Daily Report: Mar. 3-6
Morning Meeting:
3/3: Among other songs, they sang ‘ring
around the rosy’ many times this morning. They tried singing it as quietly as
possible, and than shouted “we all fall down!” They had conversation about how
we feel when we’re sick versus healthy, and what doctors do for us. The
children shared their own experiences about this. They did more graphing (this
graph was started Monday) of their favorite thing to do in the snow- and used
math terms such as least, most, and equal. They read a book called “If I Built
a Car,” then they talked about what they would have if they could build a car
that had anything in it.
3/4: Miss Judith had Kinder Music this
morning. They made bells out of terra cotta pots (plant pots) by using a small
stick as a stopper, and threading a string through the bottom hole. They make a
lovely tone when rung with a mallet. They also listened to the Carnival of
Animals- the children now recognize the animal which each segment represents.
3/5: They took turns talking about whatever
was on their mind. Our students are becoming so polite in conversation,
parents! Amy read a book to the kids, and sang many songs with them, which they
love.
3/6: We skipped meeting today because of a field trip to the park!
Snack Time:
3/3: Cheerios and goldfish
3/4: Popcorn
3/5: Popcorn and cinnamon cookies.
3/6: Pretzels and watered down lemonade
Outside Play:
3/3: They got to play in the snow- and
throw snowballs. According to the graph this is the most popular favorite
activity to do in the snow.
3/4: Misky took them outside today- they
played in the snow a bit throwing snow balls. They swung on the swing set, and
played in the storage shed.
3/5: Pearson found a dead worm on the
steps which he cleaned up for us. Miles gave
3/6: After focus time Amy took the big group (5 kids today!) out back and played baseball with them using a soft ball and bat that she brought for them.
Project Work:
3/3: I showed them photos of Andy
Goldsworthy sculptures made of ice. They were given pieces of icicles and a
bowl of snow. Ethan mostly just played with the ice, and Ruth mostly observed
others, but many of them worked very hard to use the snow as glue and join pieces
of ice together. Pearson worked longer and harder than the others, and ended up
using a bowl full of snow as a base for a sculpture which we put in the
freezer.
3/4: We did the snow sculptures again
today. They were given some different shaped ice cubes with an option for the
icicles- Ethan and Lily really enjoyed sucking on the ice cubes. Elijah ended
up making two different sculptures which are now in the freezer.
3/5: Today we did paintings of dried
daffodils. First the children were asked to look carefully at their flower, and
then do a pencil drawing of it. When they were finished with the drawing they
had access to wet watercolor and gouache (a mix of both) paints. Some children
did multiple flower paintings, and some abstracted their flower. Harper, for
example, used artistic license in the color, where others were inspired by the
color of the flower more than the shape. Miles did a highly detailed flower,
which he expanded into a flower field with a tree growing up behind.
3/6: We walked to the park on this beautiful day. Besides
the normal play, there was a father there who had screamer balloons. His son,
Vincent, was very nice and let our students each have some balloons. They all
popped by the time we got back to the school but they had a great time with
them in the mean time.
Focus Work:
3/3: They sculpted all of the letters of
their name out of playdoh. Ruth joined us for focus time today. Then Amy read
them books, some about snow.
3/4: First we sat down and Elijah read a
book to us- his reading skills are amazing! Then I read a couple books to he
and Kieran- one of which was about big machines. When we did daily journals I
asked them to design a machine, and create a purpose for it. They both ended up
drawing spaceships. At the end of that is when we sat down with the tinker
toys.
3/5: They went outside to the picnic
table to do their focus work. They colored a piece of paper, and then cut
geometric shapes out of it in order to create their own puzzles.
3/6: Amy had the kids do some dot-to-dots and daily journals
before heading outside for baseball.
Free Play:
3/3: This morning the girls enjoyed
playing in the store.
3/4: This morning there was a lot of
playdoh activity. Kieran, Lily, and Maya worked together to get the playdoh out
of its container that it was stuck in. We played a lot with the tinker toys
today- at Kieran’s request. We decided to make a helicopter- which took the
rest of the afternoon. When it was finished it had been modified into a
4-propeller machine which was a lot of fun to spin. Kieran and Elijah also
painted a picture together on the easel after focus time- a Star Wars monster.
3/5: This morning Ethan made some
collections- one out of markers, and another was a cart full of random objects.
Paxton got out the trains, and I started showing him how to put together the
train tracks. Gillian and Addison joined in and made the tracks stretch all
across the room. Miles spent time in the studio making art while the other
children were off with Miss Amy. The girls put together a ‘zingo’ game by
themselves, and when it went south they came into the studio.
