No More Green Dot Days...

Here we are at the end of the school year. It has felt long and fast at the same time. Seems like Spring went by in a blink of an eye. Imagine what it’s like to try to understand the passage of time as a 4-5 year old. They have less experience with the way time keeps moving forward, with endings and beginnings. Your children have been interested in discussing the end of the school year, the final green dot days and the many, many red dot days. They have shown beginnings of understanding: one child recently shared that he is not sad about the red dot days because he will have play dates with his school friends. Many others wail in real and exaggerated grief as we cross off each green dot day on the calendar. All the while, teachers have attempted to be open sounding boards for kids’ feelings; scribes, as they dictate strategies for staying in touch; and, calm, reassuring figures of predictability in the face of impending change. Our advice to families is this…Look for ways to build some predictability and routine into your child’s Summer days (i.e. simple calendar they can engage with). Give them lots of space for their feelings and time for rest during the Fall transition. When they are falling apart, remind yourself it’s temporary. During hard times, look to the tool kit they’ve/you’ve built this school year. What will provide your child a sense of security? Can they keep a photo of you in their pocket? Maybe a small trinket? What about something that smells like you? And, finally, sometimes everything needs to be put on pause, because a good snuggle with a favorite book can take us a long way on the road to emotional refueling – for your child and you.

Teachers and parents feel the end of the school year, too. Every school year’s end is bittersweet. We build significant relationships with you and your young people, so it can be really hard to say goodbye. This year is an especially big goodbye for us. Amanda is off to a new adventure, Kristin, Jenna, and Byl to a new teams! Thank you for your partnership this year (and many other years for some of you!). You have supported us in so many ways – time in the classroom, volunteering on the board/committee work, communicating with us, and trusting our ideas. We could not do this job without the parent community we are so fortunate to have at Park West. Finally, thank you for the generosity you’ve shown in end of the year gifts. They are a lovely treat!

Classroom Activities This Week

Self-Portraits, round 2

We did self-portraits once before. We will do them this week and next, until everyone has at least one turn. We’ve noticed differences in approach to the activity this time around: a little more focus, a little more attention to detail, and increased fine motor skills that allow children to execute their ideas more effectively. Such growth!

Duplo Blocks on Light Tables

Children have been working collaboratively and/or in parallel to build interesting structures in a bright and colorful environment. The fantasy play schemes have ranged from family, to hospital, to roads, and more.

Board Games

Children are much more likely to work through an entire round of a game now than earlier in the school year!

Water Table

We had a request for “diamonds” last week, so we added some sparkly jewels to our plastic gems this week. Clear plastic boxes provide opportunities for collecting, sorting, and even building.

Play Dough with Animals and Trees

Rowen and many others have been keeping an eye on our seeds. The radishes, beans, and peas are coming along but the "flowers" (nasturtium) have yet to sprout. May have been an old batch of seeds. Rowen noticed the radishes have some red on the stems.

Sand Table with Animal Families, Trees, Rocks, and Arches

Lots of fantasy play here! Family life, babies gone missing, predators hunting…some discussion of carnivore, omnivore, herbivore. Plus, really interesting landscape and structure creations with the materials.

Counting Down Green Dots and Drawing Simple Shapes

We began talking about the end of the school year this week. With this being our final full calendar page, it was unavoidable. We counted the remaining green dots on our calendar page, and we showed all the red dots in June. We asked if kids know what those red dot days are called, and we told them it’s “Summer Break,” which is when everyone has lots of family time.

We touched on camp when someone brought that up, and we explained that not everyone will do camp. There will be some new kids, some new teachers. Camp is not the same as school. The last green dot on our calendar page really is the last day for these kids and these teachers to be together in this room for morning class.

This was likely the first of many conversations we will have with kids about the end of this school year and what will come next for each of us. We will provide opportunities for children to share what they know about what comes next for them, but we won’t provide information about new schools or new activities unless they open that door. We will help kids work through their feelings about this by reflecting on other times they’ve experienced change (the start of this school year, for example), and by helping to develop strategies for staying connected (play dates, for example). Most of the time, kids relax when we reassure them that their own grownups know what their plan is, and that school doesn’t start again until after lots and lots of red dots with their family. As much as one school year or one summer feels like it goes by at lightning speed for us adults, it really is a very long time for young children. It can be too much time to worry about something new, so we recommend you try to focus on the present with kids as much as you can. Give accurate information, but really dig into the new school stuff closer to the end of the summer.

In the meantime, we are still chugging along here at school. This week we’re doing a representational art activity about drawing buildings. Teachers build something with hollow blocks in basic geometric shapes. These structures are placed in the middle of a table. There are felt tip pens in colors corresponding to the shapes. We ask children to try to draw the shapes as they are in the structure. To do so, they must take into consideration so many things in addition to being able to draw a square or a triangle. Orientation, size, space needed…plus, we expect drawing individual shapes to be difficult for kids this age. Children typically begin to draw shapes between 2 and 5 years old and there’s a pretty wide range of ability within these years.

