january 31
ART
This week we further explored the possibilities of printmaking with an emphasis on capturing texture in our prints. We became “Texture Detectives.” Armed with paper and a crayon, we searched the classroom for textured objects to make rubbings from. Some of our discoveries included, baskets, bristle blocks, embossed trays, floor mats and even the embedded patterns on the soles of our sneakers! Some of us sat in on a little ad hoc drop-in group that tried making rhythmic and repeating pencil lines to create our own illusions of textural marks. Again, this week, we used scissors to create collograph reliefs by cutting leftover colored railroad board into shapes that we arranged and glued down on a cardboard surface. These became so lovely as colorful collages that we are considering keeping them (foregoing the inking and printing) and trying the process again using only grey cardboard. The two-year olds also explored a rubbing technique to create a textural print by finger painting collaboratively on a table-sized sheet of bubble wrap. Before leaving this exciting sensory experience they each pressed a piece of paper down on on an area of the surface, rubbed it and then lifted it to reveal their textured print.
DRAMA
Last week in drama, we celebrated the Lunar New Year of the Rat with chants, dances, and parades. We looked at photos of the celebration in Lion Dancer by Kate Waters and Madeline Slovenz-Low. We also talked about places where this holiday is observed from NYC and beyond in Asia and found them on the globe. The children practiced some fierce Lion Dancer steps to bring good luck in the new year and scare the bad luck away. Then we danced and paraded through the classroom playing instruments. Gung Hey Fat Choy!
DRAMATIC PLAY / SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
The kids have been really excited about “putting on shows.” They have used items from our play kitchen to help them. The pretend food has been used as microphones, the cereal boxes as guitars, and the leftover raffle tickets from the auction have served as tickets. Everyone is always invited to participate in the production as a performer/ food vender/ ticket taker/ usher/ stage director or be an audience member. I often sit in the audience with a group of kids and watch as they sing and dance across the “stage”. They are learning to work together to assign roles and organize the different acts. We are excited to see what they come up with next!
LITERACY
We continued our discussion of books while starting to create our own. We talked about the proper way to hold and read a book. We also talked about authors and illustrators. We asked questions like: What is a cover? What is the title of a book? Some friends answered, “The title of a book is the name of a book. It is important because we need to know what book it is.” Then we compared various different books, and from looking at different books, we were able to get ideas for how to start creating our own. We continued gathering ideas for the content of our books by listening to many classic books read aloud.
MATH / COMMUNITY CENTER
This week in the Math Center we played with number duckies! We filled a big tub with water and put in our number duckies. Everyone took turns picking out two duckies and seeing if they were a match. The kids also practiced taking turns during a few rounds of red rover with the giant parachute in the back!
MUSIC
This week in music, we played the traditional circle game that accompanies the song “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” It was a great opportunity for the children to sing a new melody and participate in a game that reinforces their turn-taking abilities. The children also got a chance to hear Ella Fitzgerald’s version of the song and do some dancing.
SCIENCE
This week at the science center we continued to talk about penguins. We had our polar animal collection out for playing, we learned the ASL sign for “penguin,” and we added a few more penguin books to our library. The children also started working creating, authoring, and illustrating books about their favorite animals. While working on the books, the children and I have been doing a little research on various animals, inspiring wonderful conversations based in fact and imagination. Some of these books have been titled ”The Adventures of Red Panda,” “All Bunnies, Foxes and Hearts,” “Animal Encyclopedia,” and “Horses and Unicorns.”
TWOs
This week in the nest we continued building with Magnatiles, as we experimented with balance and stability. The kiddos figured out they can build high towers and then they shared in the delight of knocking them down. We also took out the wooden train tracks, we spoke about sharing the trains and cars, and how to use the word “excuse me” when a friend is in the way and a train needs to go by. Lastly, due to the chilly weather, we spent a lot of time inside, so our drama teacher Caroline made us an age appropriate obstacle course which was probably the hit of the week, as it included crawl tunnels, gym mats of all shapes and sizes (ramps, slides, tubes, and boxes), and bilibo chairs. This week the kiddos enjoyed the book Rex Wrecks It by Ben Clanton.
January 24
ART
We have been exploring yet another printing process this week. After snipping piles of little paper shapes with scissors, we rolled block ink onto plexi-glass with a brayer. Working quickly so that our ink remained wet we began arranging our cut pieces over the inked surface trying not to let the shapes overlap. After placing our paper over the top, we rubbed it and lifted it to reveal a print of our shapes in reverse. The wonderful thing about printing is the possibility to repeat or even to repeat with some variations. Many of us opted to make a second print by first spraying the inked surface with water giving our shapes hazy blurred edges. A four-year old discovered that a second color rolled over the design gave prints the dramatic effect of added depth. (Our two-year olds participated in this process using pre-cut paper shapes.) We also enjoyed a drop-in collaborative activity during one session this week in which we explored painting on a table-sized sheet of paper with some unusual tools such as combs, toothbrushes, matchbox cars, sticks and ribbed rolling pins.