3/6: We played with tinker toys a bit, and this morning we
had the trains out. In the afternoon Kieran and
Daily Report: Feb. 23- 26
*note: I was not present at the school on Friday which is why there is not a write up for that day.*
Morning Meeting:
2/23: Amy read a book to the class, and
that was about it.
2/24: They did ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees,
and Toes,’ and read a dinosaur story book about good table manners. They talked
about that, and reviewed images from our field trip yesterday, and also the
photos from this morning’s free play and talked about them.
2/25: Miss Judith had kinder music. They
did some sound experiments and sang songs together.
2/26: They counted 26 days on the
calendar. Then sang songs and did some rhymes- some involving moving their body
along with the rhyme.
Snack Time:
2/23: We had apple slices and cheerios.
2/24: Goldfish!
2/25: Pretzels and organic raisins
2/26: Cinnamon Chex cereal
Outside Play:
2/23: We played on the slide and swings at
2/24: They played on the swings, and got to blow bubbles!
2/25: Misky took them outside this morning. They played on the swings, in the sandbox, and on the zipline.
2/26: They went for a walk outside down the block, and then afterward went outside. This morning
Project Work:
2/23: We went on a field trip in our wagons to the Haizlip studio today where Pearson and Addison’s mom, Sheriece, works. We saw a model they had built of a children’s museum in another city. The children looked closely at the tiny rooms and toys. Then we hopped over to the park for some outside play.
2/24: The children had their first encounter with terra cotta clay. I asked the children ‘how many ways can we change the clay’? Pearson ended up with a sculpture he kept- which he called ‘the big giant frog’. Ruth made a little worm, Addison made ice cream, Gillian made a snow man, Ethan made tons of tiny chunks, and Willow was inspired by an image of a clay angel, and made her own version.
2/25: We did terra cotta clay again today with the group of kids that is almost entirely different than yesterday. Elijah was very inspired by Pearson’s sculpture from yesterday, and wanted to make his own sculpture even bigger- and so worked very hard on it. Sam who poked many holes kept saying “spooky eyes!”
2/26: This was our last day for clay exploration.
Focus Work:
2/23: Miss Amy showed the children how to make patterns out of colorful squares of paper. Then the children had to choose colors and glue the squares in a pattern on a piece of paper. Pearson and Ruth had Amy read some books to them.
2/24: Miss Amy read them some books, and then they sat down and did journals. After that they did more pattern work. We hung these on the wall right inside the front door.
2/25: We read a bunch of books, then did our daily journals. Then we let Sam, Elijah, and Kieran glue some patterns on construction paper to join our collection of them on the wall. Afterward we read some more until it was time for free play.
2/26: Amy showed Pearson,
Free Play:
2/23: After focus work we all decided that we should decorate the inside of the closet hideaway. Hedwig and Violet made books and pictures, Pearson made ‘activities’- which were sheets of paper with single letters. He’d say ‘time for activities,’ and then he’d ask ‘what starts with house’? Then they’d have to guess the letter ‘H’ out of the letters on the wall. Violet painted a picture on the easel which Maya joined to help with after a bit. We played Zingo together, and Hedwig and Pearson played some pretend play with some duck bills we made. Then Violet and Maya sat together to do some beading on wire.
2/24: It was
2/25: Maya got out the playdoh as usual. Elijah found the leggos that we set out as a follow up to our architect field trip. Ethan rearranged items in the school, as usual. In the end of the day Maya and Elijah were first all over the playdoh, then all over our new store we set up for them. Elijah priced all of the items in the store for us. He and Kieran also spent a while in the closet hideaway rearranging books and giving ‘gifts’ for their ‘birthdays’.
2/26: There was constant focused activity this morning. Our new friend Paxton first played joyfully with the trains, and after a bit of exploring, read a truck picture book for 20 min. straight! Addison, Gillian, and Pearson spent a lot of time in the store taking turns being the clerk.
Daily Report: Feb. 9-13
Morning Meeting:
2/9: Outside it was so beautiful we went out right away and stayed outside
until we had to come in for studio.
2/10: Amy led the class in old Mac Donald where the kids got to have turns
shouting out which animal Old MacDonald had on his farm, and so they explored
what sounds all different farm animals make- which is not always obvious.
2/11: Miss Judith had Kinder Music in
place of morning meeting today. They sang the rain song and made rain sounds
with instruments in honor of our extra wet week. They listened to music and
pretended to be elephants. They came to the table for some sound experiments,
and sang the dinosaur song.
2/12: They sang some fun songs and then lots of fun exercises which really wore
everyone out!
