Welcome Back

This weekend I went thrift shopping.  Being at the Riverfield Dayschool made me want to do SOMETHING ! I can't be where they are yet, but I can take baby steps.  I wanted to add  pieces of "wonder" for the children to find when they came in  today.

One of the things I saw at Riverfield was ribbon everywhere . It was used in many centers including the block center.  I am just guessing but maybe it was used as a non-standard way of measuring.  The children enjoyed our ribbon today in the art center.  

Since I am taking an Art Class right now, I was excited when I ran upon this treasure at " The Flying Dog."  The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh hangs in the art  center now hopefully inspiring young artist! 

Muffin Tin Monday!

If you look close you see a huge orange "thing" to Rosie's right.  I have no idea what it was but we bought it to be a drum... or whatever the kids want to make it for the day.

Christian did not like the ribbons being all in a mess.

He rolled them up for us.

Sharae is back!

Rosie lounging with some of our African props.

Another thrift store find!  There are beads in one side and the kids take the tiny spoon and transfer the beads to the other side. They loved this and it is a great fine motor exercise!

Halle and Christian trying to decide what to do with the ribbons.

Adam is tired.

Friends painting !

We see this same tiger and duck playing together every day.

Boston learned to tie his shoes while he has gone. YAY BOSTON!

Katie has had a great day back - this was the happy face we saw all day!

Another point of inspiration from my trip to Riverfield !  My science center was a small table with a mirror and a few tools.  I had all FCCRS said I needed...  but it lacked the power to draw the kids in.  I saw this branch collection in one of the rooms and realized what I needed was something to make the space " the kids" space and not mine.   Randy and I went branch shopping to find just the perfect ones.  After a 2 hour drive in the country which was wonderful, we found a few !  :)   The top branch is put with eye hooks into the window sill.  Then each branch underneath is tied with twine.  There are 17 bottles with lids hanging on these branches.  If a child finds something out side or brings something from home he would like to keep ( and it will fit in the bottle) he now has a special place to keep it.  

I did try doing my morning "circle time" like they did theirs.  It felt empty to me.  Maybe I wasn't asking the right questions. When the talking lulled and I started a transition to the next thing, the kids looked at me like " hey.... didn't you forget something?"  Later in the morning  Adam did come up to me and say " Ms Debbie, you didn't do morning message."  I know... it threw me for a loop too!  :)

I did notice one thing though. Beth told me several times ( Beth is one of the teachers in the purple room) that they try to " not give the kids the answer."  Early in the morning Katie was cutting some ribbon from our new spools and said " Ms Debbie, I cant get it." I said " Katie, why don't you try another pair of scissors, I think the straight ones would work better."  As it came out of my mouth, I realized I had given the answer.  Beth would have said, " I wonder why it isn't cutting? I wonder what would make it cut easier?"  I totally took that opportunity for discovery away from her.   How many times do we underestimate a child's ability to figure it out? 

OK - Day one trial run .  Semi - successful.  I mean, I guess it is successful if I realized the difference between the two methods of teaching, right?

Baby Steps.