Bugs handling and Letter U

Hello Purple Room families,
Our last week began with the hope to see a leprechaun trapped in our box.
We spoke about how they are going to feel if they caught one as well as if they did not. These thoughts prepared them with a positive attitude. After this discussion at circle time, we headed outside as a group to check out our catch. The first thing our children noticed was something that the leprechaun left for them (pencils). Their next move was smart. They immediately checked if the pot of gold was there or missing. Peeking through the little opening on top, D exclaimed that the pot of gold was gone. Hearing this all the children started investigating the the trap. They looked under every possible thing expecting to see a tiny leprechaun.

Eager to check in the box...





Picking up everything to look under...





Wishing to see one before picking up the golden fabric bed...





Ripping everything, leaving no chance...






Unfortunately, there was no leprechaun inside. They guessed he was witty and labeled him as a great sneaker!!!

Suddenly they saw something strange and called other friends to check it out....
In their words, they saw millions of tiny holes in the grass area. Now this was truly strange, even for me ;-) The only thought that came to their minds was that the leprechaun came in from here and went back in there. They also made a unique connection saying that the leprechauns live underground in grass, and that is why they are green!

Checking the holes seriously...And the investigation begins....











Deep...(sticking the pencils in and calling, 'come out leprechaun!')





Deeper...(eyes carefully checking the holes!)





Deepest...(finally, nothing beats feeling with the fingers!)





Well, some even tricked the teachers calling, "I see the leprechaun's little head here" and the hunt became sillier now :) They laughed and giggled and kept tricking each other. It was totally a fun investigation with their smart minds thinking of problems and solutions, discussing the 'maybe' aspect, all filled with their
early age thoughts and emotions!

The final 'Maybe' story goes as follows:
Maybe the leprechaun came out or maybe millions came out and together worked to carry the pot of gold since one leprechaun would not be able to carry the heavy pot...then they threw a feast with all the money from the gold, had a party, pooped (since they could see tiny balls of dirt on the grass everywhere), and they all went back underground (leaving clues behind) expecting to come out again next year. Tada!

The effect of all this was that they decided we have to make a much smarter trap next time. They decided to modify a few elements - 1)the opening door size, 2)something tied to the door so that when he falls in, the door should automatically close behind leaving no chance for him to escape, 3) putting paint inside the trap so that even if he escapes we can track him by the paint footprints he would leave behind. Now all that is analytical & critical thinking!

Caterpillars!!!
Yippie our caterpillars have grown and with them our kids have grown in their skills of observation :-) We look at the caterpillars every day and draw our observation. There is so much to compare and contrast (comparing them to today and previous days), there are so many different things that we notice when we learn to observe them closely.

Coloring our "Purple room observation" poster board...





Observations...


















It was U week and we spoke a lot about 'under' stuff. They got interested in digging the bugs 'under' the salt heap, catching them, and taking them out with a special scissors (where lots of fine motor was practiced since it was not easy to work with those).

P singing, 'The ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah!'





L working on his grip...





W hiding the bugs under the salt for J to look for...





D trying to catch more tham two with the scissors...





C picking the bees to feed the grasshoppers...






For letter U we worked on letter U collages, colored Unicorns and even galloped them on the ramp, and made Umbrellas.

Letter U collages...

















Coloring...





Galloping Unicorns...






O looking at L and S galloping their Unicorn and asking them what they were doing...






Making Umbrellas and adding rain drops too...












Last Friday we all waited to make the Upside-down cake. The upside down word seemed very fun to them and we all tried standing upside down for at least a minute (with some teachers help) and talked how everything looks upside down. Some even walked on their hands while upside down and realized that it was so much better to walk with our feet :)

Talking about the recipe directions...





Adding ingredients...





Whisking/beating and feeling the different levels of speed. It was fun as they felt and saw their hand vibrate at different speeds as they moved from lower to higher speeds and visa versa..











Spreading pineapple on the base (Under )and batter on top and discussing how when we flip what will happen (they guessed right away that the pineapple will be on top and cake on bottom!)






Other highlights of the week...
Making Shamrocks on St. Patrick's Day













Working with green playdough all week...



















Enjoying the tire run outdoors (they really practiced a lot for this one)!






Finally the race...






Other activity they loved was coloring Under the table pretending to be Michael Angelo.

We also spoke about the difference of coloring on top and coloring under the table.












Overall we had a tremendous week with their increased interest and willingness to work and participate in different things of their choice!

See you around.

Hugs,
Rashida.

Looking Ahead: Choosing a Kindergarten

It takes a village to answer this question, which school is right for my child when they graduate from Creative Minds? Should they go to private, public or charter school? What is transitional kindergarten?

A few of our parents are asking the above questions, and a few of our veteran parents have tried to share their personal stories. I am a complete believer in the collective wisdom of our parents.

