Rock Moving, Color Mixing, City Building

Today we worked on the playscape moving rocks out of the rock river.  The school is getting some new rocks for this space and needed our help.  While moving the rocks the kids found lots of little critters, slugs, worms, a snail and even a frog!

Inside we did come color mixing with paints.  The students put little drops of pain on their paper and then began mixing.  It was very interesting to watch as each kid as they all approached their paint strokes differently.  Some did small circles others did large long strokes.  Some students were very intentional mixing their colors while some mixed them all right away. 

 
 


 

Our building challenge today was: "How can you add to this city?"

A black and white cityscape was projected onto the wall.  The kids built their own towers and buildings.

Forest Monday!

Picture day is this Wednesday, October 16th

Good afternoon! We hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed the wonderful fall weather. I know the Birch room enjoyed being outside today at the forest!

We began our morning by changing our classroom jobs and making choices in the classroom. The choices consisted of designing at the projector, building at the light table, drawing at the art table, creating objects out of floam, and designing with loose parts, such as jewels, buckeyes, and small shapes.

"This is a birthday cake!"

"This is a city. The buildings are really tall."

While designing with loose parts, some students made numbers and letters out of jewels. A few students made flowers while others experimented with shapes in picture frames.

"This is the number 1, letter i and E."

Later on, we went to the forest with Maple and Willow. It was nice going with other friends from the school to create new memories and adventures! The students climbed trees, searched for big sticks and leavings, dug for worms, and played treasure hunting. They sure love the forest!

Have a great day!

Musical Friday

Today we attended a concert by the high school band and choir.  They played and sang song we all knew.  Our kids loved watching and listening to the music. Each song was played by a different set of instruments: string, brass and woodwind.  As the students watched they high schoolers play, they were also pretending to play the instruments. They noticed how the students held their instruments and copied. Check out the schools facebook page for videos.  I can't get the ones I took to upload. The conversations the kids had on the way back were very inspired by what they heard.  

"That was so good!"

"I can only make noise with my mouth. They use instruments." 

"I want to play an instrument."

"They sang Elsa!"

"I have a trombone at home. Its blue."

In our classroom today we had lots of building and creating! Students make airplanes and tried to fly them! Some worked better than other.  I wonder if we will want to focus on making some flying airplanes?  

 

Pine room let us use their gak, it was so fun.  The kids stretched it, squished it and rolled it and made bubbles.  (If gak gets on their clothes, soak it in vinegar and the gak dissolves :-)  Another science experiment

 

The construction in our room today was focused at the light table.  The students were building a castle.  The blocks kept falling over and they decided they needed to move their building to the floor next to the light table, where they could still reach the same materials. 

 

 We also explored with a new art material today, Kwick Sticks.  They are a paint stick that dies SUPER quick! They LOVED creating with these today.  We already have come up with some ideas on how else to use these.