Thursday, December 20th

Highlights of the Week:

 Monday: On this day, we changed our initial plan of making snow paint. After our holiday party, we were left with a huge platter of fresh fruit. We decided rather than let all of the fruit go to waste, we would repurpose the fruit into a smoothie. The children were given the task of cutting up the fruit into small pieces and placing them in the big bowl. As we did not have any yogurt or other kind of binding agent, we added water and sugar and blended the mixture into a sort of sauce, similar to applesauce. The children were excited to participate in the preparation and tasting of our fruit sauce.

Tuesday: On Tuesday, we spent the morning exploring the snow paint (that we initially were going to make and explore on Monday). The children were intrigued by the interesting and puffy texture of the snow paint. Some students used brushes to explore the paint while others used their hands. Later on, the children were excited to make party mix in cooking with Diane. The children each had a chance to pour cereal, raisins, and cinnamon together into a big bowl. This party mix was probably the most liked food item that we’ve made with Diane, and most of the students were eager to eat a couple of helpings.

Wednesday: We had a very busy Wednesday this week. In the morning, the children were eager to check out a new matching memory game that was made using their pictures from September. Friends were excited to find their own pictures and matches and then to find their classmates’ photos. On Wednesday, the children also explored the (fake) snow that we made in the classroom. Friends were excited to make little snowballs and smash them down. Also on this day, the children exhibited a lot of collaborative play, mainly building block structures. Finally, the children worked on a lemon volcano science project with JJ. First, they each had a turn to poke holes in a lemon half. Once the part was completed, the children then got to add baking soda over the lemon halves. After pouring a little blue paint on top, the students watched eagerly as JJ squeezed more lemon juice on top, resulting in bubbles!

 Thursday: On Thursday, we celebrated Ellis’ third birthday, and ate a delicious birthday treat of zucchini muffins. Later in the day, the children got to vote on whether or not they wanted to make puffy paint or slime. Slime won 5 to 4, so a wintery slime was made. The children each had a chance to add one or two of the ingredients, then sang the mixing song. Once the slime was made, the children had fun exploring the newly made material. They noted it was stickier than previous batches we’ve made, but they were eager to play with it and make different creations.

Friday, December 14th

This week, we worked hard to prepare for our holiday party. The children engaged in many different artistic endeavors in order to prepare for our party. Beginning last week, the students each created an ornament by collaging cellophane on a small plate and adding their picture on either side. Friends also spent time painting green onto paper plates in order to make our classroom Christmas tree. Once the tree attached to the wall, we cut up old group paintings to make ornaments for the tree.

Additionally, the children did another form of collaging where they took a combination of felt and tissue paper and glued it onto a poster board. Friends were eager to also take part in a group painting effort with silver, green, and red paint (with glitter!)

This all culminated Thursday night with the Buckle My Shoe Holiday Party. Friends and their families came to celebrate together and meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. We look forward to one last week together before we go on winter break!

Friday, December 7th

This week in 2B we worked quite a bit on winter and winter holiday related activities. After working on our December portraits on Monday, we continued to explore the winter season in the classroom. Some of the explorations were directly relatable, while some were more abstract connections. In cooking with Diane, the children engaged in a literal holiday tradition of putting cloves into oranges. The children worked carefully to insert the cloves into their oranges.

 The children also began working on their paper plate ornaments. Each child had the opportunity to glue cellophane onto their paper plate. Next week, we will attach their photos to their ornaments and put a protective layer over them. The children are excited to finish their ornaments to bring home. Additionally, the students in 2B eagerly completed their task for the Buckle My Shoe front window display: making snowflakes. After practicing their cutting skills, the children were able to take the folded-up triangles and turn them into snowflakes.

In the middle of the week, we moved forward to more indirect winter and holiday related activities. As a class we made snow dough out of shaving cream, cornstarch, and glitter. Although the ratios of each material were a bit off, the children had fun playing with this new material. They mushed it around in their hands, felt the texture on their arms, and swirled it around. Another more abstract activity done this week surrounding winter holidays was investigating light and shadow in celebration of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is known as the festival of lights, so in the class, we have begun to examine light as a way to form a connection.