2/13: Amy did some wonderful exercises
with the kids this morning. Pearson started the downward dog challenge- they
tried to see if they could hold it until the count of 20! They jumped and did
toe touches and other exercises as well.
Snack Time:
2/9: We had picnic snack today of bananas and tangerines- yummy!
2/10: Pretzels
2/11: Elijah’s Grandmother donated cinnamon letter-shaped cookies for our
snack. We tried to spell words out of the cookies.
2/12: Today we had organic popcorn. The kids always go nuts when we serve this!
2/13: While we were eating our oranges for snack, our young neighbor Molly came
over to speak Spanish with the children!
Outside Play:
2/9: Everyone played on the new steps, playing house. They also did some
problem solving. The three girls- Hedwig, Addison, and Lily figured out how to
use the rake to push the zip line handles up to the platform where another girl
was waiting to catch it. Elijah figured out that it can’t be done alone after
some effort, and got a friend to help him in the end.
2/10: We tried to go outside but it
didn’t last long as it was raining lightly. When the rain picked up we came in.
2/11: This morning they spent a lot of
time in the playhouse playing house- they were a big family and had a whole
drama going on. In the afternoon I took the focus workers- Elijah, Kieran, and
Sam on a walk down the block and back. They had fun rolling down the hill
2/12: Today the kids were intrigued by
2/13: Dalila broke these big dead plants off that were in the back yard- they
have big sticks with brushes on the end so they look like brooms. The kids had
a blast running around with them and swinging at the air. They did some
swinging and sandbox, and Elijah and Pearson stuck together most of the time in
their fantasy world.
Project Work:
2/9: In order to emphasize the lesson on green circle we did some friendship
artwork today. Several students encountered chalk pastels for the first time
and enjoyed the messiness greatly.
2/10: We did a similar thing today as yesterday except we did a collaborative
artwork on a big round piece of paper that fit over the entire studio table. We
explored the chalk pastels a bit further. The children were encouraged to let
their pictures join together.
2/11: Today we strung beads on wire. This is a wonderful activity for fine
motor skills and the children settled and focused for quite a while. Ethan did
two in a row and wanted to start a third but it was lunch time! (each string is
quite a bit of work!)
2/12: We did the beaded wire again today as our group of kids was almost
completely different.
2/13: It’s a secret!
Focus Work:
2/9: It was so beautiful that after some quick work Amy took everyone outside
to blow bubbles and play with a toy parachute (which Pearson really likes).
2/10: Amy read several books to the children, and explored a color book with
them which was the inspiration for their journals today. They put together a
big floor puzzle- which isn’t easy.
2/11: Today I had the children for focus time- we tried making patterns out of
unifix cubes. Kieran was able to figure out the two color patterns, and work
with Sam to make the pattern grow. Elijah made his own patterns out of them.
After we did our journals we went outside for a walk.
2/12: Pearson had been asking about volcanoes- so after Amy looked at a volcano
magazine with the focus workers they took a model volcano in a tray outside
with some baking soda and vinegar. The children hypothesized about the
experiment before adding the chemicals. Gillian stood way back because she was
expecting an explosion! Afterward everyone went out back to play.
2/13: I did focus work with the kids today- I let them each pick out a book to
read and we sat together for a while reading them. After that we did our
journals and then went outside to play.
Free Play:
2/9: We stayed outside most of the day, but at the end of focus time Pearson, Violet,
and Hedwig played in the blocks together. We also had fun measuring everyone
against the wall. Pearson had fun measuring different things in the school.
2/10: Besides the sensory table and playdoh, we turned on the light projector
for a while and the kids had fun playing with the colorful translucent shapes
in the quiet room. In the afternoon Pearson did a painting while
2/11: In the morning Lily and Ethan
painted a picture together on the easel. Later Kieran and Elijah worked
together to make a structure out of the cardboard bricks. When it was time to
clean it up they made up a game and worked together to put them all away.
2/12: The beads and wire were left out
in the morning, and Gillian and Addison tried it out together. Most of our free
time was spent outside today.
2/13: In the morning almost every
student put on a costume. Pearson was a lion and the girls were three princess
sisters. Maya, as usual, got out the playdoh which attracted Lily and Kieran.
They were into looking at books today as well.
Daily Report: Feb. 2 - 6
-Lindsey
Morning Meeting:
2/2: The kids are trying out our new talking sticks in order to learn polite conversation skills, and they're doing wonderfully.
