I hope everyone had a great holiday break! Last week during class we got to hear all about the children’s break… from Christmas presents to family travels, it sounds like you all had a wonderful time! I spent a lot of time with family during the holiday break. I traveled back to New Hampshire, hoping to play in the snow, but we only got a half-inch while I was there!
I have really enjoyed watching this group of children evolve this fall into a community that works together and supports each other. This particular group loves spending its time in the block area and the dramatic play area, following stories they have developed with their friends. In the dramatic play area, the space has come alive with the sounds of cats, dogs and even cheetahs meowing, barking and howling! They have created roles for each other such as moms, dads, aunts, uncles, babies, doctors etc. as their small society of animals emerges each day. In the block area, there seems to be a reoccurring theme having to do with medieval times of castles, knights and sword fighting as well as more modern war stories based upon a boat that continues to be built. Nikhil described the evolution of work as follows:
The process got bigger and bigger each time we did it. It started with Kaplas and blocks, and then we even started putting people in it with unifix cubes. The next time we did it, we started using bears and the next time, light table toys. Then we made space ship Kaplas.
Anya went on to describe the space:
Yeah, this space is like a studio for children’s building. Well, building and learning…So I guess its like, called, A Studio For Children’s Learning and Building!
As we watch the children work in this space, it was been very important for Lucy and I to document the work and then go back and review the documentation. By doing this process, Lucy and I have been able to follow these stories not only through out this year, but through out the previous years. Stories like the ones described above do not have a defined beginning or end but rather are carried forward with time. Reviewing our documentation has also allowed us to see the relationship between these stories throughout all areas of our work… Our journal stories are connected to our story workshop ideas, which are connected to our block area work, which are connected to the play outside, which is all connected to our conversations we have throughout the days. All these threads extend outward and weave in and out of our work. It’s amazing to see how it will change and evolve each day.
Problem solving and I feel statements have been extremely valuable to this groups work, each wanting their voice to be heard and taking the time to express their feelings to their friends. Their vocabulary regarding their emotions is expanding and growing. Every day they are practicing using new words in their I feels, words such as joyous, excited, unsure, concerned, uncomfortable, discounted, included and excluded. Today we even learned the word vocabulary!
As we move through January, you will see the children continue to follow many ideas that have emerged throughout the fall as well as some new curriculum ideas introduced. Identity has been a big idea that keeps coming up. Who are we as a school? As a community? As a class? The children have been working with Chris Beckley on designing new pages of the schools website, as well as walking around the school grounds looking to see what our school says about us as a community. What do we need to change? What do we like? What could be improved? It is amazing to go through this process with children, who bring an incredibly fresh perspective. On our first walk around the school, the two biggest areas the children were interested in were the front grassy area next to the road and the area between the modular and the garage. The children spent over twenty minutes discussing the sign out front, saying what they liked about it, reading the words and phones numbers on it, drawing it and saying what they would change. “It should be bigger!” they all agreed! They also all agreed that the children needed to be represented more from the front so that people know about our work. “We can take down the whole brick wall and put in glass so that they can see right into the school when they drive by” one of the children shares, “or put a TV screen up on the school with videos showing about the school” Jalen adds, “we could just make pictures of what we do inside” suggests a more practical Akira. It will be interesting to see how they chose to share their school’s story around the grounds and on the Website.
As we study the identity of the school, we will also be studying the identity of our classroom community. Where are we all from? Where were we born? What customs and traditions do our families celebrate? After the New Year, Mafe was parent helping and shared a tradition from the Philippines with our class. Each New Year, they find twelve fruits and put them on their table for New Years Eve. There are 12 fruits for twelve fruitful months of the year. Thanks for sharing this Pilipino custom Mafe! If you have a special custom or tradition in your family, please share it with us. All these celebrations are connected to where we are from, which supports our geography study in our curriculum. The Chinese New Year begins on January 23 this year, and we will be celebrating traditions from China during this 15 day festival. In connection to this study, we will be visiting the Chinese Gardens in Downtown Portland on January 31st.
The children, along with Neelay, are continuing to work with technology by designing an interactive wall. Using minimal equipment (computer, projector, wii remote and inferred pen) they have been able to manipulate their way through a few programs (ie, paint, google earth) without touching a computer. The last time we set up the wall, the children painted a water color painting as a group, while using the program paint to then transfer their image into the computer. We are continuing to explore the possibilities of this new technology as a class, meanwhile, pondering these questions: How can this technology support our work? How can it deepen a thought process or idea? What are the possibilities of this new technology?
January is also a fun month to study the winter changes in our world. Waking up to the world covered in frost… and maybe one of these days SNOW… is very exciting! On January 23rd and 24th, we will be collecting ice to use in our water table. The more people that bring in ice, the better materials we will have to build with. We are looking for all different sizes and shapes so find some interesting containers, fill them with water, put them in the freezer and bring them in for us to explore. You can also fill up balloons with water and freeze them. If you live at a higher elevation and you wake up with snow on the ground, we would love to have snow when possible as well!
We will also begin to study black and white this month. What is the relationship between these two shades? How can we use these two shades to share a story? We will have opportunities in the classroom to paint with the grayscale, mix black and white paint, and create compositions using black and white materials. . In order to have a full pallet of materials, could everyone bring in a few black and white materials to create a small black and white studio? Fabrics, buttons, small pieces of plastics, small rocks, etc. are great materials to bring in. If you need ideas, just ask! I have plenty more… Materials should be small enough to collage with.
The best party of the year, our annual Auction, is coming up on March 3rd! This is my fourth auction with CCC and I can’t say enough about it. It is a night of great food, wonderful items to bid on, and tons of fun! The thing I like the most about the auction is seeing our entire community come together to support our children, our school, and education. It is what makes our community unique and more importantly, powerful! If you still need ideas about procurement, let myself or Lucy know. We are FULL of ideas! I can’t wait to see you all there!
Happy New Year Everyone!
Teacher Ally