So, this activity is a stretch. It’s a stretch we wouldn’t have asked of kids earlier in the school year, even just a couple months ago. Children need to feel safe to take risks like this, their work needs to be accepted and embraced many times over. They need to know it’s not just okay, but good, to do it their own way, as one child told a teacher very clearly when he proudly held up his work to show her. “I did it my way!” he exclaimed, with a giant grin. We cannot force someone to be able to draw a triangle before many different factors line up for them. To support each child’s individual development of these skills, we may scaffold their work in a number of different ways: maybe by drawing dots for them to connect, or holding a marker hand-over-hand, or simply backing off to give someone the privacy they need to try it their way without an audience the first time. As with so many things, there’s no one way to go about it.

Writing Notes to Maddie and JK

We have been missing Maddie at school! Most of you know that she broke her leg a couple weeks ago. This has been a big topic of conversation for kids at school. “What happened???” “Will she be okay?” “Why did her leg break?” Teachers give space for kids’ questions and wonderings. We continue to assure them that Maddie’s family, especially her grown-ups, are taking good care of her. When children express feelings of concern like this about another person, they often need to hear that they are safe and well taken care of too. We will continue to listen and wonder together, to reflect and reassure. 

We’ve also given children a way to put some of their feelings into action by creating artwork and notes for Maddie. We did a full group letter at group time, so everyone had the opportunity to add their ideas to one message for her from all of us. Then, children signed their names on the back during play time. Many of them continued the project by creating their own drawings and notes for Maddie. “Maddie likes purple.” “I drew dinosaurs for Maddie. She likes them.” “Can you write, ‘I hope you can come to my birthday party’?” “I drew us holding hands and having the most fun time!” 

While we are sad Maddie is not with us at school, it has sure provided lots of opportunities for literacy and social emotional work.

Along with the Maddie theme in our letter-writing, we worked on a note to the JK kids. One day, some mysterious numbers appeared taped to different parts of the classroom and we wondered where they came from, who made them, and why? So, we spent another group time composing a note to ask those questions. A couple days later, the JK kids wrote back to us. It was a great literacy activity to help children connect their intentions and ideas to the written word. Plus, an interesting way to help connect with the kids who come to school when we’re not here.

Power Play in the Classroom

Teachers have noticed over the past month or so that gun play is making its way into fantasy play with certain groups of children in our class. Gun play is a type of “power play” that we often see working its way through our classroom at some point during the year. Superhero play and “bad guy” and “good guy” play are also included in the realm of power play, which can involve pretend violence. Last week we decided to have a discussion during group time about guns. Specifically, about gun play at school.Teachers wanted to bring this topic up at group time so that everyone in our class would be able to have a voice about how they feel, as well as to hear what the parameters are around this type of play. As adults, and teachers, we have strong feelings about real guns, weapons, and violence. And in spite of those strong feelings, we do allow gun play at school. However, there is a strict caveat. Children who want to pretend they have a gun, whether that be pointing their finger or one made from a block or other various objects, must get consent before they point and shoot at another individual. Teachers have been talking to the individual children in our class who are gravitating towards this type of play and letting them know about our rule in regards to consent. We felt it was important to open up the dialog to everyone, so that we all understood that consent was needed before “shooting” could ensue. 

So, if we don’t condone actual violence and we wish to see a world with less guns and shootings, why do we allow this type of play in our classroom? We all know that young children are drawn to these themes - good and evil, power and control, fantasy and reality, but is it really beneficial to allow them to explore these themes in our classroom? We think that giving kids the chance to use play to explore these ideas is important, and have found over the years that restricting the play does not make it go away, but rather forces it to happen in secret where adults can't provide commentary or reflection.

Children are actually meeting several developmental tasks through this type of play, according to “The War Play Dilemma,” a book by Diane Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. Consider this passage from the book: "The potential exists for children to work on numerous developmental issues when they engage in play. One major task young children face is that of gaining control over their impulses (Kegan, 1982). In war play, children assume the roles of powerful fantasy characters, express aggression in pretend situations, and engage in ‘pretend fighting,’ all of which can help them to learn about impulse control as they struggle to stay within acceptable boundaries and receive feedback about their actions from the environment.”

While we feel this sort of play can meet the developmental needs of children, we still have the job of making sure the classroom is both physically and emotionally safe, and that the children involved in this sort of play do not impinge on the rights and needs of others in the group. We have an important role and responsibility when allowing this type of play. For example, we set boundaries around physical play such as wrestling, by noticing and redirecting when it's happening in an unsafe environment, and if those who don't want to participate are being unwillingly included in the game.

