Visiting Teachers!

Here in the Purple Room, learning happens in a lot of different ways. We learn with our hands. We learn through music. We learn inside, outside, at Circle, at Stations, at lunch, and throughout the day. And, this winter, we've learned from a LOT of different teachers. In case you missed it, we wanted to take a moment to show you all the wonderful guests we've had to share with us over the past few months!

Mr. Joe brought his family's dog, Polly, to share with us. We learned about how dogs need a lot of care, love, and attention. We heard her bark; we barked with her! Many of us were even brave enough to pet Polly, and we learned that she is very gentle. We also talked about how we have to be careful around animals, because not all of them are as good with strangers as Polly is.

For H Week, we had several parents come in to talk about their holiday traditions.

M's mom, Jennifer, came to tell us all about the Advent Wreath. We talked about joy and the holiday spirit of giving and sharing. We discussed how important it is to remember that Christmas is not all about getting presents, and we tried to think of ways we could be kind to our friends and family during the holiday season.

S & G's family came to talk to us about Hanukkah. We read a book about family holiday traditions, and we got to light a Menorah right inside the classroom! We couldn't leave it up in our classroom all week, but S & G's mom, Mandy, explained how their Menorah at home would stay lit as long as the oil would last.

S's grandma, Mrs. Shimada, came to teach us about some Japanese traditions and make Oragami with us. Friends got cranes to take home and made little paper shirts and pants at stations. Mrs. Shimada read us an Eric Carle book with parallel English and Japanese versions, and she brought us a special Japanese rice cracker for snack.

We also had a special guest from Green Waste come in to talk about the importance of the Three R's: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle! With all the excitement our friends show for the garbage truck every week, it was no surprise to see their intense interest in The Garbage Monster. We talked about how some things that get thrown in the garbage can every day might not be garbage at all. We tore The Garbage Monster apart, reducing the paper cups we use, reusing good paper, and recycling old cans and bottles. Our friends are growing ever more aware of the difference between trash and recyclables, and we're trying every day to make our room greener!

Last week, C's mom, Jill, came to talk to us about ice hockey for I Week! C told us all about his favorite team, (The Sharks, of course!) and mom brought sticks, balls, a puck, and even a net so we could all try it. C showed us what the real goalies wear, and we heard all about each piece of equipment helps the goalie do his job of keeping the puck out of the net.

Keep an eye out for more visitors in the months to come... Just next week, Mister James will be coming in to juggle for us!

Please let us know if you have a talent or an interest you'd like to share with our friends. We'd love to have you!

"I Have a Dream..." Dress-up Day!

With all the winter holidays flying by, friends and parents sometimes forget the profound importance of remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. We began last week by reading simple biographies to learn about who Dr. King was, how he lived, and why he was important. We talked together about fairness and equality, and we talked about the dreams he had for a better future. Over the weekend, we asked our friends to think about their dreams, what they hope or wish, and what is important to them. We asked them to remember why they would not be at school on Monday and what life might be like without Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, we tied it all in for a special dress-up opportunity. For "I Have a Dream..."

Dress-up Day, friends were asked to use their imagination and show us whatever they dreamed of being or doing. And, our friends had some very interesting

dreams. We had a fairy princess, a pro hockey player, an

obstetrician, an astronaut, and even a lion roaming our classroom. Even our friends who did not dress up were eager to share their dreams of being space cowboys, train conductors, and dinosaurs.

Rather than tethering them to reality, we tried to draw these ideas out and give each friend a chance to share a passion or a goal with their friends. It gave some of our quieter friends a chance to speak out and some of our more rambunctious friends a chance to settle in and focus on a topic of interest.

With a tangible experience to relate to, they showed an increased interest and a deeper understanding of King's life and work. We used our dreams to tie the discussion back into King's speech and the dreams he had for the world. We considered together how much life has changed since his time, and how it will continue to change throughout the future.

P is for pumpkins!

We have been Pumpkin mad here at Creative Minds.

A transfers her pumpkin from the car to the classroom

D and K experience what the inside of a pumpkin is like

L discovers what is inside of the pumpkins

N and S discover that the inside of a pumpkin is squishy

Z, A, and L sketch different kinds of pumpkins

M fishes out seeds to bake and eat

A sketches some different pumpkins

N and K enjoy a hayride at the pumpkin patch

S covers his pumpkin with several layers of paint

G splatter paints his pumpkin

C uses a pumpkin to make an art print

N uses a small pumpkin to make interesting shaped prints on her paper

Z and M work on a community pumpkin painting

D is for Dinosaur Eggs

This week was D week and we had a really great time making dinosaur eggs.  Here's the recipe:

Dinosaur Eggs:
    1/4 cup of dirt
    1/4 cup of sand
    1/8 cup of flour
    1/8 cup of salt
    a bit of water
    small plastic dinosaur

mix dirt, sand, flour, salt, and water until it has a muddy consistency, then put in the dinosaur and mold your mud into an egg shape around the dinosaur. Then let the eggs dry. It doesn't really matter how dry they are, it's still fun to play with dirt and dinosaurs (it's raining this week so they will probably not be very dry).  When they are ready to hatch break the eggs open and have fun!!

The group getting into some really messy work!

it took a while to get all those ingredients just right

Once you've mastered the egg making, add a little twist with this step:

    Instead of just leaving your dinosaur eggs to dry on a tray, do it like the dinosaurs do (kind of ;)! Stomp around the playground with your best dinosaur feet and gather your supplies. We used leaves, twigs, flowers, tanbark, and even a bit of unwanted litter. Put all your best findings in with some dirt, water, and sand to stick it all together (we put ours in a shallow tupperware container for support). Put the eggs into your dinosaur nest, and wait until they're ready to hatch!

