Watercolor Exploration

It's been a great first month of school. We have been really busy getting to know each other, establishing classroom routines and figuring out what the interests of the children are for possible study themes.

We have been painting a lot with both tempera paints and watercolors. I personally love watercolors and decided to write about our watercolor exploration in this first post. The artwork is so pretty and there are so many opportunities for creativity and learning with watercolors!

On day one we used liquid watercolors, watercolor paper and paint brushes. At first children were offered just one color to work with and get familiar with the medium. Once they spend some time painting children were offered another color but most of them decided to continue painting with just one.

On day two we worked with liquid watercolors on paper towel using droppers. Children were practicing their fine motor skills as they pinched and let go the dropper to draw the watercolor into the dropper then pinch again to drip the watercolor onto the paper towel.

It took a lot of concentration and determination to learn the skill and even though it was not easy at first and children asked for help constantly they didn't give up and really enjoyed the activity! As they were working I encouraged the children to admire the colors and notice how they blend together on their paper towels.

On day three we went back to watercolor on watercolor paper. This time around children were offered couple of colors and were encouraged to use more than one. Most of the children went to town with their paintings mixing and blending colors, and  few decided to color the page with just one. We talked more about mixing the colors and creating new colors as they mixed two or three colors together.

To extend the watercolor exploration we offered colored water to play with outside in the sensory bins. Each bin was filled with different color and had tiny jars and buckets for children to play with.

Children filled one jar with water then poured it to the other jar, they used both jars at once to fill up with water then dumped the water back in to the bin. Some children filled tiny buckets with water from one bin and dumped it in another bin - mixing the colors!

In the afternoon children decided to add animals to the bins and used it for dramatic play; a girl put all the horses in one bin, a boy gave a bath to his dinosaurs.

Next day water was colored with glittered watercolors and children got to mix in black watercolor and watched it move around before blending in and disappearing slightly darkening the water. Again they mixed the waters between the bins creating darker colors.

We will continue working with watercolors and colored water, possibilities are endless and children really love it! Can't wait to see where will we take this study next!

New Journey - SDCP

I am so excited to start this new school year at San Diego Cooperative Preschool (former Unitarian Cooperative Preschool). I just joined the school and already feel very welcomed by all the staff and families I had the pleasure to meet! Part of SDCP teaching philosophy are home visits that the lead teacher does at the beginning of the year. Even though school didn't officially start yet, (our first day with children is Tuesday Sep. 8th) since I am new to the school I decided to do my home visits early on. For the past two weeks I've been visiting my new friends at their homes to get to know them and have some bonding time. I very much enjoyed spending the time with my new students one on one, they were so excited to show off their rooms and share favorite toys and books! I already know I have a great group of little explores including: little scientist who loves the spiders and enjoys science projects, a boy who loves firetrucks, adorable artist who loves to paint! A girl who enjoy reading books, and another one who loves to spend time outdoors, a boy who loves animals, and the list goes on. I cannot wait to start this journey with this wonderful group of children, to get to know them better, to play and explore with them day after day. This year will be great I can already tell!

And here's little sneak peek into the classroom.

Line Leader Update

When we first started the line leader game we weren't sure what to expect. It was a nice surprise to see how much children loved it right away and how engaged they always were while participating! It was even more exciting to see them playing the game on their own during free play! With time children got better and better and were able to recognize the names with a couple of letters, they even started to count the lines and try to figure out who the line leader could be based on the number of the letters!

It was time to extend the game game a little by having two line leaders a day, which makes sense since we split into two small groups during the day for two hours of activities. Each morning there are two available spots for possible line leaders. At the top of our white board we draw lines to fit the names of the day leaders. At the bottom of the board we have groups labeled as Inside and Outside. Below that we list children in for each group. Some friends like to check the list in the morning to see which group they will be in for the day. They count the lines on the board to guess who will be the lucky person hoping today it will be them!

To illustrate the exact manner in which the game is conducted, I recorded the process on one of the mornings when we played it. Enjoy the read!

February 17, 2015

Teacher: "Rylee had a quiet hand first"
Rylee: "I pick R" (pointing to the R on the alphabet chart)
Teacher: "R, there is R" (filled the appropriate line on the board)
               "Stella has a quiet hand"
Stella:"Is it Rex?"
Teacher:"Why do you think it's Rex?"
Stella:"Because it has R at the beginning"
Teacher:" and what else? what else do you notice?"
Rex:"and E and X"
Teacher turning her attention to Rex:"how many letters do you have in your name?"
Rex: "R E X" (counting the fingers)
Teacher:"how many is that?"
Rex:"3!" yelled out excitedly
Teacher: "you can go get your name tag Rex"
Once children figure out whose name it is they bring their name tag from the classroom's job chart over to the rug so that the friends can see the name and name the letters one by one to spell the whole name. It helps to focus children's attention to the name of the line leader instead of guessing off of the alphabet chart at that point.
Teacher:"Arielle"
Arielle:"X" (pointing to X on the alphabet chart)
Rex came back with his name tag.
Rex: "OK, I know which letters we're missing. We're missing E and X."
Teacher: "Arielle got the X, so we just need (pointing to the line of the missing letter at the white board) what do we need Rex?"
Rex:"E!"
Teacher:"yes"
Rex:"so Rex is the line leader!"
Teacher: "Stella has another quiet hand. Now we need to figure out this person"

