Week 5: Go! Go! Go!

Vroomaloom Zoom!

Zooming to impossible places is fun!  The next time you are on a long drive with your family, imagine what it would be like to just take off the road and make your own way.

In our family, our middle child was a really late talker.  We used this book, and others like it, to help him try and say new words.  He would try and mimic the silly sounds.  We also used a lot of signs to communicate.  He loved to pretend to drive and tell with his hands where he was going.  He had a lot of stories to tell, even if they weren’t in words.

Snow on the Road!

Cornstarch + shaving cream =

Maps and Roads

Use your imagination and anything you have to make a road or map with your child.

With a pen and a piece of paper (or even a napkin), suddenly the restaurant table becomes a magic land to explore.  If you don’t have a matchbox car in your pocket, try the salt shaker!  Walk through the pathway in the woods with your fingers and see what you can find.

With a roll of masking tape, the floor becomes a parking lot, an airport runway, a zoo.  Add a box and you have the garage, the hangar, or animal hospital.  Go ahead, use the whole roll and make the road go around the room, down the hall.  Peel up your tape and make a huge ball.  Do you have a dump truck to take that to the dump?  If you splurge on a roll of blue or green tape, you can leave it on your floor longer.

Tape on the floor is fun for indoor hopscotch and obstacle courses too.   Make a number line on your floor and jump from number to number.  Can you skip count?  Jump on even numbers.  Can you go backwards?

What’s down the road next week?

It’s our last week of Winter Session!  Talk to Jamie about registering for our Spring Session starting  April

Monday:  We’ll clean up early and head to the gym

Wednesday:  9 am Special Story Time with Nicki Lutsock-Hardee from the McMinnville Public Library.  Followed by a second special visitor!  (No story after clean up)

                                               

Friday:  Our last day!  Bring your favorite work back to the classroom for me to hang up for our art show/open house!

Winter Session Week 4

It’s been fun playing in the snow with all of you!

Next Week:  Time to clear away all the snow.  We’ve got places to go.  Let’s get to work with tools and trucks.  Make way for the cars.

Monday:  Playtime in the gym!

Dance Like Snowflakes!  (Frere Jacques)

Dance like snowflakes; dance like snowflakes

In the air; in the air

Whirling, twirling snowflakes; whirling twirling snowflakes

Falling here.  Falling there.

Flubber!  (Information from OMSI:  https://www.omsi.edu/for-kids/flubber)

**Think a science museum is just for older kids?  OMSI has an awesome play area for toddlers!**

Flubber is a polymer made by a chemical reaction. Polymers are very long chains of repeating units. When the two solutions are combined, polyvinyl acetate chains (a polymer from the white glue) are linked together in a 3-dimensional arrangement by borate ions (from the Borax) and other chemical bonds. This produces the thick, sticky polymer called Flubber.

How to Make Flubber at Home:

The Ingredients

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3 cups Warm Water
2 cups Elmer’s White Glue
Liquid Water Color (food coloring stains)
20 Mule Team Borax, available in the grocery store laundry section.
(Please see NOTES section below for safety information about Borax.)
Glitter (optional)
White Vinegar (for cleaning)

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The Steps

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In a large container combine and mix:
1 ½ cups very warm water
2 cups Elmers white glue
A few drops of water color and/or glitter if using clear glue 

Make sure this combination is completely mixed

In a small container combine and mix:
1 1/3 cups very warm water
2 level tsp 20 Mule Team Borax. Adults, please do this step.
(Please see NOTES section below for safety information about Borax.) 

Make sure the Borax is completely dissolved.

Combine the glue and borax mixtures:
Mix well using your hands until all the liquid is absorbed. You may need to squish, mix, and break up the flubber to get it fully combined. Store the flubber in a plastic, air-tight container at room temperature. For best results, measure precisely and mix well as noted above.

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Notes About Saftey

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Adults, please keep the box of powdered borax out of the reach of children. If kept in an airtight container, the Flubber will keep for up to 2 weeks. Vinegar dissolves Flubber from carpet, hair, furniture, clothes, and pets. This recipe makes enough Flubber for six children.
 

