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Hello and Happy New Year! We hope you all had a good break, and enjoyed time with your families. We are so grateful for the gifts we received in December. Thank you for the beautiful cards, lovely treats and generous gifts.
We are thrilled to announce that Byl Adam, who is a long term staffer, our tot teacher, and has subbed several times in our class, will be spending more time with us! The goal is for him to be in our classroom as a third teacher twice a week and he will spend the other two mornings in the East classroom. Additionally, Byl may sub in other classes when the need arises, so you may see him around even if he’s not scheduled to be in our room.
Before our break, we had a baking activity in our sand table, and used shakers of glitter to create sprinkles and spices. The sand became so full of glitter that you are probably still finding some on your children when they return from our classroom! After the glitter, we asked kids to help us transfer our sand into the water table. They were surprised and excited to make the switch, and pitched right in with small shovels, funnels and scoops. Having just a bit of water in the water table allowed them to notice the transformation from dry to wet, and there was much conversation around the process. “I’m keeping it dry.” “You have to mix it!” “Look how it’s getting darker!” We like to include children in the process of making these changes, to give them some ownership over things and to help them foresee and anticipate changes.
Having sand in the water table allows us to work with wet sand without ruining our wooden sand table, and we often use the empty sand table for other activities and large art projects. Some kids love the texture of wet sand and others are put off by the way it sticks to their hands. We offer tools for those who would rather not touch it, and most are interested in exploring it at least a little bit. Using wet sand, kids can create the mountains, sand castles and molds they’ve been trying to form with dry sand. Before the break, we kept the sand just damp, and it was just perfect for patting together and creating shapes from molds. This week we’ve added more water and some boats and people, gems and tongs. Adjusting the water level offers different experiences, and kids are exploring the ways water moves over and around the sand. The glitter can make these movements more visible, as it floats and swirls in the water. Some are creating pools or dams or using large scrapers to manipulate the sand and water. Others are collecting gems or burying them and rediscovering “treasure.” Some like to fill vessels with sand, and are then noticing how difficult it is to empty the vessel. Next week we’ll add more beach accessories and kids can continue exploring the properties of wet sand, along with revisiting (or dreaming of) sunny days and beach vacations.
