The Stuffies Go To Mardi Gras

Today was Teddy Bear Day, and a whole array of stuffed animals joined us for a day's adventure.  Bears, horses, dogs, a pegasus, a caterpillar, a hippo and even a shark came to play and enjoy Morning Meeting, music and even yoga. Many of the stuffies got to spend time with a variety of kids, as the Turtles shared and traded throughout the morning.

We had a special guest For Morning Meeting, as GK's mom came in to read us a book, Down in Louisiana, which was sent in by GK's grandmother who is from Louisiana. Then she told us about Mardi Gras, and shared pictures of some of the fancy costumes. She also told us about the parades and, when we all called out, she threw us beads and Mardi Gras coins.

We also learned about the tradition of the King Cake and how a toy baby is baked into the cake and whoever finds it is King for the day. Noah, or King Noah as he was known today, found the toy baby.

Some Turtles also took the opportunity to make portraits of their stuffed friends, using a new medium - oil pastels. The pastels have some of the qualities of crayons, with the added benefit of allowing artists to mix colors directly on their papers.

Kids and pets traveled together to the John Barnes room, where we had a rousing musical session with Alison. We sang, danced and made "popcorn" with a parachute!

After music, we stayed in the Meetinghouse to play some games and get in some much-needed exercise on this cold, cold day.

The Shape of Many Things

Although a few children generously offered  to let the teachers sleep on their sleeping bags while the kids wrote the blog, somehow it is the teachers blogging again today. And what a great day to blog! Today we made amazing pizzas. First we added the ingredients into Carol's bread maker which magically made it into dough. Katie's mom Michelle is a pizza expert and she helped us design the pizzas.

We took the dough and each child made their own little pizza with sauce, two kinds of cheese, olives, red onions and mushrooms. Just about everybody loved them!

Morning Meeting was puppeterific today! Carol and Tamara took up their puppetry skills, and acted out some very sad scenes about two puppets being unkind to a third puppet, who would throw herself on the floor and cry very dramatically. Luckily, the Turtles helped the puppets work out their problems at the Peace Table with lots of suggestions for solutions. Learning conflict resolution techniques is a big job for three and four year olds, and the Turtles are working hard on it!

There were also several shape games today. Carol showed the Turtles how to make different animals using shapes on the Smart Board, and then we went on a Shape March, looking for circles in the hallway. And finally, we read the book, Mouse Shapes. While children can typically recognize many shapes at this age, they are still learning the attributes of the shapes (numbers of sides, corners/angels, relationships between sides, etc).

Tracks and Tunes

The Turtles are captivted by the keyboard, and are discovering all the different things that the various buttons can do. The Turtles take turns using the key board, five minutes each, and we have a sign-up sheet for taking turns. The children write their own names on the list (sometimes with some help), and when "all the red is gone" on the visual timer, the next child takes a turn.

Today was also the first day of play wth the waffle blocks! They were quickly assembled into a boat by a crack team of super heroes. There were a few techincal difficulties with people trying to squeeze on, and then the sides of the boat breaking, which is never good. We decided that we will need to bring in some more waffle blocks so that everyone can fit on our boat.

Our snowy playground continues to provide new experiments for the Turtles. Today, they worked on breaking up hunks of icey snow by throwing it on the pavement. Some ice broke more easily than others. With the warmer temperatures, we made another discovery: mud! After stomping in the squishy squishy mud, we could then make tracks in the snow, and our tracks were brown!

Monday is Moose Day*

The keyboard has been a magical addtion to our classroom. The children work with such intention and concentration as they try out different sounds, adding rhythm tracks, and making up melodies. It has taken their experience of music making to a new level!

Movement with Missy today was hilarious as the children played Musical Chairs. Even without a  vanishing chair, when the music stopped it was such a scramble to get a chair! Next Missy introduced jump ropes. We played lots of games, eventually working up to the (very tricky) skill of jumping the rope. Luckily, she said we can practice again next week.

After Movement, we bundled up and headed outside for more snow adventures. The children spied the goose footprints on the bank of the creek, cleared the big fallen branches from the playground, created "flower gardens" by placing sticks in the snow, and of course, slid like penguins down the hill.
Observing the children's interest in boxes and building, we decided to have the children bring the waffle blocks into the classroom to expand the materials for working. We are excited to see where this new material takes them!

*Ask your child about the Moose on Monday