September 2: What Are Our Hands For?
Another week has gone by and we are already feeling a little taller and a little more confident in ourselves :) What are our hands for? Well, today we used our hands for painting, making shapes with playdough, placing color tablets over a light table, matching puzzle pieces, throwing and catching a ball, shaking bells and lots more!
Hand Printing
After talking about our HANDS for the last two weeks, we finally did it! We each made our own handprints on a piece of paper! Well, just like you might have guessed, messy art is not for everyone. K, the queen of messy play was the first one to arrive at the table and instantly found the fun in putting paint on her hand which felt cold and ticklish. She liked it so much that she came back to the same table a couple of times asking for “more!” Y also joined with enthusiasm and found the pleasure in trying out all the different colors from blue, yellow to red and even noticing the effect when the colors mixed together. Now for some friends, the mere action of putting on a smock can already be challenging. R, at first, was not at all amused by the fact that he had to wear something extra but he was definitely curious about the paint. Carefully (so as not to put any paint on his clothes), the teachers covered his small right hand with paint and…stamp! E, who was a little hesitant to get her hands in paint, eventually realized that it was actually kind of fun to get messy and make funky patterns ;)
Playdough
Yesterday we added this and that to our playdough and customized it in Buds colors. Today, we took out the sparkly rainbow playdough and noticed it was getting quite soft and there is one ingredient we can add to fix this problem - flour. K, in particular, loved this process, probably because it was like cooking :) Together with Tamara, we all enjoyed gathering around the sensory table kneading, rolling, patting, cutting, mounting and making so many interesting shapes using new sets of tools!
Light Table + Montessori Color Tablets
Instead of setting the light table over a table, we decided to set it up on the floor together with the Montessori color tablets. This way, we could sit or even lie on the floor and see up close the color tablets that came in beautiful gradation. W and N enjoyed stacking the tablets like domino pieces and seeing them topple over one another with one little push…!
Blocks + Puzzles
Right between the floor area and the activity tables, there is a small table and we often like to stop by at this station - sometimes, it turns into a fighting arena for dinosaurs, at other times, it turns into a train station and more. Today it was a puzzle station of colorful blocks and it was especially popular with N and N.
Circle Time
“Boom, boom” said the drum and we all stomped our feet in a circle. “Ka, ka” said the drum and we all ran in a circle. Similar to last Friday when we used the wooden sticks, we started our circle with rhythm movements but today, using a drum. Needless to say, we loved to run, run, and runnnnnn! When we got rid of all the ants in our pants, we sat down nicely in a circle and we sang our Good morning song using a ball - when a ball was passed, it was your turn to say your name. Some friends are still learning to say his/her name and it’s okay, there are always other friends eager to help :) We got up and played a little game called Hot Potato. We passed the ball to another friend or teacher and tried not to drop it on the floor - this activity was harder than you think, especially when some friends are constantly trying to take the ball away from you as soon as you catch it! Luckily, it was already time for a snack!
Park time!? Not yet but we are surely getting there! We practiced holding on to the park rope pretending to be a train inside the classroom. “Chugga chugga choo choo!” We then each got a bell and put it on our arm or ankle and we made the same rhythm we heard in the earlier circle time. With the sound of “jingle, jingle,” we walked and “cling, cling, cling, cling,” we ran! We kept the bells on and danced along All Around the Kitchen by Parachute Express - clapping, tapping our knees, kicking and turning! Then again, we all lay on the floor for some quiet, relaxing yoga poses. For our story time, we read In the Garden: Who’s Been Here? By Lindsay Barret George. The story was about a brother, Jeremy and a sister, Christina who take out their dog, Sonny for a walk and find all the animals leaving traces in their garden - like a chipmunk eating the sunflower seeds, a crow eating the corn kernels and a deer mouse eating the beans. Speaking of eating, we too were getting hungry and it was already time for lunch!
Thank you for another fun-filled day!
Love from all the children in Buds