This week we turned our writing area into a grocery store, created a community mural, and had lots of different activities with cars, trucks and airplanes.
On Monday one of our parent helpers facilitated grocery shopping while the other helped children make items for our community board. At the store, shoppers loaded (and we mean LOADED) groceries into the cart, rang them up at the cash register, bagged them up, and then restocked the shelves. The store remained open for business all week.
Our other project on Monday was creating our community mural. Children could make whatever they wanted to, so it’s no surprise that we have everything from mountains to monsters. Many of the kids wanted to continue adding things over the course of the week, so we made sure there were plenty of supplies for them to do so in the Creation Station.
On Tuesday our keyboard was out and everyone got to take a turn composing a song (what’s a community without the arts?) by playing keys with colored tape on them and then recording the colors they played on a sheet of paper. After they were done composing, they made up titles for their pieces. These were out for the next few days so that they could play around their own composition, or try playing others. We also experimented with the different sound settings.
They made airplanes in the clouds by taping a paper airplane shape to a piece of blue paper in a position of their choosing. Then they used a pompom to stamp white paint around the edge of the airplane so that once the airplane was removed they could see the space it left in the clouds. These are on display in our classroom.
Wednesday they used shapes (rectangles, triangles, circles, squares) to create different types of transportation. These are on display out in our hallway.
They flew paper airplanes outside – always a hit!
Thursday was another outdoor flight day, but with stomp rockets. WHOOSH! Thanks to our parent helpers on both of these days for getting some great action shots!!
They learned how to play transportation-themed dominoes and we’ll leave that one out next week as well.
There were transportation-themed erasers in the water tub, along with the huge jugs which they always enjoy filling and dumping. There were also scrub brushes which were especially helpful on Monday as we washed away the remnants of Oobleck!
At the texture table there were construction vehicles, buckets, and scoops.
In the carpet area there were magnetic vehicles on the building table, and Hot Wheels on the rug.
Our flannel board had (gigantic) people that the kids could dress with “uniforms” from a variety of occupations. They also like to play with the paper figures of themselves – the best community of all!
There were Duplos on the light table, and friends stopped by the incubation station periodically to check the progress of our eggs. The embryos were far enough along this week that we could look through the eggs with a special flashlight and see the blood vessels that are carrying nutrients to the embryos, as well as the dark spot that will develop into the chick’s eye. We ccould also see movement as the embryo wiggles around in the yolk sac.
Here are some of the other ways children enjoyed their free play time this week:
During our group time we learned a new stick song, sang a silly song about crazy things happening at the corner grocery store, read stories about communities, and acted out a story called, “Benny’s Pennies”. We also heard about Panda’s adventures.
It’s been really fun during our recess time to watch as some of the kids master new challenges on the play structure. They are up, down, and all around!
Next week we’ll replace the grocery store with a pizza parlor and spend a few more days on this community/transportation theme. Then we’ll celebrate our chicks hatching and all things SPRING!
We’ll see you around town!
Lisa and Jelena
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