Tuesday, May 3, 2011
The Joy of Family Security, Identity, and Pride--Day 1
Today was a great Joy School day! Joy Boy introduced our new unit on families, telling how much he missed his family and couldn't wait to see them after Joy School. The kids loved telling about each of their individual families one by one, naming each member. Isabel and Joseph told about their new siblings that are "almost here"! Joseph had the share bag today, showing off his new light saber. We read the story of Cordoroy by Don Freeman, and all of the kids agreed it was a good thing they didn't have to be bought at a store like Cordoroy was. For snacktime we had animal crackers to go with our "Z is for Zoo" theme. The kids were fascinated to hear how animal crackers are made and how they are boxed and shipped to the store to buy. The kids played with bubbles, bikes, and played house at freeplay time. Then, for the lesson, we started off with the story The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. The kids thought the pictures were very entertaining and loved telling personal experiences with going on road trips to visit family. Emily could especially relate with her recent trip to visit her sister Lexi in Utah. After a flannelboard story telling about a little boy Peter and his family, the kids made the first phase of our craft which will be going home Thursday.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Joy of Imagination & Creativity
It was so much fun having our little friends over these two days! We missed Isabel on Tuesday as she was at a kindergarten visit. We read lots of books to start with, all very imaginative and creative books to get them thinking about it from the start.
The letter of the week was "X", so we creatively made the letter with our bodies: crossing arms in front of us, laying on the ground in two diagonal lines, 3 bodies each, and more.
For the official unit introduction, we read Dr. Seuss' book, "Oh the THINKS You Can Think!" The kids were all fascinated and asked questions about what they saw in the book. We continually pointed out that everything they were seeing in the book was coming from the writer's own imagination. Then I showed Kai's "All About ME!" book, showing especially the art pages. I asked them to remember their own books and said that they ALL are very creative. We defined creative as: "to make something beautiful all on your own".
For music time, we sung the song "Imagine" from the lesson with the pictures. We also played the song "Creativity" and had fun listening to the words. We had a big array of hats they could wear, as well as a bunch of different sized boxes. They heard the first part of a tune and quickly decided what kind of "ride" they were going on -- it ended up being a spaceship-ride-turned-jungle-adventure. They became different characters with their hats and had fun riding in their boxes. Very creative little minds!
Then we read the story from the JS lesson called "Fred, Fred, Use Your Head!" We learned that we get to be creative everyday. Whenever we have to figure something out, or solve a problem, we use our imaginations and are CREATIVE in working it out! We also read the story in the lesson about Mary as "Little Miss Different." We talked about how we're all different, from what we were wearing to what we like and how we draw. Even though each child draws differently, each way they draw is GOOD! It's being creative in their own way.
Then the kids received "Creativity Glasses" (foam bug designed sunglasses). When they put them on, the glasses will help them be creative and think of solutions to problems. We had an obstacle course of sorts with different problems the kids needed to work out (ex: getting a huge amount of blocks from one end of the room to the couch). They all had lots of fun coming up with ways to solve the problems. Eve was the first to volunteer and even came up with two ways to do accomplish the current task.
For Freeplay time, we had multiple play and interest centers including: playing musical instruments in a band, play-doh projects, various themed toys, puzzles, and the sandbox "kitchen" with measuring cups & utensils.
The snack was fun: we celebrated Eve's birthday by decorating our own cupcakes. There were two kinds of frosting and various toppings. We also ate Pirates Booty and raisins. We kept pulling the theme of "imagine" and "creativity" through every activity, and I think they got it!
Our craft was painting each other's Joy School shirts. Each friend could decide how they wanted the other friends to paint on the shirt: some chose full handprints, others chose doing only one fingerprint. They could also decide on what paint colors to use. The other day the craft was creating a Joy School Mural -- we had six large construction paper pieces taped together, and everyone received their own section. It was very entertaining to see what they were choosing to draw, seeing the process they went through to fill their space, and hearing them describe it all.
It was a blast and the time flew by!
The letter of the week was "X", so we creatively made the letter with our bodies: crossing arms in front of us, laying on the ground in two diagonal lines, 3 bodies each, and more.
For the official unit introduction, we read Dr. Seuss' book, "Oh the THINKS You Can Think!" The kids were all fascinated and asked questions about what they saw in the book. We continually pointed out that everything they were seeing in the book was coming from the writer's own imagination. Then I showed Kai's "All About ME!" book, showing especially the art pages. I asked them to remember their own books and said that they ALL are very creative. We defined creative as: "to make something beautiful all on your own".
For music time, we sung the song "Imagine" from the lesson with the pictures. We also played the song "Creativity" and had fun listening to the words. We had a big array of hats they could wear, as well as a bunch of different sized boxes. They heard the first part of a tune and quickly decided what kind of "ride" they were going on -- it ended up being a spaceship-ride-turned-jungle-adventure. They became different characters with their hats and had fun riding in their boxes. Very creative little minds!
Then we read the story from the JS lesson called "Fred, Fred, Use Your Head!" We learned that we get to be creative everyday. Whenever we have to figure something out, or solve a problem, we use our imaginations and are CREATIVE in working it out! We also read the story in the lesson about Mary as "Little Miss Different." We talked about how we're all different, from what we were wearing to what we like and how we draw. Even though each child draws differently, each way they draw is GOOD! It's being creative in their own way.
Then the kids received "Creativity Glasses" (foam bug designed sunglasses). When they put them on, the glasses will help them be creative and think of solutions to problems. We had an obstacle course of sorts with different problems the kids needed to work out (ex: getting a huge amount of blocks from one end of the room to the couch). They all had lots of fun coming up with ways to solve the problems. Eve was the first to volunteer and even came up with two ways to do accomplish the current task.
For Freeplay time, we had multiple play and interest centers including: playing musical instruments in a band, play-doh projects, various themed toys, puzzles, and the sandbox "kitchen" with measuring cups & utensils.
The snack was fun: we celebrated Eve's birthday by decorating our own cupcakes. There were two kinds of frosting and various toppings. We also ate Pirates Booty and raisins. We kept pulling the theme of "imagine" and "creativity" through every activity, and I think they got it!
Our craft was painting each other's Joy School shirts. Each friend could decide how they wanted the other friends to paint on the shirt: some chose full handprints, others chose doing only one fingerprint. They could also decide on what paint colors to use. The other day the craft was creating a Joy School Mural -- we had six large construction paper pieces taped together, and everyone received their own section. It was very entertaining to see what they were choosing to draw, seeing the process they went through to fill their space, and hearing them describe it all.
It was a blast and the time flew by!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
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