluable, and I have to be on my game to recognize when they are happening, rather than push my own agenda for the moment.  When the children are encouraged by their own ideas, they can become extremely focused and the opportunities for learning is sometimes doubled in my opinion.   I took a picture of my position of observation with my clipboard handy for note-taking.  During these child-initiated events, it is important that the adult keep a healthy distance so that the children may freely interact.  As with the tunnel, etc., I tried to make a quick suggestion and then ease into the background again.

If you can read my messy handwriting, I cited many benefits to that day's play. . .

A teacher-guided provocation during the week was unfinished faces at the easel.  I wanted to see what the children would do here.  Very few of our classmates are drawing representationally (age appropriate), but I often find that if there is some introduction to the idea, we can move it along a bit.

By Friday, we succumbed to some traditional turkey projects!  

This activity offered some scissor practice.

We traced our hands, put a beak and eye on the thumb, added some feathers and . . .

A TURKEY!

We also made some yummy mashed potatoes together that everyone enjoyed.

Hope you all had a lovely holiday!

The T/TH group really enjoyed playacting The Three Pigs - especially imitating the wolf's "I'll huff and puff" part.   Elliott is playing that part (above) while the rest of the class uses chairs as  their houses.  It took us awhile to get the line "not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!

We also made pigs' houses from salt dough, popsicle sticks and sugar cubes . . .

On Thursday, we traced our hands to make some traditional turkey art.

We worked together to smash some potatoes to make mashed potatoes.

Owen enjoyed helping the kids add salt.  We learned that a "pinch" is just a little . . .

This group definitely gets more social outside.  Below Zoe and Camille get good at the teeter totter, while in the background, Elliott and Owen engage in their daily wrestling!

Elliott and Owen often make up their own games outside.

Zoe is starting to participate in the wrestling!

Oh so cute!  Hope you all had a nice holiday!