At school, teachers feel strongly about the necessity of listening closely to what children are playing, and not placing adult understanding and constraints onto children’s play-schemes, as they are qualitatively different experiences. We feel that children playing out themes of death and destruction, power and vulnerability, good and evil are part of healthy development, even if they make us as adults uncomfortable. Our goal as teachers is not (nor should it necessarily be) to steer kids' play away from themes of good guy/ bad guy “violent” play. And that just because a person’s three, four or five year old understanding of good and bad may be very black and white, that doesn’t mean that same understanding will carry over into adulthood. And so we let them play….

Sand, Water, and Putty

Kids are experimenting with new vessels for pouring in the sand table. The wooden stand is a place to mount these vessels, if children wish, and also has a stopper that can be added to block the flow of sand or removed to allow the sand to pour out. Children have combined all of these elements in unique and interesting ways as they explore them. Fantasy play, of course, became part of the equation, as one child referred to his setup as a blender and dispensed “smoothies” when he removed the stopper from under the wooden stand!

We had putty out with scissors and pizza cutters on the sensory table. It is always fascinating to watch how the putty stretches and drips. Some children are drawn to this material and others shy away from it. It’s sticky, it’s slippery, it’s stretchy, and it’s bouncy. It doesn’t always respond to touch the way we expect, and it oozes out of the forms we create with it.

The water table offered yet another sensory experience. Large sponges and soapy water created incredible amounts of foam. The sponges, slippery and heavy with absorbed liquid, were difficult to handle. Children accidentally dropped the sponges. They smeared slippery foam up their forearms. They squeezed the sponges out to fill large containers. They collected foam in small colorful containers.

Seed Song and Planting Experiment

We learned a new song last week. Here at Park West we call it, “The Seed Song.” It’s a song with a lot of parts to remember and we practiced singing it everyday at group time. Just like our beloved Tree Song, there is a sequence to be followed, and it takes a lot of practice to get it down. This week we tried it again, and it was really amazing to hear how kids really remembered the words and the hand movements that go along. We recorded the 4AM class this past Tuesday (they were very excited about being recorded) and you can take a listen here: Seed Song

THE SEED SONG

If you’ve got the sun, and if you’ve got the rain

You can plant a little seed down the old back lane.

You rake, and you hoe, and you keep the weeds down.

You might find, you might find…..

A root coming out from the seed in the ground.

(Repeat chorus: If you’ve got the sun, etc.)

You might find, you might find……

A stem coming out, with the root, 

from the seed in the ground.

(Repeat chorus)

A leaf coming out, with the stem,

 with the root, 

from the seed in the ground.

(Repeat chorus)

A flower coming out, with the leaf, 

with the stem, with the root,

From the seed in the ground.

This week during group time, teachers demoed a planting project/experiment. We say experiment, because it really is just that. Children were shown how to “plant” a seed, using a ziplock sandwich bag, a paper towel, water and a green bean seed.  Then during play time, everyone had a chance to plant their own seed, label their bag, and tape their experiment onto a window in the classroom where the seed will receive sunlight. How exciting!! Hopefully all the seeds will germinate and children will be able to experience our Seed Song in real life.

So. Much. Growth

It’s been great to be back at school this week. Your children seem to have grown an incredible amount since we last saw each other. Really though, growth has been ongoing throughout the school year, and the recent break only made that more obvious to see. 

One day this week, teachers took a moment to simply look around the room in awe: a group of 3 working side-by-side on individual ideas at the art table; several children engaged in fantasy play in our castle, even navigating turn-taking with the new drawbridge; a few kids collaborating on a block building project; a small group with the assisting parent at the water table; and a couple kids chatting while exploring sensory bins filled with cornmeal. They were all successfully pursuing their own ideas and communicating effectively with each other. There’s always a moment like this around this time of year when the growth is just so obvious, when the work and patience children have invested all year long is almost tangible. You can feel a shift from earlier in the year and it is so, so sweet.

Because children are now more aware of our routines, expectations, and systems for turn taking, we can step back and let them do a lot of work on their own. They make the sign up lists for activities, and they often monitor the turns. They negotiate who is going to have a chance to wear the one knight helmet we have in our castle dressups, and they’ve mostly managed to navigate taking turns with our drawbridge, even though it’s a brand new contraption with somewhat complicated mechanics. 

This is not to say that things are harmonious all the time. Along with these expanded skill sets, we sometimes see bigger emotional expressions. As children have settled in at school and their relationships with each other have deepened, their expectations of themselves and of each other have also grown. The difference now is that they have some more skills they can access in difficult moments. It may not always happen, but the possibility is there, and each experience builds on the ones before it. Growing and growing and growing…

Boundary Setting and Consent

At our staff meeting last week we discussed a recent document released by the Chicago Public Health Department that focuses on boundary setting and consent for children of all ages including those in their early childhood years. We found that the language and approach described in the document reflects the way we communicate and work with students at Park West. We thought it would be informative and helpful to share the document with you. Please find it here.

