We were introduced to pour painting in the style of Holton Rower during Monday art. We watched a time lapse video of the assembly of a base and the pouring of cups of acrylic paint over the base. We watched as it flowed down and was pushed further out into a flower pattern as additional colors were added. The children made their own mini pour paintings after donning T-shirt smocks and selecting blocks and their preferred colors of acrylic paint.
The children began playing doctor last week, so we brought out the medical instruments and set up a physician’s office in the dramatic play area. There were so many busy doctors and nurses seeing all the patients with ailments and in need of check-ups. We introduced some models of the nasal cavity and the inner ear, as well as our skeleton, John, with his 206 bones, that the doctors could refer to as needed. We took out the game Operation so surgeons could get some practice keeping their hands steady and earn a little money.
We read our Using the Toilet story and discussed bathroom etiquette and respect for others. We talked about how everyone has private areas that are covered by underwear and those areas are only for themselves to see and sometimes their doctors and parents and occasionally teachers if help is needed in the bathroom, but not for friends or anyone else.
Work continued construction on the house. The children attached planks for the third wall, sawing off the parts that were too long, and added a roof that they can climb on (after asking a teacher). We are so grateful to the Sansoucy’s who donated two drills and a bunch of lumber, and the McIlveens who donated a big stack of lumber this fall!!
We received some new large hollow blocks, and the children were anxious to play with them. Some students demonstrated how to carry the longer blocks to keep everyone safe. They constructed some fantastically creative structures!
Rose read and signed the story of Mr. Gumpy’s Outing, about Mr. Gumpy who takes the children and animals out for a ride in his boat, as long as they agree to ride peacefully to avoid tipping. They go along calmly for a while until eventually they begin to squabble, flap, trample, bleat, hop, chase, etc. and the boat tips over and they all end up in the water before going back for tea. The story had many familiar signs with a few new ones, including boat, tip, river, squabble, and trample. Rose then taught us how to sign and sing “Sally the Camel,” which was a lot of fun!
Susan continued work with high and low using the glockenspiel. Children took turns striking a note that was either higher or lower, whichever Susan asked them to find. They then had fun playing the boom whackers again all around the room.
During Spanish with Zeanny we sang some of our songs then played a super fun game of color tag. Zeanny would say a color in Spanish, and everyone who was wearing that color would run and she would try to tag them. If tagged, you became a tagger until all but one had been tagged. That person then became the next tagger. It was so much fun!
Kindergarten students are at the end of the alphabet, so they worked on the letter U. They painted a forest of trees and brainstormed a list of things to add to the UNDERSTORY. They discussed all the things that might be found in the understory of a forest. They discussed what you would see looking up if laying on the ground, and painted it. They even painted some snags – trees that had fallen and got stuck in another tree. They counted the days up to 145 and painted the fence pickets again, each child painting a multiple of a number, while Susan challenged them to find particular numbers using math questions.
Worms were everywhere this week and the hunters were busy finding them all! The children collected buckets and bowls FULL of worms! Dozens, and dozens of worms!
Friday students built a worm jar with Michelle. Michelle discussed with them how worms burrow down through the soil and sand and how they eat the leaves and greens at the surface and aerate the soil as they pass through. We found some worm castings (worm poop) and discussed how they are full of nutrients that make the soil rich and healthy. The children then found cups and bowls, which they filled with soil, sand, or leaves & grass. We placed a smaller jar inside a large jar and the children took turns adding their sand or soil to create layers, then put in a layer of grass and topped it with some carrot and cabbage greens and moistened it by spraying with water after adding several handfuls of worms. The top was covered with cheese cloth then black paper was placed around the outside to make it nice and dark, just the way worms like it. In the afternoon we took a peek and saw one worm beginning to burrow down. We are excited to check it out next week to see more burrows and how the layers may have changed and mixed.
