Poured Paint Flower Pots for Mom

I had tried a similar activity to what I am about to explain last year with my class after seeing a post by Teacher Tom on tall paintings.  This was a very interesting activity for the children, but took a long time to dry and when dry did not look as exciting as it did when wet.  Our medium was cardboard which soaked up a lot of the paint.

This year we tried it on small terra cotta flower pots.  The results were incredible and this time the results of our process actually have a function.  We will be giving these little pots to the moms for Mother's Day.

We used acrylic paint so that the pots can be used outside.

1. Cover the hole in the pot by placing a small piece of duct tape inside the pot.

2. Write the child's name inside the pot.

3. Turn the pot upside down on a tray covered with paper.

4. Fill 4 small cups about 1/2 way with acrylic paint (we used recycled fruit cups so we could toss them after we were done).   (Due to the cost of the acrylic paint, we limited it to four colors and 1/2  cup each.  We showed them how to use a brush to scrape out every last drop of paint).

5. The children pour the paint on the top of the pot and around the edges letting it drip to cover the pot watching the colors swirl and mix as they drip.

6. Move the pot to a place to dry. It takes about two days for it to fully dry.

7. Remove the duct tape when dry, rewrite the child's name on the bottom and have him plant his seed or flower.

Sewing Table-A Collaborative Fine Motor Experience

Sewing is a great activity to do with young children to develop their fine motor abilities.  I have a low table in the classroom with about a three inch lip all around it.  I stapled and then duct taped a large piece of burlap to cover the entire table leaving a large community sewing surface.  I then threaded and tied a needle full of colorful yarn to each corner.  

The children then began exploring it and sewing in various directions.  

When they used up their entire piece of yarn, we threaded another and tied it to another starting place.  

This was added to everyday for a week.  It was interesting to watch how different children sewed.  Some made lots of small stitches, while others liked to travel with very long stitches.  Some stayed in their area, while others moved around the table as they were sewing.  This was extremely engaging for the children and we found that many of them stayed for extended periods of time often going through a few pieces of yarn.  it was also quite a social experience as they chatted with friends while sewing.  

They also looked at the piece with an artistic eye deciding which color yarn they wanted to use and where they wanted to sew.  "There isn't any blue over here.  I want blue!"  By the end of the week a few were threading their own needles and starting to learn to tie knots as well.  We also had a few scraps of burlap left, so some of the children went on to sew individual pieces that they took home.  

When we were finished for the week, we took it off the table, trimmed off the tape and hung it on the wall of our classroom for us to enjoy.  There is still a bakset on the shelf with some needles, yarn, burlap squares and beads for those who want to revisit the activity.  Now I need to hunt for more burlap so we can do this again sometime.  I think next time we may explore needlepoint thread or beads and other embellishments.    

Documenting And Reporting The Power Of Play

As an advocate or the belief that children learn best through play what are you checking for in terms of progress? As a preschool manager who holds the same beliefs I would love some advice from you on progress reports for parents who see writing and number recognition as their top priorities for school readiness.  Your views would be greatly appreciated.  

I received this great question the other day on my facebook page, Playfully Learning, and wanted to share my answer as many of you may be faced with similar challenges.  

I teach in a private nursery school in Connecticut.  We do follow the state guidelines for our objectives, The Connecticut Framework.  This has thirty objectives across several domains: Personal & Social, Physical, Cognitive and Creative.  My staff is responsible for creating environments and activities that will foster development in children across these areas as well as assessing their progress on each of the objectives.  

A lot of the work that we do with children is focused on their social development; problem solving, conflict resolution, using language to get their needs met and entering and exiting play.  

We also focus a great deal of our efforts on the business of learning; wondering, questioning, discovering, experimenting and reporting.  Along the way with all of these processes there is a great deal of writing and reading and counting.  It is not as obvious as it would be if we were sending home worksheets and having all of the children sit down together to complete writing assignments, but it is there. 

This is where you need to educate the parents.  Because so much of what we do is process oriented, they often do not see exactly what the children are learning as they write out invitations as part of their dramatic play, or count out crackers at snack, or sign up to work at the workbench, or the physics they are learning as they balance a block structure.  

