School is Back with Some New Friends!

We kicked off our summer session last week, and it has been so exciting to have new friends to play with!  We played the "Friends and Neighbors" game where we examined different scenarios of friends in need, and decided how to help them.  This game was helpful in guiding our conversation to different emotions, and why the character felt sad, or frustrated, or hurt.

We played another game where we matched our friends' names with their letter links.  This helped us practice saying our friends' names, but also helped us to listen to the way the names sound... especially the beginning sound of the name.

But most of all, we practiced BEING a friend by playing with friends!  This is our 'S' for Summer explore table!  (Everything in here starts with the 's' sound: sand, sea shells, suns, stars, sandals, sun glasses, stamps, and spoons.)

Friend "Alarm Clock" collected all of the sun rings.  She showed her friends how to put them on her fingers, and helped her friends do the same.  It was pretty tricky for some of our younger friends to slip those suns on each finger without dropping any!

But it was also cool to have a handful of sunshine too!  One of the best things about playing with friends is that they introduce new ideas and new ways to play.  :)

What's with the "Names?"

For new readers of the blog, this post is an explanation of the "names" Ms. Harmony uses when she writes about the school happenings.

The school friends, and even Ms. Harmony, have a symbol called a "letter link" that corresponds to each person.  Simply, a letter link (from High Scope curriculum) matches both the letter and phonemic sound of the first letter in the child's name.  Having a letter link and using them frequently when we talk to our friends at school provide the students many many opportunities to hear matching beginning sounds in words, which is an important pre-literacy skill to have.  It also provides them opportunities to see a bolded letter with a symbol, which helps the children learn to read each other's names and remember words that start with specific letters.

When Ms. Harmony blogs about the school friends, she refers to them as "Friend Bread," or "Friend Sandwich," based on the child's letter link.  (In older blog posts, they might simply be named "Friend B" or "Friend S," but there are now more children who have the same beginning letter so Ms. Harmony uses the letter link rather than just the letter.)  This preserves the child's anonymity to the public, but allows the parents to identify their own child's words and work.

Ms. Harmony has two children that are also mentioned in blog posts.  To differentiate her own personal children from the school friends, her daughters are named Toddler "K" and Baby "E."

Old Friends, New Friends

We are welcoming back old friends and new at the beginning of the Fall Session.  :)  For this Small Group activity we worked on hearing beginning sounds of friends' names, and matching up the correct letter link.  Ms. Harmony printed the names and letter links separately, and reused this idea later as a Planning tool.  This activity was a great way to practice reading and saying our friends' names and developing phonemic awareness.

Another way we talked about friendship this week was through finger painting and storytelling.  Here, Ms. Harmony presented the idea by talking about "Red Friend" who liked to play alone.  She had a great ideas and really liked working on her own plans.  Another friend at school, "Blue Friend," also liked to play alone.  That's why we have an Alone Table.  Sometimes that's a great place to choose.  But one day, Red Friend and Blue Friend started working together.  They SHARED their ideas by working on the same plan at the same time!  When they worked together, they got something new!  "Purple ideas!"  When we work with other friends, we also get to play in new ways and hear new ideas.  Sharing a plan is fun!

Then the school friends were given their own opportunity to tell a story about Blue Friend and Red Friend.  We talked about whether the friends were playing alone, next to each other, or if they were playing WITH each other.  

(Friend "K" prefers not to put her fingers in the paint.  She solved her problem by getting paintbrushes from the art easel so that she could still participate in the activity.  Good thinking "K!")

Then when friends moved into Work Time, we could use the same language that we had just practiced in Small Group.  When we work together on the same plan at the same time it's called "sharing."

We can also choose to work alone and that's a great way to hear and practice doing our own ideas!  Friend "S" was celebrating her birthday and used the monkey peg board to make a birthday cake!  Happy Birthday, Friend "S."  You are going to have a great time being FOUR!  Wow!  :-O

Summertime at Last!

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.

Check out all the ocean animals she made!  You know she is proud of her work when she wants a photo document!

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!!

It's all about the Heart

This week our family celebrated Valentine's Day.  I love this holiday because the heart symbol is my "letter link."  The children call me "Ms. Harmony Heart" and I love it!  I love that my personal symbol means love, and I certainly give all my heart to the kids.

"What is a letter link," you may ask.  These handy little symbols are part of the High Scope Curriculum for early childhood.  Every child and teacher has a symbol that begins with the same letter and sound as the name.  

This serves multiple functions:

- children that are not developmentally ready to recognize letters, can still "read" their name and friends' names

- letter links teach letter identification and sounds

- letter links build phonemic awareness (hearing the sounds letters and blends make in words)

Phonemically speaking, some letters can make more than one sound.  A "letter link" must match the sound to be correct.

For example, a child could be "Cathy Cookie" but not "Cathy Circle" because it's not the same sound.

A child could be "Kody Kangaroo," but not "Kody Carrot" because while it's a matching sound, it's not the same letter.

The children explore letter sounds, inventing new letter links for self and others, test out whether the sounds match, look in books to see if the letters match up, match letter links to friends' names, use letter links to "write" to one another, and so much more.  

Baby "K" got her letter link before leaving the hospital: a Koala.  She looked like a tiny baby koala snuggled up with her dad, so it became her letter link.  Here she is sending Valentine love to you and yours!  Yes, she is koala-fied to be your valentine.  ;)