2/3: We used the talking stick again today and they're still doing great and starting to learn when to stop talking when someone says "its my turn". Amy started a conversation will the children about color and what one can do with color. Everyone got up and danced to the chicken song today, and we also sang several songs (fuzzy caterpillar, twinkle twinkle, etc.) Amy also cued up some images of drawings the children made that morning, and showed them how each child has chosen a different color scheme for their drawing. These are hanging on the wall behind the easel in the studio.
2/4: Amy wasn't with us today, so we let the children have free play the full hour before snack time, instead of having meeting.
2/5: Amy introduced green circle today to the children. So as not to add too much information here, their conversations will be transcribed and posted on the wall inside the school for all to see- I highly recommend reading it- the children had some beautiful comments. We talked about all of the people in our personal world and how they come into our world. We talked about what makes us feel happy and inside the circle, and what makes us feel bad or outside the circle. We then talked about what we can do for our friends when they feel outside the circle in order to help them feel happy again. At the end everyone told stories about nice/loving things that they had witnessed- each time a story was told Amy poured some water into a heart shaped bowl. When there were enough stories- the love water overflowed. She taught them the green circle song, and let each one touch the love water and put it on their heart to symbolize sharing love with one another.
2/6: Amy went through green circle again today as we had a very different group of kids- and the ones who witnessed it before only got to know the green circle a little bit better. There were more lovely comments- we can't wait to share this wonderful tool with our parents.
Snack Time:
2/2: Bananas and pop corn! We were proud to see how many students wanted seconds and even thirds on the banana. They filled their bellies up today!
2/3: Orange slices and animal crackers.
2/4: Pretzels
2/5: Fruity cheerios (with vitamins!)
2/5: Cheesey crackers
Outside Play:
2/2: Pearson, Hedwig, Addison, Violet, and Ethan all had a blast on the glider swings. Sam and others enjoyed the sandbox and Ethan and Kieran really enjoyed the jungle gym and playhouse.
2/3: It didn't last long- most had very cold hands and came inside quickly.
2/4: Another very cold day
2/5: Mostly swing, sandbox, and playhouse today.
2/6: Today our outside play lasted almost all day long. We skipped studio time and stayed outside until lunch time, and then quickly did the same thing for focus time- we had to enjoy this beautiful day! The new stairs are built next door (they're very nice- very safe) and so the children played up there. They also got out badmitten rackets and played bass ball with the wiffle balls- Pearson and Carson really enjoyed this. The older boys played a lot together- piling leaves in the wheel barrow and other such activities.
Project Work:
2/2: Everyone mixed paint colors- we made the three secondary colors by experimentation. The younger kids that had a hard time following the directions went to the light table and painted while the others mixed paint which interested them much more.
2/3: The children were provided with cupcake trays and a bowl full of colorful translucent objects which they sorted by color into the cupcake wells. Afterward (two step studio today) they chose one color at a time, and matched the objects with the same color of window frame on the tiny window board (its hanging up in the window in the school now) and glued them in a design inside that window. Our youngest students were especially patient for this project.
2/4: We had a totally different group of kids today, so we just repeated the project from yesterday. Sam did more than anyone else and even helped top clean up the studio after he finished the last window that was empty. Kieran and Maya were most challenged by sorting the colors so this was a really good activity for them.
2/5: After the green circle morning meeting, we wanted to complement it with our studio time. I taped a large piece of paper, the size of the light table, to the light table. The children were asked to depict that which is inside their circle- their world. Many drew pictures that reminded them of good times they had with their parents.
2/6: We skipped it today in honor of the beautiful weather.
Focus Work:
2/2: They practiced addition, and rhyming. They read rhymes in a book and had to guess at the last word of the phrase using context clues. They also spread shaving cream over the table and practiced drawing shapes.
2/3: Today they did the rhyming practice again the same as yesterday. They did journals of course and then the two- Gillian and Pearson- played very nicely together for the remainder of the time.
2/4: I ran focus time today- after reading some books to the kids (peter rabbit, and others), we made a discovery. Dalila had tried to save a baby flying squirrel but it did not survive (the cold got to him). She saved the squirrel before burying him so that the children could examine him. Elijah and Hedwig were very taken with the tiny creature and drew him in their journal. After that they created a little city for the squirrel in case he woke up. Elijah placed some holly berries in the city so he would have something to eat. When it was all over Dalila took them on a walk to where they found the squirrel so maybe they could spot his nest, with little luck. Everyone had some free play after that.
2/5: Pearson and Gillian were our focus workers again today. Pearson's addition/subtraction challenges are becoming greater as Amy has discovered his aptitude for it. After that they sat down and Amy helped them to create a book about color after reading a book about how rainbows are made. This book will be available to read after its finished.
