In small and large building, the children continue to build detailed structures, telling the story behind each carefully and thoughtfully placed piece of scrap wood, block, stone, or acorn. Our small building has transformed into animal homes this year, little animals nestle into rock burrows and follow patterned paths of gems and planks. Once a structure has developed, the children are asked to draw their structure and share their story. For the group of children last year, small building was an invitation to create designs with natural materials. This year, there is a shared interest in animal habitats and play scripts about little chipmunks, beavers, and foxes.
Beading offers a creative and colorful fine motor experience. Children are asked to count and record how many beads they used. Often, there is an exploration of patterns and colors. Their beaded sculptures hang above the math table, helping to further define the space and invite conversation and reflection.
The Kindergarteners continue to write Pete the Cat books. Some are about Pete the Cat's Family and others have been about Pete the Cat and his Space Travels. Their drawings have been rich with detail, color, and humor. Grandma and Grandpa Pete have been favorite characters in most of their books!
During recent conferences, children began the conversation about our dramatic play space, wondering if we should open it. Last year the Kindergarteners were passionate about the dramatic play space, quickly turning it into pizza put. The Kindergarteners this year have been more invested in other choices, never asking about the dramatic play space, never quietly crawling under the stop sign to investigate.
Finally they seemed to notice and recommended we open it. Of course, before we open a space, we must ensure there are labels and every material has a home. On Thursday, TW, AM and IM chose to take on the responsibility of making labels for our dramatic play space. They named it the Kindergarten Kitchen or Kindergarten Restaurant, as it can be both. When writing their own labels the children took ownership of the space. They used a big alphabet book to support their sound knowledge, stretching out words and recording each letter. They cut and taped the labels, supporting the future play of all of their peers.
On Friday during academic choice, I left a piece of chart paper up about friendship - earlier in the afternoon I had recorded children's ideas about friendship and we added the word friend to our word library. I let the children know that if they wanted to add on to our list of ideas about friendship, they could briefly leave their choice and record their feelings on the chart paper. WM and CM eagerly left their choices to work together. The friendship between WM and CM has been a joy to observe. Recently when cleaning up at the end of the day, I've found little scraps of paper with tiny print; Calla and Whitney are bff's. I love you. You are my best friend. Hi. Love.
It seemed fitting they would share their sweet feelings about friendship together and draw a picture of the two of the them on the bottom of our reflections.
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