 Lastly, we had two more winter literature activities. Today, Edie’s mom came into the classroom for shared snack and read two stories. First, she read the book Snow by Uri Shulevitz, and then she read Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. The children listened attentively as she read these new winter stories. Later, we read a book all about Hanukkah, learning about the various traditions surrounding the holiday. Afterwards, each child had the chance to try out spinning a dreidel. We look forward to continuing to exploring the winter and holiday season within the classroom over the next few weeks.

Friday, November 30th

Thank you for coming to our first curriculum breakfast where we had the chance to share with all of you our ongoing curriculum of paint and social emotional learning. We chose to begin our social emotional curriculum by talking about feelings. We frequently talk about feelings and emotions so that the children can learn to recognize them in themselves and also in others. When a peer does something unfriendly to one of the friends, we ask the child who did the action to ask the friend how they are feeling. We are teaching the children to use phrases like I don’t like that, or It makes me feel sad (angry, mad, etc). Additionally, we also have the children recognize when someone does something nice for them. We ask them to share their feelings, and they will often say that it makes them feel good or happy that a friend did a friendly thing.

 One part of the social emotional curriculum that we have been making a big push on is self-management skills. The students in our class are very capable and competent children who are able to do a lot for themselves. We have begun a strong push for independence in many areas of the class. For example, taking off their own shoes by themselves. When we come back in from outside, we always ask the children to take their shoes off and say that we will help to take off the BMS shirt and their jackets. By making this simple request, we have discovered that every child can successfully take off their own shoes, and some can take off their jackets as well. Though they will sometimes ask for a teacher to do it instead, we encourage them to do it by themselves which they can all ultimately do.

Another area of self-management that we have been working on is cleaning up after snack. Each child has a placemat, water bottle, and snack as a standard part of their snack set up. Once they have finished eating, we ask each child to bring their snack containers and water bottles back to their cubby boxes and to put their placemats back in the placemat holder. Although it sometimes requires a few reminders of all of the steps, the children have become fairly adept at following through with cleaning up. Throughout the year we will continue to push the students to become more and more independent.

 We ask that you support us in this process as well so that we can have a consistent message at school and at home. Encourage your children to take off their shoes, pull up their own pants after the bathroom, roll up sleeves for hand washing, and more. We know that it can sometimes be time consuming to have a two-year-old in charge of tasks, but when possible, the more that they can do these simple tasks on their own, the more independent they can learn to be and quickly.  

Wednesday, November 21st

This week, the friends in 2B were excited to prepare for Thanksgiving in a number of ways. On Monday, each child began the process of making a paper plate turkey. Friends selected either brown, yellow, or orange crayons and colored pencils to decorate the background of their plates. They then glued on eyes and a nose to begin the process. The next day, some friends took the next step to add feathers for their turkeys, carefully gluing on small strips of paper to the top of the plate.

 We also discussed Thanksgiving with the specialists. In music with the music teacher Emily, the words to a favorite song (five green and speckled frogs) were changed to turkeys in honor of the holiday. In cooking with Diane, the friends were excited to make cranberry sauce, mixing up water, sugar, and cranberries. We also talked about Thanksgiving in Spanish with Ernestina, where we sang a song in Spanish about being grateful.

 Finally, on Wednesday, we came together with the children in 2A to celebrate Thanksgiving together. Before the party, we went as a class to a store to buy bananas for the smoothie we were bringing. Once back in the classroom, each friend had a chance to cut up the bananas into small pieces. We then mixed in the pudding powder, and soymilk. We also enjoyed the pumpkin pie that 2A made to share with us. We appreciate the times we have to come together as a greater school community to celebrate holidays and other joyous occasions together.  

Friday, November 16th

As the students have transitioned well into the classroom and have settled into school, we have been able to branch out into more complex notions and activities. Over the last week or so in particular, we have begun two different processes with the students that push them to think more deeply. Beginning last Friday, we did a shortened vote when making playdough. We had two colors available, red or green. Each child got to select what color they were thinking of (were given a corresponding peg) and we counted together to see which had the most votes.

