Apointments in Pod B

"I am making holes with my toes"-Elliana

On Monday we started doing appointments with the children.  There were three different appointments going on: full body clay, cornstarch and color, and cooking techniques.  I was only able to observe the full body clay appointments but I heard from the children about the other two.  In the full body clay they were able to take their shoes and sock off to see what the clay would feel like with their feet.  There were a lot of different things that the children were saying during that time.  The children told us that it had come from the store, more specifically Meijer.  We wanted the children to experiance the clay before we gave them any real answers.  They all enjoyed using their feet to make something in the clay.


There were also a lot of children who were using more than just their feet.

Here is a child from Pod A using her knees.

The children were talking about how smooth it was and that they had made a footprint when they had stepped on the clay with their bare feet. There were only a few children that were able to experience this on Monday but it will be here for all the children to explore for the rest of the week.

POD A: Keeping the Classroom Clean

This week the children were very interested in working as a team to clean the classroom. Summer, Samantha and Kyla used wet cloths to clean the paint table in the art studio. They scrubbed the table in a circular motion. When the cloths were full of paint they went to the sink and rinsed the cloths out; repeating these steps until the paint table was free of paint.

"We are getting it really clean"-Samantha
"Look at all the green paint"- Summer
"I want to help"-Kyla

End of Week 2

Today ended a good week in the Pine and Maple classrooms.  The children finished learning about the different centers of the classroom during small group and are becoming more comfortable in their pod.  The construction area with the tractors still generates a lot of interest as well as the pretend play area and the discovery tables.  Our outdoor mural has become a big hit and we even started a new painting this morning.

Another exciting activity from today was the corn husking with Ms. Weller and Ms. Betker. The children husked the corn that was harvested on Wednesday from the planters in the outdoor learning environment. They worked together as a team to uncover the different colors of the decorative corn. 

We are looking forward to all the children having a nice weekend and we are excited to see them on Monday!



-Miss Betker

Pod A: Fun in the art center!

Hello,

Today was another great day in Pod A! We started out with large group time and then made our way to the different centers in the room. As children began playing at the art table the pipe cleaners were one of the first things to be used. Kyassie was using them to make "heart flowers".

She began by connecting one pipe cleaner to itself and pushing it down to become a heart, and then she added the second pipe cleaner to the bottom to become the stem. 

This is something that became very interesting to the other children and so Kyassie started teaching others how to make them too.

Before she new it Kyassie had a whole bouquet of heart flowers that she could put into a vase. Other children like Kyla, Summer, Alex, Meteo, and Gabby were making the flowers too, these were also added to the bouquet. 

This became a bigger idea when Alex added a second pipe cleaner to make the stem extra long. He realized it could fit around his head and the children began making heart crowns! The idea was also expanded on when beads were added to the pipe cleaners and then made into hearts. 

The children told me the heart flowers reminded them of all the colorful flowers outside in the rainbow garden. It's great to see the children learning from each other and expanding there own ideas off of other ideas to find new and creative ways of using crafts, such as pipe cleaners. What started as a small craft from a single child turned into a community project that the whole class could enjoy throughout the day.

Kayleigh "Ms." Payne

A wonderful Wednesday!

Today was another busy day in Pod B. After our morning group time, the children broke up into small groups and explored the different centers. Some of the children continued to build in the construction area with the blocks and animals. They are really interested in building homes for all their animals. We switched our playdoh for some sticky foam. The children enjoyed feeling the different texture. A lot of children were busy cooking up a feast in the pretend area and our student teacher kept others busy at the writing center. Playing outside was fun, as always. The children continued painting on the mural they started yesterday. They also enjoyed “making and buying” ice cream from our Ice Cream Stand. The weather stayed nice today and warmed up as the day went on, so a few children kicked off their shoes and felt the sand in between their toes!

2nd Week: Still getting to know Pod B!

Tuesday started our week this time around in Pod B.  The children seemed eager to come into school today and discover more of their classroom. We are still learning about the centers at small group time.  After learning about some of the center activities the children are gaining a better understanding of how to utilize the options presented to them each day. 

Some areas of the children focused on were construction and art. In the construction area the children really enjoyed playing with the tractors. We also have some builders in our pod, who spent a lot of time with the blocks and animals.  In the art center we had finger paint and play dough available for the children to use and explore. In the picture below Rachel, Mya, and Kameron are using the play dough to make a pancake breakfast.

The children also have been really enjoying outside time. They have been exploring all areas of the outdoor learning environments, and really like to spend time riding the bicycles and getting their toes in the sandbox. The digging trucks are a big hit among the sandbox frequenters. We also have started a community mural at the outdoor art cart that we hope grabs the interest of the kids.

Hello Parents!! Both this week and last week the children showed interest in learning and participating in the rules of the school. In this picture Caleb and Sam were "Safety Patrol" making sure that bikes stayed on hard surfaces and that the other students were staying safe on the bikes.

Another activity that children really seemed to enjoy was outside as well, the playhouse. The children were pretending that it was an Ice Cream Shop and were giving other students and teachers ice cream. When I asked Neva and Aisha what was going on inside the house, Neva said we are playing Ice Cream and Aisha handed me a pretend ice cream cone and said "It's chocolate"