Shades of Tom Sawyer

I know I'm not the only person who ever cleaned just a teeny tiny little piece of something, only to realize that with that one clean spot, everything else looks much worse than it did when it was evenly dirty.  So it was this morning.  We played in the last of the rain, enjoying the light drizzle, searching for snails and worms and all the other little critters that come out on a rainy day, when I ran my finger over a panel of the garage door.  Yuk!  It didn't look that dirty, but my gracious, there was quite a layer of accumulated dust on there!  Stepping back, I realized it needed cleaning, and badly.  What to do?  What to do?

What else?  I filled a toy bucket with water, and got a few sponges, and went to work.  Well, water is a kid magnet, so all the little monkeys came running to beg to play in the water I mean help wash the garage door.  I held back for just long enough to make it even more enticing, then gave in, and shared the sponges.

 My goodness, were they eager!  We went through many buckets of water, and had to take turns with the sponges - kiddos were waiting for their friends to drop one, in hopes of another chance.

 Squeezing the sponges out was every bit as much fun as washing the garage door.

 Look at how hard they worked!  Then the sun came out, and it was even nicer being outside in the sunshine, playing with friends and a bucket of water.

Ta-da!  It's all clean Ms. Paula!  Oh yes, thank you for the inspiration, Tom Sawyer.  Now if only I had a fence that needed white washing....

Hi friends!


Last night I presented a training to home child care providers, called Nature Swap, Art Materials Go Green.  We had a lot of fun - I wish I'd taken my camera!  Our creative ladies used natural materials in play-dough and in paint to explore ways to use natural materials.  One of the materials I provided was home-made dough, stuff I made about 2 months ago, but it is still soft and smells lovely.  I couldn't remember the recipe I used, but I have looked it up, and here it a link to 10 edible dough recipes, including the kool-aid dough I made.   http://www.dealiciousmom.com/edible-play-dough-10-yummy-recipes/

For those of you who are Pinterest-ing, I have these and many other fun ideas pinned to my 'sensory boxes' board, at http://pinterest.com/paulaspreschool/sensory-boxes/.  Pinterest has helped me to connect to SO many new ideas, if you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it!

Finally, for those of you who weren't there last night, we focused on ways to help reconnect children with nature.  I hope you'll consider participating in International Mud Day, on June 29th.  My group will celebrate on Friday, June 28th - check back in early June to see pictures of us getting thoroughly muddy!  Every child needs a chance to play in the mud, and dance in the rain.  Let's provide those opportunities while they are young!  You can participate in many ways, from just barely messy, to full-fledged jump in the mud.  Check out the fun here:  http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/working-groups/nature/international-mud-day/

Have a great day!

Paula

Sunshine + Water = Joy

It was a hot, sunny afternoon yesterday, and the kiddos weren't moving very fast, and I realized it was time to get out the water misters.  Wow did everyone perk up!  At first they just jumped and danced in the mist, rubbing the water on their faces and into their hair, and announcing things like, "It's summer!"  "It's foggy!"  "I see a rainbow!"  Pure joy, a wonder to behold.

Then something even better happened!  Here's the story, mostly in pictures, with some explanation from me, and quotes from the kiddos.

One of the kiddos noticed a small leak in the hose, spraying water up in a small arc.

 

Quickly word spread, and the kiddos who were using buckets to try to catch the mist quickly moved over to the leak.

They all shared and took turns!  There was, of course, some negotiating: "I'm next", "You're taking too long!" "You're getting me wet", etc., but the kiddos quickly sorted that out, and did an awesome job of waiting for that most precious resource: the water.

 Here come some more kiddos to investigate...

 ... and off they go to get buckets!

 Now, as an adult, I saw a problem: the water wasn't spraying up very far, and the children had the buckets laying flat, or even slightly inverted, so they weren't catching much water at all.  They tried putting their fingers over part of the leak - I'm not sure if they were trying to focus the spray so only the part going into the buckets was leaking, or if they were enjoying the feeling of the spray on their fingers - my guess is it was a little of both.

 It didn't matter how little water they caught! They were having fun!

 They compared...

 "Hey, can I have some water?"  The children started sharing the few drops they had worked so hard to collect!  "I gave my water to my friend."

 Next step, add some dirt.  Look how industriously they are working to collect it!

 Into the now communal bucket.  "Here's some nice crunchy leaves."

 Isn't it pretty?

 "We need to stir it!"  Sticks were found, broken to a good length, and the mix was perfected.

What a treat, as their teacher, so see all the skills the kiddos brought to this experience.  I was, and still am, impressed by how well they all played together to enjoy this experience.  They shared, took turns, listened to each other, and worked cooperatively to make this glorious bucket of muck.  They compared volume and water color.  They labelled what they were seeing: mist, fog, a rainbow.  They were scientists in a very preschool way, and joyous in the learning and doing.
 
Yes, sunshine + water does indeed = joy!

Green Beans!

Finally, today we were able to eat our very own green beans!  The kiddos helped to plant the beans way back when it was still cold out, and we've been watching as the plants have grown.  A couple of weeks ago we found flowers - and we know the reason for a flower is to make seeds.  Sure enough, when the petals dried up and fell away, there were tiny baby green beans there.  The kiddos wanted to pick them and eat them last week, but they weren't quite big enough.  Today they were! 

Look how many there were!  Of course, the best thing to do with freshly picked green beans is to eat them!  Almost everyone wanted to taste them, and then taste them again, and again.

 After everyone had eaten 3 or 4 green beans each, I suggested I would put the rest in the fridge, and we could have them with our lunch tomorrow.  One of the kiddos looked at my lap, and said, "But there's still more!"  Now that's a child who knows a good thing when she sees it!

Jackson Pollock and Spiders

Welcome to my first blog!  I've started this as a way to share some of our learning activities, mostly for parents of my students.  We have a lot of fun at Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten, and we do a lot of learning too!

Today we learned about American artist, Jackson Pollock.  I showed the kiddos a print of one of his paintings, and then we watched a short video put out by the Museum of Modern Art in NYC about how Pollock painted.  You can check it out here: How Pollock painted.  We moved our bodies along with the artist on the video - standing, stooping, flinging and flicking with imaginary brushes.  Then we understood why Pollock's art is considered "action art".  It's also abstract art, and we imagined images in the print.

In the video, the narrator pointed out that Pollock painted with very fluid paint, so we talked about fluid vs viscous.  We checked out some liquids we had on hand, and decided if they were viscous (hair gel, liquid soap, honey, chocolate syrup) or very fluid (water, milk, the paint I had out for today).  Later in the day, when we ate pancakes, one of the kiddos pointed out that the syrup was viscous too!  Great remembering!

The fun part was going outside and making our own abstract, action art.  Check it out!

I am so impressed with the paintings the kiddos made!  They look fantastic displayed in our lunch room, and posted to our Artsonia page.

So where do spiders come in to all this?  I've created a summer curriculum called Nature In My Backyard, and we're learning about many different animals and plants that we can find right here, in our own yards.  We learned a lot about worms and snails last week, and this week we've been learning about spiders.

We know spiders have 2 body parts, and 8 legs, which all come off the cephalothorax.  We know that most spiders are venomous, but only 2 here in Texas are really dangerous: the black widow, and the brown recluse.  We've read both fiction and non-fiction books about spiders, and enjoyed comparing two very different versions of I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.  To end the week, the children made spiders for snack!  Okay, not real spiders, but it sure is fun to tell mom and dad that we ate spiders at snack time!  While the kiddos built their spider snacks, we reviewed what we know about spiders.  Check out these yummy treats!