What a fun caper day! And, of course, it is also Think About it Thursday!
Today was a bit different with the way we asked. Typically we have had a "yes", "no" question and our sign in was a vote that answered our question. Today our question was,
Our friends had to figure out how to respond to the question.
How can you show me your answer?
Some friends wrote their name with the color of their home.
Some friends drew me a picture of their home using the crayon that matched their home color.
Some friends created their color by mixing the crayon marks.
A few friends had a tricky time. "My home is white."
How can we show that?
These friends used their "smart brains" and drew an outline of their home and left the inside "blank"!
Now it's off to caper!
How can you paint texture?
We shared our love of nature and painting once again with an invitation to paint leaves.
CG you created a beautiful pink and it reminded me of the petals you discovered yesterday.
I pulled up the photo and you created your color!
How can you build a map of your room?
"I made a bed! These are the walls." AD "This is my bedroom." CW
What a gorgeous day! We knew we were going to walk. It IS Walking Wednesday after all. Where should we walk to?
"Well, guess what Birch friends?" I asked. "I got an email from the library and they have another book ready for us!"
"Yeah!!! Let's go to the library!" we heard from everyone.
Perfect. Let's go get that book. I wonder what it is about? I don't even remember which one I requested!
What a great question. What do you think our book might be about?
"I think it's about rainbows." JI Hmm, what makes you think we might have a rainbow book? "Well, maybe not." JI
"I think it's a feelings book." RM What makes you think it's about feelings? "Because we've been talking about feelings a lot, lot." RM We sure have! I wonder if you're right?
"I think it's about 'happy'." EM You are thinking about our Happy Book that we have had out. That's another feelings book. Hmmm...maybe? There's only one way to find out!
Our walk became an full sensory experience! Everywhere we looked and walked we were surrounded by the beauty of fall.
"It smells like mint!"
It IS mint! This smell makes me happy.
Look at this soft plant.
"It feel like a kitty cat."
"These leaves are so so soft." AD
They look like a regular leaf, but they feel SO soft!
We talk a lot about being kind to one another. Did you know we also talk about what it looks like to be kind to nature? Some of the phrases we often share are "The tree is still holding tight to it's leaves. It's not ready to let go yet." or "That flower is growing so beautifully. It's holding tight to it's petals so we can all enjoy it."
We know our friends LOVE to pick nature. But when we pick something, it can't grow anymore.
But what we CAN do it enjoy nature when the plants decide to let go.
"Look at these petals I found!" CG
We walked past a beautiful garden and the plants had let go of so many of their petals. We were eager to pick them up. I wondered with you if we could mix those colors and paint the colors of the petals.
"We need red and white to make pink and blue and pink to make purple." CG
I don't think we have any pink paint.
"We could use a little bit of the pink we made!" CG
Of all of the things that drop...leaves are the best!
The best part of walking in our community is the conversation that occurs around us.
"I'm going to walk Walter with my dad after school." HW
"Is Walter your brother?" JA
"Yeah." HW
"Walter is your BROTHER? What is Walter?" Ms L
"He's a dog. He's my dog-brother." HW
"I don't have a dog brother. Just a brother-brother." JA
We're here! And we have our book!
I wonder if we can figure out what it is about by looking at the cover?
He has a smile.
It's a happy book.
It's a feelings book.
"Some days are..."
And so the book began, talking about all of the things that make our days.
Chocolate pie
"That is happy!"l
Swimming at grandpa's pool
"It feels swimmy."
"Relaxed."
Picking out a puppy
"SO excited!"
Trick or Treating
"Happy-Excited!"
Mommy trying to get you ready in the morning...
"She looks mad!"
When you get your mommy hug
"You feel happy."
And the days went on. Some days were sad "because her doggy is running away". Some days were "bored day" when it rains and you can't play kickball. We noticed lots of friends said the pages looked "happy". But when we looked closely there were differences in those happy feelings. Hmmmm...I wonder if there is more than one kind of happy? How do they feel different? What do we call them?
As we walked back to school we continued our talking and I asked the friends around me...
What kink of day are YOU having today?
"I am feeling happy to be at school and play outside." ESE
We knew our friends would need a low key, relaxed, calm-inducing day after such a fun night Nothing says PJ day more than bedtime stories! After our morning meeting we started our day with exactly that! We turned off all of the lights, snuggled up on the carpet, and listened to a bed time story.
Although Halloween is over, we knew our friends were still reveling in the fun of their evening. Their conversations were ALL about trick or treating, who saw what, who got what candy, how many houses they went to.
All of this talk gave your teacher a great idea!
How can we connect this excitement to our map study?
Oh boy were these friends excited! We saw maps like we have never seen before!
We heard about haunted houses.
We heart about block parties.
We even heard about Halloween birthday parties!
We saw maps that showed us you went around your block.
We saw maps that showed us you went around your whole neighborhood!
DM you drew me TWO maps! Your first map showed me what looked like a map of your neighborhood, a long line that turned corners and had a house at the beginning and the end..
Then you turned your page over and drew a street with your whole family on it.
You told me about the safe way to walk along the sidewalk and how you had so much fun/
Then you turned your map back over and showed me all of the houses that you went to.
We invited friends to notice the colors in the beautiful fall leaves they collected in the forest last week.
How can you paint what you see?
What do you know about math?
What can you show me with these materials?
"I made a pattern!" CG
GC you began counting the discs, then you found the number tile that matched. Then you added one more, and found the next number. Then you did it again...and again...and again! You kept adding one more and counting higher and higher!
Kiss that smart brain! You know a lot about math!
Sometimes the simplest of invitations bring the greatest joy. We were gifted several hole punchers last week and we knew exactly what we would do with them.
All of our writing, drawing, and painting work...all of the manipulating our loose parts...all of the work with playdough...what does it all have in common?
We need strong fingers and hands!
Punching holes repurposing our painting work was the perfect combination to practice using those strong grip hand muscles.
It was tricky and required a lot of concentration. We had to stick with it and not give up!
Some friends focused in on the holes they created, and other friends focused on the "holes" that fell out; all those tiny little circles!
