Morning Meeting:

They counted with drum beats. When we said their name during the morning song they got to come up and hit the drum a specific number of times. Amy read a book about talking quietly and had conversation about it, and also playing the drum quietly. They also read 'Go Away Big Green Monster,” which they loved (recommended to parents) so we read it twice. We discussed this book, as well. Then they took turns talking about a design idea for a monster which they imagined. Then they did a bit of yoga where the kids pretended their fingers were insects dancing on their bodies. They sang '5 little ducks' which is always fun. Afterward they went on a short tour to the new puzzle shelf and the writing area. Amy initiated a conversation about playing and cleaning up puzzles and games, as well as putting caps back on markers after use. This was all a new experience for our new friend, Violet. Hedwig joined us today, as well.

Snack Time:

We had fruity cheerios for snack- the kids loved it and asked for several helpings.

Outside Play:

The older children (and Addison) pretended the jungle gym was a ship and they swam with the. Maya played in the sand the whole time, emptying cups of sand. There was a lot of swinging among the other children. Later during nap time Lindsey took the older children on a walk down the block. Sam discovered the water meter holes, so we lifted the lid with a stick. The children peered inside the hole and speculated about it. Every house had a water meter, and Sam noticed every one- having Lindsey lift the lid each time to look inside. The kids had a blast sliding down the dry grass yards (where there were hills) on their bottoms, and also rolling down and jumping off of steps and stones. One particularly steep hill made an especially fun slide.

Project Work:

Miss Judith actually held Kinder Music for us today as she will be out of town on Thursday. They sang the welcome songs, and then the one where they dance their little fingers all around. She gave them each a bell afterward, and sang a song which at intervals goes “listen, listen” where the children pause, then ring their bells in unison. They did a lovely job at that. Judith also had them try some sound experiments by putting stones and different objects inside a small drum and rolling the objects around. The kids speculated as to what they thought it sounded like. They also got to take turns trying out the two rain sticks at one point. At one point she had made a wheel with spokes made from scarfs (if you can imagine) which each child took hold of a different spoke. They spun around swishing their scarf along to music. Sam got to sit with his Dad during the end of Music as his parents came today to be our Lunch Buddies! (thanks you two!)

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Sam's parents got some knock knock jokes started during lunch (as our lunch buddies), so the focus workers read two of Elijah's joke books. Many were rhyming riddles- Hedwig was very good at figuring out what the answer to the riddle. Elijah and Sam read some of the pages of books, as well. They did their daily journals and a number worksheet where they had to find the numbers in chronological sequence and trace a line. Elijah made it all the way to 50! Afterward Amy took the children outside to play.

Free Play:

The tinker toys have been a main feature of our free play this week. Lily, Kieran, Elijah, Pearson, and Maya all came and tinkered with Lindsey when she sat down there to play. Addison and Ethan spent most of their morning sitting at the little table in the play kitchen with Miss Amy. Addison made a whole pot of food by cutting snakes of playdoh into little chunks, which she counted one at a time. It was very sweet this morning when Hedwig approached Addison first thing and asked "do you want to play with me?" When Addison said yes they played together all morning. Lindsey spent some time with Violet, helping her to pick out the symbol for her cubby. Pearson also spent some time this morning playing drums- he lined them all up and went crazy with the mallets. 

Morning Meeting:

Amy started the kids off with a counting game. She got a ball and they had to play hot potato with it and count as they went. The group counted all the way up to 20 that way. Then they sang bingo, and the '5 little monkeys' song that they like so much. Elijah did a quick magic box of plush toys he brought to show the class. Amy has been asking the children to be perfectly quiet before she continues to the next part of the meeting- and then she almost whispers to the children what they'll be doing. They are learning to listen to her and each other. She had them act out different animals which were exciting, starting with snakes. Afterwards she read the book which Pearson asked her to re-read yesterday. Before she started reading however, she had them recall what they remembered about the book, and so re-tell the story. She asked them may questions about the book.

Snack Time:

We had fruity cheerios for snack- the kids loved it and asked for several helpings.

