I just realized that this blog from October 2014 somehow was not posted. So just in case if you are inquisitive to know about our art sale and that week events, here it is :)
It was great to welcome the week with a special event -- our week-long art exhibition/sale. Thank you to Teacher Rosemary who took lot of time and effort to display all the children's work beautifully. Their art deserved that respect and the beautiful gallery-like look. It was so gratifying to see the excitement and fun in their eyes!
ART EXHIBITION, DONATIONS, AND COUNTING FUN...
The week started with our first customer. Friends were prepared to take their parents on tour and buy what they liked.
Thank you, parents, for admiring the art of our children and giving generous donations that added to our excitement and surprise.
Parental involvement during the art show...some pictures show how other kids helped parents look for the donation box and some even bought the box to them so that they could raise enough money for the pizza party...how sweet!
We opened the box each day, jotted the date and the number of bills collected, updated that every day and saw how we collected more and more money...
We spoke about our counting skills and about the different denominations. We spoke about what we see in print on the bills, and learned that the $1 bill was the only bill that had 1 spelled out as 'one' on the back. We also learned a similar pattern of the print where the numbers went on all four corners of the bill both front and behind, no matter which denomination it was. A friend also spotted the slight color difference between the bills. They were too excited to know about the presidents on the front and the different buildings on the back of the bills.
Checking the different bills...
Looking at different prints...
Collecting the same denominations together...
After all our general money conversations, we began to count the bills. The first step we did was sort the bills. Then we spoke about the cash registers at different stores, their favorite one being Safeway, and how they save and lock all the money.
This inspired us to do the same. So we got a cash register from pretend play and put the bills into their slots according to their sorted denominations. Everybody helped. Friends also thought that we should keep the cash register somewhere safe because it had real money. We decided to put it up high.
Yes everyday our recordings showed a substantial increase in the number of bills and then we followed the same steps of sorting and putting it in the cash register safely. The result was that on Friday, it was the children who told me every step to do as if they mastered it :)
HALLOWEEN...
Halloween is truly showing its colors in our room! What I mean is the color Orange ;)
Drawing on our chosen pumpkins from the pumpkin patch...
The next day we brushed glue and....
made them sparkly...
We also got creative and very involved with our big classroom pumpkin...
We nailed golf tees...
L pulled one out and saw the deep tunnel it had made...
He matched the nail with the tunnel and pushed it back again, super excited...
Friends then drew smileys, flowers, starts, and even wrote letters on the heads of the golf tees showing some amazing fine motors... Just look at the way they are holding those sharpies.. Their tripod grip looks so refined...
Fun to play sensory with the orange play dough and get creative...
Making pumpkins...
Making textures... L said that it feels like the outside of the pumpkin...
L making spooky teeth/ mouths saying that this was the pumpkin with a 100 mouths..
Related to Halloween, we did other projects such as making the spider web and stuffed bats hanging upside down.
Spider web...
We did marble roll art to make white web prints...
Then we stuck some fake spider web (cotton) and added our spider families...friends also stuck flies because they had seen flies being caught in the spider web. Neat!
Stuffing the black stocking with cotton...
Gluing the batty wings...
Gluing eyes and teeth...
LETTER OF THE WEEK- E
We introduced the letter E and they thought it was very easy to remember since it had all lines...one standing line and three sleeping lines...
We made letter E collages using 'eyes stickers' and 'google eyes'...
Using dot stickers for fine motor skills...
Got some literacy going on with writing excitement...
Finding letters on the keyboard and pretending to types names and letters and even numbers...
We did some sensory with sticky spooky eyeballs...
We also did math and coloring with Elmer the Elephant printout sheets.. Their interest, focus, and persistence in this was tremendous...everybody sat till the end to finish it.
Letter E sharing...
S talking about the Elmo on her T-shirt and her special Elephant that she let everyone feel...
S found two letter E's on his tshirt and couldn't wait to share it...
OTHER ACTIVITIES WE DID DURING THE WEEK....
The hanger divider wall....skills like hooking, balancing, and cooperating...
Adding things to hang on the hangers like scarves, and beads...
L beading a necklace to hang on on the divider wall...
D finding just the right place to hang his beaded string...
SURPRISE FOR TEACHER RICHA...
Last week we made a collaborative painting to give to Teacher Richa for Boss's Day. We shut the lights and when teacher Richa came in we gifted her our painting and even sang the song " Happy Boss's Day to you..." with the music of the happy birthday song. Teacher Richa was surely taken aback! We love you teacher Richa!
OUTDOOR EXPLORATIONS...
Last week the wind picked up and when we came back we saw things tripped and flown all around the backyard. Friends helped clean up and they noticed a lot of twig-like stems all around the yard. They hypothesized that the wind must have blown all the birds nests away. Thoughtfully they went ahead and collected as many twigs as they could to make cozy nests for the birds that lost their homes. They also hoped a bird would soon come live in it and lay eggs. Their imagination went on and on and on!
Finding a bunch of rocks...
Friends saw a different kind of rock near the outdoor fence...
Finding the rock treasure...
L found that when he crushed the rock in his hand, it broke into tiny pieces and fell off like sand leaving a powdery color behind...
They even stomped on it and saw it crush into powder...
You bet, there is so much going on and our friends are living every bit of it, enjoying and having fun and grabbing the little moments. I hope the rest of us can learn from their example!
See you all soon!
Hugs,
Teacher Rashida