We decided to revisit voting once again this week when we voted on what kind of cookies we should bake for our grownups. This time, however, the children were given a picture of themselves and they had the opportunity to select what they wanted. We had words and pictures on the voting chart, and as each child stood up to vote, we asked them to state out loud what they were choosing, then tape up their picture. The children were very invested throughout the process, excitedly saying which friend had a turn to vote. Once everyone had voted, we counted together to see which had the most votes. Even the students who voted for the other option, were eager to participate and then joined in on making the cookies.

In both instances of voting, the friends counted the votes in to determine which number was the biggest. In addition to introducing number sense in a meaningful way, voting is a tangible way for us to provide a democratic environment for our students. Creating these opportunities in the classroom gives children the chance to share and negotiate their ideas and perspectives. It also creates a way for the students to relate to one another. When students are a part of a democratic environment, they know that their voices are heard and that their citizenship in the classroom is highly valued.

While this time, we voted on two cookie ideas that the teachers came up with, next time we plan to take suggestions from the students on what to make and then have them vote on their own ideas. We appreciate opportunities for the students to show their independence in the classroom and take ownership over projects.

 Additionally, this week we also began introducing letters of the alphabet, starting with A. Together as a class, they came up with words beginning with the letter A, as well as the names of people around the school. After coming up with our list, the children then each had a chance to practice writing the letter A. Although every attempt produced was a scribble, it was a clear representation of a letter through symbol. We will continue to go slowly through the alphabet, brainstorming words and names and initial letters in their own names. This will serve as just a basic introduction to the alphabet to begin to help the students familiarize themselves with the letters.

 As the children continue to get older over the course of the year, we look forward to continuing to do more complex activities and tasks with the students to help push and challenge them beyond what they already know.

Friday, November 9th

As we’ve been exploring paint through the school wide intent, we have been thinking and researching different related questions. One big question lately that has been on our minds is how we can interest the students in participating in paint. More specifically, what inspires the students to engage in a painting activity and what makes them more resistant to joining in. These questions have come to mind as we noticed that many times when painting was set out as a provocation in the morning, not many students would partake in it, or if they did, only for a moment or two. This struck us as odd considering most children their age, enjoy using and exploring paint. 

We began to think about the different factors at play. One barrier we realized fairly quickly was the smocks. Some students were interested in painting but were turned off by the idea of putting on a smock and left. Once we stopped requiring the students to wear smocks, more were willing to try paint, though still not as many as we would have thought. One way we got the students interested, which we detailed in last week’s blog, was by incorporating the students in the whole process (from set up to exploration). We also realized that the students were also more willing to try paint later in the day, with the chairs taken away from the tables. With the staggered arrival times, students will often be alone at a table, which causes them to leave to seek out peers to engage with. However, when the students are painting later in the day, it is a big group activity and many more students are willing and excited to join in.

While we were happy to have the students engaging with paint during the later time of the day, we were determined to solve the puzzle of what would inspire the children to paint in the morning. Last Friday and this past week, we began to figure out one way that would work: individual paint cups. Prior to this week, when setting out paint, we would often put out just a tray or two with paint for everyone to share.  This week, as we chose to paint with many colors, it worked out that each child painting at the time had a cup to themselves and they stayed and were very engaged with the process. They next few days, we replicated this plan and placed small containers with paint at each spot with a brush. Many children selected to paint and worked hard to create the given projects. At both school and home, the children are required to share their toys, books, etc and they appreciate the opportunity once in a while to have something just to themselves.

Our hope is that by getting the students more interested and comfortable in engaging with paint all times of the day, that eventually we can turn back to the group paint sharing. For now, though, we don’t mind that this is a time of day where they don’t have to share. We will continue to examine and reflect on the different ways that the students interact with paint, focusing on how they approach the paint, what tools they use, and more. If you have any questions you would like us to think about when regarding paint in the classroom, please feel free to share them with us.  

Friday, November 2nd

Last week, as detailed in the blog, we set out sand painting as a provocation one morning. When it was available on the table for free exploration, the children were not that interested in engaging in the activity. A few of the students tried out painting with the mixture for a couple of minutes, but overall, they were not interested. Painting with sand tends to be fun as the product leaves textured results behind on whatever surface you paint on it with, but the students were not inspired. We decided that we would give the students another opportunity to explore sand-paint, but this time around we would start the process from the beginning all together.

