H-Week continued today with a new parent teacher in the classroom: Erin, Grady’s mom! Erin brought one of Grady’s favorite books to share with us and it was just perfect for our letter of the week.  Big Bear Hug, by Nicholas Oldland, is the story of a bear who loves to hug everything, even things you wouldn’t expect a bear to hug!  He hugs small animals, large animals, and most of all, trees.  When he sees a man tromping through the forest carrying an axe, he follows the man to see what he’ll do.  The bear realizes that the man plans to chop down a tree, and he becomes furious!  He considers taking a big chomp out of the man, but falls back on his primary means of communication:  a hug!  The man, who is so startled by a hug from a bear, runs away as fast as he can, saving the tree.  The story was delightful to the children because it was so fun and silly!  It also reinforced a few social issues that are very important to children at the preschool age.  First, it encourages children to think outside of the box in terms of friendships and relationships.  If a bear can hug and love an animal it would typically enjoy for lunch, like a rabbit, then any two people can form a friendship!  It also stresses the importance of finding conflict resolution outside of violence.  Everyone expected the bear to behave like a typical bear and growl, bite, and scratch the man to keep him from chopping down the tree.  The bear chose love over violence, and in so doing, he saved the life of the tree and the man.  In this context, it sounds a little silly, but it’s important to take every opportunity to demonstrate the power of non-violence to our students.

During project time, we returned to one of our favorite letter projects:  stickers!  Each child was given their own capital letter H and a sheet of heart-shaped stickers.  Some children used smaller stickers while others used larger stickers, based upon their individual fine motor development.  They placed stickers on top of hearts that had already been drawn onto their letter Hs.  This practice helped them develop their fine finger grasp, as well as strengthen their hand-eye coordination.  Additionally, they had opportunities for self expression in the selection of which stickers to use.  Once they had completed the sticker matching element, they were free to decorate the back side of their letters any way they pleased.  Most children used up the rest of their stickers and added a bit more flair with the help of colored pencils.  It always amazes me how differently their art projects turn out, even when they are all given the same materials!

We’ve kicked off H-Week with a colorful splash!  Peter designed our debut project this week to help the children really conceptualize the letter H.  Because the sound made by H is so soft, it can be very difficult for children to listen for.  Harder consonants like B or D are more obvious than the breathy H.  Peter paired up two H-words the children hear quite a lot in order to reinforce the sound, as well as to foster community and to develop beautiful art projects:  Helping Hands!

Each child was designated a color and a central piece of paper as their own.  Peter talked with them about how if they only worked on their own artwork, with their singular colors, their pictures would be beautiful, but monotone.  Working together, they can create much more dynamic pieces of art.  After teachers helped paint their hands in their designated colors, the children moved around the room placing hand prints on each others’ art.  If someone wanted more of a particular color on their painting, they couldn’t just go and get that color; they asked the friend who had their preferred color for help.  In this way, they had to work together to achieve their desired goals.  Helping Hands indeed!

The Tugboats were so excited to welcome Ella’s mom, Melanie into the classroom as our parent teacher today!  Ella and Melanie came to school prepared to share a few of Ella’s favorites from home, including her book of yoga poses!  Since it was warmer than we expected today, we decided to do some yoga outside on the playground.  Each child took a turn selecting a pose from the book, and then Ella and Melanie would teach them how to make the selected pose with their bodies.  As we have learned with Teresa’s yoga sessions, many of the poses are named after animals or objects that are common to the children, so they are easy to identify.  Even still, many of the children have never tried to put their bodies into such shapes, so it’s always an adventure!

Once we returned to the classroom, Melanie and Ella had a science experiment for us using soda water, which we all call “Bubble Water,” and a few different types of food:  raisins, chocolate chips, split peas, and almonds.  The children took turns dropping the different foods into a glass of tap water or a glass of bubble water.  Each of the foods dropped to the bottom of both glasses once they were dropped, with the exception of the almonds, which floated in the bubble water.  In the bubble water, however, the raisins dropped to the bottom, then began dancing and floating!  The children also noticed that each of the food items had lots of bubbles all over them in the bubble water and wondered how that might feel on their hands, so they stuck their hands in to find out–it tickled!  While we didn’t get too deep into the details of water distribution, the experiment definitely got the children thinking about what other objects might sink or float in bubble water.  I think I see a sensory table activity in our new future…

Well folks, we’ve got a wonky holiday week ahead of us, but we won’t let that get in the way of beginning the next letter of the alphabet!  Today’s adventure began with our lovely Grady’s exuberance that it’s “his week!”  He was also excited to discover that he gets to share the letter G with Gigi.  We also ready a silly book called Gumbrella about an elephant who pretends to be a doctor.  The Tugboats tried to imagine having an elephant for a doctor:  she would be too giant to give them a flu shot!

During project time, the children decorated their own letter Gs with 3 G-words: glue and green glitter!  Each child got his or her own capital G and used brushes to paint liquid glue on their letters.  Next, they practiced their patience and taking turns while they shared a glitter shaker.  The children strengthened their fine motor skills as they shook glitter over their papers, stopping occasionally to shake off the extra glitter and determine any places that needed a little additional pizzazz.  We tried to clean it all up, but there may be bits of green sparkling glitter here and there!

We were also excited to celebrate Sophia’s birthday, albeit a little belated!  She didn’t feel well last week when we had planned to celebrate, so she brought us a delicious fruit tart for morning snack today!  Everyone enjoyed a slice of the fruity pie and afterward, we voted on our favorite fruits!  Strawberry was the overwhelming winner!  Many children also voted for raspberries, which came in a distant second.  After snack, the kids were excited to share their new favorite game, “Chase the Grown-Ups,” with our parent teacher, Sharon.  It never seems to get old to them!

We have had so many adventures today, I feel like we packed several Fridays into just one!  First of all, our parent teacher was Josh, Marlena’s dad, and he’s always a treat to have in the classroom.  Josh has a fun fact or bit of trivia about almost every topic under the sun, which the kids just love.  Every time they come to him with a toy, project, or an idea, he responds with additional information that continues their interest in such exciting ways.  In response to a child’s statement that cheetahs are her favorite animal, he informed the group that cheetahs can run very fast, but not very far because they get tired, which spawned an even longer conversation about animals, running, and being tired.  He’s like a walking Wikipedia!

Josh also helped us expand upon one of the children’s very specific interests: beat-boxing!  While all of the children love to sing and express their rhythm through dance, we have one student who is very rhythmic and super talented at creating percussive sounds with his mouth.  Noticing this, Josh brought out his phone, on which he had an app that allows you to create beats using different sounds.  It was a huge hit!  From here, we played a game in which the kids practiced making sounds with their bodies and mouths and imitating one another’s sounds.  This project is a prime example of the power of emergent curriculum: the parent teacher noticed a child’s interest, responded to it and built upon it, and the teachers were able to convert that to a group interest.  Not only was the specific child’s interest validated, but he also had the pride of being the expert and sharing his love with his friends.

And, just so the letter F didn’t think we forgot about it, we had an incredible game of Fire House out on the playground!  The children grouped themselves into a team, each person taking on  a role within the fire house.  One person was the chief, one person drove the truck, one person answered phones and sounded he siren, and another person handed out hoses.  They children then took turns designating different areas of the playground that were “on fire.”  The whole crew responded in record time, racing across the playground to put out the flames.  They saved a lot of pretend lives today!  In the meantime, they also practiced taking turns, generating ideas for pretend play, and accepting the ideas of others.