“I Stink!”

ahh…what pre-schooler doesn’t love a book about the garbage truck?

not only is this book a great lead-in for a discussion about sanitation, waste management, and recycling, it has amazing illustrations and cleverly designed fonts to keep little listeners engaged.

projects today included sorting “trash” from “recycle” and then putting trash into the garbage truck, and recycle into the recycle bin on our coloring pages. during storytime, we also used the book to review our ABC’s and discuss what happens to garbage in the city…as the book says, “Without me, you’re on Mount Trash-A-Rama, baby!”

around the watercooler, erm, chalkboard

overheard at work today…

“see, that’s davy jones…and that’s his whole crew.” charlie points at his pictures on the blackboard.

henry pipes up from the art table, “Don’t forget his octopus beard!”

me, to charlie, “don’t forget the octopus beard.”

charlie, to me, gesturing. “it’s right there. i did it already.” points to spikey, triangular lines attached to davy’s chin.

“i gotta give him a sword.” charlie draws a three-inch line attached to davy’s hand. he looks appraisingly at andrew, who has made some sort of circular-whirling thing under davy’s “feet”.

“oh, that’s good andrew, you made the ocean!”

andrew thinks about this then says, “yeah! that’s the ocean!”

and so it goes…

SO cute!!!

Pirate Adventure

avas, me hardies!

pirates are a subject that have fascinated me since my very first “treasure hunt” with my Grandpa Ferd at age four. In honor of my Grandpa, and the little adventure-seeker that lives in every pre-schooler, Pirate Adventure Week is a must.

We start out making the classic newspaper pirate hats–note to parents/teachers–be careful what images/text are on your newspaper! Hats can be decorated a number of ways–for our time purposes, we colored with marker. Our art requirements were: your name, jewels, feathers, and a parrot medallion. Requirements keep the children on task while providing flexibility and choice–some students worked for ten minutes on their hats while others worked for thirty or more! (Students go to “choosing time” when they are finished.)

Our books this week included “How I Became A Pirate” for JK and “Roger, the Jolly Pirate” for SK. Senior Kindergartens also generated some excellent questions about pirates, for example, were pirates real? are there still pirates? did all pirates have eye patches? what did they eat? etc. I have an excellent book called “What If You Met A Pirate” that has a wealth of pirate facts and interesting tidbits. (The illustrations are a bit graphic though, so you may want to wait a few years before putting this one into your child’s library.)

After our storytime, children participated in a treasure hunt–I hide small paper clues all over the room, and then we become a clue-finding team, hunting high and low for clues. It is really important to prep the children to help others find clues if they find one first–a lot of really kind moments and sweet sharing takes place during this activity. Also, be sure to have more clues than children–they really like to be able to find one (sometimes I keep a couple in my pocket and check to see who hasn’t found one yet–I then quickly hide them and invite the remaining child/ren to help me look for the last few clues.) When clues are gathered, we put the words together in a circle, using our emerging reading skills to “sound out” each of the words, and then unscramble the message (intro to sentence structure). Invariably, the message reads, “TO FIND THE TREASURE, YOU MUST FIND THE X!”

Children begin to hunt for a large letter X…when they find it, they point to it, giving everyone a chance to “spy” it. (This year, the treasure box was in the freezer upstairs!) A teacher carries the treasure box to the table and when all are seated we open it and take turns choosing our treasure!

Closure for the day includes learning the Pirate Handshake (make a “hook” finger and shake your neighbor’s “hook” and say “ARGH!”) and the Pirate Song, which goes like this:

“When I was ONE I sucked my thumb (show one finger, show pretend sucking thumb)
Going over the sea (make wave motion with arm)
I JUMPED aboard a PIRATE SHIP (jump aboard, make a sneer and a fist for “pirate ship”)
and the CAPTAIN said to me (salute on “captain)

When I was TWO I tied my shoe (show two fingers, show pretend tying shoes)
Going over the sea (make wave motion with arm)…

You can see where that is going. Just change the first line each time to the next number and an appropriate rhyme! Students love to help think of a good rhyme too…be prepared for some wacky ones though (”five” and “hive” come up a lot).

“Miss Nelson is Missing!”