In the beginning of the year at the Parent Orientation, we talked about the transference of trust that takes place during the Separation process. Not only do we want children to feel safe with teachers, we also want to provide students with the tools to make their own environment a safe and comfortable one for themselves by setting boundaries and advocating for themselves. Teaching children the words they can use when they want another kid's action to stop, whether it’s a classmate taking a toy, offering a hug or hitting, is one way we help students advocate for themselves and set boundaries with others. We might say to a child You can say No or Stop if you don’t like what ______ is doing. Sometimes children aren’t ready to use those words on their own. In those situations, a teacher can help in a variety of ways depending on what actually happened including modeling the language and saying the words for the child.

Teachers can also help seek consent from a child during play. It looks like ______ wants to put their car on the road you built. Is that ok? Or It looks like ______ wants to touch the sparkles on your shirt. Can they do that? We also prompt kids who are seeking the interaction to do the asking as well. You can ask _____ if you can put your car on the road they built. Throughout these back and forths, we hope to normalize setting boundaries as well as giving children the tools for how to do it.

As teachers we are mindful of the power differential between us and the students we teach. We want children to feel as safe as possible and to be able to practice as much autonomy as they are able. When a child needs to use the bathroom, for example, we have a number of questions we may ask a child: Do you need help? A child may let us know what kind of help they need in the bathroom, and if they don’t, we’ll ask. Do you want me to help pull your pants down? If they don’t respond, and they don’t pull their own pants down, we’ll let them know we will help. It looks like you need help with your pants. I can help you. We want to make sure children know what to anticipate from an adult and give them opportunities to voice what they need from us.

We also pay attention to what comforts children. There are some children who do respond well to a hug if they’re missing a parent or if they got a bump or hurt in some way. There are also children who just need a quiet moment to recover and don’t want physical comfort. We take note of those children and make sure they have a book to look at if they’re sad or a quiet spot to sit until they feel better.

If there are times, and there are, when a teacher needs to help a child stop an action after asking them to stop, we will let that child know I’m going to help you now and remove them from the situation. Again, it’s helping children anticipate a teacher’s behavior in our effort to both keep that child safe as well as those around them, depending on the circumstance. 

Our main goal is to help children begin to understand how to set boundaries with others and seek consent as well. It’s a first step in building a foundation for these children’s ability to communicate clearly as a means of self-advocacy. 

We were reassured by the approach taken by the Chicago Public Health Department. We hope you have a chance to take a look at the document they released this month as this is an important topic for families to address with children throughout their lives.

Sewing and Parents' Day

You may have seen pieces of fabric with colorful thread attached (or barely hanging on, depending on how the project made its way home!) We hope your child let you know that it is a sewing project they worked on at school. We begin sewing not by doing any kind of construction, attachment, or repair work. Rather, our focus is initially on the physical coordination of one’s body and then developing intentionality in terms of stitch size and placement. 

Children use fabric on embroidery hoops and blunt needles threaded with yarn.  They are tasked with stitching in and out, back and forth, without going around the hoop.  It’s a big challenge. They have to not only remember that language, but also conceive of the front and back of the fabric simultaneously in order to remember why they’re not going around the hoop. They have to have impulse control and an organized mindset to execute the plan.  This is no small feat.

Next, we’ll move to fabric with a tighter weave. This will require stronger effort to pierce the fabric (a good way to build fine motor muscle strength). 

Children will continue to bring these “sewings” home with them, and they might not look like much to you...fabric with scraggly colorful yarn or string...but bear in mind they take a lot of effort, thought, and self-control; the stuff nursery school is made of, after all.

You'll have a chance to do some sewing with your child at Parents' Day next week!

Parents’ Day is a time-honored Park West tradition when parents & caregivers gather to visit their child’s classroom, participate in activities, and join in songs led by teachers together with other classes.

Parents and children will arrive at school together for a shortened morning at school, and then leave together at the end of Parents’ Day. Thursday, March 30th, 9-10:30am (Platemaking: 10:30-11am).

Teachers will have the room set up for children and parents/caregivers to explore together. It is important that an adult is present for each child, so if you are unable to attend, please ask a loved one to come in your place. You can choose to have one or two adults join your child for Parents’ Day. No siblings please!

Welcome Jenna + Marble Painting and Voting

We are happy to announce that Jenna Heffernan will be joining us as a third teacher every day moving forward. She has filled in as a sub on occasion, so you may have met her once or twice, and your children are definitely familiar with her caring, playful presence. Fun fact about Jenna: she was a student here in the 80's! Former PWCNS director, Jane Nolan, is Jenna's mother. Byl will still make appearances as needed to fill in for one of us. We feel very fortunate to have such a strong support system at school.

Jenna at school this week.