Educating parents on what is developmentally appropriate for young children is a very big part of our job as early childhood educators.  Explaining the importance of the social development and what needs to be firmly in place before children can be successful in elementary school can be very enlightening for parents of young children.  

Our school is a cooperative school, so our parents work in the classroom as an assistant every few weeks.  They do get to see so much of the learning that takes place.  But even with this inside access, sometimes it does need to be explained.  I often give workshops for parents detailing the learning that occurs in each center of our classroom.  What do children learn when playing with blocks?  How exactly does dressing up and pretending to go grocery shopping help a child develop?  What is being learned when cooking or pouring rice from cup to cup in a sensory table?  

On the other side, observing children engaged in rich play gives so much information.  I can observe them using their concepts of print as they reread a class book.  I do see them writing and sounding out words as they create a save sign for a block building or write a ticket for a speeding bicycle.  I am sitting next to them as they count out their crackers at snack and compare them to the number of apple slices they already have.  I can see who can recognize a pattern or create one as we play with unifix cubes or write songs on the xylophone.  I can document who is using full sentences and correct pronouns with their speech when I have conversations with children.  And so much more.  This is what I can share with parents in the progress reports along with samples of work and photographs. 

I know this is a quick explanation of a very heavy topic and I would be happy to engage further and help with parent education and/or staff development.

Put even more simply, believe in the power of play and be able to explain and document why and how it works. 

Oh, Lovely Snow! A Literacy Activity

We recently read one of my favorite books to read with young children, Mrs. Wishy Washy.  This is a predictable book with a repetitive pattern and lively funny illustrations that lends itself very well to children rereading it independently.  It is about some animals who decide to frolic in the mud much to the chagrin of their keeper, Mrs. Wishy-Washy.  It is a terrific book to act out.  One of the activities we did with this story is to create our own version of it.  

We had finally gotten a great snowfall shortly after reading this book.  To celebrate this, we made our version of the story using snow instead of mud.  The children each thought of a way to "be" in the snow.  We followed the same repetitive language pattern of the original story.  

Young children LOVE to look at themselves and read about themselves.  Giving them this opportunity paired with simple repetitive text allows them to be successful at their first attempt to be "readers".  By engaging in the rereading of this book they are learning many concepts of print such as directionality, print has meaning, recognizing many familiar words, using picture clues, and so on.  

Now that the snow has melted, we may actually make another version, as melted snow on our playground means lots and lots of mud!  Isn't it great that playing in the snow and mud can lead to such a rich literacy activity?!

Give a story adaptation a try.  Let your students or even your own children at home become the stars of their own books.  They will become a favorite!

Celebrating The Process Of Our Learning

We built our gong stand, we finished our documentation panels and we sent our invitations out.  It was time to share all of our discoveries about musical instruments that we had made during our ten week study. 

The children were especially excited because their former teacher when they were in the threes class wrote back to our letter and was so happy to make the trip back to visit them and to celebrate their work along with them.  In a previous post, I explain the musical connection to her and to the gong.  She arrived a bit before all of the parents, so the children were able to present the gong stand to her and tell her all about how they designed and built it.  

Then all of the parents arrived.  We welcomed them with information sheets that contained lists of the must see items around the classroom; documentation panels, books, instruments the children had made, work folders and the gong stand.  It also included questions visitors could ask their guides to help them explain their discoveries and investigations.  Our guests included other teachers in the school, parents, grandparents and aunts.  Luckily every child was able to have a guest, and for those children whose guests arrived late, we had extra staff members take a tour with them.  

They viewed the documentation panels displayed around the room....

tried out the instruments created by the children...

discussed what they had been investigating...

enjoyed some treats we made....

explained their role in the process of construction...

shared favorite books and photos...

and shared their notes, sketches, designs and discoveries.

It was a wonderful morning of celebrating the process of wondering, questioning, discovering, researching, designing, constructing and enjoying learning.  

What do you do at the end of a project?  Share how you celebrate the children's learning and discoveries.