I have loved this book since I was in grade school! It is so silly and clever…and teaches children an interesting, but not preachy, lesson.

I thought it would be fun to talk about being a “detective” this week–four and five year olds are just starting to become familiar with this word and what it means–Scooby Doo is a big help. Little ones love looking for clues and solving puzzles, so an intro to detective work and simple forensics fit in perfectly with this book.

We learned how to fingerprint ourselves and also that each fingerprint is different and unique, just as we all are. We looked at four common fingerprint patterns as well.

We also experimented with chromatography, or, as we put it, seeing what colors were hiding in our markers. Children are delighted to find yellow hidden amongst the green, purple hidden inside the black, etc. We teach them how to use eyedroppers with alcohol, explaining first about safety (keep away from eyes and mouth), and making sure our building is well-ventilated. We then color canvas pencil bags or canvas aprons with Sharpie permanent markers. The final step is to drip the rubbing alcohol onto the item–the alcohol immediately begins to separarte and evaporate out different color pigments “hiding” in the student’s art, creating a beautiful, magical watercolor tie-died effect.

Items are left to dry for about 30 minutes and then taken home at the end of the day. This lesson really helps to get students to use their “detective eyes” when looking for things–how often do teachers (and parents) hear, “I can’t find my (insert item name here)!!!” Being a “detective” empowers children to use their eyes and look for clues, to stop and think about what makes sense, and to begin to make inferences–all higher level thinking skills and crucial for becoming critical thinkers.

I do believe Miss Nelson and Miss Viola Swamp will be paying us another visit later in the year!

halloween party!

click on the VIEW SHOW button above to see a little slide show of some of our halloween photos!

picking pumpkin seeds out of the pumpkin “guts”…making crazy noodle-bone skeletons…watching “The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”…having so much spooky fun!

Autumn Nature Walk

Even in the midst of the city, a nature walk around the block can be made into quite the event.

I give the students tiny little dixie cups to collect nature “treasures” and we talk about what we might find before we go outside collecting. We stick together and stay away from the street as we explore our block. My only collecting rules are that they have to be natural finds (no garbage or rubber bands, etc.) and that the item must fit in the cup. Seeds, leaves, rocks, mosses, twigs, bark, etc. are usually the order of the day–as always, we found lots of specimens–sweet peas in dried seed pods, tiny flowers still blooming, ginkgo leaves, and three different types of moss in the sidewalk cracks.

Children come in and dump out their haul, using hand lenses to see more details. They get pretty excited about their finds and we do a lot of, “turn and tell your neighbor” things–most interesting, smallest, most colorful, etc.

Our art tie-in was a leaf-rubbing wax resist, painted with water paint.

Storytime was “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle, which is wonderful and apropos.

“Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude”

First off, I love this book. I have adapted it into a play and done it with kids for camp. I have used it with younger kids and older kids…it works in so many ways, on so many different levels. A great language arts tie-in for older grades is to have them write “partner stories”–use this book as a model for how two people can go back and forth creating a story, and then compromise to reach an ending.

I use this “funny fairytale” week for some great hands-on science. We make “frog slime” and “magic potion”…here are the recipes and instructions. It is really important to remember to talk safety before you do this and also to look for those “teachable moments”–these experiements are visually stunning and really help kids get excited about being magical scientists!

FROG SLIME (great way to see if two liquids can combine to form a solid):

DO NOT EAT! KEEP AWAY FROM HAIR/FUR/CARPET!

Brew #1: Mix 2 Tbs. Borax with 1 cup warm water. Pass around the table having children do 1-2-3-stirs and pass it on!

Brew #2: In separate dish, mix 1 cup Elmers Glue with 2 drops of food coloring and ½ cup warm water. Pass around the table having children do 1-2-3-stirs and pass it on!

Pour Brew #1 into Brew #2—do not stir. Gently slosh side to side for 30 seconds. (I have the kids tap their fingers on the bowl and say magic words like “sham-a-lam-a-ding-dong!”

Reach into the bowl and pull upward dramatically! Ta-da! Slime! Tear off small chunks to share with all. Knead out excess water & it becomes like silly putty! You can stretch it, roll it, bounce it, etc. Great to send home in Ziploc baggies with instructions.

