Searching for birds

Hello and good afternoon! We hope you are enjoying this beautiful day. The Birch room began the morning by making choices in the classroom. Students created with floam and built houses and "trap doors" for animals.

The students have been showing interest in learning about birds. At the art table, students create books and created illustrations of birds. They used classroom books and calendars as inspirations for their drawings. 

Because of their interests in birds, we projected a live camera of bird feeders. Throughout the morning, the students were welcome to relax in the quiet area and observe the animals that visited this bird feeder. The students watched a squirrel snack on some seeds, as well as a blue jay and other types of birds.

Students practiced sorting puff balls in the sensory table and with a variety of colored fabric and beads.

We continued the morning by taking a walk around the neighborhood. While walking, the students were challenged to listen and look for birds. The class noticed several bird nests high up in trees, and we saw several robins and one cardinal hopping on branches in a tree.

Stay tuned for more wonderings about birds! 

Cookies and Compartments

We continued working with the loose parts this morning.  The children were making cookies, cookie sandwiches and cookie soup.

You can tell that the children made cookies over break.  Children bring their "real life" experiences into their play. It's a way for them to master their experiences and skills.   They were pretending to roll out their cookie dough and then place their "candy" or "sprinkles" on the cookies. 

"This is the dough. You have to roll it out."

They were placing candies on top of the cookies.  "This is decoration" 

 

"We made a a real big mess! You have to roll up your sleeves"

"Cookie soup"

"Cookie sandwich"

We also had a great big building happening today.  First the children made a "compartment castle" (I think they were trying to say apartment) 

"My side is 42 feet inches" "Mine says 31" 

The building got knocked over and the children decided to rebuild.  This time they made a garage. 

"It's a compartment building with a garage.  The cars are going to be under the compartment. This is the roof of  the garage and the floor of the compartment" 

Welcome back!

Hello all and welcome back from winter break! We hope you all enjoyed the time with your child. The kids were so excited to see their friends and teachers this morning and we had a lot of catching up to do!

We began the morning by sharing some activities we did over winter break. Sounds like there were a lot of sleepovers, traveling and gift giving! After sharing, the students made choices in the classroom and were very excited to play and make new discoveries with their favorite toys and materials.

Some students created with floam while others designed a the art table. Children built structures and objects out of plus plus toys and light table legos. Others built at big train bridge that circled around a shelf.

A popular choice this morning were loose parts which consisted of fabric, beads and tree cookie cutters. The students made sandwiches, cookies, pies, cakes and designs with these materials.

We ended our morning in the classroom by practicing deep breathing. Ms. Susie and I plan to introduce a variety of "breaths" throughout this semester. This will support children's concentration in the classroom, as well as giving them a strategy to calm their bodies during parts of the school day. Today, the students learned "bumble bee breath" and "balloon breath." Ask your child to show you the breaths!

The Birch room continued our morning by taking a visit to the forest! It was such a beautiful day to enjoy some fresh air and going to one of our favorite places. Here, students hunted for animals with sticks, cooked in the mud, found a secret hideout, climbed trees and swung from branches. The students were super busy!

"We are cooking soup!"

"We are on a train. Come on, E, get on! I'll be the conductor."

"Look, Ms. Abby we are swinging really high."

"When I put my feet up, I go really high and fast, like this."