Listen and Draw!

This week we have been discovering more about families and individuality.  We read Olivia, by Ian Falconer, and discussed how Olivia was an individual who is part of a family.  Today we looked at the part of the book where Olivia visits the Museum of Art.   She views a painting by Jackson Polluck that he created using splatter painting, and gets the idea to make one herself.  

We learned that Jackson Polluck danced around his canvases and often painted to music.  We decided to give musical art a try...

I played a song that has very slow parts and very fast parts.  

The children were given a variety of drawing tools to use.

 When the music began, they listened and echoed the tempo with their drawing.  

They were SO attentive and  loved this exercise.  

We definitely talked about this being one of the the only times Mrs. Georgia would ever encourage them to scribble scrabble! 

Broom Painting

I have had broom painting on my "list" for many years.  I can finally check it off now!  It was as much fun as is sounds like it would be.  Mrs. Regina and I felt brave, and it was a beautiful day on the playground.  We were on schedule and had some time.  Here is what happened...

We placed a long piece of white bulletin board paper on the sidewalk.  

Immediately we had a teachable moment about the power of wind!  

We solved the wind problem with blocks from the block center.  

I placed drops of paint, in primary colors, on the "canvas".

Then I convinced Mrs. Regina to let me ruin the good broom! 

The children took turns moving the paint all around the canvas.

They watched and waited patiently for their turn.

Some children chose to participate, others did not.  

T wanted to work on another portions of the canvas, so he had to move.  

He had the really good idea to hold the painted end of the broom way over his head so that no one would get paint on them!  Smart thinking huh?

As the colors began to mix we could see new colors emerging.

I wanted to see what happened if we added white, so we did.  

It really added a fun new element to the piece.  

For a while, we just stood and looked at the beautiful art we had created together.

Once dry, we shook most of the sand off of it and took it inside.

I cut it into equal parts, and now everyone gets to have a portion of our class made masterpiece!

These are close-ups of several part of the painting...

What a neat study in texture, color, light, community, cooperation, and thinking outside of the box!

A New Crew!

When I began Sunshine Day School 2 years ago, I really wanted a program for my 2 year old, so I developed one.  This last week at preschool, I began to fully recognize the significance of the program. As my 4s came in on the first day of preschool, they were so ready!  This is my 3rd year with 6 of them, and it makes such a difference.  Their friendships are established, yet they are very accepting and welcoming of new friends.  They know their way around and are so comfortable in their surroundings.  It has truly been a pleasure to watch them grow and change over these 2 years.  

On Friday, we welcomed our new crew of twos!  We had a great day getting to know them and their families.  Looking forward to learning, playing, and growing with them this year.  

Rainbow Names

Last week we explored our names using torn paper. I wish I had captured the first part of this project, because it is probably the best part!  Each child received strips of paper and was given the job of tearing them into little bits.  We did this sitting around the carpet, and made sure to sort by color as we did the tearing.  When the bowls were filled, it was time to cover our names...

I was super impressed with how the kids managed their glue. They did an amazing job controlling the amount they placed on the paper.  I guess all that practice last year is paying off!

Letter by letter, we covered our names.  Some names are shorter and did not take as long to cover.  

This was a great discussion started for talking about longer and shorter, and more and less.  

The really neat part was that when the children with shorter names were finished, they immediately started helping their friends or cleaning up.

I love the community approach to preparing the materials,  I also love the hidden fine-motor workout in tearing the paper! All in all, a perfect math, literacy, art, and social skill lesson!

Preschool Orientation Scavenger Hunt

One of the best ways to become more comfortable with a new place is so explore it from top to  bottom.  That is exactly what our 3s did last week at their Preschool Orientation when they shared this fun scavenger hunt with their families.  This guided exploration helped the children get know their new surroundings in a helpful and meaningful way.  It helps the adults stay organized!  

Each family received a picture list of tasks that they needed to complete together. 

 Here are a few things they did together...

When you complete the task, you get a dot with your bingo dotter.

We found the daily sign-in sheet and practiced signing in!

We made a school house glyph which tells about each child.  

Red roof for a girl, blue for a boy.  Windows= age.  Door = your favorite color.

Yellow Bell=I Love School!

We found the block center and built very cool structures from the blue prints" there.

What an awesome job!

 We found the dramatic play center and added our favorite food to the grocery list.

We used the magnifying glass to explore reptiles in the Discovery Center.

We painted our new Sunshine Bags.

Look at those precious rainbows!

 We found our cubbies and our school notebooks.

We found our NEW school tee shirts!

 

We had to find a new friend and introduced ourselves.  

We also found the bathroom, checked on our class pet, and went hunting for butterflies on the playground.  

What a great start to a new school year!  

Physics on the First Day of Preschool!

Today was the first day of preschool for 1/2 of our 4s.  It was a great day.  It was almost as if we had not been out of school for 3 months.  It went so that well that we completed a full round of literacy centers and even got involved in some pretty serous play in the block center.  Here a few pictures from our day.

 Circle time!  We met new friends, and got reacquainted with old friends.

  

First day of literacy centers... we stamped our names in play-doh!

And we read our very own Pete the Cat books.

The boys and girls really worked hard!

After all of that hard work, it was time for a rest!

Here the boys have built block vehicles, a really cool new block center accessory.  Almost instantly they built a ramp.  It started out very small, and not steep.     

Then they decided to add on to the ramp.  

It didn't take them long to figure out how to make the trucks go faster.  Before long, the ramp had to be extended all the way to the wall.   It was fascinating to watch them study their design, tweak it, and make it better.  It was the scientific process unfolding right there in the block center where some would say they were "just playing".  

Those cars got going so fast that they had to put out signs to tell them to STOP!  

This teamwork was awesome, and a true community project.  I didn't have physics on my lesson plans today, but I made room!