Wow- there has been incredible growth and maturity in the 2A class in just a week and a half. Everyone is settling into the routine, are becoming more comfortable with teachers, peers, and activities, and are familiarizing themselves with the flow of the day. Our days are becoming very fruitful and productive already! Again, thank you so much for all of your support and help to transition everyone to school.
Making connections with new friends.
This week we continued to look at what identity means to each child. We want to start approaching this topic from a more physical view point. One activity we used to support this effort was making handprints. Each hand is a different size. Each child chose a different color for their print. Now we are hoping they will engage with these painted hands and compare and contrast their hands with the prints. We'll be recording conversation, questions, and discoveries next week as they see these handprints up on the wall for the first time.
Even friends who had not gotten "messy" before were willing to let Rachel paint their fingers.
Still missing a couple of hands, but this is waiting for the children on Monday!
We have also been noticing preferences that the children have, which is very much tied into their personality and identity. Some of the preferences are minor- keeping on shoes or taking them off, for example. Other times it's very distinctive- "NO, this one." We encourage children to make choices and voice opinions, and we are glad they are already comfortable enough to do this.
Charlotte prefers to take care of this baby (and to feed her cupcakes!).
In addition to our project work on the self, we have also been up to very many sensory based activities. A sampling of which include: painting on sandpaper, making & engaging with oobleck (a mixture of cornstarch and water which creates a non-Newtonian substance balanced between solid and liquid), water play, sand play, using our motor and muscular skills to peel tape . . .and so much more.
"Up high! Up high!" - Parker, excited about the oobleck dribbling off of Rachel's hands, which he promptly caught and giggled about.
This week we continued to experience the violin and talked about the concepts of piano, forte, and crescendo. We listened to The Flight of the Bumblebee and made some very quick movements with crayons as we listened to the music.
For cooking, we all worked together to make Challah bread dough! You can find the recipe HERE (click). We learned a new song to encourage sharing and help us understand when our turn is finished- "We mix and we mix and we mix and we mix, we mix and then we stop!" It was wonderful to watch everyone pass the bowl to their neighbor as the song finished! We hope you're able to bake your bread and enjoy a sweet taste for the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana. We read a story about Rosh Hashana and learned how to say Shana Tova, which means "Happy New Year" in Hebrew. This week we also had Diane come in and share apples, pears, and honey with us - apples and honey are also connected to Rosh Hashana and the hopes for a sweet new year.
Plus, we got outside and experienced the wind and what it does to our hair! We are working on concepts of weather and these photos help us relate to the language we use.
Have an amazing weekend, we will see everyone next week!