For the second try with sand-paint, we all stood around the table, with no chairs. Each child had a chance to scoop sand into a big bowl. Once the sand was added in, Emily added in paint (yellow and green). Each child got the chance to stir the ingredients together, as the others sang a song to encourage them. After the paint was made, the children were ready to use it to paint on cardboard. Each child was eager to try it out, mixing up the paint, and spreading it on the cardboard.

The main difference between sand-painting last week and this week, was the collaborative approach. When the sand-paint was already made and set up, the children were not that interested in engaging with it. However, when they were able to be a part of setting up and out the materials to begin with, they all participated. By making and creating something to be used, the children felt a sense of ownership over the activity. They were excited to see the process through from start to finish. Although we will not always able to do so, we look forward to including the children in the creation processes for many of our art and sensory activities.

Friday, October 26th

This week in 2B, we discovered an exciting new thing in our classroom: magnets! Beginning on Monday, we set out magnet wands and little circular magnets for the students to explore. The children were very excited to try out the process. They realized that as they held the wands near the circles, the magnets would jump up right away and stack one on top of the other. The next day, the magnetic wands were brought out again, this time with the addition of magnetic letters and plastic pouch caps. The children were delighted to see the return of the magnetic wands with the new pieces. They found the letters in their names or other familiar letters and collected them on their wands. While the letters and circles could stick to the wands, the children realized through trial and error that the plastic pouch caps would not attach.  We look forward to continuing to investigate magnets and figuring out what will stick together and what will not. If you have any metal caps or other small items for us to use, we would appreciate having them to try out!

 This week, we also used different kinds of paint in support of our school wide curricular intent. Early in the week, the children explored watercolor in a few different ways. The first method was using eye droppers with liquid watercolor. The children figured out how to carefully pinch the ends of the droppers to collect the paint and then released it on their paper making different designs. In addition to contributing to the school wide intent, using eye droppers to paint helps the students utilize and hone their fine motor skills as they have to work hard to control storing the liquid and letting it go.

 A few times during the week, we engaged in a more traditional manner of watercolor painting with palettes and paintbrushes. Though at the beginning of the year some of the children found the activity daunting, they have all mastered the process of wetting the brush and dipping in the paint to make marks on their paper.

 Before completing the week with a finger-paint exploration, we also tried out a new kind of paint, sand-paint. The children had the chance to experiment with a new kind of paint that was a combination of paint mixed with sand that they painted onto cardboard. When dry, the sand paint leaves an interesting texture behind. While a couple of students attempted the paint, most were not interested in engaging with it. As educators, we appreciate the moments that don’t work as well. Not every idea or activity is going to be a success and through these failures we are able to reflect back and think and plan differently for the future. Next week we plan to try sand painting once more but at a different time of day and through a different process. The hope being that if the children are involved in the set up from the start, they may be more interested in engaging later on. Throughout the rest of the year, we will continue to try new and exciting projects and while hopefully many will work, we are prepared for any outcome.

Friday, October 19th

This week, we continued to explore the two areas of the school wide curricular intent: paint and social emotional learning. Early in the week, we tried two new ways to encounter paint. We began Monday morning by using sponge stamps in trays of paint. The children enjoyed selecting a different shape to stamp onto the paper. Friends were also intrigued by the texture of the sponges and would experiment with painting their hands with the sponges and then painting the paper with their hands. Also, on Monday, we painted on a new material, tinfoil! The children were fascinated by the reflective nature of the foil which allowed the paint-glue to look shiny. Many of the students realized that due to the smooth surface of the foil, their brushes could glide along and create interesting swirls. We also tried out a new form of dot paint. These squeeze bottles had liquid paint inside. The children were able to mark the paper with dots or squeeze out the bottles to pour out a bit more paint. The children who squeezed out more paint then used paintbrushes to move the liquid paint around the paper.