Here are some personal stories. Feel free to email us your story to add to the conversation:

Discovery Charter School
From Heather in Blue Room

I work in education and child development research, so I became interested in charter schools like Discovery because they align with everything we know is right for child development and learning. Discovery, in particular, is interesting because the director simply looks at what the research overwhelmingly says is best for child development and learning and adopts that approach (no homework, year-round calendar, play-based kindergarten, child-directed learning, inquiry-based learning, positive discipline, etc). Putting it into practice is, of course, rougher than that, but I think overall it's a good option for parents who prefer a school that is focused on positive development and highly motivated learning, and want to avoid the testing and high-pressure academics of some of the local public schools. I don't have the first-hand experience of having a child in Discovery yet, but I've met a lot of parents who are pretty fanatical in their devotion to the school. I've heard that Discovery 2 is having some "growing pains" but it is their first year and that's expected. I'm pretty happy that, if we get a spot, Kaia will be in kindergarten in their second year — they'll still be working out some kinks next year and for kindergarten that's fine as long as they stick to their play-based/Reggio approach.

One of the reasons I like the parent participation approach of Discovery is because, unlike some families, we don't live in a good neighborhood for having a sense of community and kids to play with. I appreciate that Discovery builds community within the school. I don't know how it looks in daily practice at Discovery, but I know that the parent meetings that I've been to as a founder have been very well attended, with hundreds of people show up. The parents are certainly involved with the school and encouraged to be involved, and I guess from there it's up to the parents to build the community that they want. Likewise with connecting with the outside community — I see those efforts happening, but I assume it depends on the parents who are there to make it happen. They do a lot of field trips, parent education, and community outreach, and a lot of that is parent-led.

I don't know much about the YMCA aftercare program at Discovery. I'm a little concerned about that, because I've heard less than glowing reviews about YMCA aftercare programs on a national level. It's hard to say how that translates to the program at a particular school. It sounds like the aftercare program is fairly small at Discovery 2, and according to the director it follows the Discovery approach. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I feel a little better knowing that the director is paying attention to the aftercare. Still, it's something on my mind. I like that they spend a lot of time outside during the day and generally get to burn energy during the day, so it's not all dependent on after school to do that.

Our plan is to go to Discovery if we get a spot and see how it goes. Our neighborhood school gets mixed reviews, but I think it's a fine alternative if Discovery doesn't work out. We're also applying for a transfer to another school in our district just because it has an IB program and is a much smaller school.

Since Kaia's not in kindergarten yet, I don't have much direct experience to share! My experience as a founding parent has been that the parents at Discovery are extremely dedicated, and the director is phenomenal. As for how to look for quality schools, it's a difficult question. I think you have to figure out what your most important criteria are. For me, the teachers and director/principal are the most important factors, along with approach to learning.

Private School
From Satarupa in Blue Room

This is our first year in K-12 school with our older son Dhruv, and also our first year of school in the US! We are very much in the learning process ourselves. I'm not married to anything yet -- public, private or charter.

Our neighborhood public school does not offer the opportunity to build a community since many of our neighbors' kids don't go there. The kids in our neighborhood play and get together anyway since we live in a townhome community and there are common areas where everyone comes out and plays. Luckily we don't miss out on that by going with private school.

The big positives for us in the private school we chose are its all-around curriculum with a strong language-arts program. The kids' music teacher is a local musician. They have music every day in kindergarten. The art teacher is phenomenal. He makes the kids who would otherwise draw a 5-year-old's line drawings produce works of art and think outside the box while they're at it. The same teachers offer after-school classes and the kids love it. There is no significant transition between school day and after school.

In general, by design, private schools end up picking students who will be suited to their particular environment (and there is a range of private school philosophies out there). As a result the teacher (who may actually be less qualified than a public school teacher) is able to focus more of her energy on teaching as opposed to maintaining class discipline, at least in the lower grades. What I'm observing is that while the method of teaching may not match what I personally could do if I home schooled for example, the class is moving at a fast pace because all the kids are able to keep up and are interested. All the kids are challenged. I don't think any kid is bored or way ahead of the class. There's no pressure from the parents. As we move to the older grades, I am going to look more closely at the quality of teaching itself, i.e teaching concepts rather than fact sheets, encouraging original work.

Public School
From Teacher Aimee

When my oldest, Fiona, was ready to transition from preschool to kindergarten, we checked out our neighborhood public school, Oak Ridge Elementary School, our school district's alternative k-8 program called The Indigo Program, and private school at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. All three were very different, but each had aspects my husband and I liked.

Our neighborhood school is within walking distance and is ranked a 7 out of 10 on greatschools.org. The Indigo Program has a similar philosophy to Creative Minds and has a lot of parent involvement. Holy Spirit had small class size and a nice campus. After going on tours at all three sites, doing some research, and much weighing of pros and cons, we went with our neighborhood school (with the thought that if we weren't happy after kindergarten, we would transfer to The Indigo Program for first grade).

Four years later we are still at Oak Ridge. Fiona is now in third grade and Katie is in kindergarten. So far so good! I think Oak Ridge works for our family because we love being part of the neighborhood community, walking to and from school and playing on the weekends with school friends. I volunteer in the girls' classes on Fridays and am active with fundraisers, field trips, and class parties. Their teachers are great! With the money we saved in tuition, both girls are able to participate in music lessons, gymnastics, swim lessons, and summer camps. We have tried to stay active with the church with Catechism and mass.