2/6: It was entirely outside today- again, it was just so beautiful! Amy got to stay with them outside because Carson, her son, came to school with her today.
Free Play:
2/2: Hedwig got the idea to paint the windows, so we used colored light filter plastic to cover three windows. Now we have one purple, one yellow, and one green. Pearson especially enjoyed the tinker toys today. Violet and Ethan explored the studio shelves together and had a good time making discoveries there. Ethan, Kieran, Addison, and Lily found their way under the sensory table with all of the baskets from the pretend play area. They made a little house down there.
2/3: All of our students have been drawn to our new game shelf and have been using it quite a bit every day. Addison and Gillian were especially excited about the games today and got many of them out to try when they weren't in the studio. At one point almost all of our students were in the studio drawing together in the morning. It was wonderful to see them bonding over artwork.
2/4: Most of the students crawled under the lunch table today to hang out. It was short lived but very cute. Ethan and Kieran were very concerned with the tinker toys today, and Kieran wanted Ethan (and others) very baddly to help him build a robot or airplane. I sat down with everyone to help them build whatever was their goal which was quite challenging. This lasted a long time.
2/5: Ethan sat for a long time this morning cutting a cardboard flap with some scissors (which is not easy to do!). Gillian and Addison used some movable letters to fill solidly the display board with the letters in three rows. This took some hard work! Again, in the afternoon Gillian and Pearson played very nicely together in the last leg of the day.
2/6: Dalila helped most of the children to put together a big puzzle this morning. Carson was a big help in doing this- and all of our older boys showed some of their puzzle skills. We got the projector working again so there was some excitement over that this morning.
Daily Report: Jan. 26, 09
Morning Meeting:
Today we sang the alphabet in a new way. It is healthy for the brain children to cross the midline of their bodies with their limbs while exercising. Amy got the kids to do this by going through the alphabet and calling the next letter while touching alternating legs. She read 'The Knight and the Dragon' to the kids, which had many pages without any text at all. On these pages the children got to tell the story themselves, and so there was a lot of conversation about dragons. They all sang the Fishies counting songs afterward. To end, while the young children were washing their hands the older students sat and listened to a story on tape.
Snack Time:
We had goldfish and butter crackers- the kids were crazy about the crackers and asked for seconds and thirds. We washed it all down with apple cider- yum.
Outside Play:
It was very cold today so we went outside for only a few moments before we came back inside for studio time.
Project Work:
We tried some printmaking today.
Monotypes are prints that never look the same, so that's what we did.
Each child had a piece of plexiglas, and we all had to share squirt
bottles with paint. They chose a few colors and let the paint drip
onto their plexiglas. They were provided with different objects that
they used to smear around in their paint in order to achieve
different textures. When they had it just how they liked it, they
laid a piece of paper down on top, and then peeled it up to reveal
their custom image. There was a flurry of activity as each child
pulled multiple prints. Everyone really enjoyed this and we had some
intense studio time for about a half and hour. Everyone finished up
at the same time, then washed up for lunch. We are going to hang some
of these in the windows around the school, they're too pretty not to
display.
Rest Time/ Focused Work:
Amy started off focus time by taking a
handful of river rocks and having individual children count the
stones. She then took them behind her back and split them into two
handfulls. She revealed one of the collections of stone and had them
count the stones again. They had to figure out how many rocks were
missing, and in this way had some wonderful addition and subtraction
practice. Pearson, Sam, and Elijah all participated. When that was
over it was time to do written work. They all did a dot to dot of a
dragon (the theme for the day) and colored it in. Then they did their
journals which were also monsters. Sam drew a picture of his dad on
his journal. While Elijah and Pearson were finishing up Amy helped
Sam put together an alphabet puzzle.
Free Play:
In the morning after Lily got her Lion King CD in, Pearson listened to the 'Little Gingerbread Man' and followed along in a book. Elijah drew in the middle of the floor, instructing Lily who looked on. Addison played with her stick doll she made last year, and Ethan, our explorer, explored. Several kids also laid on the floor in the morning drawing pictures together on their bellies. Elijah and Lily stayed together in this way for a long time, talking to each other about their drawings. Later Elijah made a big sculpture out of blocks that started out being an oversized smiley face on the ground, but it became something more while Pearson played with plastic tinker toys. This was at the end of the day, and afterward Elijah did a big painting while Pearson listened to a story in the listening station as everyone was waking up.
