Foil Art

We switched it up today. Instead of changing our medium we changed our material!
(Notice the “M” words? Yeah, we’re awesome like that.)
We used oil pastels again BUT we used them on the not shiny side of aluminium foil! This was even cooler than we expected it to be!

Here are some of the things we talked about while we created our art:
DA: I draw a Christmas tree.
SS: Me too.
SL: I color around my house.
DA: I’m making a bench.
KR-J: Please pass me the yellow.
RC: Pass the orange…oh! Please.
DA: A big table like this! A BIG HIGH table like a chair.
SL: I drawing my name.
KR-J: Thomas could you please pass me the color purple?
TK: This one?
KR-J: No. Purple. By your hand.
TK rolls the pastel across the table but it gets stuck in the middle. SL picks it up and walks around the table to hand the purple one to KR-J.
KR-J: Thank you SL.
SL: You welcome KR-J.
SL: Hey!
VS: YOU hey!
TK: I drew a lot of tables! Look, twenty one!
KR-J: TP-W, can I see what your hands look like? My hands are messy.
RC: (after studying his art for a moment) Hey! I made a monster.
DA: Um…Miss J…I’m making a bus.
SS: Red is my favorite color.
TK: Can I please have that pink?
DA: This one pink?
TK: Yes please.
DA: (walks around the table to hand it to TK) Here you go, TK.
TK: Thank you.

Check our Shutterfly site to see photos and for more of what we say while we play and learn, remember to check out the new section called ‘observations of authentic learning’.

we’re pretty awesome

We investigated two new art mediums at meeting this morning. Charcoal and a kneading eraser. The charcoal was like a piece of black chalk, but instead of being round, it was square! It rubbed off on our fingers making them black. BUT when we were able to try out the kneading eraser, guess what happened? It got the charcoal off our fingers! How cool is THAT!?!

We talked a lot about these two art mediums, mostly about the way they felt when we held them. This is what we had to say about the charcoal and the eraser when Miss J asked us what they felt like:
Warm
It was sticky in the back. Gooey.
It felt sticky. It felt gooey.
The kneading eraser feels gooey to me. The charcoal was gooey too.
It’s squishy! The eraser. The charcoal is squishy.
The charcoal is hard and the other thing is gooey.
The charcoal felt very soft. It felt very very very hairy.
Um…it’s squishy!
It’s soft. Feels sticky.
The charcoal is hard and the eraser is soft.
The eraser is sticky.
The charcoal feels chalky but the eraser feels sticky.
They are sticky.

After meeting we played in the plaza so we could use our bodies in big ways since it is WAAAAAAAAY too cold to go outside!
These are some of the things Miss R observed us doing:
XT: “Who wants to go on an airplane ride?” JK and AG get into the wooden wagon.
JH: Holding EY’s hand as EY walks the obstacle course, “Don’t worry, I gotcha.”
DA: “Beep Beep!” as JK pushes him in the wagon.
XT: “Can I help you push?” JK replies: “Sure!” DA and AG are in the wagon.
JH: To herself as she goes along the obstacle course: “I’m a big kid so I do these.”
JK: To DA in the wagon, “It’s OK baby.” DA replies, “OK baby.”
VS: Riding the rocking horse, “Whoa!”
TC: Runs to Miss R and says, “A snake! It’s coming attack you!” she replies: “Are you sure?” TC: “Yes! RUN!” XT comes with the snake making hissing sounds as the snake slithers on Miss R’s shoe.
AG sets up a picnic with the rocking horse.
ZB: To himself as he finishes the obstacle course: “I did it! I went all the way!”
JK: “We’re going backwards!” as she rides in the wagon with VS while TK pushes them.
JH: “Mr Mailman! Here!” as she hands a cup to TC.
ZB: Quietly to himself, “I’m having FUN!”
DA: Walks up to JH and says, “Hey baby.” JH grins and they each walk their separate way.

Miss J and Miss R think we are pretty awesome. We think it’s because we ARE pretty awesome!

We ran out of time to do show and share this morning, so when we wake up from our naps we’re going to have a quick meeting after snack to discuss our review letters and all the things we brought from home!

We hope you’re having as great a day as we are!
xoxo

a cold and rainy Thursday

Here’s what we’re talking about in Sound Stage right now:
Families.
The letter E.
Weather.