MAGIC POTION:

Get two small cups and a plate or shallow bowl. In cup 1, pour a small amount of vinegar (about an inch or two), squirt in some liquid dish soap, and one or two drops of food coloring. Swirl gently to mix. Model this to students and let each do their own.

In cup 2, put two teaspoons of baking soda. Set cup 2 on the plate or bowl—this will get messy. Have students hold up Cup 1 and make a magical “toast”—1-2-3-POUR CUP ONE INTO CUP TWO (or liquid into solid)…

Your students will delight as they watch the foam magically appear! Smaller cups work better because then the foam can cascade over the edge and down the sides. They can feel the foam and comment on what they see, smell, and feel. I usually have them play with this for a few minutes, and then we all make a “giant” potion by pouring our liquid into one big clean-up bowl.

“The Jolly Postman”

For the Senior Kindergarten classes, I do a language arts theme around the book, “The Jolly Postman” by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. For those who have never read this charming book, it is a book made up of “envelopes”, “letters”, “advertisements”, and other “mail” which help to tell the story of a jolly postman who delivers letters to characters out of fairytales.

This book is a great introduction to the many different ways we can express ourselves through written and pictoral language. The children LOVE pulling out the “mail” from the envelope-pages and helping me “read” it. They are just at the age where they are beginning to understand that letters symbolically represent words, and that words can tell a story. When we are finished reading the book, we create our own tiny little books using the nifty kirigami fold below:

kirigami book

Before making our books, we brainstorm together some ideas for themes. Each child gets their own idea in their head first, and then begins to create after that. This helps them have a specific direction they want to work toward, for example, one child made a Star Wars book, one made a soccer book, one used invented spelling, one wanted to see the words written out to copy them exactly. Each is proud of their creation, and excited for their families to see the super-surprise mail that comes!

We decorate our envelopes, put an address label and stamp on, slide our tiny books in, and seal the envelopes shut. Children are VERY curious how this will go into the mailbox in Old Town, yet somehow arrive at their own house in a few days. We estimate how many days we think it will take. And then we walk en masse to the mailbox to send our treasure on its way!

Cathedral District Children’s Art Fair

This was our third year of entering the CDCAF…and the third year we placed, which is a huge honor!

The CDCAF is held downtown, done as a professional-style art fair, and features only the work of children. Work is judged by art critics and professionals, and prizes are awarded for different age brackets. This is an excellent motivation for children during the school-year, and a really graciously run event…I can’t say enough nice things.

For more info on the Cathedral District Association, or how you could get your school to participate, see their website:

cathedral district

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie!

WEEK THREE of Fun Club brought us Laura Numeroff’s wonderfully fun books, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” and “If You Take a Mouse to School”.

Children love the cyclical nature of her books, along with the great illustrations and crazy animals…plus, the familiarity and repetition makes these great for emerging readers.

To activate our prior knowledge, we first used shapes to create our own little mice pictures. Children discuss what mice look like, how many ears and eyes and whiskers and whatnot…then they create on their own using the shapes provided. As you can see, they are far more creative when given the freedom to make it their own way within the given perimeters!

We also baked “Mouse’s Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies”. (For our diabetic and gluten-free students, we checked with parents first for the appropriate accommodations.) I love baking with the children because cooking is such a great lead-in to science, especially chemistry. They “taste test” most of the ingredients, smell the vanilla, help cream the butter, and sift the flour. They take turns and pass the bowls, usually doing “1-2-3-pass it on!” I use counting and simple questions to slip in extra Spanish and French…today it was “Que es el azucar?” and 1-20 en espanol. When all of the ingredients are mixed, the children roll their own cookies, getting SO messy in the process…but they are so excited to do it themselves, to get to experience what the dough feels like, to be the “chefs” (evidenced by the flour on our noses), and of course, to get to take home their cookies at the end of the day!

I’ve said it before…simple pleasures are so divine!

1 c. salted butter
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed (so cool to compare to sand at the beach / sandcastle making)
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs (important that they don’t eat raw dough because of this…also, what other animals lay eggs besides chickens? good discussion ensues.)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla (how can it smell so good but taste so bad?!)
1 1/2 c. flour
2 c. oatmeal
1 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients in given order. Mix thoroughly. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool. Hide from your mouse friends!