Adventures of Pete the Cat

I really enjoy (so do the families), a book called Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin.
I appreciate Pete's philosophy
"no matter what you step in it's all good, just keep walking along singing your song ".

This year I decided that we would do a year long Family Project instead of different monthly projects.

The Adventures of Pete the Cat was born.

Very much like the idea of Flat Stanley, Pete will go home with any family that wants him to have an adventure.

 It doesn't have to be a grand adventure.

It could be baking cookies at home, going to the grocery store, maybe visiting mom at work or whatever a family can think of.

The family borrows Pete and documents the adventure by photos or drawings.
Write a little story then bring it back to school to share.

Each story will be added to our binder.

I started it off by taking Pete for a walk with my dog.

The story tells of the things we did and saw at the park.

It was a lot of fun.

 I put my story together and shared it with the families.

Today, Pete left school with a family and I think I heard that he was going to help make applesauce after they stopped at the library.

I'll keep you posted.

Time Capsules

While surfing different blogs this past weekend I saw several that mentioned Time Capsules as a beginning of the year project.  For the past couple of years I did Memory Albums with the families.  Whenever I would capture a child involved in play I would print off the picture and write a brief story about what was happening.  At the end of the year the family would take their pictures home as a keepsake.  Basically the same as Time Capsules but something about the title Time Capsules I like.

So today at the art table the families were able to create the first page of their Time Capsule.

They traced their hands and decorated them as the wished.
 

Then they used yarn to measure how tall they are today and attached the yarn to the paper so we can use it again in June to see if they have grown during the year.

 

I also took photos of each child today we'll glue it on to their page. 

Sign of the week - good morning

We are back to school this week and our first signs will be 'good', 'morning' and put them together for 'good morning'.

The song we will sing is...
Duck says 'quack'
Cow says 'moo'
Old red rooster says 'cock-a-doodle-doo'
Sheep says 'baa'
Cat says 'mew'
And I say 'good morning' when I see you.

Ready for a New School Year

After a wonderful two month vacation I'm ready and excited to be back to work.  I spent last week setting up the rooms.

 The art area has been moved across the room to take advantage of the natural light.

 The house area and the dramatic play is also in the main room.

 The families decided that farm would be our focus for coming back to school.

The view from the snack corner.

The room also has the book area, sand and water tables and the light table.

 The second room has a surprise.  I found a toddler size climber with slide.

 The car and block area.

Writing area, puzzles, playdoh and more.

I'm looking forward to opening Tuesday morning.

Summer Holidays

School is now out for me and I'll be closed for two months.

The last few days I've been very busy sorting, cleaning and organizing the rooms.

As you can see the rooms are pretty well cleared (so the custodians can wash and wax the floors).  This is done every June and I dread it until it's almost done.  Then I start getting excited about how the room will look in the fall.  What changes will be made?  Should centres be moved around for better flow or more communication and interaction between the children, their grown ups or the families?  What ideas will the children and their families bring? 

A colleague of mine was showing me her pile of summer reading and one book caught my eye, Inspiring Spaces for Young Children.  It is a beautiful book full of colourful photos that is truly inspiring.  There is a page on Facebook called Inspired by Inspiring Designs and I'm hoping that it will prove to be as good as the book.

Another book that I picked up is called Young Investigators The Project Approach in the Early Years, by Judy Harris Helm and Lilian Katz.  I'm looking forward to taking sometime off before digging into the book later in August.

I'm off blogging for the next two months but will be back in September when school reopens.

Camping Indoors

We've had a lot of fun this month with our camping dramatic play area.

The camp fire was the most exciting.  The children built it, cooked fish and stew over it, roasted vegetables and anything else they could think of and the favourite, toasted marshmallows for s'mores.

 

 

Yes, it was a great to finish off the school year.

Sand Bracelets

Sand bracelets are fun and fairly easy to make.  It takes a bit of patience and a lot of coordination.

Two sizes of tubing is used with one being just a bit smaller than the other so it can fit snugly inside as the connector.

 After measuring the tube around your wrist and cut to length, start filling.

The tricky part is getting the sand in the tube.

We tried little funnels but the sand was a bit too granular to fit through.

It was easier to spoon it in.

Then connect the two ends and slip it on.

Or make handcuffs.