D helping make the nest

Our final product!  Eggs in a nest

We hid the nest under the bridge to keep it safe

I recommend doing this activity outside where you can have the kids help you collect the dirt, sand, and nest  pieces, it also doesn't matter how messy things get, just hose stuff off :)

p.s. I also made sure to put the dirt and sand in a different place from the salt and flour so as not to accidentally mix the edible with inedible in the containers.

Preschool Discoveries

    Children are sponges; you put something in front of them and they immediately start soaking up information.  From birth, children are taking in new things, everything is a new discovery.
     At first, infants do not understand that there is a relationship between cause and effect, but through many experiments they begin to realize that their actions may cause other actions.  By the time they are at preschool age, they are really starting to understand and experiment with different cause and effect theories.

Here D. watches as C. hammers balls.  When the ball is hammered hard enough, another ball pops up and rolls into the old space.

These children are enjoying the product of a cause and effect project.  They watched as unpopped popcorn was added to the popper, then heated and popped into a delicious snack. 

These children added baking soda to their paint, then when it was dry they sprayed it with vinegar.  They are transfixed by the fizzing reaction these two ingredients have!

   Another way of discovering the world is through the use of tools.  When children are very young their tool may be a cry to get what they want.  As the child realizes the power and effectiveness of tools they become more sophisticated with their use as they interact with the world.

D. realizes that hitting the drum with a mallet will make a more pleasing sound than just hitting it with her hand 

Z. uses a spoon to eat her pudding

Everyday practice helps N. get her food to her mouth in a  more effective way than just using her fingers

A. uses a dull knife to cut her banana into easier to eat pieces.

C. uses a straw to blow bubbles in different liquids, soapy water was the most interesting to him

    Understanding space is a concept that must be explored if a child is going to successfully navigate in the world, this includes balance, perspective, gravity and distance.

L. figures out how to get his legs from one side of the block to the other while leaving his hands where they are

A. bear walks across the parallel bars

L. balances from one side of the plank to the other side with ease

G. has to figure out how to get the balloon he just threw out of his own reach

    Developing these discoveries is what our days consist of.  We provide materials to support the curiosity and wonder these children experience daily.  Through baking, building, moving, reading, and countless other ways of discovering how the world works, children understand the world they live in and how to enjoy it.

Personal space

     Here in preschool children are learning and practicing all sorts of new things, including writing names, measuring ingredients for baking projects, and doing puzzles.  All these things are important to learn as they carefully attune fine motor skills, help to read and follow instructions, and show how to be successful in things we attempt.  There is another skill that is also being cultivated at this age, it is how to get along in a large social group.

These children are both doing the same basic thing but their space is defined by what they are sitting on.

     These children will grow up to have many relationships, personal and professional, and the practice for these relationships starts now.  This shows up in many different ways -- sharing a toy, taking a turn on the slide, deciding who gets to pour the flour into the bowl -- but it also manifests in navigating situations in which the child has had enough and needs to be alone.  Often times this can show up as a blow up of frustration, which can lead to hitting or pushing.

One child shows off what she has been working on to her sister, each has chosen her own spot to sit.

     My goal is to help them navigate these interactions successfully with words and gentle actions.  This week we have been practicing the idea of  "personal space." I explained to the children that everybody has a bubble around them, and that is their space. Bubbles are delicate so we have to be gentle with them just as we need to be gentle with people's personal space.  They can allow people into their space, but people should ask to hug or hold hands; it should not be assumed that it is free for anyone.  So when someone starts encroaching on their space, they let them know by telling them "That's my space!"  Personal space is not only our bodies but our cubbies as well, so we keep hands off each others cubbies too.  Children are not born with the ability to clearly verbally communicate and so giving them words to express what they are feeling will help them to let the world around them know what is going on in their heads. This benefits both them and those around them.

These children are comfortable enough to be in each other's space.

Wormy Fruit with Teacher Susan!

Hello parents, families, and friends of Teacher Kate's class! Before I tell you about the very exciting project our friends are working on, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to all of you. I'm Teacher Susan, and I am thrilled to be working in the preschool classrooms with Teacher Kate and Teacher Jane! I am working to revamp the afternoon class (I hope our late pick-up parents are enjoying friends' evening art, music, games, and dancing!), and I am spending my mornings doing everything I can to help our preschool teachers do their amazing work.

I had a very exciting opportunity this week to do a project with Teacher Kate's morning class thanks to a peach one of our friends found in his lunchbox on Monday. After taking a bite of it, he turned to me and said, "There's a bug on my fruit!" I came over to inspect it, and, sure enough, there was a little worm inching its way up the side. Our friends were immediately excited and wanted to know more. We all looked and talked about the worm and what it was doing. Then we saved the peach and the worm to see how they changed throughout the week. Our friends noticed Tuesday that the worm was not on top of the peach anymore. On Wednesday, one of our friends noticed the worm crawling up the side of the jar. We did shaving cream paintings with yarn worms. We also compared the peach to some oranges from my own home- one healthy and one with a worm as well- and did drawings with chalk, colored pencils, markers, and crayons.

We will continue to observe and discuss how the fruits are changing and what kind of relationship the fruits have with their worms.