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.

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.