The makings of an ocean... For Small Group today, we put blue and green paint on our hands and swirled, swished, and smeared it all over the paper to create these awesome waves. Some of us enjoyed the painty-fun, and others preferred to just watch. After the "Ocean" was dry, Ms. Harmony trimmed the edges and put it up in the window. Each day we will add to this until we have one terrific panoramic ocean scene!
On to Planning Time- Because we were welcoming new students, we used these cards and a computer mouse for planning to help the new students learn each symbol and Area. Each card corresponds to a matching card in the actual Area, and are used consistently in Greeting Time, Planning Time, etc. so as to become symbols for real places. Understanding symbols is a critical pre-literacy skill because letters are symbols for sounds.
The children took turns clicking on the "screen" where they wanted to work, and talked about ideas that they wanted to work on during Work Time. Friend "H" chose the Art Area because he wanted to hammer! (This, coincidentally, is also his letter link. He REALLY likes hammers!) Learn more about Letter Links here.
Work Time fun:
Friend "H" did hammer with a variety of play-doh tools and observed the effect he had on his play-doh. He also mentioned that "This is a spatula. You use it to flip it over like this." That was a pretty neat trick that we all needed to try!
Friend "K" also worked with play-doh. She used the ocean animal cookie cutters and solved a few problems during her plan. - Cookie cutters are harder to push through when the dough is thick! Here she is pushing down on it with her hands to make it flatter!
- When you put the cookie cutter in the middle of the play-doh, you don't have enough room on the edges for more cookie cutters! It's best to squish the play-doh back into a ball, flatten it, and then cut out more shapes.
Friend "H" observed that his ball was round like a cookie once flattened! We took a picture because he wanted to show his mom and dad his "cookie." He loved cutting it with the play-doh knife and seeing the lines.
The school friends worked in the Explore Table with ships, pirates, treasure chests, and jewels!
We also worked to build with the rainbow blocks to make castles. This was challenging because if you build the walls too tall they fall down. This castle was the second attempt where we did not build such tall walls, and used triangles to support the walls outside the castle. Friend "K" decided that this structure was much more sturdy.
The last plans we worked on during the morning were in the Block Area with the pirate ships and little people. We figured out how to make the sails go up and down. The anchors can also be lifted for better sailing. Friend "H" made sure everyone's anchors were up. We also looked at the maps and the treasure chests. Finally, as we took our ships out for a sail, we encountered some fierce ocean animals like sharks and octopi! Luckily we were ready with our cannons. We fired away at those creatures and they swiftly swam away!
Ms. Harmony doesn't think there is a better way to welcome summer, beach trips, and family outings like playing pirates!!