This is just a quick synopsis of my family's quest to find a school for our children that works best for all of us. Each family's quest will be different based on your priorities, resources, location, and children's personalities.

Thanks to parents for sharing their stories!
Richa

Ice, Leprachauns, letter 'I', and a warm welcome to our new friend!

Last week was a chilling week where we got a chance to explore ice. The kids got into it right away and everybody wanted to check what we were doing at the station. It was kept simple -- water, ice tray, and watercolors. Some of the children asked us right away while we were setting up the station and decided that they were going to choose that one first today.

At the station...
Adding water and watercolors to the ice tray...






Then we put it in the freezer overnight. The next day, we checked the transformation from water to ice...

L creating purple color ice rubbings and feeling the cold sensation!



Each one used the ice cube in a variety of ways...that's the uniqueness of our children!

Some just rubbed it on paper, some laid the cube and waited for it to melt and then spread the melted color water with their fingers, some drew lines and swirls with the edge of the cube, while some even drew/colored holding one ice cube in each hand!!!






S rubbed the cube on her hand and realized that it melted much faster than it did on the paper. This was a teachable moment and I introduced them to our body heat as the reason behind it. We also discussed how the temperature of our body rises when we are ill and comes back to normal when we are well again.



Later during the week we made an igloo outside, pretending to be Eskimos living in ice and surviving the cold wether. This led to discussing different things that can help us keep warm in such an habitat.



Teacher Richa invited to work with water and soap and have fun rubbing the tires. Our friends jumped with joy and couldn't wait to enjoy this outdoor activity. We marched outside to clean our yard, and ultimately enjoyed a job well done. I had left a bag of ice for some sensory fun and they decided to add the same to the water that they were using to clean the tires.

Ice in the blue tray gave us a chilly feeling :-)



J said that the ice was too slippery to be held in the plastic scrub and kept slipping off. He told me to see his grip to not let the ice cube slip away. Bingo! He managed so brilliantly with a strong grip. Other friend modeled the same manner and saw how ice became smaller and smaller and finally disappeared. They tagged it as 'magic' ;-)



L decided to scrub the igloo too :)



While we began reading books about St. Patricks day, the leprechaun fantasy grew deeper and deeper. The most inquisitive question came up, "Are Leprachauns real?" Where one friend questioned, the other friends answered. They found a solution to check this issue, and proposed the idea of catching a leprechaun to know if he was real. It was an entire week's project with a deadline to set it up by Friday because friends remembered that nobody comes to school on Saturdays and Sundays :-)

Our little steps towards making a successful trap...

We first made our own leprachaus so that when the real leprachaun comes, he might be happy to see others of his kind!



Decorating the box with shiny materials (shiny fabrics, sequins, marbles)






Being thoughtful to add a comfy shiny bedding so that the leprechaun doesn't get hurt when he falls in the trap :-)



Adding shiny silver aluminum foil balls inside the trap to deceive/trick the leprechaun...



Making the rainbow with colored papers...



Adding more shiny stuff that S got from home...






Adding the ladder...



Walking our hand-made leprechauns and having fun!!!






Friends decided to set the trap outside...D placing a sign that said 'Way to the Pot of Gold' (He didn't want to leave anything to chance...)



O checking if the pot of gold was all in place and if everything looked good!
Yes, the last professional inspection! After all the hard work and brilliant thinking, they decided to stop with those final touch ups :-)



Next week the rest of the story will continue based on if we caught the leprechaun or if he outsmarted us. Until then, gear up your imaginations just like our creative Purple Room kiddos did!

Last Thursday we also got our caterpillars in the mail, so friends spent a lot of time observing them. Later we opened a station on drawing the anatomy of different 'I'nsects










For letter 'I' we also made collages using cutouts of igloos and ice cream, stickers of the letter I and insects, and letter I stamps.






Making homemade ice cream!!!






Enjoying it!!!



Another activity that kept us busy outdoors was spreading dirt and seeds on our bald grass areas...there teamwork played a great role!















That week Purple Room welcomed a new friend, W, wholeheartedly. It was amazing to see them click with W right away and some even gave W a little tour of the classroom. Some even remembered to remind him about some special rules that needed to be followed. It was great to see them practicing empathy and perspective as their new friend learned his way around.

At the same time, W was very enthusiastic as he embraced each and every friend who approached him, and their talks began right away. I look forward to seeing some positive friendship building among them soon. We are so happy to have him as a part of our classroom :)




Just a gentle reminder to turn in the Apex Gymnastic's field trip permission slips if you haven't had a chance to do so yet. Next to the sign-in binder you will find a sheet with the required information. On that sheet, you will also be able to sign up to be a voluntary driver or even let us know if your child needs a ride. We need as many drivers and chaperones as possible; thank you to those who have already signed up!

See you around!

Hugs,
Rashida.