Ten Little Houses
Gooey, Stringy Art Work
Continuing on with our sensory exploration, together with John, we used different lengths of yarn strings, dipped it into a cup of glue & swirled it around a sheet of wax paper. To celebrate the colors of the various flowers that bloom around us, we made floral like patterns.
Several questions that came about while doing this activity were:
1. Why does the string become heavy after being dipped in glue?
2. How come it’s more challenging to swirl the dipped yarn around?
3. Why does wax paper have a different texture?
Our Feet as Paint Brushes
Since we have been using our hands and fingers to create beautiful outcomes… how about exploring other parts of our body and see what it can create? Sounds like an interesting idea… how about we use the part that gets us to move from one point to another….? OUR FEET!
It was quite a strange sight at first to see Erika without her shoes on, inviting us over to dip our feet into a bowl of paint and smear it on a cardboard box. Uhmmm… that did not look “proper”. J and K, who both share the adventurous spirit, were the first ones who dived in to this activity which inspired the rest of us to do it as well!
Several discoveries that came up:
1. If we placed too much force on our feet while painting, the cardboard table moves away hence, we need to regulate the force we use.
2. Based on where we choose to sit on the mat, we could either move ourselves while in a sitting position or use our knees to extend our legs to reach the cardboard.
3. An interesting “line” print comes out from our feet
Also, Erika commended us for doing a great job in being responsible to wipe off paint from our feet and wearing our own socks and shoes.
🪵 🍃 Creating Nature Structures 🍃 🪵
Continuing our activity from yesterday, together with Liezel, we made more beautiful things using elements of nature that we could easily identify such as branches, rocks and twigs. The eggshells which we painted yesterday were already dried to which we enjoyed cracking into smaller pieces!
This table is always “busy” with lots of exchange of ideas happening. Here’s what we did:
1. S formed a boat, table, fire truck, and a house by arranging and putting together nature elements.
2. R and H made pizza by using eggshells as toppings and arranging it nicely on top of wooden chips.
3. T experimented with sticking wooden chips on a big rock which had an uneven, rough texture
4. K’s experimented if branches could “carry” the weight of toy vehicles
5. J experimented with how much wooden logs could fit inside a tractor
Circle Time : “Little Houses: A Counting Book by Helen Musselwhite”
We started off getting ready for Circle Time by having “Spotlight Dancing” and moved our bodies to the catchy beats of Surfaces “I Can’t Help but Feel” and Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”. This activity opens up avenues for us to increase our self confidence as we get to showcase our individuality through dance moves to our friends. Furthermore, this activity allows us to share with others the “spotlight” because each one of us is a star of our own.
Our Circle Time discussion was inspired by S’s creations using nature elements. To acknowledge his work, we were shown the book “Little Houses: A Counting Book” by Helen Musselwhite wherein we saw pictures of different houses around the world. It is interesting to see how there are so many types of houses that looks entirely different from the houses we see here in Tokyo. Truly, the world is a big HOUSE for each one of us.
Outdoor Play
We were in for a great treat upon reaching Step Park this morning… we had the slide and stone wall all to ourselves! Yet we are also happy to report that we used our listening ears by keeping in mind not to cross beyond areas with yellow barriers as gardeners were working to trim off the leaves & branches of the beautiful plants around the park.
It is also wonderful to see how each one of us serves as an inspiration to each other to try new things. Our friends E and R, who used to not want to slide down, took the leap of faith to slide down with much encouragement from others!
We hope all of you are enjoying the lovely weather today and we look forward to go back to school on Monday!
Love,
Buds Class Children