Daily Report: Jan. 23, 09
Morning Meeting:
Amy started off with the Thumbkin name song. We turned on the lion king music which all of our students love so much and danced to that for a while. Amy read 'Aliens Invade' the book written and illustrated by Elijah and Willow. Several of the children made up alternate endings for the story as it ends kind of abruptly. She also took the children on a short tour over to the sensory table with the corn, and the recycling. They discussed how to properly use the sensory table, and what to do with the recycling bins. Afterward everyone came back into the meeting room and read the 'Mouse, Strawberry, and Big Hungry Bear' book which had been requested for re-reading by Pearson and Addison. Then Amy held up the children's names which were on big cards, to release the children for hand washing and snack one at a time (the kids had to recognize whose name was on each card).
Snack Time:
We had fruit snacks (with vitamins in them) and oyster crackers for our snack today.
Outside Play:
The wagon was the main feature of this morning's outside play. It started off with Miss Amy pulling Addison on the wagon. After Amy pulled a few other children her turn was over and the children started pulling each other. They all peacefully took turns and encountered some problem solving. Elijah was a wonderful guide for the problem solving- when the wagon hit a board or a pile of leaves he figured out that the child inside the wagon needed to get out in order to get the wagon unstuck. Sam preferred to swing, and others played in the sandbox a bit as well. In the afternoon
Project Work:
We had a studio set up but the children were playing so nicely outside, and they hadn't had an opportunity for it in about a week, so we let them stay outside a full hour until lunch time.
Rest Time/ Focused Work:
Elijah started building a mouse city for his oragami mouse out of wooden blocks. Willow wanted to join and so she became Elijah's bit helper in constructing the city. The two of them had a great time roll playing with the city after it was built. These was a very sweet thing to observe and they were both practicing valuable social skills at this time. Sam got some one on one time with Miss Amy- he read to her out of a book, and then they played a fishing game together. Amy held the magnetic fish and had them struggle to get away as Sam tried to catch them with a fishing pole. Then they all sat down on the alphabet carpet to read 'Miss Mary Mac'. When the book was done they came to the table and started a letter hunt in magazines. Their goal was to cut out letters that corresponded to a chosen word (Elijah searched for letters in the word 'alien') and then glue them on a sheet of paper. This was a big challenge for Willow and Sam, and great practice for Elijah. Willow managed to spell her name, and then write her name beneath as well as draw a picture of herself. Well all was over it was time to go outside once again.
Free Play:
There was a lot happening this morning- as usual! Addison flipped through the Big Hungry Bear book and retold the story from what she remembered. Several of the children, including Pearson and Willow, spent a long time playing in the corn. Willow and Elijah found the projector with the translucent shapes in the dark quiet room today, but the fun was spoiled halfway through when our bulb burnt out- oh well.
Daily Report: Jan. 21, 09
Morning Meeting:
We didn't have morning meeting, but Lindsey read two good long books to a group of children this morning at the end of free play. Elijah picked them out- one about monsters, and one about witches. In the witch book it was easy to see on Hedwig's face that she was thinking very hard about the dynamic of the witches- who prefer to be mean to each other rather than nice.
Snack Time:
Lily passed out the napkins and fed the fish for us today. We had goldfish for snack.
Outside Play:
Too cold this morning.
Project Work:
We offered some open invitations to the
children. Lindsey provided some air dry clay which several of the
children took turns playing with, including Hedwig and mostly Kieran.
Elijah made a sculpture later out of all of it (see focus work).
Dalila provided the children with two sensory table tubs filled with
corn! The children were instantly drawn to it, and a good sized crowd
stayed there pouring corn for quite a while. Ethan and Kieran had
some great conversation together about the corn. All of the students
today enjoyed their time in this area.
* by the way, parents- studio time is only going to be split up among the children given that the activity is too complex to have more than four children in at the same time. if the activity is simple or if the children can man themselves, then they all get to come in- as is often the case.
Rest Time/ Focused Work:
They started off with Kieran and Hedwig
making robots out of tinker toys. Elijah brought an alien book to
school and made an impressive clay sculpture of the alien on the
cover of the book. He wanted to make an alien club and started
gathering chairs in a big oval over the alphabet rug. Everyone sat
down in the oval and Lindsey described how to elect officers and call
a meeting to order. Elijah called the meeting to order, and we
decided that he was the President, Lindsey was the Vice President,
Hedwig was the secretary, and Keiran was the treasurer. Lindsey read
a long book about 'real' alien encounters as the
first order of business- this was a long book. Then he showed
everyone his sculpture which he claimed was a dead body of an alien.