Stella:"Is it Rylee?"
Teacher:"Let's guess letters first, it's not Rylee because she has R and we guessed R. There is no R" (pointing to the first line of the second line leader's name).
Stella:" ummm" pointing to D
Teacher:"what's that?"
Stella:"D"
Teacher:"D, good job Stella, there's no D today. Arielle"
Arielle: pointing to A "I pick A"
Teacher:" There is A at the very end. Stella you have quiet hand"
Stella:"Is it Arielle?"
Teacher:"No, Arielle's A is at the beginning, this A is at the end. Who else has a quiet hand? Rex has a quiet hand".
Rex:"I pick P"
Teacher:"P, there's no P today. Here Romy (handing the alphabet chart to Romy) you can pick a letter"
Romy:"I wanna pick....I wanna pick....I wanna pick"
(Romy couldn't decide which letter to pick).
Stella:"Is it Romy?"
Teacher:"Romy has R (pointing to Romy's name at the bottom of the white board) we already picked R, there is no R. Pick a letter."
Stella: pointing to U
Teacher:"what is that?"
Stella:"U"
Teacher:" Jack you didn't get to pick a letter"
Jack:"I pick J"

Teacher:"J, there is no J today. Arielle, would you like to pick another letter?"
Arielle:"I pick C"
Teacher:"no C"
Teacher:"Daniel has a quiet hand. Daniel what letter would you like to pick?"
Daniel:"I pick R"
Teacher:"We already picked R, pick another letter."
Daniel:"O"
Teacher:"no O today, Rylee"
Rylee:"I pick this (pointing to B)
Teacher:"what letter is this?"
Rylee:"P"
Teacher: making the B sound "B"
Rylee:"B"
Teacher:"No B, Rex"
Rex:"I pick, I pick, ummm W"
Teacher:"there is no W. Jack, would you like to pick another letter?"
Jack:" I pick F"
Teacher:"no F. Friends look at the names (pointing to the list of names on the white board) one of these friends is the line leader"
Stella:" Is it me?"
Teacher:"Why do you think it is you Stella?"
Stella: (looking at the white board) "because it has E and A"
Teacher:"Yes, what other letters you need for your name?"
Stella:"S"
Teacher:"S! you got it! Do you wanna bring your name tag Stella?"
Stella went to grab her name tag.
Teacher:" So we have S E A and Arielle has a quiet hand. Arielle what letter are we missing for Stella's name?"

Arielle:"ummm T"
Teacher:"You got it, we have T, and the last letter we need, Stella you have a quiet hand. Stella what two letters are we missing?"
Stella:"L"
Teacher:"L two Ls"
             "Rex and Stella are the line leaders today."

The  duration of the game varies. There are days when friends can figure it out pretty quickly, and days when it takes a little while. However long it takes children love the game, and Miss Susan and I are proud of their learning!

The Little Library

The Little Free Library is a community library located about half a mile from our preschool, at the beginning of the dead end road. I like to walk there myself during my lunch breaks and grab books to read. It is such a lovely place! The Little Free Library is not a building with endless shelves of books. In fact, it is not a building at all. For the untrained eye it may appear as a big bird house. Supported on a beam decorated with colorful tiles, it's painted white with purple detail, and there are small pots with flowers on the top of it! Next to the library are two big garden chairs so that people can sit down and enjoy the read, or just take  a break to enjoy the moment. Each chair has a quote on it that reads: "If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need" Cicero and "No two persons ever read the same book" Wilson. I just love it!

When we took the children to the Little Library for the first time there was just one children's book but our little friends didn't mind it at all. All the children grabbed a book and sat down to read it, they spent a couple of minutes looking through the books, and then decided to play and explore the area. They played behind the trees that grow by the library, looked for bugs, and collected treasures such leaves.  All the children had a great time!

Second time around we decided to donate our classroom's books and borrow books from the library to bring back to school. (I knew that there was a good selection of children's books this time because I visited the library day before). At the circle time I gave my friends four books to choose from to donate to the library, we took a vote and decided on two. As usual, during our walk we stopped to smell the flowers, and collect treasures off of the ground. (Miss Susan and I always remind the children that the plants and trees we pass by do not belong to us and we need to respect nature. We can look, smell, even touch with gentle hands but we cannot tear leaves nor flowers).

Once we got to the library children were excited to check out the books and read!

Once all the friends sat down Miss Susan offered to read Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni and everyone enjoyed the book. When the book was over some of the children went off to play; they climbed the small trees, collected leaves, and even found a snail! Some of our little friends seemed to be more excited about the opportunity to play and explore the surroundings rather than the books and that was perfectly fine with me!

Other children spent most of the time reading the books! One of the favorite books we read turned out to be the Dinosaur Hunt. At the end of our visit we donated our books and decided to borrow the two books that we read. 

Later that day I asked the children: "What was your favorite part of the walk to the little library?"

Here are their responses:

Harlow:"reading books"

Harlan:"playing and looking for bugs"

Temperance:"climbing the tree!"

Enzo:"having the seeds sticks in my hand" 

Stella:"the walk"

Ms Marta:"you enjoyed the walk?"

Stella:"yes!"

Enzo:"I enjoy the walk. My favorite was the Dinosaur Hunt" 

Jett:"walking there"

Graham:"climbing the trees"

We will definitely be going back soon to return the books we borrowed, read some more, and play of course!