We have the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on 20 Mule Team Borax available for you to read. Please click the link below to access the important safety information on the product.
Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) (PDF)  (https://www.omsi.edu/for-kids/flubber)

Week 3: Pretending Winter, Snow and Ice

We aren’t having any winter weather out here on the West Coast, but we can still imagine the frosty February other parts of our country are experiencing.

 

Snowman Chant

Once there was a snowman,      snowman,    snowman

(grow tall slowly as you chant)

Once there was a Snowman:  tall,         tall,     tall!

And in the sun he melted,            melted,          melted

(shrink down to the ground slowly as you chant)

In the sun he melted:  small,       small,             small.

 

Sensory Play:  Ice

The ice in our touch table was made with water and food dye and toys in a baby bathtub and other plastic containers.  It took overnight to freeze.  You can try letting kids choose what toys to freeze.  (Hans Solo is a favorite in our house.)  Don’t worry if they can’t wait overnight—even after a few hours the surface will be frozen with some water bubbles in the middle.  The bathtub and sink are fun places to melt ice.  With children who are not tasting the melting ice, you can add paints and glitter.  Try ice melting on the porch, sidewalk or pool this summer!

Salty Snow Paintings

A great excuse to drizzle, squeeze and pour puddles of glue.  We sprinkled table salt on our glue to make the glue look like snow. 

Wonder what other things in the kitchen cabinet might make a great glitter substitute? 

Let me know if your family tries any new sprinkled in glue.

Gluten Free Salt Dough

2 cups gluten-free flour mix

1 cup kosher salt

about 1 cup lukewarm water

Put the flour and salt in bowl.  Slowly, add the lukewarm water while stirring until the dough comes together around the spoon. It should feel pliable without being sticky. If it’s too wet, add a bit more flour. If it’s too dry, add some water. Keep playing until it feels right.

Bake in the 200° oven until the shapes feel firm, which takes 2 hours. Turn off the oven and let the baking sheet sit in there for another hour.  When the shapes have cooled, paint them any way you want. And remind the kiddos that no, this still isn’t a cookie.

Goodbye Everybody, I’ll see you on Monday: 

On Mondays we will clean up early and head to the gym.

Next Week’s Forecast:  More cold weather at Playschool.

Ever been curious about what kind of art Ms. Amy makes?

Amy has clay bells in the Trees show at Currents Gallery and masks on display in Marilyn Affolter’s Gallery (across the street from Red Fox Bakery).  Both shows open this weekend.  I’ll be wandering around during Downtown McMinnville’s Art and Wine Walk this Saturday sometime between 5-8 pm.  The work will be up through mid-March.

The Power of Love and Paper

Making Valentines

Why do we make Valentines at Playschool?  You won't find us making holiday decorations for all holidays.  Different families celebrate different holidays in different ways.  We want to be respectful of all and leave many celebrations for families to have at home.  However, we do make Valentines--because they pack a powerful message--yes, a message of love--and a message about making meaning.  Valentines show children the power of a letter.

In Creative Art and Play, many of the children are not yet writing or even pre-writing.  But they can still make messages with their paintings and collages.  Your delight when you open an envelope of your child's creations shows your child the power of their creation.

So, how did we make Valentines with our 2-4 year olds?

We started with sensory paintings to make some great textures.  Remember the shaving cream paint from Week 1?  It felt so good to stick our hands in the shaving cream and swirl in the color.  I made sure every child printed at least one shaving cream painting, so for Valentines we could rip, tear and cut it into collages on hearts.

I pre-cut the hearts when children were not in the studio, because as a general rule, I don't cut, draw, paint or sculpt for children.  If you are really working hard to learn how to cut, and I cut a perfect heart in front of you in 30 seconds, you might be a little discouraged and you might want me to cut everything and you might even feel like your cutting is no good.  So I just made the heart shape paper appear along with other Valentine themed stickers and collage papers.

Collages are awesome because you take one thing, tear it or cut it into little bits, and then glue it together to make a totally different thing.  It's magic.  You can still see bits of what it was, but now it's something else.  (Sometimes, I see my children this way...a collage of my family.)

So what might you say to give power to the artists of these Valentines?  First and foremost, all of us would say something like, "I can see how much you love and care about me, because you made something just for me.  Thank you!"