Outside Play:

We had some visitors- two families that came to meet us all. An older boy, Henry, had some great conversation with Pearson and Elijah. He and Pearson ended up playing a star wars game that took off. Ethan played with the wheel barrow quite a bit, and Kieran and Maya played on the swings a lot. There was a lot of running around and playing with sticks. Many of the younger children just observed the older boys as they played so hard.

Project Work:

Today the children found a strip of canvas the length of their trays. They each had two colors of paint to use. They were provided with complementary colors (opposite colors) which form gray when mixed together. We didn't have conversation about this as it hasn't been successful in the past, so they were provided with the opportunity to discover this for themselves. Lindsey had them start with one color on one end, and start with the other color on the opposite end of the canvas strip. They had never painted on canvas before, and Pearson recognized that its superior to paper (it doesn't soak up the paint, so its easier to move the color around). Pearson and Elijah's composition to their paintings were exactly the same- they followed the directions very literally and their past experience in the studio (having to cover the entire sheet of paper with paint in order to represent ocean water) was obvious. The younger students each had their own idea of how to approach the activity. In the end Elijah and Pearson made the observation that all of the individual color combinations each made gray when mixed together. These paintings will be displayed for viewing in the school.

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Amy read a long book about dinosaur to Kieran and Elijah, then started on a different book when that one was done. Then she presented a wicker chain which they stretched out on the floor, and a bag of beads. She had them put one bead in each circle, then count the beads. When they had done that, put two beads in each circle and introduced the idea of counting by twos. This also translated into an addition exercise for Elijah. It was then time for the Daily Journals. Elijah ended up drawing his stuffed monster- he studied it closely in order to represent it correctly. When all was said and done Amy got back out the tinker toys at Pearson's request.

Free Play:

The tinker toys have been a main feature of our free play this week. Lily, Kieran, Elijah, Pearson, and Maya all came and tinkered with Lindsey when she sat down there to play. Addison and Ethan spent most of their morning sitting at the little table in the play kitchen with Miss Amy and playdoh. Addison made a whole pot of food by cutting snakes of playdoh into little chunks, which she counted one at a time. At one point Addison, Kieran, and Lily all sat down to put together an alphabet puzzle. It was challenging for all three of them, so they discussed where they thought each piece belonged- which was just wonderful.

Morning Meeting:

Amy ran the meeting this morning. She taught them how to sing 'where is thumkin' using the children's names. Then they sang twinkle twinkle together, then '5 little monkeys sitting in a tree' (which the kids just love). Afterward Amy played a game with them- she wrote different numbers on the board- they had to recognize the number and do that many jumping jacks (Amy is so clever!). Then she told the story of Elijah and Hedwig taking care of a toy bear yesterday, and connected it to a story which it reminded her of, and so she read 'The mouse, the bright red strawberry, and the big hungry bear,' to the class. Pearson liked the book and asked to read it again. They had some short conversation, then Amy sent the kids out to put on their coats according to which colors they were wearing (first was pink, and all the girls left).

Snack Time:

Amy took the snack with her outside again for a picnic on the picnic table. They had tollhouse crackers.

Outside Play:

They had their picnic, then played hard. Willow and Lily bonded swinging on the glider. Elijah helped Pearson to get started on the zipline, which was nice. Ethan went head first down the slide. They all swung and ran around. Later when we went outside Elijah started a game of monsters, and Pearson started a game with a gun that shoots love- and so the Monster and Love Gun were cancelling each other out. When Vincent joined us Willow followed him around giving him hugs. Sam swung on the swings most of the time.

Project Work:

Miss Judith had music class for us today. She brought out bells, gave them to the children, and played a listening game. Then she taught them a song ' dance your little fingers up high,... down low,... to the side,... all around,' and they wiggled their little fingers all around, and then pretended to go to sleep. Then it was time for some music- she played a classical piece that was a bit eerie entitled 'the aquarium.' Some kids laid down to rest and others made their hands into fish and swam them around. They had a session with the rain sticks (the big one got cut into two), Judith had a song to go along with the rain stick, and the kids danced as they made a rain sound. Then it was time to sing the goodbye songs and for Maya and Judith to go.

