Bringing the leaf creations to life!

Good afternoon! We have several announcements being sent out via email. There are also several items in their mailboxes so make sure to bring all items home, as well!

Today has been a very busy day! We began the morning by creating with clay. Some students "baked" with clay while others created their families. Other friends designed with a variety of lines and shapes at the light table. Some friends made a helicopter out of blocks! A group of students created a giant city that contained several buildings and treasure underneath the building creations.

"This is a helicopter."

We went outside to play on the playscape. The class returned inside to participate in an intruder drill and then created their leaf creations. We had several birds, butterflies, cyclops and cats. The class will continue this project tomorrow as well.

"This is my leafman."

"This is a butterfly."

"This is my cat."

"This is a leafman."

"This is a cyclops."

"This is a person."

"This is my shark."

We ended the morning by celebrating a birthday. The class made a birthday canvas and read books before lunch. Have a great afternoon!

Leafman

Today we were inspired by a book called "Leafman"

We went out on the playcape and began collecting leaves to create our own leaf man 

We continued to collect leaves on our walk.  As we were walking the kids were discussing what part of their leaf man the leaves were going to be.  In the story there are leaf cows, leaf butterflies, and leaf ducks. 

We then sorted our findings into different containers so we can begin to build our leafmen tomorrow.

Bridges and towers

Good afternoon! We hope you all had a great weekend! We began the morning by talking about our two "stay home" days. The students made choices in the classroom that consisted of building a bridge. They used two pictures to use for inspiration (one from the our bridge book and another picture displayed from the projector). Two students built a "Michigan Bridge" while another pair of students built a "Kansas City" bridge. The KC bridge consisted of a boat riding across the water and there was "a bridge under the water so people could walk through and look up at the water." The Michigan bridge had paths for people to walk across and there was water flowing under the bridge.

"This is Kansas City. People walk across this block area. These are the buildings (tree cutters)."

"These are the people and this is the ship part. They are going across the bridge."

Michigan Bridge:

A group of students built towers along the wall of the projector.

Other friends created books in response to the question "What stories are hidden inside of you?" We had a lot of books about flowers, family members and TV characters. Some students practiced measuring with beans in the sensory table.

We ended the morning by playing in the forest. Students played in their "secret hideout" while others collected sticks and small branches. A few students made a "house" under some branches and used their collection of sticks as their "fire." It was so fun playing with Willow and Maple!

Zooming in...

As I was sitting at the block area, I noticed how you were observing your friends' creations. What were you thinking? How were you inspired by their building? After making your observations, you took two skinny rectangular prism blocks and placed them about a foot apart and laid a flat rectangle piece on top of them.

Shortly after you built this structure, it fell down. But this did not stop you! You quickly picked up the same blocks and built the same structure and received the same outcome.

I asked you, How can you make it stronger so it doesn't fall down? You said "Use more blocks." You took three blocks to stabilize your creation and it fell down.

You continued this process by using four blocks to keep your structure standing. You told me, "It's stronger now" with a big smile on your face!

It looked like you were motivated by your success and continued to add more blocks to your structure to make it taller.

You were so proud of yourself! After building for a while, one of your friends saw your great creation and asked you "Can I build with you?" You and your classmate continued to add detail to your structure and making sure it was stabilized by big, strong rectangular blocks.

You all worked so well together! It's so great to see students welcoming one another into their play. The more ideas and creativity, the bigger creations! Way to go!