You guessed it: it’s M Week!  We kicked the week off on this magical Monday by welcoming our fourth new Tugboat this month: Zoe!  Many of the HCS students already know Zoe, so we were very excited to have her officially join our class.  The Tugboats loved showing Zoe their favorite toys around the classroom, where she could find her Circle Time cushion, and how to read the Job Chart.  We even got a chance to show her how we “Caterpillar Up” to go to the playground after a week of too-frigid temperatures kept us indoors!

When we returned inside from our time at the park, we embarked on our first project of M Week: maracas!  Kristy, a curriculum team member and our fabulous parent helper today, designed a project that would integrate music, math, and fine motor development.  Kristy prepared several empty water bottles by writing a number on the cap, then placing that number of stickers on the bottle.  Upon the small tables were bowls of dry rice, red beans, black beans, white beans, peas, and corn.  Each child selected a cap, then had to match it up to its corresponding bottle.  Once they matched their bottle and cap, they were given recipe cards indicating how many scoops of each type of bean they should add to their bottles.  Once their “recipes” were complete, they compared the sounds their maracas made with their table mates.  We also played some marching band music and encouraged them to shake and dance along to the music!  Each child got a chance to practice counting and one-to-one correspondence with the individual assistance of a grown-up.  They also combined independent and group work as they created their own maracas, but also observed and even helped one another as appropriate.  And they got a fun musical instrument to take home!

We closed out L-Week today with an exploration of a creature we’ve been missing in these cold months: ladybugs!  At Circle Time, we read the Eric Carle classic The Very Grouchy Ladybug.  In the story, a grouchy ladybug skips breakfast in an effort to avoid sharing and then attempts to fight a variety of creatures, ranging in size from a friendly ladybug to an apathetic blue whale, but backs out of each fight with a silly excuse.  At the end of the day, he’s tired, wet, hungry, and even grouchier than he began the day.  The children love the whacky idea of a ladybug trying to fight animals like hyenas and boa constrictors while Carle’s trademark collage illustrations keep them visually intrigued.  Aside from the whimsical sense of humor, the story also demonstrates that grouchiness and aggression don’t result in anything positive, and that a hard day could have been avoided with a little friendliness and sharing.

After our story, the children made their own ladybugs using paper plates!  Each child used 2 plates: one cut in half for the two wings and one intact for the ladybug’s body.  As one of the Tugboats noticed, when the ladybug’s wings were outstretched, we could see the ladybug’s booty!  With that in mind, they painted their ladybug’s bodies black and the wings red.  While the wings were still wet, they selected from a variety of sizes of black construction paper circles and placed them where they liked.  Once the pieces are dry, we’ll assemble them with a brad so that the wings can move, add antennae and eyes and it’ll feel just like springtime here at Harbor City School!

We are continuing our exploration of L this week by making Line Art!  Before we began the project, we discussed as a group what we knew about lines.  We walk in lines when we go to the park.  We wait in lines for our turn to wash our hands.  We use markers to draw lines on a piece of paper.  The group agreed that a line is essentially a long, skinny shape that starts in one place and ends in another, unlike a rectangle or oval, which is a closed and complete shape.

Each child was given a piece of sticky contact paper, which we taped to the table with the sticky side facing up.  At each table, we placed a tray filled with strips of colored construction paper cut to about half an inch wide.  The children selected strips of paper and arranged them on their own contact paper to create free form art.  Once they had finished, they could create another free form piece, or, for an extra challenge, they could follow a recipe card with a number indicating how many of each color they should use.  The placement of colors from the recipe card was entirely their choice.  They created such beautiful works of art!

Whenever we do art projects, I am always amazed at how differently the children interpret and express the project.  Given the same materials, they each took their work in a different direction.  Many children arranged their strips of paper into parallel lines, while others crisscrossed their paper.  A few children even generated their own squared designs, creating a look not unlike plaid!  Projects like this one help them to develop their fine motor skills as they select and remove the paper as they choose what color to use and where to place it.  They also cultivate their own voices as artists when they express their individualized ideas of how the project should turn out.  Seeing each others’ interpretations of the project also helps demonstrate the idea that there is no “right answer” in art and that creativity comes in many forms!

The new friends just keep on rolling in here at HCS and we couldn’t be happier!  The Tugboats gleefully welcomed Xavi to the group today, who already knows a few of our students here.  The rest of them were eager to meet the friend they had heard so much about!  Xavi fit right in, joining a group of builders who were working hard to construct a barn for the plastic animals in the science center.  We’re always happy to have another architect in the classroom!

During project time, we began discussing the concepts of left and right.  A few of the Tugboats understood that left and right mean different sides, and since it’s L Week, we demonstrated how their lefts hands could form a capital letter L.  Next, we used our left hands to decorate our letter Ls!  To help the children differentiate between their left and right, we put a bracelet on their right wrists and encouraged them not to get their bracelet into the ink pad.  The used large ink pads to color their lefts hands, then stamped away on their Ls.

After our art project, we needed a little bit of wiggle time, so we had one of our classic dance parties.  To reinforce the left and right concept, we did the Cha Cha Slide.  I love this dance for preschoolers because the moves are pretty simple and it requires listening and following the directions of the singer.  There are periods of free dance scattered between the choreographed moves, so the children still get to practice self expression.  The Tugboats always love a good dance party, and as the wind chill drops lower and lower, the availability of indoor gross motor development is so important.  They have a chance to exercise some of their energy, as well as their creativity.  They love observing each others moves and integrating them into their own repertoires!

Welcome back to HCS in 2012!  The Tugboats were all so excited to see one another this morning–for some of them, this is the longest they’ve been apart since school started!  Peter and I were likewise ecstatic to see them; we missed them so much!  Our excitement was all compounded by the fact that we welcomed not one, but two new Tugboats to the crew.  We are all so thrilled to have you join us, Mia and Sofia!

After an extra long free play this morning, coupled with a wind chill of only 18 degrees, we elected to skip outside time and spend a little bit of extra time getting to know each other.  We read our favorite book, One, and sang one of our name game songs at Circle Time.  We also taught Mia and Sofia the Popcorn Dance and spent project time making one of our favorite sensory projects:  Flubber!  We had two tables set up with a challenge between the two.  One group made Flubber with me, following a recipe, while the other group made Flubber with Peter using estimations.  After careful examination, the children unanimously agreed that it was “icky, sticky, ooey, gooey” either way!  We love making Flubber in the classroom because not only is it super fun to play with, but it also gives the children a chance to practice several important skills.  Following the recipe helps them see how children and adults alike have to listen and follow directions.  Measuring the ingredients helps them begin to understand concepts of quantity.  Even free-styling the recipe, as Peter’s group did today, gives them a chance to experiment and develop new ideas of their own.  It’s always an adventure!