Jenna at school in the 80's with teachers, Anita and Sue

Some children have brought home papers with tracks of paint criss-crossing the page.  This is the result of a physical knowledge art project called marble painting.  As opposed to representational art (self-portraits, for example), physical knowledge art supports children’s understanding of their impact on objects, as well as the objects’ physical properties. 

To start, marbles are placed in cups of paint.  A child writes their name on a paper and flips it over into a box.  Spoons are used to drop a marble onto the paper, and the child lifts the box and tips it to move the marble.  They have to grapple with the sticky paint, adjust to the marble’s faster movement as the paint is shed from it, and they get to see the track the marble makes on the paper.

It’s a great way for teachers to gauge and support sequencing and motor planning skills.  The steps involved are many, and the coordination of movement is challenging.

We’re voting on a new playhouse setup! It’s a slightly complicated process, since this decision affects both the AM and JK groups. We surveyed both groups for ideas, then narrowed them down to things that are different from the ice cream shop play we’ve been doing (taco shop, hot dog shop, etc), as well as being within our capabilities to create. We’re down to 6 options: light tables with pictures to trace, a castle, a flower shop, a salon, We made a voting chart with space for children to attach their own photo next to their top choice. We will finalize the vote at the end of this week so we can begin construction next week!

What's happening in 4-Day...

There are funnels, cups and jars with lids in the water table.

Kids are working on self portraits with watercolors and pencils. Mirrors are present to help guide them.

Kids have been interested in making their own calendars. While some decided to copy our March classroom calendar, with red dots being no school days and green dots being school days, others made their own color coded calendars with each color representing something else (pink is a birthday, blue is a playdate….).

And finally, we have hockey in the gym. Kids are working really hard on holding the stick with two hands while sliding the flat part on the bottom along the gym floor. We have a special place for waiting spectators. It has been so exciting!

Ice Cream Shop

There is an ice cream shop in the lower level of the classroom playhouse. Kids are now taking turns to be workers and customers, but the whole process to create the shop was enjoyable and full of skill building work. (This week’s newsletter format is a little different in that we have used a combination of photos from both groups in order to illustrate all aspects of the project.)

On a Monday, JK kids helped us make signs to indicate that the area was “under construction” as we worked to create the play scheme and the materials needed.

“STOP      NO PEPL      OPEN LATER”

They really needed to block off all the small spaces, something teachers hadn’t planned on.

During group time, both groups listed what they know about ice cream shops, what we need to make an ice cream shop, and what we might do when we play ice cream shop.

We have a collection of ice cream shop props at school, so we showed the kids that we have some of the things they listed: cups, scoops, and money, for example. We needed their help making cones, ice cream treats, sprinkles, and decorations.

Colorful foam clay for so many ice cream treats!

Sprinkle-making materials.

Making ice cream cones.

Sparkly fringe to decorate the sign hanging at the entrance of the shop.

Worker: “This is the menu. Can you read it?” 

Customer: “No, I cannot read it.” 

Worker: “Neither can I.” 

A teacher suggests, “You could look at what is available to offer to customers.”

After a few moments, this shop worker is able to decode a few items written on the menu and uses the V in vanilla, for example, to determine how much he’d like to charge for a scoop of vanilla.

Customers may make several purchases in one trip, something some kids didn’t believe possible.

We have limited play to two customers and one worker. The space is small, and play can get confusing or frustrating when a scheme like this is complicated by too many players too soon. We may loosen the reins a bit as children have some experience in the roles.

Exchanging money is a big draw for some kids. We’re using simple paper money from monopoly, in denominations of 1 and 5.

An off-menu order of fresh squeezed orange juice in an orange glass.

Many customers are very precise in their orders, down to the color and shape of the cup they’d like. Some shop workers are open to this and some are not. It’s an interesting exercise in flexibility, delaying gratification, and/or negotiation.

Oobleck!

We have written before about how important sensory play is for preschoolers. We’ve talked about how this type of play stimulates learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity. Nerve connections in the brain are built through sensory play and language and motor skills are strengthened. 

This week we have a new sensory mixture, Oobleck, in our classroom. What is Oobleck? Well, it is a simple mixture of water and cornstarch. Is it solid? Is it a liquid? It actually behaves as both! 

Other familiar substances, like water, change states from solid to liquids to gasses by changing temperature. But Oobleck is a pressure dependent mixture. Oobleck changes states from a solid to a liquid by changing the pressure placed upon it. Applying pressure on the mixture of Oobleck increases its viscosity (thickness). A quick tap on the surface of Oobleck will feel hard and wet. The pressure from a finger pushes the cornstarch particles together. But, if you slowly slide your finger into the mixture, through the water, the corn starch particles have time to move out of the way, creating a smooth liquidy path. This pressure (created through a child’s hands playing) physically changes the Oobleck from a solid to a liquid. 

