An Explaination

I'm Baaaack!!!

It occurred to me that there is a distinct possibility that many of the Frogs came home from school yesterday (Friday, 3/25) talking about a raccoon in the dumpster. Do not be alarmed, we haven't been playing in or around the dumpster, nor have we had any close encounters with local wildlife. What they were referring to was a Frog Room legend, The Legend of the Raccoon With the Teeny Tiny Spoon.

During circle time, I had a few requests for a story "not from a book". I broke out this gem of a classroom legend from waaaay back in 2006, when the Frogs attempted to make muffins with disastrous results. Here's the daily news write up from that fateful day;

Thursday, December 21st, 2006

How to make Applesauce Muffins the Frog Room way!
INGREDIENTS
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 eggs, beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Raisins, soaked

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a muffin pan.

In a small bowl, mix together applesauce & oil. Crack the egg. Sniff and realize that something is horribly wrong. Pass the bowl around the table so all of the frogs can see and smell the horribly rotten egg mixture. Pour mixture into double plastic bags and lead the procession out to the dumpster. Dispose of stinky package. Return to the classroom to discover that there is no more applesauce. Find a couple of apples, peel them, slice them & put them in a pot with water. Lead the procession to the kitchen and put the pot on the stove. While apples are cooking, entertain five children with a dramatic re-telling of the rotten egg experience. Embellish with tales of a raccoon who sneaks into the dumpster at night to eat the stinky egg mixture with a tiny spoon. Remove apples from heat. Return to classroom and take turns mashing apples with a potato masher. In a small bowl, mix together applesauce & oil again. Crack egg into a separate bowl and sniff to confirm that the egg is OK. Pass around the table for more confirmation. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in non- stinky egg mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in raisins. Spoon into muffin cups, 2/3 full.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 2 minutes before removing.
Eat lunch, play outside, take a nap and enjoy for afternoon snack.

Inevitably, we wind up telling the story of this day- focusing heavily on the Raccoon with the Teeny Tiny Spoon- every single year. In the true spirit of storytelling, the Frogs often wind up adapting and re-telling their own versions.

Now here's the fun part; ask your child if they remember the story of the Raccoon with the teeny tiny spoon. If so, see if they can tell it to you.

We're dying to hear what they come up with!

Mud Season

So often, the inspiration for our next curriculum journey comes from what is happening outside. Right now, the snow that we've grown so very tired of has finally started to take it's leave (Everybody, Quick! Knock some wood!)

As the snowbanks on our playground shrink, they leave us with this;

MUD!!!

Gorgeous, soupy, sticky mud!

We teacher's know that asking the kids to "Please stay out of the mud" is almost as futile (and borderline cruel after months of ice and snow), as saying "Please, don't eat the snow!"

Indeed, we take a similar approach to mud bathing as we did to snow eating; state the facts, ie. "if you eat the snow, it could get you sick/If you squish your hands in the mud, they will feel sticky." , then monitor the kids accordingly.

We also try to offer opportunities for the kids to enjoy this kind of sensory exploration in a different setting.

Last month, the Frogs were fascinated with painting. They explored foam paint, watercolors, tempera- you name it- and cranked out so many pieces, we scarcely had room to dry them all. This month, we wanted to challenge them to try and extend this prolific exploration to another medium.

With mud season at hand, Clay seemed like the perfect fit!

We started out by setting out lumps of self hardening Terra-cotta and a bunch of small, simple tools like toothpicks and Popsicle sticks. This is what happened;

"I'm making a birthday cake!"

"He's a porcupine!"

"Dinosaur"

The Frogs were especially inclined to embed as many toothpicks in each lump as they could possibly fit. They also were very into making a foray into representational art, making sure to tell us exactly what they made.

As we continued to invite the Frogs to work with the clay, we experimented with our presentation.

Instead of setting out lumps of clay, we rolled out pieces of slab for the children to work with. At first, we presented the clay slab without tools, just to see what the children would do. Just like the mud outside, they were compelled to poke, prod and make their mark with their very capable fingers;

'These are my guy's faces."

The next day, we put out clay slab and toothpicks to see what would happen. One of our most dedicated painters sat right down and made a discovery;

Toothpicks can work just like markers or paintbrushes!

Her discovery was immediately picked up by the rest of the group, who were now asking for clay slabs to work with almost every morning.

Now, here at Nonotuck, we are lucky enough to have a couple of fantastic resources; First, we have a dedicated art studio space that the children can use for projects that require a little more time, space, or focus. Next, we have Nort, our afternoon teacher, and Scott, our Chameleon (Four to Five year old) classroom teacher. Both Nort and Scott are accomplished ceramic artists in their own right, and we are so very fortunate that they just happen to love sharing their expertise and passion for this medium with children!

We made a plan to spend some time down in the art studio with Scott, Nort, and a few of the older kids at Nonotuck who were interested in working with clay. Nort set up a table with softer clay slabs, and various items, including rocks, plastic hammers, and rubber stamps alongside the more traditional clay tools.

Scott set up another table with clay squares that had dried to a leather-hard consistency. He set out a number of pointier tools, suitable for carving the denser clay.

Both teachers, along with their pre-school aged 'clay mentors' took their places at their respective tables, ready to provide reminders on safe tool usage and to assist the Frogs if needed. the Frogs settled right into the productive, creative vibe of the studio. They were respectful of the tools, and used them carefully and creatively to investigate the different clay bodies.


