Thursdays are my new favorite day of the week. My class doesn't go to any Specials so I have more time with them to teach and learn and make special projects. While we also don't have any Specials on Monday it is, after all, still a Monday! I saw this at the beginning of the year as one less day to have any preparation time but over the year I have come to relish our time together and they have become wonderful helpers. Now I realize they will pull out any art supplies needed from our shelf and wait patiently, playing with their toys, while I pull the items they can't reach. It also gives us the freedom to change direction when an opportunity or a question steers us elsewhere.
Today was a great example. I was stamping pictures of glass jars for them to later add jellybeans when it hit me that these jars were too small for their hands to make items to put in them. I went to the whiteboard, drew a glass jar and began the lesson with, "Once upon a time I had a j-j-jar and in it I put a j-j-...". They finished the phrase by naming a "J" item. I drew the item in the jar and repeated the phrase adding their item. By the time the jar was full we had juice, Jupiter, a Jack-in-the-box, jellybeans, a Jeep, a Jack-o-lantern, jelly, jacks and a jump rope. It greatly taxed my limited drawing skills but they were kind and so proud of themselves for thinking of so many "J" items. Once again a lesson was improved by not producing papers to come home but by letting the children use the information they had already and THINK.
We continued our Pennies for Peace money sorting today. We separated all the silver coins from the pennies and then separated the silver coins by size. I had them put the coins in order by size and guess which one was worth the most. They were correct in choosing the quarter but when I asked them to continue they assumed size was the same as value. When I told them the value of each coin they were surprised that our forefathers at the Mint didn't use better sense and adjust the size to the value. Hmm... maybe Washington needs a few children to set things right!
One child asked why the coins had different sizes if the sizes weren't going to mean anything about their value (paraphrased) so I had them hold the 4 coins in their hands and without looking, guess which one was the quarter. We went through all 4 coins and they began to understand that blind people probably could tell the coins apart by feeling them. When they asked about paper money I had no answers so we moved to the next project.
Since we are counting down to the 100 Days of School Celebration we are doing projects involving 100 objects. Today they put 100 Cheerios on their counting mats and then strung them on yarn. We now have the proper jewelry for our big party day. Please don't forget to help your child create a "100" project to bring in next Friday.
The children will be bringing home pictures they have colored on the back of flyers about our Information Sessions next Thursday evening. Both Pre-school and Kindergarten levels will have the rooms and teachers here to describe our program and answer any questions. For those whose children are moving up next year, this is a wonderful chance to meet Beth. If you know your child is looping or going elsewhere you are still welcome. You may learn something new or have insight to another parent's question. I also want to encourage you to bring any friends who may have shown some interest in our program. Each year we have families come out of curiosity and become a part of the Community School family. No one sells our program better than the families involved!
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