Colors and Sounds

Another busy day in Turtleland. At Morning Meeting, we introduced the Turtles to their newest musical instrument - the recorder, and everyone got a recorder of their own. We learned a bit about high notes and low notes (and loud squeaky notes). Everyone had a chance to begin to familiarize themselves with playing their new instrument and got to demonstrate some notes for their friends.

At Choice Time, we had the chance to decorate and personalize our recorders, as well as to enjoy snack, build, drive trains, cook or participate in the busy lives of superheroes (many of the Turtles have been donning capes during dramatic play and heroically flying about the room).

We also started another unit in our Art Studio and the Turtles began the Story of Color, experimenting with mixing primary colors to make new colors. We talked about strong and weak colors, and how we start with the weak color and add just a little bit of the strong color at a time, mixing until we get our desired shade. The Turtles were scientist and artists as they made predictions, carried out experiments, and made observations about the effects of colors on each other.

Meanwhile, other Turtles went out to explored around the cemetery to see what they could find. Much to their amazement, we found numerous signs of animal life - including feathers, deer poop, and lots of tracks in the snow and mud. This raised a lot of questions about the types of animals that live in our community and what you could tell about them from the evidence they leave behind. We also found some more ice to slide around on.

Afterwords, we warmed up with some new books: This Is Not a Box (a book that Maggie brought in) and Mouse Shapes. Mouse Shapes introduces many simple shapes and by discussing what makes the shapes unique, counting corners and sides, commenting on parallel lines and wide angles, the children develop their geometrical understanding.