Open House: January 4

Please join us on Wednesday, January 4th, 9am to 11am.  Come see what we are all about.  We'd love to see you there!  For more info, please contact Emily Hurd at emily_hurd@yahoo.com

Fun Times at Creatures Playschool

The sensory box continues to captivate.  The kids are always finding new ways to engage with it.  Lately, they have been exploring ways to block the tubes.

The sand castings these kids are painting were so much fun to make!  Using plaster requires such quick, precise work that I was unable to get pictures of the actual making.

Making Paper

1.Dip the deckle and frame into the slurry and let most of the water run into the tub.

2.Take off the frame and flip the deckle onto a drying sheet (wool):

3.Press sponge against the deckle to lift out any excess water.

4. Lift off deckle:

5.Put another drying sheet over the paper:

6.Roll the brayer over the paper to dry it out even more.

And there you have it!  (Too bad I didn't get a picture of it!)

Bursts of Energy: Playing in the Cold

The cold weather has brought with it great bursts of energy!  Play must go on, even on cold and rainy days!

After running around for a long while, the kids decided to build something.  I pulled the tools out, they gathered wood scraps, and we began building:

  We created a shelter by putting a tarp around the teepee.  The kids were telling a story, using clothespins as characters:

Order and Organization

I love seeing children order things on their own without adult prompting.  Learning and fun is plenty messy around here, and it is also orderly and clean...sometimes :)

Folding sheets of wool from a papermaking project that were hung to dry on the teepee.

There is such an immense amount of pride that comes with learning to do things for oneself.  I love this aspect of the Montessori method- "Help me to help myself."

Snapshots from the last few weeks

  

 

More snapshots

Ahhh...sweet lemon flowers!  

 

Outdoor Weaving

Look how many different things can happen in a sandbox at one time!

This was an outdoor game the kids made up about Super Hawk.  You can see them flying together in the last photo. 

Color Mixing

Puppets!

We recently started exploring puppets together at playschool.  One of the mamas told me about seeing Aladdin in marionettes at the library this summer.  I realized the puppet master was an acquaintance of mine from a few years back, and this inspired me to get in touch with him- Don Harms of The Harms Marionettes.  He paid us a visit a few weeks ago and we made him muffins.  He invited us to watch him rehearse for a show and also shared some plans/diagrams for making a couple of different puppets.  Today we made rod puppets with a soda can, a paper clip, aluminum foil, two rubber bands, a couple of strips of yarn or fabric, and a metal rod.  

Ta-dum!

The making of the puppets, of which I managed to capture no photos, was just the beginning.  The kids played with them for a good half hour straight.

There was lots of dancing involved- crazy, spinning, whirling dervish-like dancing.

Dance-til-you-drop dancing...

There were some detailed, imaginative games going on that involved volcanoes.

One child drew all of the puppets on the chalkboard. 

I love that the drawing is evidence of the child's understanding of how each component fits together- the hook/tie bar at the top, the opened paper clip, the ball of aluminum foil,...

The kids were engaged in every aspect of this project. 

Troubleshooting...

There are so many ideas and projects that I prepare for that are quickly discarded by the kids.  Maybe the time of day isn't quite right; there is a strong need to run or to play with friends; maybe the materials are not appealing in a way that they can really get into it.  If you're looking to base projects around children's interests then you can't get too attached to seeing them finished.  It's up to them!  It is just so rewarding in the moments when it all comes together.

I Love Teacher Tom

I draw so much inspiration from Teacher Tom.  The project below is straight from his blog.  Our storytelling rituals where the kids tells stories and I transcribe them onto paper (and then sometimes we use them as a source for writing practice) come from him.  I was especially thankful for his recent post about this article published in Scientific American.  Please take a minute to read about the critical role of play-based learning in early childhood.

Snapshots

Snapshots from this week and last...

Making Oobleck

Nature Walk