Afterwards we did daily journals- Elijah made an alien drawing and
wrote 'a-l-e-n-' beneath, and taped in on a chair for a sign for the
club. Kieran and Hedwig both did drawings of Miss Lindsey. After a
short amount of free play we sat back down and Kieran's request and
read 'Dora Explorer goes to the Dentist'. They all enjoyed the book a
lot and we talked extensively about keeping your teeth clean and
trips to the dentist. We have a jar of half rotten teeth that was
donated to the school which we brought out and examined. We read the
book a second time at Kieran's request- and everyone was as
interested in it the second time as the first.
As the secretary, Hedwig concentrates on her note taking during the alien-monster club meeting.
Free Play:
Hedwig claimed a stuffed Mickey Mouse out of the closet- she dressed it in little girl baby clothes, and kept it in a baby bed with a blanket. She carried it around all morning. Elijah had a stuffed rabbit and made a bed for his own toy. Ethan noticed the projector in the atelier, and asked about it. Lindsey moved it into the quiet room to show him what it did. We brought out colorful translucent shapes to display on the projector screen. First it was just a couple of kids playing with it, but soon everyone was in there having a great time. They discovered how to move the projected image up and down and they took turns shaking it dramatically while the others danced in the image against the wall, and jumping up to try to touch it when the image was high up. They were all very excited by this and they spent a long time interacting in this way. Maya was a busy girl drawing and making playdoh sculptures all day. Kieran and Elijah made a wonderful block sculpture that stretched all the way across the floor, which they used as a car race track. Some of the younger students such as Lily and Kieran also enjoyed putting together puzzles in the writing area. This morning Elijah built a large fort in the quiet room out of nap time beds. He invited Maya and Lily into the quiet room and they stayed in there playing for a long time, looking at books together.
Daily Report: Jan. 15, 09
Morning Meeting:
They started out with reading 'Into the Castle' (requested by Pearson). Then, touching their head, shoulders, knees, and toes- instead of singing the song, they went through all the way through the alphabet, saying a different letter as they touched each body part. This was challenging for some! Amy read a book about recycling which had pictures of a recycling center and showed the process that the materials go through. We had a bit of conversation about that and garbage. They also sang the Tutie Tie song at one point. The class is doing very well with politely taking turns talking during conversation.
Snack Time:
We had oranges and multigrain crackers for snack today- yum! Some of our kids are orange-eating machines.
Outside Play:
Too cold! We got inside free play instead.
Project Work:
We are going to have to start rotating which kids come into the studio on which days when we have near 8 children. This Thursday we had Addison, Elijah, Pearson, and Willow. Next time the others will get the chance. We used the hot glue gun to create a big “Plastic” sign for our recycling bin, made out of plastic recyclable materials. Pearson was pretty impressive using the hot glue gun all by himself. We have a wonderful sign now- check it out when you visit the school!
Rest Time/ Focused Work:
Amy started off focus time by getting out Lindsey's old hand-made game, Chickens and Whales. This game teaches kids to hear complex sounds (wh, ch, th, and sh)- its kind of like candyland otherwise (as far as how the rules work). The game included Willow, Sam, and Elijah. Amy read them some books after the game was finished. Pearson came out at that time, and so they all sat down for their daily journals. They read a couple more books afterward. Focus time was finished up with free play, as usual. The four of them pulled many games off of the shelves and explored them fully.
Free Play:
So much today its hard to remember it all! This morning Pearson and Elijah got on the futon and laid together under a blanket looking at books and listening to the follow along tape for nearly an hour! It was sooo sweet. Sam was wonderful helping Lindsey to put together some puzzles- he learned about different shapes such as trapezoid and rhombus, as well as some street signs in this way. The puzzles got started with Lily and Ethans interest in them. They migrated from the puzzles to the kitchen and did some hefty work in that area, along with Willow. Elijah's parents were our Lunch Budddies today, and Bill sat and read a book the the kids after lunch, which was lovely. Ethan and Willow both painted together on the light table this morning, as well, mixing colors and working up a beautiful mess! Addison asked Amy to read a book to her, which Sam joined.
Daily Report: Jan. 14, 09
Morning Meeting:
Amy started them off with a call and response song, and then the Itsy Bitsy Spider- she taught them a second verse. She had them put all of the calendar days from day #1 up on the calendar. Then she asked them what they knew about recycling- and wrote down their responses on a chart she made. The headings on the chart were 'what we know', 'what we want to learn', and 'what we learned'. Afterward she read a story to the class about recycling, that was actually made by a class of 5 yr. Old children! When the book was done, they re-did their chart from yesterday- placing images and pieces of recyclable materials on a [new] chart. Then she did a listening game with them- she clapped in a simple pattern, and the children were to imitate the pattern.
Snack Time:
We had cheerios and goldfish today.
