The Forest group and the Castle group are getting into costumes. Some of the children’s drawing capabilities need more information when it comes to representing their ideas of clothes on bodies. The dress form (child sized) will come in handy for sensory input and visual understanding of how a fabric lies on a body. We…
West Wing
From: “I’m done!” – to extending children’s interest
Teacher Yoli watched as Kian and Lucca enthusiastically entered the Paper House in the front yard. They worked side by side together for a few moments and then very quickly she heard, “I’m done” and with that, they both got up to leave. Wondering why they had disengaged so quickly, she asked them to show…
‘I want to play with somebody!’ -Asha
In support of children utilizing empathy to make connections to peers and materials, the teachers worked in small groups and provoked them with emotionally evocative images in the West Wing Mini Studio. An image of a boy crying was shared. Teacher Silvana begins the conversation; “How is this boy feeling?” Andrew responds in sadness to…
“His teeth are mad!” – Mateo
The teachers have noticed from the beginning of the year that the children often talk about their feelings but were only using four words to describe them: happy, mad, sad and scared. We offered these words for use in the communication area. We wondered how we could support the children in developing greater verbal expression…
Sewing with the West Wingers
The West Wing introduced sewing to the children at morning circle. Cindy noticed a frustration with attaching fabric to the material. At our team meeting, Kris shared a stitching technique to ease the experience and Cindy demonstrated this after attaching beads. Marek, Charlie and Deia had their first appointments with thread, needle, fabric and beads in the…
“ROYGBIV” – Asha
In the beginning of the school year, a few children began to notice rainbows during naptime. Teachers overheard some quiet conversations and intently listened for more discussions on this topic. However, as the school year progressed and children settled into sleeping during naptime, the conversations of rainbows appeared to fade. Interestingly, after the end of…
“I know levers, there’s one in my car.” -David
The rocket group has spurred the interest to create a rocket ship they can sit in. The WW teachers have worked on the loft near the blocks to set up the possibility of a flying ship. On Monday, the children decided to create a control panel with Sam. The group measured the space. Cindy and…
WW changes to come
The initial springboards to learning, are wonder and curiosity. The environments can multiply the children’s engagement by amplifying their interests and inviting miracles. We’ve taken extra time to examine the children’s work as they became comfortable in their first year at New School-West. We’ve identified some areas of interest through the children’s repeated play and dialogue in…
Teachers, parents and children provoke each other
When the children returned after the West Wing Back To School Night, they were overjoyed to see their parents efforts at school. Here are some of the paths the parent’s inspirations took… The Line Game – in music! Teacher Sam shared the importance of the line game in learning how to listen to each other…
“I will help you hold it.” Juliette
This morning, Silvana brought back an interest that the children had. “You said you wanted to make a mountain with the paper. How will you make it stay up?” The children had different ideas and used materials from the shelf to illustrate. This process of revisiting ideas and utilizing materials independently is the foundation of…