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Amy did some focus work with the kids- Willow got to stay up today. They did their journals front and back, and practiced writing their names.They also played bingo- Elijah was very helpful, and assisted Willow the whole time, and read off the tokens. Then Amy got out some foam shapes that can form any letter of the alphabet, and a book that goes along with it. Sam read the pages, then Willow 'read' it too (it was a repetitive book). Elijah made each letter first, then handed the foam pieces to the other children to try.

Free Play:

There was lots of busy activity this morning. Lily and Willow painted some pictures in the studio. Ethan played often with Lily, Willow, and Addison in the kitchen and on the magnet/car stand. We had out the tinker toys which attracted Pearson and Elijah. Elijah had given Sam a Christmas present of two Godzilla toys, so all three of them spent a while playing with them.

End of the Day:

We had a lot of outside play today, and stayed outside as long as possible, until right before our parents came for pick up.

Morning Meeting:

We sang songs together including 'if you're happy and you know it'. There was a discussion about the sun that came out to visit us today, and also about Hedwig's presence in the school today. It was a quick meeting today.

Snack Time:

Today Dalila made a small picnic of oyster crackers outside to enjoy the sunshine. Some had some ritz crackers later, as well.

Outside Play:

The kids stayed outside for a long time today as its the first opportunity we've had. David spent some time with the children- he played hid and seek with Elijah and the other children as well. Hedwig was a little mommy and pushed Ethan on the swing, and swung with all of the younger children. They also played house in the playhouse, making play food. Ethan and Hedwig also enjoyed raking leaves and carting them around in the wheel barrow. Ethan was crazy about the slides, as well, and went down many times. 

Project Work:

We used the water soluble packing peanuts to create some small sculptures. Some of our students hadn't encountered them before, so they got a new experience. Ethan and Maya stayed longer than anyone else- they seemed fascinated by the materials. They enjoyed cutting the peanuts and soaking them utterly in their water. Elijah created many different creatures in a short amount of time. He displayed them on a tile to dry. Lily had some success with them, as did Hedwig. Lindsey made a dog as an example of the possibilities, and so all were inspired by it and tried to make their own puppies. Lily held the dog example close and pet it. Lindsey gave her the sculpture since she enjoyed it so much.

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Amy sat down with Hedwig and Elijah to practice some writing. They did their journals front and back, and also did some dot-to-dots which they colored in. Afterward Amy let Hedwig look through our book of symbols to pick one out for her cubbie and work folder. Then they sat down and Amy read the 'hungry caterpillar' to them. They got some free play afterward as 'Wiggy' and Elijah play wonderfully together. Elijah got dressed up as a 'pretty pretty princess,' they had a baby together which they made clothes for.

Free Play:

Maya went straight for the playdoh, and asked to play with some every chance she got for the rest of the day- she loves that stuff! Ethan painted this morning in the studio- he loves to cover a whole sheet of paper with red paint. Hedwig and Elijah went nuts over the toys snakes that we had and played with them for hours, probably. They both dressed up in costumes during the course of the day- Elijah got dressed up in a princess dress and kept saying "I'm a pretty pretty princess!" Together the two took good care of a teddy bear. They fed it, made it a bed, made clothes for it, and cleaned it with baby wipes. We also got out the tinker toys today, which all of the chilren found interest in at some point.

End of the Day:

Amy started our Afternoon Meeting today. She started off by reading a quick book to the children, then we hooked the camera up to the tv and reviewed all of the images that were taken today. It was such a gentle day today, parents!

Morning Meeting:

After we sang the morning songs we discussed the weather outside. Everyone got up to look out the window and touch the glass. Then Dalila passed around the sandpaper letter 'H' and let everyone feel it as she discussed the sound it makes and words with 'h' in them. She also wrote the words on the board as they were mentioned. Then everyone got up and hopped around to 'little bunny foo foo.' Afterward Miss Amy read a book to the class about Elmer, the polka dotted elephant.


 
Snack Time:

We had peanutbutter crackers for snack today.

Outside Play:

We let the kids have some free play again today due to the rain.

