Monday/Wednesday/Friday

We got started this week with the clean mess of shaving cream on the table.  Predictably, some children dove right into this with broad smiles (Kaden, Jane and Karsten) and others were a bit hesitant (Lilya and Gunnar).  Once Gunnar and Lilya had some tools to put into the shaving cream they were more willing to mess with it.  It's nice to have an activity where all the children are sitting together and reacting from each other.  These are the times where they are realizing that it is fun to have friends and exercise some growing social skills! They sure are progressing this way and it is especially evident outdoors, where they are more in charge of the nature of the play and tackle such issues as sharing swings, working together to make "pebble mountains" and creating their own games.  We have been having a nice mixture of teacher facilitated, as well as child initiated activities occur.

Other activities we engaged in this week entailed building a fort, complete with flash lights, and a fun experience with a "locked" chest which ended up containing some blocks we had not seen yet and prompting some great block building...

It was fun to watch the kids try to figure out how to open the chest (pictured below) and work together to figure it out - great social interaction and problem solving happened!  Once the chest was open, it was like a treasure and ALL the children created something with the blocks.  

Karsten, Kaden and Gunnar constructed towers, with plastic people climbing them...

Jane figured out how to keep a tall structure up by leaning it against the wall. . .

Lilya made a little house. . .

All snuggly at the end of our morning. . .

Tuesday/Thursday 

If our Tues/Thurs class reads the M/W/F class first, you will recognize that we are doing a lot of the same activities between groups, but clearly each group does things their own way!

 We began the Tuesday/Thursday class by exploring the shaving cream as well.  As I would expect, this group had its very own way of enjoying it.  They dove right in, and then our current play-pretend- leader, Elliott, decided we should "give the baby a bath..." (below)

 Being a new brother, Elliott seemed to know all about this.  We used our new purple sponges to help get the baby nice and clean and then used them to clear the table of the shaving cream.  As the children used the sponges, they squeezed them hard to wring the water out - this is a great way to strengthen fine motor muscles!

Later we had a "picnic" with Billy Bunny, but then it "rained".

Thursday the children had a fort waiting for them, complete with twinkly lights and a couple of flashlights we shared.  The children all cuddled together in the fort and we read a story.  Owen especially enjoyed playing with the flashlight.

Later the children discovered the blue box in the block area and puzzled over how to open it for some time.

They never asked for help, but worked together to open the box and found the new blocks...

This was a great Reggio-style provocation that made building in the blocks more fun, and the need to have to figure out how to open the box encouraged the children to problem solve and work together!

After some good block building, Elliott called us over for yet another wonderful "lunch"!  He said, "Let's have a conservation (conversation)", "Let's talk about airplanes."  The make-belive play and, actually, any sort of play that encourages the children to interact and talk to each other are wonderful ways for them to learn the value of playing with others, and offer opportunities to learn to share and use our words when in conflict (rather than yelling or hitting, which are things young children often do first).  Owen and Elliott, during the first two weeks of school were quarreling over who got to play in the kitchen, NOW they are playing harmoniously in it....

Having a slightly older and more outgoing child like Elliott, invite a younger and slightly more bashful child like Zoe or Camille to play, is a such a great situation for all  of them to grow more socially.