As the end of the year approaches, the children cleaned out their mailboxes and took home paintings and works of clay they created. Some children will return to the orange and blue rooms in the fall and many will go to kindergarten. We asked the children, "What will you miss about our classroom?"
Mia: I will miss dramatic play. Lily: My friends. Izzy: I like going to message center. I will miss my friends and my teachers. Harlow: I will miss drawing. Lucy: I will miss my teachers. Sigrid: I really liked dramatic play because I can play all different kinds of things. I'm going to miss everything. Lauren: I will miss message center because I like drawing. Theertha: I will miss drawing. Ellie: Message center and playing with blocks. Zoe: The puzzles and painting. Hattie: I'm going to miss the message center because I like to draw. I'll miss dramatic play because I like to act. Brady: I will miss dramatic play in the orange room and painting in the blue room. Birk: I will miss playing at the message center, dramatic play, studio, and puzzles. I will miss all of the teachers and all of the children. Suzette: I will miss playing outside. Book: Noisy City Night Snack: popsicles & string cheese Today we celebrated Lauren's 5th Birthday! Her Mom read one of her favorite books and Lauren showed her friends her baby picture and several of her favorite toys. Lauren's Birthday Interview
Favorite Song - "Let It Go" Favorite Animal - Puppy Favorite Place at School - Message Center Favorite Color - Pink Favorite Toy - My Little Pony Favorite Princess - Elsa Favorite Book - Pete the Cat Favorite Holiday - Halloween Favorite Ice Cream - Chocolate Favorite Cake - Cookie Dough Happy Birthday Lauren! Thank you for joining us for our end of year picnic!!! It was a great way to celebrate our year together. Images From Our Day
Book: When I Get Bigger Snack: Popcorn and Applesauce Today we did many different activities! We took a walk to see our caps project, near the art wing, and noticed our pieces were being installed. We did a 10...9...8..7...6...5...4...3...2...1... blastoff countdown and watched the CHS chemistry class make a trash can shoot high up in the air! We ended our day with water play!!! There were also many moments today that we caught the children teaching one another to not be afraid to try hard things, to take care of hurts, to show their thankfulness, and to share materials!
Book: Tom Goes to Kindergarten Snack: crackers, cheese cubes & grapes This is a very sweet book about the different feelings children can have about kindergarten. Tom is very excited to go until the first day arrives. (It also has a gentle reminder to parents about the importance of play for grown-ups as well as children.) Today we observed children using critical thinking skills to imagine, conceptualize, and problem-solve. We heard them using language and communication skills to express ideas and feelings, show empathy, listen, disagree and to share their unique ideas. Your children have certainly grown in many ways this year! We believe children benefit from a strong foundation in social relationships. This has become evident in these last few weeks of school!
Book: There's a Giraffe in My Soup Snack: Popcorn and Frozen Yogurt Today we celebrated finishing our movie making project with "Camera" Katie, our technology specialist. We did this with a movie screening and freshly popped popcorn party! The children helped set up the classroom as a theater, by numbering chairs, making matching numbered tickets, and displaying a sign about what shows were playing. This was a culmination of several months work and lots of creative play! The FC@CHS Movie Making Process
We made 6 movies and each movie went through the 6 day process listed below. It was so much fun! We will share these movies, electronically, with you at the end of the school year. Movie #1 The Royal Mermaid Family (from studio creations and dramatic play) Brady- Baby Whale Brady Eloise- Princess Mermaid Eloise Birk- The Bad Guy Lily- Princess Mermaid Lily Izzy- Queen Izzy Movie #2 Secret Agent (from dramatic play) Jack & Birk -Secret Agents Morgan- Shark Movie #3 Cotton Candy Pixie Hallow (from block building play) Lucy, Sigrid, and Suzette -Fairies Movie #4 The Flower and Dancing Wedding (from dramatic play and from building a stage out of pipes) Zoe & Izzy- The Wedding Girls Lauren & Lucy- The Money Givers Eloise- The Baker Carly- The Music Player Movie #5 Christmas (from outdoor play) Harlow- Santa Ellie, Hattie, and Lauren- Puppies Sigrid- The Guard Brady- The Turtle Movie #6 Dragons, Princesses, and Unicorns (from a game that Harry and Izzy created with dice and mats) Harry- The Dragon Izzy- The Unicorn