Project Work:

We became inspired by the beautiful book which Amy read this morning, so we came into the studio with that in mind. We used colorful squares of tissue and card stock with lively patterns. The children cut up the small squares in shapes they liked and then created a collage on some circles of stiff paper. Later we'll let whoever is interested turn their collages into masks (in the story the regular elephants painted themselves up and went on parade) so they can be colorful like the elephants. Willow, Ethan, and Lily were very engaged and were the last ones out of the studio.



Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Amy got a bit of water and some sponges and let the Willow, Kieran, and Elijah draw shapes and letters on the black board. When the board was covered in water they sat down at the table to do their daily journals. Afterwards they got out some letter and number stamps and practiced spelling/letter recognition.  Amy read a quick book to them, then they sat down on the rug to play zingo (by this time Pearson had joined us).



Free Play:

In the morning the kids started 'jamming' - Ethan, Willow, Elijah, and Pearson were all playing music together. Kieran built towers out of stackable toys, and we had lots of dress up today. Many children changed costumes in the course of the day several times. A few children also spent a lot of time in the writing station first thing- Lily, Addison, and Ethan all made matching collages by gluing little scraps of paper to a larger one. Pearson and Elijah made a fort in the reading room and read together at one point. Addison played in the kitchen and made more chicken nuggets. We also had some studio time during our free play- Addison, Lily, Willow, and Ethan spent time in the studio painting. Though each of them have very different styles its clear to see each of their paintings are derived from a love and fascination with the paint itself. In the afternoon Kieran spent a lot of time playing with the little broom, and playing with cars. Elijah and Willow constructed a block structure together while Kieran made see-saws, afterwards Kieran and Willow painted a picture together, which seemed to teach Willow a new way to handle the paint.




End of the Day:

Vincent joined us near the end of the day so the kids spent some time getting to know him and playing with him.

*Note: Sorry about the inconsistancy of the blogs, parents. We're getting it back on track.

Morning Meeting:

We introduced our new members of the school- Ethan and Miss Amy. Then we showed our new friends how to sing our morning songs. Elijah started a fascinating conversation about microorganisms, we discussed what a microscope is and how it works- we brought out a big lens and let the kids examine it. Afterward we noticed that were were many people so we decided to count all of the feet in the room- we counted 22 feet! Then we all got up and danced and sang “Mama Mia,” and jumped 22 times, once for each of our feet. Then we practiced counting in Spanish. Afterward Miss Amy read a book to the class.



 
Snack Time:

We had goldfish and apple cider for snack today. Yum!

Outside Play:

We had some studio and free play time today because it started raining right at outside time. Ethan and Lily played with Miss Amy in the gross motor area with the toys on our new display shelf.

Project Work:

We had several studio options for the kids today. We just wanted to start the semester off nice and easy so we set up some air dry clay, light table leggos and puzzles, and watercolor painting. Pearson played with the leggos for nearly an hour without stop. Harper made a painting of two cats, then sculpted a butterfly and a cat (after she had already made a cat this morning). Addison worked hard on a painting, then worked hard on a sculpture making little worms and homes for them. Elijah floated around to all of the different stations- in the end he made a large family of caterpillars out of clay. Miles painted a three headed monster.






Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Miss Amy started out by reading a very long big-kid book to our large group of focus workers. They listened closely and leaned in as she read on and on. The book was about some kids who created their own movie, so Amy had the children come up with a movie idea on their daily journals. Then she took them to the carpet and helped them to put together a sea creature puzzle while Elijah and Pearson worked with some new marble toys. When Dalila joined us and Amy had to go she took over puzzle duties. During this time Miles stayed at the lunch table and drew monsters for quite some time.



Free Play:

There was some very pleasant free play this morning. Miss Amy sat with the girls most of the morning as they played in the play kitchen and on the table cutting paper and playing with playdoh. Addison made a bunch of chicken nuggets out of dough, and then pretended to eat them with a fork. Sam and Ethan were busy cutting away in the writing station. Elijah and Pearson played super heros, and Harper sculpted a cat out of air dry clay. Harper also constructed a Native American headband with a feather without any help at all- quite impressive.

Morning Meeting:

After we sang the morning song we opened the window and talked about the rain. The kids leaned over the windowsill and listened to the sound of it. Pearson thought we should leave the window open all day so we could hear the rain. Then we sat and read a Babbar yoga book. Then we all decided to get on our rain gear and go play in the rain. Dalila took the kids down the block where they splashed in puddles until their boots were filled with water!