On the family front, we collected twigs and branches when we went to the field yesterday.
Wait a minute!! That’s our favorite news!! WE WENT TO THE FIELD!!! It’s the first time we’ve been able to go since Miss R’s foot surgery! We had SO MUCH FUN!
But on our way there and our way back we found twigs and branches for our family project. Miss R carried the big basket of twigs and Miss J carried all the branches!
Guess what we’re going to make with them?
Can you guess? We hope you can…because we don’t want to spoil the surprise!!
Oh! Miss J and Miss R asked us to remind you about family photos, if we haven’t brought any photos of our family into the classroom we need to do that by tomorrow! We looked at the pictures yesterday and it seems that a LOT of us have brought some!!
We want our project to be ready for the special Thanksgiving celebration on Tuesday, November 25, so please help us bring the photos to school so each of our home families will be represented in our school family!

The letter E is pretty cool! Did you know it makes two sounds? It DOES! It makes the “eeeee” sound and the “eh” sound. So things like elephant and egg make the “eh” sound and things like eagle and each make the “eee” sound.
We had show and share today! We shared an elephant, an egg, and an etch a sketch!
It was pretty cool!

We are beginning to become interested in the weather, we noticed that it was very cloudy and breezy today. We are talking about the weather on our morning meeting board…CS helped with the weather today, RG helped with the date and we all helped count how many friends were at school today…13 friends…in English AND Spanish! That’s because we’re awesome.

We heard Miss R say to Miss J that if we keep being interested in the weather, we’re going to make it our next project. We’re not sure if that’s what we want to do for sure, but we think it sounds pretty cool.

xoxo

LIBRARY CARDS!!

We got our library cards today!
We got them right before lunch so we haven’t been able to enjoy time in the tree house library yet, but we’re ready to go right after snack!
Miss J and Miss R said the gate will NEVER again be up at the top of the stairs to the tree house library because we are safe keepers of books!
But they did say sometimes when kids from other classes are here, we might not be able to use the library because those kids might not be as careful with books as we are. We are going to encourage our friends to treat books with respect and take good care of them so they can enjoy being in our tree house library too!

Miss R went shopping for our classroom over the weekend and bought new baby dolls, they’re soft and cuddly and they all have clothes! She got new books too! One of the books has little dolls that go with it so today Miss R read The Frog Prince and Miss J acted out the story with the little dolls! We also got two new matching games.
This morning we played with the one that goes with The Frog Prince.
Did you know matching games develop our premath skills?
Actually, this particular game is both math AND language arts related because the game itself is math-y but because it goes with a book, it’s also language art-y.
Miss J and Miss R are pretty tricky like that, getting us to learn when we’re not even realizing we’re learning!

We are SUPER lucky to be in Sound Stage and we work hard to have fun and learn cool stuff!

xoxo

illustrations

We did our illustrations!
Miss R and Miss J acted like it was going to be a big deal, like it would take a long time.
But guess what!?! It didn’t! We were able to illustrate each page of our book it didn’t even matter that Miss J and Miss R were reading our words to us as we drew the pictures.

We colored our title pages and the front covers of the books first, then we moved into the pages, Miss R read each sentence we wrote as we turned the pages and made new pictures for the words.

We decided to share our titles with you, but not who’s book is which. We want to see if you can guess!

Choo Choo Train!
At the Carwash
Mommy in the Snow
The Airplane Book
Monster Truck in the Mud
Frozen
Strawberry Shortcake Comes to My House

Miss J and Miss R helped us write our bios. (Miss R said these will go on the back of the book so everyone who reads the book will know about us. She said that most authors have them on their books in case people want to know about them.)
We told her how old we are, where we live, and who lives with us. We also told her what we like to do for fun. We figured that as our Mommies and Daddies, you already know all that stuff about us, but Miss J said other people might read our books too, and they would want to know about us.

All of our friends are not at school today, so the friends who aren’t here will be working on this when they come back, but we will be patient while they work and maybe we can even help them since we’re already experienced authors and illustrators!

xoxo

fun bucket

GUESS WHAT!?!
We got to choose items from the fun bucket today!

There was a great big accident in the bathroom and BOTH Miss J and Miss R had to clean the entire bathroom, so (another) Miss J came and took us to Art Studio to go to the potty while ours was being cleaned. When we came back, Miss R told us we could play with the costumes on the stage as long as we hung them back up by ourselves.
So while Miss J finished cleaning the bathroom (Miss R’s scooter was more trouble than help after a while.) and Miss R began to get our lunch ready, we played dress up and danced and were VERY dramatic on the stage. When Miss R told us it was time to clean up, we ALL worked really hard and worked together to clean up all the costumes and accessories! When we had trouble with a hanger, we asked Miss R for help and we were able to get EVERYTHING cleaned up!
Miss R said she was SO proud of us for playing so well and working so hard and being such good direction followers!
THEN Miss J and Miss R brought out the fun bucket so we could choose an item to keep at home! Wait till you see!!

