Reporting to you today from the Yellow Room. We hope you enjoy reading this post with your kiddos like a little newspaper about today’s events. Sending warmth and shine to all on this crisp December afternoon.
At the start of class, our classroom waited ready with tables set with inspiration. The snails ate apples, the babies soaked in lots of bubbles, the light table shone with colorful objects and flashlights, and the art table held watercolors ready to be “woken up” with water brushes.
Hands make meaning.
Hands communicate with choices: color, line, gesture, movement.
Hands Reach.
During choice time we talked about:
– Caring for Animals: “you can read squirrel the picture schedule so they know what’s happening next” “dinosaur needs a place to sleep!!”
– Self Care: noticing when our bodies need a tissue or to use the toilet. Celebrating friends for visiting the potty and taking care of their bodies.
– Science and Inquiry: What happens when colors mix? (Both at the light table and with paint)
– Making marks: using paintbrushes to draw and adding our shapes (circles, triangles, and ovals today), lines (we have been experimenting with infinity signs), and letters to our art: “I am making two circles” and “this is my blue oval!”
– Community Building: we used paper to *show* personal space or works in progress. Most yellow room children understand that a drawing belongs to the artist working on it, so we can apply the same idea to animals and use paper as a sort of stage with a clear boundary. We often say, “We can learn from our friends bodies.”
– Communication: “can I have a turn when you’re done?” “I am using it right now” or “the cow is busy.” (We are also practicing saying our friends names and waiting for listening before giving a message).
We sang “around and around” during meeting and moved our arms in circles like riding a bicycle.
We practiced raising our quiet hands during snack to ask for more.
During snack we also made the shape connection that has emerged in art explicit with a reading of Color Farm by Lois Ehlert. The oval was of particular interest and focus today.
Up on the roof later friends helped friends climb up the rock climbing wall (even squirrel lended a paw). Some friends connected the bocks to the shape from our snack story; they created a giant balancing square.
We fly like butterflies through the hallways.
Have a glorious evening friends!! See you soon. Let us know if your kiddos have any comments when you read together at home 🐿️🪴🦖🦕🙋🏽♀️🙋🙋🏿♂️✨🪩💛🌟🌝