Snack Time:

We had popcorn today for snack- which was Addison's idea. It was the perfect snack for coming in to out of the rain.

Outside Play:

We played in the rain for quite a while- they had a blast and it improved some kids' moods- sometimes we just need to be outside no matter what the weather is like!

Project Work:

The kids, after getting on some dry clothes, went into the reading room where we read books until lunch time.

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Kieran and Elijah built train tracks together until it was time to do focus work. When Pearson came out of the quiet room it was time for focus work. Pearson got work geared towards hearing sounds within words, and math concepts. Elijah's work was targeting spelling and fine motor control, and Keiran, too, had work for fine motor control. Afterwards Elijah and Pearson each got an empty basket. We went on a hunt around the school that had both short and long 'A' sounds

Free Play:

In the morning we put together some puzzles. Pearson and Elijah played with some motorcycle toys. Dalila read Christmas stories to everyone out of a big wonderful book. Addison went around finding things to look at through the kaleidescope. Lilly 'made tea' for everyone and handed out cups.

Morning Meeting:

We only had three children this morning who were playing beautifully and productively together, so we just let morning meeting pass us by, and went straight to snack. About that time we had a visitor arrive- Penny and her daughter Hedwig who stayed to play with us for a while.

Snack Time:

We had goldfish and animal crackers with water today. Hedwig didn't join us at the table but she provided some nice long distance conversation for the kids. Elijah enjoyed pointing out to her the different fish in our tank.

Outside Play:

We went outside at the end of the day. We spent most of the time swinging gently on the little swing set. It was good to get outside after we've been shut in so much.

Project Work:

Miss Judith held music class today. First everyone sat down on the rug and sang our welcome songs. Then she initiated some sound experiments- she had the kids pat on the floor first very softly, then loud like thunder. They went back and forth following her lead. They were very responsive and followed her perfectly. Then we came into the studio to decorate our rain stick using the same method we used to make our lamp shade. Each child got a piece of paper to cover with tissue squares, painting them down with watery glue. They worked hard on those until it was time to say goodbye. Hedwig stayed with us and helped Maya with her studio work. We sang goodbye to her during our goodbye song, and afterwards she gave us all some wonderful hugs and kisses.

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Elijah went straight to work in the writing station. He used every piece of neon green paper that we had out, and drew a monster on each piece, front and back. He attempted to write 'Daily Monster' on them, spelling “daily” d-a-l-e (pretty clever). When he was finished with the sheets he asked some more, and covered ten or so more papers with monster drawings. Afterwards we looked at some Montessori literacy tools which Carol loaned us with Pearson. We talked about what 'e' does to vowels when its at the end of words- its very tricky to learn. Elijah picked it up though after a couple of words. Then he began work on constructing a dinosaur house out of our new big blocks. He designed the building with many secret rooms and compartments that hid various dinosaur toys.

Free Play:

We had some wonderful free play today. Willow, Pearson, and Elijah were by themselves at school for a long time, so they had a great time building “pyramids” together out of the big blocks. They worked on their buildings for a very long time until they became distracted by some new boats that we have in our water table. They played sponge bob square pants together in the water table until it was time for snack. Later when Hedwig was here they stood in line waiting to talk on their play phone to call princesses, monsters, and spiderman. Willow painted a picture on her own time, as well.

Morning Meeting:

Lindsey ran our meeting this morning. We skipped the songs and went straight to talking about the break. Mostly the boys talked about video games, but they also mentioned being with their family. Elijah mentioned visiting his Grandmother in Chicago. Then we read a story which Lindsey brought back from her Mom's house- one of her favorite stories from childhood, “The Magical Drawings of Moony B. Finch.” In the story, Moony, who loves to draw, makes pictures which come to life when someone touches them. The kids enjoyed the story and had many questions, and admitted they wish they could make drawings like that. Then we had the magic box, which surprisingly contained a sealed jar with a specimen of a baby shark in formaldehyde. The boys of course love it, and wanted to set it on the table to look at both during snack and during lunch (ew!) .