DRAMA
Last week in our drama groups, we reenacted the Ukrainian folktale of The Mitten. Using Jan Brett's book as a guide, each child played a different animal character who is looking for a warm place to sleep for the night. We created dialogue between the animals inside the mitten and the animals asking and negotiating to come in. Some wonderful, spontaneous moments of improvised dialogue took place. As the mitten expanded in the story, we incorporated larger and larger laminated paper mittens until everyone was under a large white sheet mitten.
DRAMATIC PLAY / SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
This week in the dramatic play center, I added some recycled food containers from our collection (thank you, parents!). The children love incorporating into their play these items that they see at home in their own kitchens. We will keep adding more in the weeks to come. In the sensory bin we now have shredded paper and pom poms. The children like to bury the pom poms and often pretend they are eggs in a nest. I introduced plastic tweezers in case they want to try to grab some pom poms - a super tricky fine motor exercise!
LITERACY
This week in literacy, we used magnetic sorting tiles and practiced sorting words by the letters that they begin with. One of the days it was too cold to go outside, so we listened to many books during our weekly listening center day. We launched a new book project wherein the children will work on creating their own books. We started at the beginning - our book covers! We used watercolors to create the covers. We finished the week working on word identification and doing lots of spelling puzzles!
MATH / COMMUNITY CENTER
This week in the math and community center we used our lighting outage (on Tuesday afternoon) to get a little creative! We brought out the magna tiles and used our flashlights to shine lights on the different colors. We also made shadow puppets and played “catch the light,” where I shined the light on the floor in different spots and the kids had to run to catch it before it moved again! On Friday we brought out Candyland for a fun Friday! Board games are fun but they are also wonderful tools to practice social emotional skills like empathy, managing frustration, and turn-taking as well as math skills like counting, skip counting, and one-to-one correspondence.
MUSIC
In music, we had the chance to explore a new instrument this week - the tambourine! In class, the kids enjoyed singing and playing their tambourines along with our group songs. Exploring the tambourine also gave us a fresh chance to practice our rhythmic syllables while creating new patterns. The children continued to sing the classic from Toy Story, "You've Got a Friend In Me," by Randy Newman. It's so sweet to hear them sing this tune, and it's clear that this song must also be a favorite at home.
SCIENCE
This week at the science center we focused on polar animals. We played a matching animal card game and read some books on the subject. Then we spent some time talking about the North Pole, and later in the week we focused on the South Pole and penguins. The children played with polar animals and fake snow balls in the discovery box, voted on their favorite penguin using a T-chart to record their votes, and did some small group readings together about penguins, where the children had a copy of the book and we turned the pages together as I read. We will continue with this theme next week as well.
TWOs
We were all about community building this week! We continued talking about germs, how to wipe our boogies, and cough into our elbows because germs are not for sharing. We are also spending time talking about how to share space and materials at school - we’re practicing building together using cardboard bricks as well as Magnatiles, we’re sharing our building materials, and we’re taking turns. This can be hard work, involving patience, self-regulation, empathy, and delaying gratification. We also spoke briefly about Lunar New Year, and Caroline the drama teacher came into the nest to demonstrate a lion dance with some of the older children. This week’s favorite books were Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Simms Taback.
January 17
ART
This week we learned about a simple mono-printing technique. For this process we used two tempera paint colors to paint freely onto plastic trays. After playing with the fluidity of paint, mixing colors and making a variety of marks with our brushstrokes we placed a piece of paper on top, rubbed it, and pulled up the paper to reveal our prints!
DRAMA
We got back into the swing of things with a variety of activities in our drama groups last week. We warmed up our bodies with some breathing and stretching and played some circle games. The children enjoyed using poly spots as representational objects and creating some original scenarios and games like Cooperative Musical Colors and Twister.
DRAMATIC PLAY / SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
The children have been using our dress-up capes in such fun and creative ways this week. The capes have been turned into skirts, dresses, shirts and smocks! It is so wonderful to see the children using their imaginations. I have even seen them use the capes as baby carriers and clothes - so creative! They have also been working with the kinetic sand in the sensory bin, making a ton of meatballs as well as other creations. We are working on sharing responsibility for keeping the sand in the bins and off the floors.
LITERACY
In literacy this week, we have been introducing phonics concepts by using magnetic sorting tiles. The children loved matching different words to the letters that they start with! On our listening center day, we listened to all of our favorite books. We spent time drawing and writing in our journals and practiced letters on our new mini chalkboards. We continued to work on our fine motor skills and decorated bookmarks with beads. By the end of the week, we talked about the function of a book’s cover, and then we created our own book cover for our “Rules of the Roost” book that should be going home soon!
MATH / COMMUNITY CENTER
This week at the math & community center we worked on identifying shapes using different puzzles and tangrams. We talked about which shapes have corners and which ones don’t and how many sides each shape has. The children were also encouraged to drop in to complete their January self portraits. The self portrait project is “always open” and children can drop in to work on it at any time. Portraits are created at least once a month and, taken together, provide a wonderful narrative of the year for both the children and for us.
