Snow Creatures Remind Us To Be Flexible

We finally had a decent snowfall on our playground a couple of weeks ago.  We had so much fun playing in the snow our first morning back that we stayed outside for almost an hour and a half.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the children, teachers and working parent were all dressed properly for a long time outside.  Luckily the parents of our students know that we go outside every single day, twice, unless it is below 22 degrees or pouring.  They are terrific about dressing their children for the weather AND packing extra clothes as we get wet and muddy!

One of the many things the children did during this time is to build snow creatures on top of our snow covered picnic tables.  I think it was sparked by the mother who was working that day as she started playing in the snow with them, but then their imaginations took over and they started really embellishing their creations.
 

They hunted for nature items and used objects from our outdoor kitchen to decorate their creations.  

Then I brought out a collection of materials from our art center; pipe cleaners, feathers, marker tops, buttons, wooden sticks, mosaic pieces, and more.  

We had a snow pig.

A snow deer.

Some snow friends.

A snow princess with a beautiful dress,

A snow bunny with his fluffy tail.

It was wonderful how the children built together on top of the tables and made such different creations despite working so closely to each other.  

It was also interesting to see them creating tiny sculptures so different than the large typically built snowmen.  I think this was due to working on top of a table.  

When we went back inside, I tried to find one of my favorite snow stories, Snowballs by Lois Ehlert, as this would have been a perfect tie in to what they had just done, but the book had been borrowed and was not in the school. 

This long morning outside was not in my plans;  that story was not planned for that day;  but when an opportunity for learning, discovery, exploration and enjoyment of nature comes along, we need to be flexible and seize the day!

I hope that you are able to experience snow where you are this Winter.  If so, be flexible and embrace it, play in it, celebrate it, create in it and enjoy it.  It melts all too soon.  

To smock or not to smock...that is the question:-)

 

I am thrilled to present the teacher of our twos sharing her terrific smock pattern!

At our school, Community Cooperative Nursery School,  we want children to create and explore without the distraction of worrying about getting wet or dirty. The children come dressed for play, and always keep at least one change of clothes in their cubbies. No one is required to wear a smock to participate in messy activities. 
For some children this is very freeing. But some children are hesitant to paint or touch anything gooey unless they can immediately wipe their hands. These same children are often the most reluctant to wear cumbersome vinyl or plastic smocks. I make a simple apron style smock from an adult T-shirt that is very popular with the children in my classroom. I have gotten requests to share the pattern, so I made a you tube video to demonstrate. 

Free Choice Easel

I learn so much from talking with other teachers and being able to explore their classrooms in person or via photographs.  I think it is one of the main reasons why I like to share what is happening in my classroom on this blog.   One of my fellow coworkers visited a few classrooms and shared some of the wonderful things she noticed during her visit. I absolutely fell in love with the idea of an open easel.

I change what materials and paper are available on our easel each week.  At this point in the year, it becomes more difficult to think of experiences that the children have not previously explored.  I know that children can learn so much by repeating an experience, and that four year olds love to be empowered to make choices.  So an opened ended free choice easel seemed like a great idea!  And it worked beautifully.

We put out several sizes and kinds of paper on a low shelf that the children could reach independently. We cut up egg cartons into strips to be used to hold the paint.  We had the brushes at a low level as well.

Children came to the easel, chose their paint colors, chose their paper and chose their brushes.

What we saw was so much more experimenting and color mixing. Some children who hadn't been to the easel much, were excited to try it out.

Also, because the easel was moved to be closer to our art materials, some experimenting with mixing media by using items found on the shelves.

We did find that the larger paint bottles with the pumps were difficult to use with the shelving that we had available so we put some paint in smaller bottles that were easier for them to access independently.

 

We also added water color paints, craypas and silkies.

It is still a work in progress as we explore this new set up with our artists.