Snack Time:

First we fed our fish, then we sat down. We had animal crackers for snack today.

Outside Play:

We skipped outside play- too cold! Instead we introduced the Planet Earth documentary on Deep Oceans- we watched it through most of project time. If you haven't seen these documentaries- hurry to find one- they're amazing.

Project Work:

After watching most of the Planet Earth Ocean Deep, we came into the studio just to sit and talk about our ocean project. We had group discussion about the types of creatures that we want to have in our ocean (painting from our previous class). In the end the children decided they want to be able to have a puppet show with their creatures. They want a boat with a scooba diver, sharks, crabs, etc. They also had the idea to glue sand onto the bottom of the ocean painting to be the ocean floor so that we can have crabs and clams living down there.

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Lindsey spent time with Elijah putting together cardboard boxes while Elijah talked about Godzilla and made sculpture with the boxes. He got baskets of shells to put on top of the sculpture. He also observed the kaleidescope invitation which was set up in the studio. He put many objects on the display tray to see how they looked through the kaleidescope. Afterwards he drew a picture of a Horseshoe Crab, and tried to write it out. Lindsey gave him a blank book to fill, so he sat down in the studio and started drawing things around him, starting with the bottled shark, and labeling the names of each creature or item. Then we went into the play room to build a structure out of our new cardboard blocks. We added wood blocks, insects, and shells to the mix and ended up with an elaborate castle for insects including a guest room, jewelry store, nursery, bug museum, car, restaurant, mailbox, and graveyard. Elijah's imagination ran away with itself, creating a purpose for each insect and block. We continued playing until the parents arrived.

Free Play:

Everyone visited the Kaleidescope invitation at different times. We also had some princess dress up this morning from the girls. Elijah showed off his new favorite thing, which was a display box with a range of insects encased in plastic cubes. Elijah told the other students all about the different species of insects in his box.

Morning Meeting:

Dalila started off with the morning songs which ended in group kisses. There is so much love in our school! Then we had some conversation about the food chain as it involves fish. Then Dalila qued up a quick yoga video for children and together they learned about breathing deeply, then they had fun songs that went along with different undersea oriented yoga poses. This kids responded very well to it- they always enjoy acting out sea creatures.

Snack Time:

We had pretzels and water today, the older boys spent a good amount of energy forming them into letter shapes.

Outside Play:

Outside first we went to the swings, then we went to the sandbox, then the jungle gym. Pearson made a cake and strawberry ice cream in the sandbox for Dalila. Maya got a plate of sand and sat down at the table for a 'meal'.

Project Work:

First we came into the studio just looking at books with photos of ocean water and ocean floor. We observed that though ocean sand is typically white, when its underneath the water it becomes the color of the water- blue. We noticed that the sand that was closest in the photo looked lighter, and as the ground bent away it became darker with more water in front of it. First we drew pictures and decided as a group how we wanted the ocean floor to be shaped. When we came to agreement, Elijah and Pearson each drew part of the ocean floor. We made a stripe of glue a few inches from the bottom of our painting, using paint brushes, along the line the boys drew. We mixed black and blue sand together to make the darkest sand, and put that on the first stripe. After shaking off the excess sand we put a second stripe of glue got a medium blue color of sand. And the last filled the very bottom of the painting, and got a mixture of white and blue sand for the lightest color. Now we have a place on our painting to let crabs and clams rest in place.

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Kieran and Elijah played together with the blocks where bug city used to be (Maya had fun knocking it over). The boys did do a tiny bit of focus work but they became absorbed in making ocean creatures. We used transperencies and color copies from books to trace the shapes of creatures that the boys wanted to put in our ocean. Pearson did a wonderful job drawing and painting a sword fish. Elijah made a highly detailed drawing of a sea snail as well as some other creatures.

Free Play:

In the morning we had an hour of free play while the children focused in a group for a long duration on just two different activities. First they all gathered around Elijah's bug city from yesterday and started building it bigger. Many children made a contribution to the city. Afterwards they filtered into the studio and made paintings and big drawings. Lily and Kieran looked at the focus work folders and family photos. Addison also inspected the kaleidescope.