Back and forth, fingers and hands poke, drag, squeeze and drip. It can be soothing to some children, almost meditative, who want to spend all of playtime with their hands moving around, exploring the different states of this mysterious mixture. For others, it can seem a bit disconcerting. Is it slimy? Will it get on my clothes? Will it come off of my hands easily? And while teachers don’t ever insist that a child play with Oobleck, we do try and model how wonderful it can be. And we always have plenty of towels for cleaning! Feel free to make some Oobleck at home. Just mix equal parts water and cornstarch in a container that allows enough room for a child to move their hands around freely. At school we placed some starfish in the trays, along with some small scoops and other tools.

Paddle Ball Painting and Spray Bottle Painting

We’ve been working on some interesting painting projects: paddle ball painting last week and spray bottle painting this week. 

Paddle ball painting was an extension of the balls, tongs, paddles we wrote about recently. We lined the empty sand table in large butcher paper and poured paint into trays placed at either end of the table. Each station also included one set of tongs and one paddle. Children signed up for turns to paint with a partner. They used the tongs to roll a ball in the paint and then place it on the paper in the table. At this point, nearly everyone had to pause to think about what to do next. They were holding tongs that had drippy wet paint on the ends, but they wanted to be holding a paddle to begin passing the ball back and forth. Making that transition is complicated and really includes multiple steps to plan. This whole project is a really fun way to stretch kids’ motor planning skills. 

After sorting out where to place the tongs and picking up the paddle, they tapped the ball and sent it sailing across the table to a partner who hit it back to them – sometimes! Another challenge: how hard to push to make a ball covered in paint move across the table? And then, just when they figured out how to get that going, the paint was no longer covering the ball so it moved much faster with much less force. 

After a few passes back and forth, the duo might have noticed that there was no paint left on the ball and decided to take it out. Or, they might not have been sure how to communicate about that. Another challenge, but social this time. How do you decide when it’s time to take a ball out and how do you come to an agreement about that? Who gets to put the next ball in? Which color? What do you do if one person feels done with the game? There was a lot to sort out, but there was a lot of motivation to do all that work.

Spray bottle painting is, in some ways, a much simpler project. There’s a large piece of fabric hanging on the wall and you get to aim a spray bottle filled with liquid watercolor paint at it. There’s still a fair amount of planning that goes into the activity. How does one hold a heavy spray bottle filled with paint anyway? Then, how do you squeeze that trigger? How do you do both at the same time? Many kids tired quickly. It takes a fair amount of strength to extend one’s arm and squeeze the trigger repeatedly. This kind of work is really good for developing the muscles in arms and hands that will aid fine motor work like writing. 

Children have been taking turns solo. It’s a nice respite from the social and emotional challenges involved in paddle ball painting (and everywhere else!) It’s proving to be a positive social activity anyway. Children have been enjoying watching each other. Many have even noticed what a great vantage point the top of our playhouse is. Some have shown an interest in turning over the timer and tracking turns as we go through the sign up list each day. Since it’s set up near our musical instruments, some kids have taken to forming a band to play “spray paint music” to encourage the artists.

One Morning in Maine/Valentine’s Day

Hello- A quick note on Valentine’s Day at school. Like other holidays, we will not be celebrating here at Park West. So, please do not bring any cards, treats, etc.. Thank you all so much!

Last week we began reading the book, “One Morning in Maine '' by Robert McCloskey at story time. It’s a pretty long book for our morning class. A whole 64 pages! And it’s riveting, so it has been taking a long time to get through due to all the conversations that have ensued. Reading books with preschoolers offers such a unique and safe experience to explore difficult topics. It’s a space to explore and express emotions which can strengthen children’s emotional competence. ”One Morning in Maine” is the story of Sal and her family who live on a small  island off the coast of Maine. She has a baby sister named Jane and a mother and a father. One morning Sal wakes up and has a wiggly tooth! She is worried that this will prevent her from going to Buck’s Harbor with her father, but her mother reassures her that not only will it not prevent her from going on the trip, but it means that she is starting to grow up. As you can imagine, this is a wondrous and worrisome topic for our morning kids. Conversations bloomed at story time.

“My sister lost a tooth.”

“Is she a teenager?”

“Yes, she is 6!”

“Does it hurt to lose a tooth?”

“I don’t want to lose my tooth.”

“I have baby teeth but I am not a baby.”

“Big teeth grow in!”

Sal gets ready and walks down to the shore to help her father dig for clams. On the way, she observes a fish hawk, a seal and a loon. She tells them all about her loose tooth and wonders if they have teeth to lose too. When she gets to her father, he is knee deep in mud, searching for clams.

“What’s a clam?” someone asks.

“It’s a sea creature.”

“It’s an animal.”

“It’s like a seashell.”

“It doesn’t have legs.”

“It can maybe swim.”

“Maybe it can fly if it doesn’t have legs.”

“You can not eat it!”