They gouged...

They poked...

They scooped...

They stamped...

And they worked, for almost an hour, in a peaceful, spirited flow state.

It was truly beautiful.

Of course, 'tis the season for beautiful things to spring up out of the mud!

Supporting Caring Environments for Children...Here and in Japan

When I created this blog, one of my goals was to document and share the evolution of our curriculum by focusing on the environment. I decided to use photos that focused specifically on the physical classroom environment, rather than the children not only as a way to respect the children's online privacy, but to put the focus on how a well thought out, dynamic space can support children's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.
Upon hearing about the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, my thoughts went immediately to all of the parents and children who were affected by this catastrophe. I'm sure many of you did the same thing.
As a parent and teacher of young children, I appreciate that the day to day, moment to moment demands of life with children are as relentless as they are rewarding. As parents, we are driven to meet our children's needs, even if the world is falling apart around us. Children need comfort, care, stability, and time and space for joy. Providing all of these constantly can be stressful under the best of circumstances. When I think of the parents in Japan, who are trying to care for their children in an environment that is in shambles...I do not have the words. Truly, my heart breaks for them.
Save the Children is a reputable, international organization with a team on the ground in Sendai, Japan. According to a March 13th press release , one of their immediate goals is "to set up a network of child-friendly spaces aimed to provide children in shelters with a safe place to play, and to give parents a break from watching their children while they register for emergency assistance."
Given the focus on creating and celebrating supportive environments for children, this blog seems like an appropriate space to share this information. Please consider visiting Save the Children's website to learn more about their relief efforts, and, if you are able to, please consider making a donation to support their work in Japan.

Wordless Wednesdays

Sugaring Time!!!

Lately every morning, when we open the car door and get ready to step into the parking lot at Nonotuck, my daughter stops me and says "Shhhhh! Let's listen for the birds!" Indeed, each day it seems like a new birdsong is added to the chorus. The chipmunks have woken up as well. We see them scuttering across the ramp, scavenging in the dumpster, and scrambling over the Everest-like snowbank outside the Frog room window. Thankfully, that massive snowbank is shrinking, and spring is clearly on it's way to Nonotuck.

We added another sure sign of spring's approach to the Sugar maple in front of the school;

The Frogs are already asking for pancakes!

Month-To-Month Mural: February

Every month when we pull this canvas off the wall, one of us inevitably says, “I like it so much right now, I don’t want to let them paint over it!” Of course, that’s the other teacher’s cue to respond, “That’s what you said last month.” For February, we decided to add a little dimension to the mural painting process.

First, we mixed up a batch of homemade puffy paint. The recipe is simple; cheapo shaving cream + tempera + a squirt of school glue. The results are a thick, creamy paint that stays where you put it without dripping, marbles rather than turning muddy when mixed, and stays 3 dimensional when dry. Can you tell that we loooooove this paint?

We also changed up the way we presented the canvas. For the last few rounds of mural painting, we have just laid the canvas on the floor for the children to have at it. This time we propped it up against the cabinet, with a spread of multicolored paints and long brushes for the kids to choose from.

I don’t know if presenting the canvas this way was particularly enticing, or if the delicious looking foamy paint was the catalyst, but this round of mural painting was the most popular yet. Every single child stepped up to the canvas and added something to the mix.

One child focused on swirling paint around and around in a circle. “ Look! I’m making a circle! The circle is mixing brown paint!” Another child discovered the edge of the canvas stretcher and spent a long time making sure to cover every inch of paint-less fabric with purples, greens, and blues.

Another child made a very exciting discovery...

If they scraped away the thick layer of foamy paint, they revealed the bright oranges and red’s from our November round of mural painting!

At one point, we flipped the canvas from horizontal to vertical...

...then we turned it 180 degrees from where we began!

A couple of weeks ago, we had a teacher from another school observing in our classroom. She asked what was the reasoning behind the month-to-month mural project. Since we are over a year and a half away from the origin of the project, (this is our second year of doing it) it took a moment of reflection before we found the answer.

Aside from ‘It just seemed like a good idea at the time”, (which I'll readily admit is often the way curriculum is spawned with these fast paced toddler/preschoolers), the concept of revisiting an art project and adding to it over time came from watching how differently children approach a piece of paper or canvas that someone has already left their mark on.

When we set up the easel during our free-play time, invariable we wind up with a piece of artwork that has been painted on the fly, and left on the easel as it’s creator moves on to another activity. Sometimes, a child will ask if its OK to add to the abandoned artwork, sometimes they’ll just go for it. (Interestingly, we’ve rarely had a problem with the original artist taking offense at this. As possessive as toddlers can be, I think their sense of communal property is also pretty innate.)

If you watch how these children approach the process of putting paint to paper, you notice a very clear difference when they are working with a piece that is already established. Their movements become very intentional. They spend more time considering where and how to place the paint on the paper. Sometimes they paint carefully over the existing marks, sometimes they move around them. They really sink into the activity, giving it a new level of attention and focus.

When we teachers talk about the concept our “emergent curriculum”, we often say that our goal in each and every activity is to use what we observe to plan activities that extend the children’s curiosity. When we see a child connecting with their work the way that did with this month’s mural, it feel really, really right!

We almost don’t want to let them paint over it again!