Finally, later in the week, the children explored paint together with natural materials. We used cut-up apples from our apple picking trip as paint stamps. The children were amused by the fact that we were using apples as a tool for paint. We also had the opportunity to paint our cut-up pumpkin, both inside and out. The children were also delighted to discover that once the paint had dried, they were able to peel it off the pumpkin and the original pumpkin was still orange underneath.

 We will continue to explore paint in new and interesting ways throughout the year. As they do so, we will be observing how they encounter the paint and the choices they make as they explore. We are noticing patterns emerge in how they interact with paint depending on time of day, tools available, and uniqueness of opportunities presented. We look forward to sharing our observations with all of you soon. 

We also continued our social emotional work, focusing on feelings and emotions. Over the week, we read books (The Feeling Book, Llama Llama Time to Share, Feeling Happy) and sang a number of sang a number of songs (If You’re Happy and You Know It, Feelings Hokey Pokey, Halloween Feelings Song) about feelings. We continued to take pictures of the children expressing different emotions on their face. Today, we revisited an activity we did last week, “Today I feel” where each child had the opportunity to share how they are feeling and color their emotions. We will continue to revisit the notion of how we feel as an individual and we will continue to work on noticing how our friends feel.

Friday, October 12th

On Wednesday, the students were excited to take part in a science experiment with Mitzi. We gathered around the table with our classroom pumpkin. The children made predictions what would be inside the pumpkin once it was cut open and were excited to see the seeds. After the insides were scooped up, the children took turns adding baking soda into the pumpkin. Mitzi then poured watercolor mixed with vinegar into the pumpkin. The children were so excited to see the explosion of color and bubbles come from the pumpkin.

Thursday was the trip to Riamede Farm. Upon our arrival, the students were given apple cider to drink and apple cider donuts to eat. The children were then excited to follow a path of pumpkins to the pumpkin patch where they got to select one to take home. We then walked over to the apple orchard and found apples to pick off the tree and put into take-home bags. 

 On Friday, we were excited to explore the social emotional component of our school wide intent. At the end of circle time, we read The Feelings Book by Todd Parr together as a class. As we read, we talked about whether or not we felt the emotions that Todd talks about in the book. After reading the story, we practiced showing our feelings by making faces that reflected different emotions. The children were eager to show off happy, sad, scared, silly, and more faces. We then all went to the tables to work on activity called Today I Feel. Each student shared how they felt today, and they then colored their emotions on the page. We look forward to continuing to discuss our emotions and feelings with one another throughout the year.

Friday, October 5th

This week, we were excited to go more in depth into various paint explorations. We started out the week with watercolor paint. The students figured out how to carefully dip their brushes into water, then onto the paint to make marks on their paper. As they worked, some noted that the water was turning the colors of the paint they were using. A couple of students then tried to paint with just the water but realized that it was not as effective and returned to dipping brushes in paint.

 We then worked together on painting a sheet with foam spike brushes and tempera paint. Some children eagerly rolled their brushes in the paint and dabbed the spikes onto the sheet, while others chose to use their hands to spread the paint around. We returned to the sheet the next day to paint with foam brushes which allowed for smoother and broader strokes.

 On Wednesday, we decided to make paint together as a class. We added water, salt, flour, and a little bit of liquid watercolor to make a paint like consistency. The children delighted in adding in the different ingredients and noticing the changes that were happening in the bowl. After the paint was made, it was poured into bottles so that the children could experiment with squeezing out the paint. Once the paint was on the paper, the students were excited to run their hands over the paint, noting the bumpy texture.

 Finally, we returned once again to painting the sheet, this time with trays of paint and cars! Friends were excited to take our toy cars and dip them in paint then run them over the sheet to make tracks. Some drove the cars slowly while others moved them around fast. With this activity, we finished painting the sheet which now hangs in our classroom. We look forward to continuing to explore paint throughout the year.

 This week we also:

·      Took a few walks, including one to Morgan’s Market to buy a pumpkin

·      Explored Shaving Cream, dipping in fingers and hands to make designs

·      Made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Collages

·      Had our first cooking, Spanish, and soccer classes

·      Investigated Clay

·      Started self-portraits for October

Friday, September 28th 2018

This week in 2B, we continued with our exploration of nature themed activities. On Monday, we danced with scarves, pretending that they were leaves, blowing in the wind and falling to the ground.