Then the artist would appreciate us taking our time and looking at the Valentine.  We can show our children how much we value their work by describing to our child what we see.  The colors, the shapes, the type of paper.  We can ask questions, asking our child to explain how they made the Valentine.  Our kids will know their work is great when we look at it carefully.

We also made paintings Valentines' week with special shiny watercolors.  You can see how organized the table is for painting with the watercolor sets.  I wanted to give the children a visual message that this kind of painting requires you to choose a spot and work patiently.

 

I had thought these paintings might become Valentine collages too, however they stayed whole.  Maybe they will be transformed in a different collage someday soon.

Look at the different ways the children experimented with the paints.  The painting on the left shows a child trying each color carefully to see what these paints look like.  The paint is brushed on in separate stokes with space around each paint.  The middle painting is blots of different colors, showing testing of the paint colors and the way the brush splats on the paper.  The blots run together though, showing that the child was interested in pushing the brush in different colors and in the experience, but not in the final product visually showing each color as distinct.  Then the painting on the right fills the entire paper, layering the different colors in big brush strokes.  The colors all run together here--the child was experimenting or experiencing the way the paint and water flow onto the paper and blend.  Knowing what each separate color does was not important.

Winter Session: Week 2

Valentine Song

Do you know My Valentine?

My Valentine,  My Valentine.

Do you know My Valentine?

Her name is _____________!

Songs are so fun to sing when we hear our names!  Try other songs with your child’s name.

Sensory Fun:  Colored Rice!

This is easy and fun to do with your child.  Just like Easter Eggs, only rice doesn’t crack!

1 Cup Uncooked Rice + 1 Tablespoon Vinegar + Food Coloring

Mix together in a bowl or in a ziplock bag.  Dump out and spread out to dry on a cookie tray.

Don’t like the smell of vinegar?  Try adding a scented oil or vanilla.

Coming Next Week:

Monday:  We will start cleaning up early on Mondays and heading up to the gym for some running, jumping, balancing, big motor fun!

Snow and Ice and Winter!  Are you missing the cold this year?  We will be dreaming of a white winter next week.  Brrrrrr.

Some Valentine's Day Questions we've been pondering...

What do you love?   Why do you love it?

Who do you love?     How do you show it?

Who loves you?         How do you know it?

 Have a loving holiday!

Winter Session Begins with Lots of Love

Creative Art and Play Week 1

February 2 - 6

Everybody loves something...like...

Shaving Cream Paint!

We love to watch shaving cream expand as it sprays
We love the soft way it feels
We really love how the paint swirls in the white mountains of foam

You can mix shaving cream with all kinds of water base paints.  

Try liquid watercolors, tempera or with a smock and old clothes acrylics make beautiful marbled papers when you print the designs.  Swirl colors on top of shaving cream.  Press a paper gently on top.  Let the paint set a little while and then press design with paper towels or wipe off extra shaving cream with a squeegee.

For a colorful foamy bath painting time, fill a cup with shaving cream, add a few drops of food dye and let your artist mix it together with a brush.  Your tub walls make a great canvas.   For even more fun, give your artist a spray bottle to wash it all clean.

Rice in the touch table!

maybe we'll change its color next week...

Pink Play Dough!

Basic Cooked Gluten Free Play Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Cup White Rice Flour
1/2 Cup Cornstarch
1/2 Cup Salt
1 Tbsp Cream of Tartar
1-1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1 Cup Water, hot but not boiling
Food Coloring, as desired

Directions:

1.      Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium pot.

2.      Add the vegetable oil, then the water, and food dye.  Continue to mix until thoroughly combined.

3.      Heat the pot on the stove over low heat for about 3 minutes. I like to stir frequently with a silicone spatula.

4.      When the dough starts to pull away from the sides easily, turn it out on a cookie tray. Let it cool briefly until you can work it with your hands.

Additional Notes:

·         If needed, adjust the texture with small amounts of water (for dry, crumbly dough) or cornstarch (for sticky dough).

·         Makes about 2 cups of play dough, or about 2 baseball-size balls of dough.

·         Store in tightly sealed plastic bags or containers.

And Silly Songs...

Silly Love Song

Love somebody?