Sal begins to help her father in the mud, when all of a sudden, her tooth falls out. Sal and her father search but to no avail. On the way back to the house, Sal finds a fish hawk feather and decides that it was left for her because she lost her tooth.

The next day at school, teachers gathered clam shells from Park West’s beautiful seashell collection and placed them on trays for children to discover along with some Floam to play with.

“Is this a clam?”

“It’s smooth inside.”

“I can fill it up.”

“It’s just a shell so it’s not an animal.”

“Did it use to swim?

“It’s dead.”

“You can not eat it.”

The story continues on with Sal, her sister and her father getting in the motor boat (!) to go to Buck’s Harbor.

“I don’t take a boat to go get food!”

“I go to the store in my car.”

“I never go to the grocery store.”

“I only drive to Marianos.”

On the way, the motor stops working, and Sal’s father has to row the rest of the way. Once in Buck’s Harbor, the first stop is to pick up a new spark plug for the boat’s motor. Then they go to the town store for groceries and Sal and her sister get ice cream cones. They drive the boat back home to their island and look forward to..”Clam chowder for lunch!”

Teachers did not plan on reading this book over a two week period. However, morning kids had another plan which ended up creating an incredibly rich experience for us all.

Sand in the Water Table!

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Perhaps your child has mentioned that we no longer have sand in the sand table. Where did it go? Teachers scooped out all of the dry sand and carried it over and into the water table. We then added water, and placed letter molds in the wet sand for exploring. Some children were a little worried about the change in our physical arrangement. And some were so thrilled they could barely contain their excitement. Though we know this can be a challenge for some, we also know that weathering small changes can help to build flexibility. It also gave us an opportunity to voice some of these feelings for children. We affirmed what children noticed and tried to identify what they might be feeling. It looks a little different. Are you worried that things have changed? Everything else will stay the same at school.

Experiencing a familiar material in a novel way is one way that we spark children’s thinking and build their awareness of the world around them. By changing the physical property of sand, you use it in different ways and notice new things about it. It also provides a different sensory experience. Children are engaged in experimenting with how sand behaves when it is wet. They experimented with using shovels to create sand castles, molding letters of out of sand and making big mounds of wet sand. Some children love the texture and feel of wet sand. For others, tolerating the way it can stick to your skin is a challenge. For those who find it more challenging, we provide tools so that they can interact with the wet sand without touching it, if they prefer. Engaging in such sensory experiences helps to build a child’s ability to process and organize sensory input. When they are done, we show children how to rub the sand off of their hands and refer them to towels or the sink if necessary.

Now that our sand table no longer has sand in it, we have filled it with a variety of balls and tongs. Children have been exploring how the tongs work and filling buckets with balls. Many children have been engaged in sorting and like to collect one specific type of ball. Others have sorted them by color while others have acted out a variety of pretend scenarios with these materials. This activity promotes hand eye coordination, hand strength and dexterity while providing opportunities to explore mathematical concepts such as sorting by attributes and comparing sizes.

Class Project

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The Class Project (an auction item everyone in class is working on) was mentioned in last week’s bulletin, and we began working on it this week. We’ve told children that “we’re working on one art project for all of us to see at school when it’s done.” We’ve done other group projects already so it is not a new idea. We also mentioned that we’ll get a chance to see the project after it’s “put in a very hot oven to melt the pieces together,” and then it will be at a party for the grownups so everyone’s parents can take a look. We have not shared with children that one family will ultimately have it at their home after the auction. This information seems less important to share with kids than the idea of working together and then seeing the end result. So far, they’ve enjoyed having a chance to add their ideas to the piece and it’s looking great!

Here’s how it goes: children sign up for a turn to work with one other person. We prompt them to take a moment to look at the materials and the work that’s already done. Then, when they’re both “ready with some ideas” we turn over a 3-minute timer. This sounds like a very small amount of time, but in the world of early childhood, so much can happen in 3 minutes. Watered-down glue is applied with a brush and pieces of glass (not sharp glass) are applied to the glue. Children can sign up for another turn if they’d like to. Later, the piece will be fired at a glass studio and then returned to us. 

Welcome Back to School!

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Welcome back to school! It has been exciting to have everyone back together in the classroom after the winter break. We have provided a combination of familiar and novel materials to aid children’s sense of competence and nurture their curiosity as they return to the school setting.

One new item we have added to the gym is noise-canceling headphones. Despite our soundproofing, the gym can be a noisy place, as children run, jump and exuberantly shout. Many young children exhibit sensitivity to loud noises or can only tolerate them for so long. This is common and to be expected as children develop their ability to recognize and process sounds. On top of that, there is a lot to process in the gym. Children are not only processing sounds, which are harder to distinguish and filter over background noise, but there is constant movement. Having some power and control over noises can help sensitive children to better tolerate them. Our headphones lower the decibel level of background noise, but still allow for children to hear conversations. While some choose to wear them to give them a break from background noise, others enjoy hearing the difference between wearing headphones and not wearing them. Several children have experimented with making loud noises themselves when the headphones are on while others pull them off their ears in order to better hear language. Having these tools available for all to explore allows those that might become overwhelmed by noise levels to have a sensory break and others to explore how the headphones change sounds.