Outside Play:
The kids stayed inside and had some free play in the morning, but in the afternoon we made it outside. Later they did a lot of pretend play involving monsters. There were good monsters and bad ones- Hedwig and Addison were the good monsters, but then Addison turned bad. Hedwig decided to send the bad monsters lots of love, and so invented a machine to suck up their 'bad'. The monsters also had some super powers. They also climbed on the gym, and played in the sandbox quite a bit.
Project Work:
It was a laid back day today, and as the project was in the theme of recycling, we saved it for focus time and let the children play a bit longer than usual until lunch- they were playing so nicely after all.
Rest Time/ Focused Work:
We set the studio trays on the alphabet rug upside down. The place mats were on top of the trays (so they laid flat on the bottom instead of inside the tray). Pearson, Addison, Elijah, and Hedwig were our subjects for this activity. Since we used our magazine cutouts for the recycle chart, we needed a new way to make labels for our recycling bins. Each student chose a basket which had one of the different kinds of recyclable materials. Elijah chose plastic, Addison chose glass, Hedwig chose metal, and Pearson got paper. They made displays of the materials on their mats, which were beautiful. We took pictures of each display which we will print out and attach to the bins. Miss Amy had them do their daily journals afterward, which they got to put in their focus folders themselves. Then they finally got to go have some outside time.
Free Play:
This morning all of our four children- Elijah, Hedwig, Ethan, and Lily, spent almost the entire free play time in the dark quiet room. They were pretending to be werewolves. They played nicely in there, as I said, all morning! Later after snack time they got into some toys. Elijah made an experiment with rice and water, which Hedwig was involved in. Lily and Ethan spent a lot of time at the semi-circle table playing with shells and talking about their Mommies. Lily painted a picture this morning, as well. She got her hands in the paint on her paper and rubbed them all around- you could tell that it felt very nice to her, while also making a neat pattern on her painting. When Pearson and Addison showed up, the energy level of the school went up. Hedwig and Addison played very nicely together in the kitchen and with games. At lunch Hedwig and Addison agreed, sitting next to each other, that they are 'best best friends'.
Daily Report: Jan. 13, 09
Morning Meeting:
Amy read a book to the children which they loved, called 'Into the Castle'. It was about a good monster, so the kids talked about their feelings about the book (for example, how would they feel if they were in a castle all by themselves). Amy then made up a welcome song where each child got to pop up like popcorn when their name was called. After that they read half of a book about recycling. When that was done Amy put on a silly CD that gives directions to act out different animals. The children were given scarves to dance with and use as props. There is a part of the song that tells them to freeze, and they have to listen for the next animal to be called. They really loved this and responded well.
Snack Time:
We had pretzels today, which the children always enjoy. They have a great time making letters, numbers, and shapes by eating the pretzels just a little at a time.
Outside Play:
We tried to go outside but it didn't last long. In about five min. all the kids came inside saying “my hands are cold!” At the end of the day Dalila took Elijah, Willow, Pearson, and Kieran out on the front lawn to play some noisey play. Lila decided to open the pumpkins on our porch for the kids to explore. She cut them open and they scooped out the seeds and guts. The children pretended that the pumpkin was a monster- who was dead.
Project Work:
Since we were introduced to recycling this morning we came into the studio to create labels for our new recycling bins. We searched through magazines to find images of paper, plastic, glass, and metal objects. This was a good activity for evaluating how much each child could recognize the different between the three materials.
Rest Time/ Focused Work:
Amy started out reading a book to Kieran, Willow, and Elijah, called 'The Outside Inn'. Elijah read the title, and they started in. It was a book about insects which Amy picked out in honor of Elijah's interests. Eli told us all about the story of when he ate crickets at the CMOM on insect day. Then Amy pulled out a chart on large paper which she made. Each column on the chart had one of the recyclable materials labeled at the top. Amy went through each of the images that were cut out during studio and let the students identify which kind of material is in the picture, and so tape it in the appropriate column. They also practiced math and writing skills on the dry erase board. Elijah did some impressive addition and spelling at this time. Amy was helping Kieran to draw his own letters when Pearson joined the group. When all was said and done they sat down to read some more books. They asked for the tinker toys afterward, and so that's how we ended focus time- making motorcycles and robots.
Free Play:
This morning Elijah and Willow built a huge room out of the cardboard blocks as Lily sat in the middle the entire time. Maya played with a huge amount of playdoh, which was funny to see. Pearson wanted to play a dinosaur reading/number recognition game (its kind of like a puzzle) so he and Lindsey went to the quiet room to play. Half way through Willow joined us- this was wonderful practice at sequences for her.