Hi, all.

Come take a peek into our playtime!

We’ve been quite busy building, painting, scooping, pouring, sorting, hiding and seeking!

Sand table

This week, we took out the turtles and added jewels, beads, and clear containers in addition to our usual sand toy collection (shovels, bowls, sifters, colanders and things found in our bins underneath our sand table.) Kids have been sorting by color to make some “treasured” collections they can see in the clear containers, or hiding some jewels to seek, or, like in our morning class…loading a bunch of sand and jewels all into one big container, and dumping it all out! Some kids have been using the colanders to sift and watch as the sand pours out and reveals the jewels that were once in that sand. The funnels are really interesting to watch, too!

Someone in JK was using the newly added clear containers to concoct baby powder and pour it out through the lids with holes. So many ideas stemming from the same materials!

Water table

“The turtles? They’re here?” Yes! Kids noticed. We did move the turtles that were in the sand table last week into the water table this week. We do this for a number of reasons. First, some materials seem really interesting or well-loved by kids, and so we’d like to give kids some more time with them. We may bring them back at other points in the year, keep them in the same area for more days, or we may move them to another area of the classroom. Here, we try to invite other kinds of play with the same toys. What will the turtles want to do now that they are in water? We also want to help kids extend their play ideas. Kids may recall any imaginary play ideas they had for the turtles in the sand and carry that over to their water play. They may also observe some similarities or differences and want to continue any experimentation that they were once trying out in the sand. Some kids were burying the turtles in the sand along with some morning class fingers. Is that possible in water? What would help them hide this time? Someone noticed our hollow turtles were now “moving!” (floating in the water). They surely didn’t do that in the sand! Our heavier turtles were not moving. Hmmm, interesting. Some started to notice other things that the turtles could do, like balance and give rides to each other! We wonder if they tried this in the sand, or if it was a new idea! We’ll have to ask. We also added one more thing to use with the turtles: floating corks. Some kids have seemed interested in this sink/float idea, mmm hmm.

Easel

This week, we read the story “Mouse Paint.” 3 white mice find red, yellow and blue paint. They do some mixing to make orange, green and purple. We recalled having red, yellow and blue paint at our easel on the first days of school. Since then we’ve had blue, yellow and white. Kids noticed the various shades of green happening. This week, we have red, yellow and white and kids have seen some orange in places on their papers! Can you guess what we may have next week?!

Open-ended art table

Kids are growing more familiar with accessing supplies from our art shelf at school. They are starting to notice where they can find paper, and how they can go to the shelf to bring over any supplies they are wanting to use. So far, we’ve had various shapes of crayons and markers, stampers, and stickers. Kids have been creating pictures for home. One person even used some stickers to make their own kind of STOP sign after seeing ours on the playhouse ladder.

Art Project

This week, teachers introduced some watercolor brushes (brushes filled with liquid watercolor.) We demonstrated how to squeeze the brush tube in order to get the bristles wet and let out some of the paint. Then, you can use the brushes to paint on your paper. After some experience, kids are discovering what happens when you squeeze SO hard! The paint puddles on the paper. Some people are pleased. Some people are wanting to wipe it up (good thing we have washcloths nearby.) We are now starting to hear reminders about trying to help us keep the extra paint inside for others to use. Figuring out how much pressure to apply and when is good for fine motor skills, and working on self-control! We know it takes lots and lots of practice.

Anita helped show us how to squeeze and what happens when you use crayons on your paper first. If you’re interested, you can ask your child at home!

Here’s our artwork so far:

Building

We’ve noticed lots of houses (for kitties, puppies and people) being built with our magnatiles or blocks. So, we added some garden supplies.

Building, reading, watching the construction of the “flip cars” hiding spot.

Teachers facilitated an interaction after a few kids seemed interested in offering some help, “You could ask: Where do I put this block?” “Oh, put it right here.”