We are also offering a few enclosed spaces in the gym where children can retreat if they’d like. We have had a tent up for much of the school year, which children enjoy huddling inside. Some prefer to crowd in together while others like to be in the tent alone. We now also have a “dark den” in the gym, which blocks light. There is a flap in the front to enter and on a window, but when they are closed, it is very dark inside. Children have enjoyed retreating to the dark den and marveling at how dark the space is before popping a head out of the window to again see the light.

These materials offer children the opportunity to take a break from the sensory stimulation at school and explore physical properties in a new way. We look forward to continuing our exploration of these materials in the coming days at school. 

We are thrilled to announce that Byl will be spending more time with us! The goal is for him to be in our classroom as a third teacher twice a week. He will spend the other two mornings in the West classroom, so you may see him around even if he’s not scheduled to be in our room. Additionally, he may be asked to sub in another classroom. 

Winter Break

Next week we begin the two-week break and so it is good to prepare you for the quite natural possibility that the return to school, even for the most confident, may get a little rocky. 

Along with a lot of days off from school, you may find over the break that your home life routine is disrupted as well, with heightened celebrations, activities and indulgences. Many loved ones showering attention, relaxing structures and of course providing lots of extra treats. Therefore, getting back to the predictability of everyday life is often something we all want to resist. Accordingly, our expectation for kids to independently and happily resume school life is one they often want to remind us is unreasonable. 

So you might think, here we go back to scratch and the beginning of the year. We need to start separation again. Not really. Remember when we described separation as a lifelong process? Well here is an example of a mini episode in that process. In the fall your kids knew nothing about the space, the adults, the kids, the routine of the day, the expectations. That is no longer the case at all. Now they have laid the groundwork for constructing the experience. On varying levels they now move independently in that space, trust and engage with the adults, play, negotiate and disagree with the other kids, remind each other of the routine of the day, and anticipate the expectations. And we encourage you over the break, to reinforce and converse with kids about the school experience, the people, the activities and the times of day. Reassure them that school will be starting again soon and that it will be the same. For some, a condensed calendar format for the countdown until school starts can prove useful. 

Practically speaking this means you can have confidence in their ability to return to Park West without you, even if they're making a big fuss. And it will help them enormously if you convey that confidence when you're bringing them into school. It's understandable that adults may be taken by surprise and just react with their own variety of dismay when their kid dissolves in the early morning rush, but your composure in these moments often provides the lifeline your child is looking for. The first week back, for example, is not a good time to attempt your first curbside drop off. If you happen to be among those who already hand your child off outside, it's a good idea to decide beforehand if you really have time to walk your child into school. Are you parked in the loading zone? Are you late for work? If you think it's going to create more tension, remember there are adults at the door ready to help. A confident goodbye sooner is often preferable to a harried one later. 

While you are walking your child into the building keep these points in mind. If they are clinging, go ahead and hold their hand. "Let's hold hands. We'll go in together." 

When there are days that you decide to accompany a reluctant child into the room, don't be surprised if they initially regard us with wary or even hostile looks, we may be perceived as interlopers at that moment. Just continue and take them through the motions of hanging up their coat. You can point out their picture on the name card and their cubby, both designations of their own space. This can create a concrete transitional moment from home to school. 

If you continue on to hand washing, don't be surprised if kids who were previously independent suddenly want help from their chaperone. In these instances furtive looks may continue. Instead of urging them to go with us, take the cue and reassure them you'll stay with them while they wash. Teachers are not put off or offended by these moments. On the contrary, we appreciate your helping your child towards a smoother transition from home to school. If you are unable to wash hands with your child before leaving, then hand off to a teacher with confidence. Make the goodbye clear and emphasize that teachers will help them. Most kids get over teary goodbyes in seconds. 

Keep in mind always however, that most kids cry sometimes. It's a natural response to the strong affection and bond you share with one another. The main point is, even on days when kids are opposed, they know us well enough and even trust us well enough that once you've left they get engaged. So you may want to help them to choose an activity to settle into, but after that, even if you can stay longer, please don't, because in a different way, that can undermine your kid's own self confidence. Of course we will try to be alert and sensitive to your moment of departure, but if teachers seem otherwise occupied it's a good idea to go ahead and alert us. All of us working together will make the experience a little clearer and a little smoother for your child. Thank you for all your help. 

Thank you for the showering of appreciation and the generous gifts this holiday season. We feel so very loved. 

We hope everyone has a happy, healthy break! See you in 2023!!