So much of what we learn about at school is inspired by themes we observe in the children's play. This week, we observed the class building a large vehicle, made of just a few wooden chairs and a ton of imagination. Their vehicle could ride on land and sea, and could also fly in the air! This reminded Ms. Katherine of a book called, "If I built a Car," and she soon discovered that it was available at the library next door. A couple of eager volunteers came over to help her pick it up, and while there we discovered that two other books by the same author (If I Built a House, & If I Built a School) were also available!
We had so much fun exploring this series at school, and it inspired us to transform one of our shelves to a maker- space filled with recyclable materials and some simple craft supplies for the children to create and invent with. We encouraged the class to share creative ideas with one another during our circle time about what they would invent if they could. The books definitely inspired them to dream BIG and think of all sorts of out- of- the- box ideas. Some children enjoyed drawing their ideas on paper, and others enjoyed going over to the maker- space to build 3D models of their ideas.
We also continued to read the book Children Just Like Me this week, which exposed us to some of the similarities and differences between us and children living in other parts of the world. One of the countries we focused on was Argentina, and we enjoyed looking at some real Argentinian pesos brought in from a EV's grandmother's recent travels! This also inspired us to spend some more time practicing Spanish this week, and each day we practiced counting how many children were at school in English and Spanish. Some classmates enjoyed getting back in their imaginary vehicle at playtime to travel to Argentina, and other countries that they heard about in the book Children Just Like Me!
Other highlights of the week included:
Reading stories about ice and snow at library story time
Painting on snow in our outdoor play space
Drawing, painting, and collaging pictures of our newly- bloomed amaryllis
Continuing to learn about music notation in music class
We had such a wonderful week, and look forward to many more adventures next week. Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!
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