MUSIC
This week, the children enjoyed singing a traditional counting song called "Five Grey Elephants." While singing the song, we imagined we were elephants balancing on a circus tightrope. One by one, we added students to our line of balancing elephants, and counted how many children were in a row. This song was a fun opportunity to work on our counting and balancing abilities through song! Also, during music group this week, the children were introduced to a new instrument - the xylophone. We explored the instrument's high sounds and low sounds together, and we sang along to the familiar melodies that we played on the xylophone.
Five Grey Elephants
Sung to the tune of "Hush Little Baby"
One grey elephant balancing on a string
Step by step on a piece of string
He thought it such a wonderful thing
That he called for one of his friends to join in
SCIENCE
This week at the science center the children studied maps. We began by looking at both an atlas and a globe. Then we played a game of spinning the globe and stopping it with a finger to see where we “landed.” The children continued their study by creating their own maps of various places and adding animal stickers of the animals they believe live in those places. In addition to maps, we also began experimenting with swivel wheels this week, studying motion, friction, and shapes. In our study of wheels, we attached the wheels to boxes, containers, and blocks; we discussed the shape of the wheels and looked for things that roll in our classroom. We tried 1 wheel, then 2, and then 3, and finally concluded that we would need 4 wheels to make an object roll. One child determined that square shapes could not roll. We made different vehicles which the children used in the classroom to transport animals and blocks. We took the vehicles in the back and held races to see which one was the fastest.
TWOs
This week in the nest we introduced self serve at snack. The kiddos will now take the crackers or cracker-sandwiches they want on their own from plates in the middle of the table. Although seemingly simple, this important self-help skill involves self-regulation, choice, and turn-taking - all of which are big kid skills! We also spoke about germs and how we should always wash our hands, wipe our boogies with tissues, and sneeze into our arms. Our favorite book this week was I Stink by Kate and Jim McMullan.
january 10
ART
Our week since returning from our Winter Break was spent enjoying the open-ended sensory experience of painting. We took turns working in groups at the large art table reacquainting ourselves with watercolors and also had the opportunity to visit the easel to explore tempera paint and a variety of paintbrushes of different size and shape. With so much extra time inside the classroom due to inclement weather we could come and go from our paintings as we wished to and found this calming, often social activity to be a wonderful way to come back together as a community.
DRAMA
Drama updates will resume next week.
DRAMATIC PLAY / SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
This week I put out some exciting new food items ... sushi and cake! The kids have had a lot of fun making rolls and practicing their chopstick skills. They have also been a lot of pretend birthdays, and therefore a lot of happy birthday songs! I also added some new capes which they have loved. In the sensory bin I have added more kinetic sand because they love it so much. There are now stamps in the play-doh center!
LITERACY
In literacy, we continued strengthening our fine motor skills and practiced stringing alphabet beads to make necklaces/ bracelets/bookmarks. We practiced rhyming by reading various Dr. Seuss books and played a matching rhyme game. We enjoyed listening to books at the listening center and also using our new mini chalkboards to practice our letters and words.
MATH / COMMUNITY CENTER
This week at the math & community center we had a choose your own adventure week! I gave the kids a few options (shape puzzles, magnatiles, and lacing cards) and everyone had to vote on which activity they preferred. The activities switched up throughout the day based on which kids were at the table and what they wanted to play. The kids had to use their negation and compromising skills to work together!
MUSIC
This week in music, we dove back into our studies of rhythm. The children were all exposed to a little bit of musical notation. We learned to identify the quarter note as the "ta" syllable. For a pair of eighth notes, we learned the syllables "ti ti." Our four year olds had fun rolling a set of dice to unlock a rhythmic pattern. Each child had a turn to roll the dice and be the "rhythm leader" who taught their pattern to the rest of their music group. Our three year olds enjoyed improvising their own rhythms with rain sticks and drums using these new syllables. All of the students learned a new snowman fingerplay this week, too, as we wished for some more snowy days this winter. Here are the lyrics to this new song:
Five Little Snowmen
Five little snowmen standing in a row (hold up 5 fingers)
Each with a hat (pat head) and a big red bow (point to neck)
Out came the sun (arms form big circle over head) and it shone all day (lean from side to side)
And one little snowmen melted away! (one finger goes behind back)
(Repeat until there are no snowmen left!)
SCIENCE
This week at the science center we started with a follow up to the 5 senses and asked “What do you feel?” Children were given a variety of objects and they took turns feeling the objects and discussing how they felt. I tried to guide the children in expanding their vocabulary, using as many words as we could think of to describe the things we felt. We also started talking about maps and globes. The children worked independently and in small groups to create their own maps. We also began a discussion about various animals and which animals live where in the world.
TWOs
This week in the nest we brought out the large, cardboard blocks. The kiddos have been building towers and knocking them over. We made a makeshift ramp using tubes to roll cars down and the kids loved it. We spent most of the week inside because of the chilly weather, so we played often in the big classroom, visiting the various learning centers, and spent time in the back getting a chance to run, tumble, and roll. This week’s favorite book was Cat’s Colors by Airlie Anderson.