Do you remember?

Scooping, pouring, imaginative fun in the sandbox...

You and I can only guess what kind of intricate stories are being woven in their heads while doing these kinds of work.  I remember some of the stories/ideas that accompanied the games my sister and I played outside.  Do you remember? 

Beauty of the process

Below, you'll see one painting-

beginning strokes

  

and finished product.

If you only saw the finished product, you would have no idea the amount of simplicity and clarity with which this child began the painting.  After painting for a short while, this child invited two friends to join him at the easel.  So, the finished product is a collaboration between three people!

Spring morning

Spring weather leaves us little reason to go inside.  There is so much to do outside- so much to care for, so much to investigate.  On this particular day, there were new chickens to observe and tend to.  We now have seven chickens.  We worked together to give them love and feed them.  The kids had many questions- what are their names, which one is the mama, ...

Then it was time to water the vegetables and flowers.  The kids aren't always interested in doing this morning work.  I sometimes take care of it while they are watching or playing nearby.  But today they were ready to care for all of the living creatures at Creatures Habitat!

Body Challenge/ Numbers

We have been working on this project throughout the year...

6 

4

These are from earlier in the year...

7

1

One of the kids mentioned street address/ door numbers today.  I thought it might be fun for the kids to work together to lay out their home address or maybe the address of Creatures.

Storytelling

Here at Creatures, we have a storytelling ritual.  The kids who want to, tell stories orally around the table during community snack.  Sometimes the kids comment on someone's story, "That was really short."  or "I couldn't understand what he was saying."  I like to emphasize how each person tells a different kind of story.  The act of telling a story is the most important thing to me.  Each child gets to be center stage.  S/he can choose to do with it what s/he wants.  And so it was today when one child distorted his voice while telling his story.  I pointed out that he was using expressive gestures that we could watch.  There is more to a story than just the words.  We can use body language, facial expressions, illustrations, ...

Today, the kids took turns leading the group through circle/monster blob time.  They told their own stories.  Someone turned on the overhead projector and it created a spotlight of sorts.  I suggested that they could use light drawings to illustrate their story performances.  We put the storytelling on hold, and the kids got to work drawing on transparencies.

Then, they took turns telling their stories with light illustrations!

 

Snapshots from this week

She made a ship (The Colored Ship of Italy) and then tested to see if it would float.

The kids collaborated on shadow shows while they worked independently.  This was a show about Spiderman and the Green Goblin.  

 One child brought a book to share during monster blob time.  The kids were inspired to make a rock n' roll song afterwards.  One kid kept saying, "There's not enough boom!"  It's true- we were lacking a funky rhythm section...

Garden Delights

....We interrupt this program to show you two splendidly cute kids stuffing their faces with green vegetables (actually, fennel)...

The Butterfly Mystery

We started the morning with a butterfly mystery.  Last week, there were 5 Monarch caterpillars on the Milkweed plant.  Today, there were none, and the plant had not one leaf left.

With our trusty butterfly chart and magnifying glasses in hand, we set out to search for clues of what might have happened to those caterpillars.

Along the way, we inspected host plants of Alfalfa butterfly (host plant =  legumes), Gulf Fritillary (host plant =  passionflower), and Cabbage butterfly (host plant = well, that one's fairly obvious).

We found a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar on the Passionflower vine!  The kids noticed it had "spikies" to scare away predators and that it moved very slowly.

We did not solve the mystery, but we did identify the possibilities that the caterpillars might have transformed into butterflies or run out of food and, well, not survived.  The caterpillars could have also gone away to search for more Milkweed.  Apparently, butterflies are quite particular about which plants they eat.

<We actually spotted a handful of orange butterflies in the garden as families were leaving to go home.  Unfortunately, we were all so muddy and tired from playing the day away that we were unable to identify what kind of butterflies they were.>

Ah, the joys of spring!!!!

This might be the only picture of me on the blog!