That wasn’t everything we did, but it was the best and most fun thing!

This morning we were working on our letters. Using soft reddish colored clay, we were able to create “snakes” and build letters! It was actually pretty cool! Some of us made a lot of teeny little snakes and used them together to make letters, some of us rolled out great big snakes to make letters, and one of us even made a “pizza” to fill in the whole middle of the letter O!

We understand that some of you might be confused when we talk about our letters. Some of us have just turned three and are just starting with letter recognition, and some of us are older threes and already know how to spell our own names and recognize LOTS of letters. So when we start talking about learning letters, you mommies and daddies might get confused. You might think that the ones of us who know our letters are not getting what we need. Or you might think that the ones of us who don’t know our letters should hurry up and be where our friends are. But that’s not how it really goes in Sound Stage. We are each challenged at the place we belong.
Please remember that Miss J and Miss R know what’s up and have made sure we are doing developmentally appropriate activities no matter where we are when it comes to letters.

But even more than that, remember we got to choose items from the FUN BUCKET today because we are AWESOME helpers!!!

xoxo

brainstorming and what books are made of with a dash of math for good measure

We were pretty math-y this morning in Sound Stage.
We had the marbles and tubes out on one table, and something completely new on the other table! There were paper, pencils, popsicle sticks and rulers!
VS used her developing problem solving skills to figure a way to catch the marbles after she put them down the tube. She placed the tube in the cup! She knew they would stay in the cup instead of rolling all over the floor! Way to go, VS! You DID IT!

We instinctively (that’s Miss R’s word) knew to measure with the rulers, we counted the numbers and we marked off numbers on the paper. We traced the popsicle sticks, we made shapes with them, we measured them with the rulers, we tried to figure out how many popsicle sticks it took to make the length of the paper and of the rulers.
This was a very time consuming activity…and what was kind of cool about it was that we revisited it many times throughout the morning.
We like that we learn cool stuff just by exploring!

Miss R asked two BIG questions when we met this morning. The first one was: How do you take care of books?
We used books and our bodies to demonstrate the proper care and keeping of books and we said the following:
Hold it gently.
Look at it. Open it gently.
Turn the pages gently when you read it.
Close it gently.
Carry books. Don’t rip. Put it on the shelf.

So, it looks like we’re all moving VERY quickly toward library card status! Go us!

The second question was: What are books made of?
We sad:
Paper!
And glue. Inside the book.
Pages. And we don’t rip the pages.

Miss R and Miss J taught us some proper names for parts of a book. We learned that a book is made of the front cover and back cover. They are connected by the spine of the book.
We figured out on our own that’s where the glue is.
Miss R asked us to stand up and she lifted our shirts up a little so we could see our own spines, we discussed how our spine holds our body together and that’s exactly like a book!
Inside the book, there are words and pictures. They make up the story. We figured out the pictures are there “so you can see the story. So you can know what the words are.”

We talked about creating our own books. We learned that writing and illustrating our own books means we will make the story and pictures.
Miss R said the first thing we needed to do was brainstorm and then she asked us what it meant to brainstorm.
One of us said: Means you have a brain and you can think.
Another of us said: Need an umbrella!

They told us to hold our heads, they explained our brains were inside our heads. We practiced thinking…when we were thinking a LOT, and coming up with so many ideas…that was brainstorming! Then we showed Miss R and Miss J our brainstorming faces!
Now that we kind of understand brainstorming, Miss R told us we had to be thinking about our books. She said there are some questions we will have to answer with our stories. (This is what we’re going to brainstorm about, you want to help us?)
These are the questions she asked us:
What is your book about?
Who is in your book?
What are they doing?
How does your story begin?
How does your story end?

We brainstormed quickly and these are some of the things we said:
RM: My Mom and Dad and my baby named Wyatt.
XT: Dinosaurs and they’re going to eat pterodactyls!
VS: My Abby.
EY: Um…kitties cause I love kitties!
SS: My froggy book. I’m going to color in my froggy book.
DA: My teeth!
CA: Birds in Walmart.
TP-W: Mommy!
LJ: Kitty cats. Meow meow meow.

Please help us remember to brainstorm, please write down anything interesting we might come up with and share it with Miss J and Miss R!
We are going to brainstorm a couple more days, and then Monday we’re going to start the writing and illustrating process!

