Music and Sound

            This week the children have been looking at different natural materials and exploring what sounds they make.  The children were offered dandelions, grass, pine needles, and yarn with clear tubes.  The children were able to choose what they wanted to include in their tubes. 

            It was very interesting to see how the children responded.  The materials provided purposely would not make a loud noise if included in the tube because I wanted to see how they would react.

            The children would fill their tubes with a material, shake the tube, and look confused.  Some of the children commented on how the tube was “broken” and “wouldn’t work” and some of the children wouldn’t say anything and move to the next material to see if it worked.

            While discussing this at group time, the children commented that the materials were soft.  We are going to explore the differences between how hard materials and soft materials sound and see where that leads us.

Clay

            This week the children have been working on more strategies to manipulate clay.  We provided them with photographs of clay bowls as inspiration as they worked with the clay.  The children showed their knowledge of rolling balls, and a few of the children were able to poke holes in their clay ball with their fingers.

            Many of the children, when looking at the pictures as a whole group, commented on how they bowls looked like hermit crab shells turned over.  We thought this was interesting because the children are bringing several aspects of their learning together at the same time.  We have been working with hermit crabs , how they look, and what they do, over the past few weeks as well.

May 2013

Dear Families,

            Welcome to a new semester!  We are excited to start the spring semester and enjoy some warmer weather!  We look forward to continuing our explorations with the children this term and are excited to explore some new ideas with them.

            Thank you to all of our families who came to our Early Childhood Program Exhibit.  It was wonderful to see so many of our families and we hope you enjoyed looking and talking about what has been going on this school year.  It is so neat to see how much the children have grown this year!

            One of the great things about the spring term is that we are able to enjoy the outdoors a little more.  When it starts to get hot outside we will make sure to apply sunscreen to the children.  Permission forms will be filled out for this.  Please know that when the weather gets warmer we do more with water outside too.  A change of clothes is always a good idea.

            This year we wanted to have parent-teacher conferences at the end of the spring term.  This will give us a chance to talk to you about the entire school year as opposed to just the fall and winter semesters.  June 24^th is the last day of the school year.  July 8^th begins our summer term.  We will be having conferences on June 26^th, 27^th, and 28^th.  Sign-up sheets will be posted in the next week or two.

            As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let us know.  Have a wonderful month!

Catie Stone & Charlene Rodegher

Hermit Crab Habitats

            This spring we are continuing the habitat exploration while focusing on the hermit crabs. The children have been very interested in observing the hermit crabs in and out of their tank. They have discussed the different materials that are in the hermit crab tank and different things they need. We have brought the hermit crabs out onto the green moss and placed them in sand to provoke thinking about hermit crab habitats.

          This week we brought out natural materials such as rocks, pine cones, tree cookies and tiles onto the discovery table. The children used the various materials to construct homes for the hermit crabs. After the homes were created, the hermit crabs were then brought out to explore the homes. The children were very excited to watch the crabs move around the materials that they placed for them.

Other materials were brought out by the children to use for the hermit crab homes as well. They used the magna tiles to construct box like structures where the hermit crab was placed in the center.

After exploring materials and using them to create hermit crab homes, we now would like the children to illustrate their ideas on paper. They have the ideas of what they want the home to look like, now even deeper thinking and planning can occur through the use of pencil and paper.

Weaving with Yarn

          We are continuing the weaving exploration this spring by using different materials and new ways to weave. The students have been very engaged in using the class loom that has become a permanent fixture in the classroom this term. They use every ribbon they can find to weave in the loom while adjusting ribbons that are in their already.

          This week I introduced yarn to the students and how you can weave yarn into the loom just like the ribbons. The children were very interested in the yarn itself and explored how you can bend it and take it apart. They pulled the yarn apart into smaller strands, and then put it through the holes inside the loom.

          One student had a ribbon in one hand and a piece of yarn in the other and began to weave the pieces in and out of the holes in the wired shelf. The wired shelf now holds light table materials, but I would like to introduce weaving on the wired shelf. Next week I would like to empty the wired shelf and have the students use ribbons and yarn to weave in and out of the wire.