We then explored painting with pinecones. The students rolled the pinecones in trays of paint, then onto the paper to see what would happen. After many of the students requested brushes, they then chose to carefully paint the pinecones as well. Once we made playdough as a class, we then explored using the same painted pinecones together with the playdough. The children attempted to use the pinecones as rollers and stampers, seeing what would happen when pushing the pinecones into the playdough. We look forward to continuing to explore nature and fall specifically, over the next few weeks. 

Throughout the next several months, we will be exploring and investigating different topics of research together as a school. This year, one area we will be focusing on is paint! We will be examining how the students interact with paint and presenting activities to push and encourage them to interact and engage with paint in new and different ways. Whether exploring finger-painting, watercolors, or painting with brushes, we will be studying and documenting the children’s responses and reactions to the paint, both individually and together as a class. 

 In addition to paint, we will also be focusing on a social emotional curriculum. For the first few months of school we will be working on Self-Management and Self-Expression together with the students. As we learn and play together, we will be helping and encouraging the students to develop these skills. We want the children to be able to express their feelings and emotions to their peers and the adults around them. As the year goes on, we will be branching out, exploring relationships and inclusion between the students. We will be helping the children learn and develop skills to communicate and relate with their peers to relate to them and understand how to be respectful to one another. This will be an ever changing and evolving process that will meet the students where they are.

Friday, September 21st

This week, we began a nature exploration in the classroom. On Tuesday, we started with leaf collages. The children were eager to paint leaves onto paper with a mixture of glue/paint. They carefully selected leaves and attached them to their papers with either red, green, or brown glue/paint. Some friends chose to spread the glue/paint with their fingers and hands while others chose brushes.

Later in the week, we continued with the idea of investigating fall nature. The children were eager to once again complete individual collages. They collaged with different small pieces of fall colored paper (brown, green, orange, yellow), cut into different shapes. For this collage, the children used small paintbrushes to carefully paint glue onto the pieces of paper and place them carefully on the paper.  As they worked, some children shared they were making trees, while others were reminded of the leaves we collaged with earlier in the week.

We also began taking walks around the school this week, which we will continue to do throughout the year. On the first walk, the children were eager to explore the environment, pointing out different things along the way. Although for the first walk, we just remained on the city block, they did note different animals that they saw.

Today, the children had the opportunity to do one more collage with a combination of the cut-up pages together with the leaves on green paper. A few children made collages with the mixed media materials. One student, upon noticing a brown triangle, placed it on her paper, exclaiming that it was a house. The children were excited to see the leaves once again, noting the texture. Next week, we will continue to explore the nature of fall.

Friday, September 14th 2018

We had such a busy week in 2B this week! We came together as a whole class on Wednesday for a successful first day of school. Friends were excited to check out the new environment and to meet their fellow classmates. They investigated playdough, making food and animal creations for one another. The children sang familiar songs with Debbie, such as Wheels on the Bus, 5 Little Monkeys, and Down by the Bay. Some children worked on puzzles, while others built structures out of magna-tiles.

 On Thursday, the children were excited to come back for another day at school. After playing in the gym, the friends worked collaboratively on a color mixing mural, swirling together the different paint colors with their fingers and brushes. They noted the changes to the colors when new paints were added, and were eager to request colors to mix in. After painting together at the mural, the children continued with a paint exploration by using dot paints for their own art creations. 

On Friday, welcoming the children was watercolor paints. The children worked carefully to dip their paint brushes into water and select which paint they wanted to use. Some engaged with the paints in a trial and error manor, where they would attempt to paint without any water on the brush. Once they realized that the paint would not show without water, they adjusted to the process and experimented with different amounts of water. Later in the day, the children had the chance to work on another step of the group mural by gluing on pom-poms. 

Some other aspects of our week:

·     Learning songs in Spanish with Mitzi

·     Making up games in the gym

·     Building large towers out of blocks

·     Working to make placemats for our lunch

 We look forward to coming back together for a second week of school!