This will be the final step in our unit on the care and keeping of books and then we will all demonstrated how to properly care for books then get our library cards!
How cool is that!?!

xoxo

ballet dancers, a dinosaur that rawrs, ponies in VA, and a girl president

When we got to school this morning, we found items from the math center on the tables for us to play with!
There were matching cards, and we used those to talk about same and different. The marble ramps were SUPER AWESOME! We loved figuring out how to connect the tubes and ramps to let the marbles roll from start to finish.
Some of us decided to stack the straight pieces as high as possible and let the marbles drop inside. Some of us continued to hook together pieces until we had such an elaborate system of loops and ramps that the marbles almost got lost. Two of us choose to use a ramp and spiral to create vacuum cleaners and proceeded to “vacuum” the entire classroom.

When it was time for our meeting, we were SO READY to see the books our friends were sharing!!!
Today we read Ballet Kitty: Ballet Class, Good Night Virginia, RAWR!, and Grace for President.
It is very interesting to read our favorite books. We asked why these are favorites and this is what our friends said:
EY said: I like the one with the pink shoes.
AG said: The horses part is my favorite.
DA said: I like dinosaur books.
TP-W said: I like the blue. (pointing to the bunting on Grace’s presidential podium)

We have been talking about what we like about our friends books, too!
Our enthusiasm has really impressed Miss J and Miss R and we’re beginning to realize how great it’s going to be when we’re in the treehouse library with the books!!

xoxo

first day of school

WOW!
We noticed SO many different things in our classroom!
Did you notice too?
Miss J and Miss R worked REALLY hard for us to have the coolest room in the whole building!

When we met this morning we talked about what we’re going to be learning this month. The care and keeping of books…this means we’re going to discuss and learn the proper way to take care of books and also why it’s important. Once we learn how to show we know the right way to take care of books, we’re going to get our library cards!! We need them to go in the treehouse library.

We went on a “tour” of our classroom so we could see what was new or different. First we went to the kitchen to see the new table and chairs and the new way all the dishes and food are organized. We’re so excited about our new kitchen things!

Then we went to the new and improved art and writing center! We have so many new items to use and new ways to keep them tidy! We even have new writing folders! We’re going to learn to write in them!
How cool is that!?!

Then we moved to the housekeeping area, we saw SO MANY little brooms and dustpans for us to clean with! We LOVE to clean!!

We checked out new items and storage in the math and science centers. We are VERY interested in the jar of water beads! But those aren’t a choice we can just make because they’re pretty messy so Miss R or Miss J have to put them out for us to explore.

We noticed new and different things to keep the stage area organized, we’re going to work really hard to learn how to hang up those costumes the right way. We also have new curtains! Just like a REAL stage! And Big Ben is still in our “prop” section!! That’s so cool!!

We finished up our tour by investigating the treehouse library. WOW!! It was the COOLEST!! It has a tree with leaves, lights, butterflies, and so many books! There is a metal washtub for us to cuddle up in and lots of pillows to sit and lie on when we read! We are SO excited to be able to use our treehouse library!

We are going to have a SUPER great year in Sound Stage and we can’t WAIT!!
xoxo

the busy day

We went down to the field this morning! WOO HOO! It’s our favorite place to play! But the grass was kind of wet still, so it was really hard to push the barrels up the hill. Didn’t stop us from trying though, we just had to work a little harder.

We heard Miss R and Miss J talking about things they observed down at the field, we heard Miss R say, ‘conflict resolution’, and ‘cooperation’. Miss J said, ‘teamwork’ and ‘negotiation skills’. We know what teamwork means, but we’re not so sure about the rest of those words…we’re going to ask them when we wake up from our nap.

The theme for this last week of summer camp is “Icicle Express” we’re not sure why there is snow and ice during the summer, but it kind of makes us want to watch Frozen. Miss J and Miss R thought that was a great idea!
Anyway, because it’s ice and snow week, we made colored ice cubes today.

Since you can’t see what it looked like, we’re going to explain it to you.
We helped mix the food coloring into cups of water. Then we used the little droppers (the fancy word is pipette) to move colored water into ice cube trays. We were sitting at three tables but only had two ice cube trays, so one table of friends had to be VERY patient.
And guess what!?!
Those friends were SO patient that Miss R gave them ALL air high fives and thanked them for being such good listeners!
Then she told our friends and the other two tables that we were doing very well following Miss J’s directions and she was proud of us too!
We like when we make our teachers proud of us! Know why? Because it makes us feel proud too!!!

We talked a little more today about next week and how that will change Sound Stage forever. We’re not sad though, we’re glad some of us are going to ‘have fun’ and ‘learn cool stuff’ in new classrooms, and some of us still get to do those right here.
We’ve realized school really is all about being safe and having fun WHILE learning cool stuff!
GO US!!