Sticky Situation

During the rainy days last week we set out a stip of contact paper for some interesting encounters with bare toes and heels...

Its October, Of Course There Are Pumpkins!

The first of our pumpkins arrived this week and was subsequently rolled, thrown, and within minutes of being in the classroom, split right down the middle upon impact with the floor. It gave us the perfect opportunity to crack it open and go exploring inside. We all gathered around the table, and the more adventurous among us jumped at the chance to dig in to the gooey suprises we found. We used words to describe what we felt and what we saw, we named colors and sorted the seeds out from the muck- we were event presented with a fine motor and manipulative challenge by the effort it took to separate the plump seeds from their fleshy home. What a great chance to explore and observe. Today it was a pumpkin, but many items from nature allow for this kind of exploration- objects whose newness inspire deep engagement on the part of the children. What will be next?

Sing, Sing a Song

Interested in hearing Mr. James sound like a bit of a dork making animal noises? Thought so. Click here.

I just want you to know that while I find this track slightly embarassing for me personally, I couldn't resist putting it up to share because of how great the kids sound on it. In the track you'll hear one of our all time (and yes, daily) favorites, "E-I-E-I-O". There is participation from a whole chorus of children here, pulling from the entire spectrum of our current speech development. You'll hear some of our kids joining in with whole words and lines from the song (even, at one point, from across the room), while others sing simple sylables from the chorus, or mimic the animal sounds being created. What you can't hear is how intently each of the children are listening to one another, each joining in with their own approach. Listening, speaking, reading, writing. Its all connected. What a great way to join in together and all find ourselves on the same page with intense listening and speech.

Oh, and if I catch any flak from anyone about my animal sounds, I promise it will be the last audio track I share on here.

Parachutes on the Playground

Last week, Melissa and I had the parachute out and the kids went crazy for it. Along with Nekeshia, we were able to lift it up high into the air and bring it back down again for our own private airborne tent. As we watched the kids run laughing through underneath the colorful fabric, we knew we had a priceless photo opportunity on our hands- so today we got it out again and brought the camera with us. What is it about tents and small places? In his book Evolutionary Playwork, Bob Hughes talks about major archtypes in the play schemes of young children- things that seem nearly universal to children's play. Among them are themes like care for animals, and the use of tools. He also speaks about the theme of cave-dwelling and tent making. There is a great degree of security provided by such a closed-in space, one that invites peer relationships and exudes the auroa of a world set apart. The parachute lent itself to this kind of play wonderfully. We draped it over the slide set, and soon the kids found themselves in a new private get-away. To see the kind of delight and response that such a simple activity rendered, you need look no further than their expressive faces, pictured below.

Classroom Dress-Up Drive

Here's the third thing. Costume parties are always a little shaky at this age. We go through the trouble of dressing up at home, often with the child getting very confused in the process, and then many of us get uncomfortable at school wearing a costume all day. ("Parties" themselves are often overwhelming experiences for these kids in the classroom setting- they always end in tears.) This is such a contradiction- since dress-up play is one of our all time favorite activities!

Here's our proposal: This Halloween, lets bring in dress-up clothes to share with the classroom and one another. We can have a whole week of new dress-up fun with multiple dress-up opportunities, and do it when the kids feel like participating, rather than for one single party event. This dress-up is not limited to traditional full costumes- simple items and props will do fine: this includes hats, scarves, masks, capes, crowns, coats, etc. The advantage of having Halloween around the corner is that after the holiday, all of those costumes will go on sale! Wouldn't this be a great time to stock up our dramatic play and dress-up area?

Officially, Dress-Up Week will be October 29th to November 2nd- but the dress-up fun will continue long after.

Classroom Pumpkin Patch

Here's the second thing we need your help with: The pending change in seasons is inspiring our senses and inviting new possibilities for materials for our kids to explore in the classroom. We're painting with reds and oranges and browns, we're smelling cinnamon and apple spice in our new playdough, now, how about a pumpkin patch too? If every child brought in a small to medium sized pumpkin to share in the classroom, we could have some pretty interesting play opportunities on our hands. One day we might scoop out the insides to get our hands slimy, another we might bake the seeds for a tasty treat. We could paint them, roll them, cover them with stickers, and there's sure to be a jack-o-lantern or two in the mix. It all depends on what the children's response is.

Opportunites for exploration are not limited to pumpkins, of course. If you have something else that has caught your child's interest lately that you think might be of interest to the other children as well, by all means, bring it in! It might be a bug, or a special hat, or a new material to use. You never know what will catch our kids attention- so whatever it is, lets try it out!

Family Poster

We need your help with three things this month. The first is a family poster. We'll give you the piece of cardboard, your job is to fill it with photographs of your family, people your child knows, pets, or pictures of activities that your child enjoys. Just take a look around the house and see what you have. We will be laminating these posters (otherwise, the photographs will all get picked off again by our curious hands) so make sure that anything going on the poster can stay on the poster. We will use these posters in the classroom as talking points for conversation with the kids. We employ simple images already (a child eating cake, a father and son washing the dog, etc) to ask questions and use the ever-growing list of words at our disposal to describe those images and tell stoires about them. This kind of literacy oriented activity will be deeply enriched by images the children are familiar with- it will add a whole new layer of meaning and motivation, and it will bring a little more of your family into our classroom. Thanks for your participation!