Upcoming Calendar Reminders
Wednesday, March 17th, 3:30-4:45pm (Dandelion) and Thursday, March 18th, 3:15-4:30pm (Cilantro): Spring Open House
Come see what we’re doing at school. Roleen and the teachers will greet three families at a time (no children please) to walk the spaces and explore the children’s current work and interests. Each appointment is 15 minutes. To honor protocols, we are limiting the number of adults in each time slot so you can view the indoor and outdoor spaces while distancing. We will take temperatures, wash hands upon entry, and wear masks. Sign up here to reserve your spots (one slot per family): https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-spring7
Monday, March 29th through Friday, April 2nd: SCHOOL CLOSED for Spring Break
Tuesday, April 6 and following: Conference Check-ins via Zoom
Cilantro: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-cilantro1
Dandelion: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-dandelion1
Flowers
Thank you so much to Ana’s and Colette’s family for the beautiful flowers this week! Flowers brighten our West Wing spaces and provide children with multiple opportunities for exploration and investigation. Here’s the link to our SignUpGenius for classroom flowers: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-flower
Cilantro
This week the Cilantros welcomed Saturn and quickly engaged with her to explore all the possibilities that our spaces have to offer. Together the children worked with Saturn to build structures with colorful magnetic sticks and write in their journals. The Living Room Area of the classroom hosted lots of dance parties while the House Area provided the children an opportunity to engage Saturn in all their different dramatic role playing narratives.
A variety of materials are introduced to offer children multiple avenues for expressive language. A language can be spoken through paint, clay, woodworking, movement, music, etc. What we have observed in the Cilantro group is their natural draw to the language of dramatic role playing. We see this interactive type of play being used as a strategy to formulate friendships, to try on a new persona, and to test powerful roles.
Throughout the school, areas become sets for their roles. For example, the play structure becomes a big ship that hosts a slew of characters, or the classroom living room becomes the beach as family play takes day trips away from the House Area. Recently in the Middle Courtyard, a group shared a book on space while waiting for their peers to finish snack. One by one the group grew and their conversations flowed as they turned each page of the book. When snack was over the entire outdoor group began transforming the Middle Courtyard. Moving chairs from tables and pulling out fabric, the stage was set.
Ami: Let’s make a rocket ship. We are in outer space.
Wesley: I will drive the ship. Come on.
Ami: We need capes. Quick, put on the capes. We are about to go.
Ami hands Jack and Emme fabric that they use for capes. The group flies around the Middle Courtyard.
Ami: We are on gravity. I’m from Neptune.
Jack: I’m from space. I have super powers. It’s lightning.
Ami: Here, Saturn, wear this pink one. It sparkles.
Saturn: I’m going around and around.
Ami: Fly! We are on gravity.
Wesley: I’m from planet Earth. My super powers is ice.
Emme: I’m from Ohio. My power is snow. I can freeze people if they are not being nice.
Ami: I’m not a super hero. I’m a princess. I’m visiting another princess. We play at the planet park with planet steps. Like an escalator.
The group flies back to the spaceship and prepares for take off.
Jack: Three, two, one. Blast off!
These fluid moments in the group’s play are joyful and sometimes they encounter glitches when a misunderstanding or a disagreement of the roles occur. As teachers, we embrace those moments of discourse as we see them as opportunities to support the children in developing strategies for conflict resolution. The children work together to clarify their concepts and build flexibility while listening to another’s point of view. We will be documenting the stories as they unfold and are looking forward to the vocabulary this group will bring to the language of dramatic role playing.
Dandelion
This week, the Dandelions continued to focus on making and deepening connections with each other and with our classroom spaces. The children were thinking about the Basils a lot. The children know that the Basils are the group that comes to play in our Front Yard while we go to the Woodchip Area — and we also remember that they were the ones who delivered the bouquet of balloons to our classroom over Valentine’s Day. In the Paper House and the Mini Studio, the children have been thinking about the ways in which we can send them messages of “thanks” and “I love you”: notes, cards, and gifts (balloons and necklaces).
Here is a short dialogue our group in the Paper House engaged in today:
Leon: Uma will say “I love it.”
Arya: Presley will say “I love it too!”
Evyn: I think Copper will say “I love it very much.”
Leon asks Olivia: Olivia, do you love it? Do you want red?
Olivia: I want some red.
One of the goals in card making is to awaken the curiosity of learning more about the children from the other pods through this messaging exchange. This interest in spreading and receiving love is echoed in one of the songs that Flora has introduced to our group in our Morning Meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAKh94vBqos
Other songs that our group has been requesting and listening to include the following:
Courtney Campbell, “Red Raincoat”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA7vmAiPTBY
Courtney Campbell, “Jenny Has a Dog”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u91iMPp_qQc
“I Have a Little Bicycle”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iXSUtgFWlY
Greg and Steve, “The Freeze”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNHA0kdlKA4
The Dandelions have also been enjoying a lot of dramatic play this rainy week. The children have been taking on roles as parents and babies; doctors and firefighters; tigers and dinosaurs; dragons and kitties. One of the wonder questions that we have on the wall of the classroom is, “What will we discover about each other through the roles that we play?”
Ana: Can you check my baby?
Eddie: I can.
Ana: No, Eddie. A shot. We pull this thing [syringe] up. Like this.
Eddie: Like this?
Ana: Yeah. We are probably both doctors. I’m a doctor too.
Eddie, holding a thermometer: I’ll check the number. 25, 26. This baby is very sick.
Cary: Does the baby need a snack?
Emma: Cary, can you open this [purse]? I need the keys to drive to the market.
Cary: Open the door with the key.
Zoe: Here’s an apricot for the baby.
Eddie: This baby is hurt and sleeping.
Emma: Zoe, let’s take the [other] baby in the car. Buckle up the baby.
Zoe: This baby is not sick. He is hungry.
Cary: Who wants candy?
Emma: The baby doesn’t eat candy. It eats blueberries.
Zoe: Now he needs milk. I’m giving the baby a bottle.
Ana: I’m so busy with my baby. I take care of her.
Eddie: This baby needs a new diaper now. He did a pee.
The children are starting to build off of each other’s ideas in their dramatic play. As the Cilantros mentioned above, dramatic play has so many benefits for preschoolers. It stimulates creative and divergent thinking, allowing children to enter a world of “what ifs.” It helps children define, explore, and test out social roles. It develops social and emotional understanding and gives children practice negotiating and communicating with their peers. It encourages language development, both in terms of expressive and verbal communication techniques. And it is a lot of fun! (For more information, see this article in the New York Times about how play energizes and stimulates our brain!)
And speaking of which, some fun books that we’ve read this week include the following:
How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow8qNPtmc7U
Doctor De Soto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvhURD26eZo
The Hungry Thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMoQ4xM22Gg
The Way Back Home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgGVJmPLNS4