First days of school

https://milestonespreschool.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/169/

Snow, Graduation Prep and, Best of . . .

In addition to prepping for their graduation party next week, the children, in true early childhood fashion, exhibited the "best of" what they have gained in preschool this year as they very naturally played this week.  Below, Colin shows his number recognition skills by ordering the numbers.

Noe, with her love of animals and wonderful imagination, created, not a zoo, but an "animal shelter!"

We decided to paint ourselves a red carpet for our graduation party!

  

And, of course, it snowed again - the children always make the best of whatever the weather deals out!

We did a lot of sharing in the sharing chair, the children able to show that they can listen to each other, take turns speaking and ask relevant questions . . .

Colin and Jack created a "hot track" and Lucas enjoyed playing with it the next day.

The T/Th group created a tippy-toppy building together.

What is this big long stick for, Miss Jill ?

Well, we began decorating it and, hopefully, it will become a wonderful permanent fixture in the room.

Lucas, you are cutting so well!

Molly and Jackson had a great time playing house!  The kids play SO we well together!

  We squeezed into the wagon and took a ride on a nice day.

Hi Jill.

After awhile, the kids wanted to then pull the wagon on their own . . .

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I hope all you moms have a lovely day on Sunday and are reminded of how special and important you are in your families' lives.  I APPRECIATE your partnership with your child's development and your commaraderie as fellow moms.

The children brainstormed the things Mommy does for them . . .

Hazel!  You are counting accurately, recognizing numbers and using counters to represent symbolic numbers - we are very proud of you!!

Molly invited Violet to be her "nurse" as they played doctor . . . 

We solved our lemon-squeezing problem! ( Jill bought an electric juicer.)  The kids still were able to do the work, and they did!

We made our own simple syrup to sweeten the lemonade.

An important milestone for Violet - HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY!!!

She shared some turquoise cupcakes!

The T/Th group planted some flowers at the front entrance and also a tomato plant.  We enjoyed playing with some garden tools.

And got to splash in some puddles!

We gave our moms their Mother's Day pictures and shared our lemonade.

The MWF group has been loving constructing in the blocks together - here they made a ramp for the cars . . .

and a little playdough time and solo book time . . .

FYI, Jill took many pictures on her new phone but has not figured out how to get them on the blog yet.

LEMONADE!

The children worked very hard preparing and squeezing lemons to make (eventually) lemonade . . .

Below you will see the children working together towards an end result of lemonade.  As in many of our preschool endeavors and projects though, it is not always the product that holds the importance of the activity.  The idea of lemonade and maybe soon a lemonade stand for you to visit is the "provocation," in Reggio terms, to insight the children to join in the activities required to get to that product.  I usually, innocently learn with the children as we innovate ways to get the juice OUT of the lemons and see what we need to do to make the juice into the lemonade.  This is "real life" work for the children and they love it, and learn so much!

We rolled the lemons around on the floor to get them ready for juicing.

We also counted and sorted the lemons, noticing that they did vary in size.  Below, the MWF class estimated how many lemons it would take us to make a pitcher of lemonade.



Let the squeezing begin!  We realized that it helped if we stand up to push down on the lemon, using all of our arm muscles, and sometimes a block or our feet!

   

Hmmmm - this is how much juice we get from ONE lemon!  Good estimating, Jack!

And, tasting, to see what we need to add to make it taste good . . .Varying reactions to the sourness and Mr. Lucas drank his whole cup of raw lemon juice!

     

When we were finished for the day, the table was very sticky - thank you, Jack for cleaning it so thoroughly!

  

Anticipating our visit to Little Raven Farms, Colin drew himself watering vegetables (with a little help from Charla).

Jalen, the gardener's son shows us around.  We walked on a path of wood chips so we wouldn't step on any seedlings.

Kelly showed us how to use the spades to dig up weeds.

we found a carrot!

It was not the warmest of days and the children worked hard!

Jalen was very good at using his very own shovel!

Kelly, Little Raven owner, found us a worm and told the children how important they are for the soil.

A windy day on the playground had the T/Th group hiding in the box - Lucas loves it!

And they made a little shelter with a piece of cardboard in a shady spot!

An astronaut dad!  Great vocation, Jackson!

Last Friday, we tested things that sank or floated . . . 

The kids took turns standing in line, filling up water jars to fill the big tub.

And we made boats!

We tested the durability of our boats by placing plastic teddy bears on them . . .

A little fire fighter play acting with some walki-talkies. . .

Put out that fire, Hazel!

Mr. Jack impressed us by ordering symbolic numbers 1-10.

He then did a great job placing counters on each number to represent the symbolic number - great one to one correspondence practice and number sense expereince!

T/Th constructed out of many things . . .

  

"What to you want for lunch, Lucas?"

Great road, Jack!

And it was time to make new playdough - shampoo dough to be specific!

A little "cooking" outside . . .

and fun on the dirt mound!

A very fun and busy week!