Many students in kinder are still loving learning about acting and planning short plays. This week we discussed that actors spend a lot of time practicing and warming up before shows. We played a variety of fun theater games, and presented our own version of the story “Sheep in a Jeep.”
The Toddler Town Express
- Fostering Meaningful Explorations:The train is an ever-present part of life here at The Patchwork School. For some students it is a great source of fun and excitement and for others it can be overwhelming and scary. The idea to start a train exploration came about after Becca and I noticed the many emotions that are stirred up when the train goes by.
How can we foster positive experiences around the train?We began by projecting images and videos of trains moving down the tracks. We felt that it was important for the toddlers to see a traveling train up close and personal. We also introduced toy trains, tracks, train literature, and songs. Perhaps more exposure and knowledge of trains will help us to cope with any feelings we have. What will emerge from our train activities and explorations?
Working Through Feelings with Play
Pond Plan
Music Room Visit
Logan, Alexander, and Blaze went to the toddler building to find magnifying glasses for a bug hunt. They couldn’t find any, but they did see that the door to the music room was open and rushed in to play the instruments. They took turns well so that everyone got to play the instruments they wanted to play. To expand on the play, Cha Cha led some rhythm activities.
Marble Tracks
In noticing that many of the older children seem ready for more challenging manipulatives and building materials, we offered the marble tracks to small groups of older toddlers this week. The children responded to these new materials with great excitement and curiosity! Many children became quite fixated on keeping track of the exact marble which they first chose, and this led to some conflicts at first. We were impressed, however, by how quickly the children began to let go of this need to retrieve the same marble each time, in lieu of simply finding another one. It’s exciting to see the older toddlers starting to move beyond the “everything is mine” mindset. This willingness to adjust one’s tactics mid-game in response to the needs of the group play scenario–what an important discovery!
Birds, birds, birds
Earth Day: Community Work Day
Every year we all get together to spruce up the school. This year we had a great turn out and we able to accomplish so much! Thank you to our amazing families!
Alphabet creatures
This week, we worked on making an entire alphabet to hang in our writing area. Some people were interested in the circles, filling them in with different materials and colors. Others liked the idea of turning them into creatures (it’s an A for alien!), while others were interested in the sensory aspects of gluing, sticking, and painting to decorate the letters.