Flowers
Thank you Dot’s family for the beautiful flowers this week. These bouquets brighten up our spaces! Here’s the link to our SignUpGenius for classroom flowers: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-flower
Conference sign-ups
West Wing Zoom conferences will continue through mid-November. If you need to check when you signed up, or to change your sign up, please use this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-west16
Group updates
Cilantro
We’re going on a circle hunt! Where do you see a circle? The children became photographers and captured circles through photography with the ipad this week. The ipad offers a wider lens than the traditional camera to play with perspective. Understanding shapes fosters children to be more in tune to the world around them and see the connections between objects. Almost anything can be broken down into shapes. Flexible mediums were offered this week to invite endless possibilities to express what they captured. Sculpey Clay lent itself for children to form coils into snails and to shape and reshape circles. The group also worked on a large wooden block as a foundation for a wire sculpture.
Connect was introduced as our new ‘talking hand’ sign (ASL). The children have become aware of the blooming connections within the group. We’ve been reflecting with the children on what acts nurture a friendship. If a seed grows with water, warm sunlight, and ‘showering it with love,’ how do you grow a friendship?
How to Grow a Friend by Sara Gillingham is a playful read on nurturing friendship.
We invite you to go on a circle hunt and email the images to cindy@newschoolwest.com and silvana@newschoolwest.com Happy hunting!
Dandelion
Inside, the Dandelions were thinking a lot about how to create a system for note delivery to and from the Cilantros; we met together to share ideas and then use those ideas to create prototypes out of blocks and cardboard boxes. We also used a lot of the blocks in the building space to create bridges and castles. The pumpkins returned to the mini studio. We used our eyes and hands to learn more about their shape, and this time instead of felt-tipped pens and paint we used the Sculpey Clay to start to create representations of what we observed. We introduce multiple materials in experiences like these for a couple of reasons; first, to allow children to understand what materials speak to them as individuals; second, to allow children to understand what materials speak for a specific idea or concept.
Flora has been introducing stories and songs in Spanish to our storytimes. She has a new felt board set up to build connections between the language and visuals. Touching and seeing the cut out felt pieces may naturally invite children to recall the words in Spanish. This week we listened to the audiobook Fiesta Fiasco by Ann Whitford Paul. This book introduces many words in Spanish like Conejo, Iguana, Culebra, and Tortuga (the characters), as well as pantalones, camisa, sombrero, torta/pastel, regalo, libro, globo rojo, globo morado, globo amarillo, and nopal. These items and characters are available for the children in felt pieces, and we will continue to review them as much as we can during morning meetings. Also, some of the songs by Jose Luis Orozco we got to sing this week are: “Juanito Cuando Baila,” “1,2,3 Cho-co-la-te,” and “Buenos Dias.”
In our outdoor classroom, we began working with tape as a resist. The techniques introduced and being practiced by the children are:
- Find the end of the tape
- Stick the end on table surface
- Hold tape with one hand
- Cut a small or medium piece of tape
- Connect it with other pieces of tape on paper
And of course, we had our wood chip area turns where the children enjoy the space running, climbing, and sliding on their bellies!! We also got to say hi to some of the Aloe Vera friends and Teacher Adriana when they were watering the garden.