Yes, I do.

Love somebody?

Yes, I do.

Love somebody?

Yes, I do.

Love somebody, but I won’t tell who!

Shake like jelly?

Yes, I will.

Shake like jelly?

Yes I will.

Shake like jelly?

Yes I will.

Shake like jelly, ‘cause I can’t stand still!

Climb a ladder

Oh, so high.

Climb a ladder

Oh, so high.

Climb a ladder

Oh, so high.

Climb a ladder up to the sky!

Coming Next Week:  

Wednesday Feb. 11 at 9 am Special Story Time with Nicki Lutsock-Hardee from the McMinnville Public Library

Check Out These Blogs

I've been looking at teacher blogs listed on this web site:
http://theedublogger.com/check-out-these-class-blogs/

Here are 5 that I found interesting:

Visual Arts at Taylor Lakes Primary School  http://tlpsart.edublogs.org/

This blog from a visual arts class in a primary school in Australia has a peaceful blue color scheme.  The plain blue background sets off the children's artwork nicely.  If the background were busy, it would take away our focus from the details in the artwork.  The photos of artwork on this blog are clear.  I appreciate that the teacher who took the photos set her students work with a plain background as a professional artist would.

Teacher text below the collections of artwork also put the kid's art front and center.  It gives the feeling of a gallery web site.

I also like the simplicity of the date on a small tab on the side and the unconfusing menu bars.

My favorite thing on the whole blog though was a special page that linked to art work students made at home.  What a wonderful way to encourage kids to work independently, outside of assignments.  That is the true goal of education to me, that what we teach be used in life!  The students must be so proud to see their independent creations valued this way.

Art from Skyline Middle School http://capitolofcreativity.weebly.com/

I love the fun feel of this blog.  They way the teacher blogs about students" finding their artistic powers" and her tab to the "Art Lair" and even identifying herself as having a secret identity.  On the home page there is a great slide show that shows the students at an art show holding up signs shaped like hearts and arrows in front of their work that say things like  "Artist" or "I love Art."

Having the Artsonia permission form right there for parents makes it really easy and clear about how parents and students allow artwork to be posted.

The detail that the teacher uses to explain her projects can be well appreciated by students families and by other teachers.

Kindergarten From Bahrain 
http://krebs.edublogs.org/

This blog's design is not as beautiful or relaxing as the art class blogs above.  In fact, I find the plain white and black to be pretty sterile.  However, I think this blog does some pretty interesting things.

First, I really like the banner with the teacher and student names all linked together.  It feels good to see the names connected and I bet students and families enjoy seeing their name in the graphic.

I was pretty interested in the Netiquette and Blog Comments Guidelines.  Instructing students in how to comment well on a blog would be a great lesson before having students write on a blog.  Her guidelines are clear and teach students how to critique work of all media.  Also, the tab on how to cite images is great.  I worry about students not understanding the importance of giving credit where credit is due.

I also think the visitor comment section is fun and clear to use.


The Bird Nest, a 3rd Grade Class in Canada
 http://thebirdnest.edublogs.org/

I love the eye catching banner of a collage bird nest.  I got right away that this is a blog about nurturing young readers and writers.

This blog is in a time of transition, so there are not student blogs to look at.  However, I liked the teacher posts and photos.  I also was interested in the resources pages.  These pages had many links made in a grid called "symbaloo".  This looked like a concise and visual way of linking to outside pages of interest.

VA Middle School Math Teachers Sharing Blog
http://mathwithmrwatson.weebly.com/

I was intrigued right away with the idea of a teacher sharing blog.  This blog is not for students, but for the blog writer to share ideas for technology and lessons.  Although I'm not a math teacher and wouldn't use these lessons, it's a great concept for a blog.

One of the best things about the way the posts are created on this blog, is that at the end of the post, in big text is a section titled "Why a teacher might care."  The text after this heading is in bright red and clearly outlines how the post is useful.

I also thought it worked well to have the ability to sort the posts by curriculum standard number.

Lastly, I love the banner text:  "Big Mistakes = Big Learning."

It might be fun if there were ways for other teachers to share lesson ideas on the web site.  Maybe teachers could send the blogger a posting for approval, or other teachers could join the site.