Mia & Theertha- The Princesses Day 1 A small group of children played. The teacher observed and took photos and notes. Day 2 The teacher brought her photos and notes to the small group of children. Together they reflected by looking at the photos and sharing what they had played. They talked about all the important details, what props were imagined, the characters, what happened in the beginning, middle, and end and if they needed to change or add anything else to their play/story. The teacher scribed their story, as they spoke. Day 3 The story was shared with our technology specialist and the research began for props, backdrops, and additional characters on the internet on the SmartBoard. Day 4 The children moved their characters and props around on the SmartBoard, telling their story. They made lots of agreements and compromises during this process. There were often pauses, in between movements, to take screen shots. We imagined that each screenshot was a page in our book/story. Day 5 The screen shots were combined and their story started looking like a movie... but there wasn't any sound! So, we used a program (Garage Band) to record the children's voices, as they watched their screen shots change. Our technology specialist combined the screenshots with the recorded voices. Day 6 The children were able to view their finished movies! Book: Chick-O-Saurus Rex Snack: grapes & veggie straws As we start the final piece of our circles and caps study today, the children were shown a large circular board. Then they were asked what ideas they might have to decorate it using the extra caps from our large collection. The children looked for inspiration in a book of natural images and on the internet, once they knew what they were looking for. Teachers talked with them about what they noticed in the images.
Sigrid noticed the light and dark areas of a flower, while Suzette noticed how the petals went around the center. Brady wanted to look up designs on turtle shells after looking at images of animal eyes in a book. Once they found an inspiration, the children drew their ideas on paper. Teachers asked questions to help them develop those ideas into something they could create with our caps. Some of the children began playing with the caps using their drawings. Enjoy the images below of their process: Book: We're Going on a Bear Hunt Snack: pretzel chips & raisins The children are noticing their developing gross motor skills. It is really evident when we play at the playground. They are climbing higher than they could before and with more confidence. Many children are able to swing by themselves now. (and able to teach friends: "You just push your feet out front and then back.") But it's still fun to get a push too! After our snack, the high school students came to our classrooms. They brought the ice cream we made together yesterday....AND TOPPINGS!! They stayed to eat with us and to play for a while. Book: This is Not My Hat Snack: Peppers, Wheat Thins, and Applesauce It was raining this morning and we started inside. Birk: It's raining! It's like a river in our yard. Harry: It looks like an avalanche! Maybe a tornado came through? Did you know I survived the Joplin tornado? Jack: You were in a tornado, woah! Izzy: Yes, look at our roof on the house! It blew off! Jack: There's a river, because the rain is so much. It's flooding. I don't see a tornado, but things are broken. Birk: This is so cool! Morgan come look! Theertha: It's beautiful. It makes mud puddles. Izzy: The water moves so fast. Hattie: The drops are so big. Birk: There was thunder. It's loud. Morgan: Woah! Then, the rain stopped and we played outside! After snack, we took a walk through the high school. We checked on our caps project and noticed that the pieces, we made with the art student, were coming together as one big piece. We walked a little further down the hallway and into the culinary classroom, where we made ice cream with the child development students. We took one of the ice cream makers back to our room to watch the liquid change into a solid and we had a little tasting. |
Author
This blog is created by Julie Abeles, Susan Goldwasser, Katie Graham and Kath Poppe, teaching team for the Family Center @ CHS. Archives
April 2016
Teacher Professional Development
You may know that the early release Fridays are designed for teacher professional development. This is a book the Early Childhood team of teachers have been studying this semester. Other professional development topics this fall have included; literacy & read alouds, health, wellness & mindfulness, the language of clay and becoming a reflective teacher.
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