More at the Beach

One other thing that I have noticed with children at the beach, and pretty much anywhere, is that they love rocks.  The toddlers will pick one up and walk around with it in their fist.  The older children will stick them in their pockets or pails if they are at the beach.  So with that in mind I set up a few activities around rocks while we were at the beach on Monday.

They stacked rocks into towers.

Went on a scavenger hunt to find rocks to match the pictures.

They counted rocks.  

First matching rock to rock on the pictures then counting them.

But the most popular was painting rocks.

What is an activity that you have done around rocks?

A Morning at the Beach

It's our first Monday back to school and we spent it at the beach.  While planning for our first month at school I was trying to think of what we should focus on.  It's difficult after a vacation to know what the children will be interested in.  Even more so at StrongStart because we don't know what children will be coming, which have moved away or on to preschool.  So I thought I would plan around what they may have experienced, living here on an island, during their summer vacation.

The beach!

Last week at school I set up a table that looked like the beach.

Blue fabric for water, beige felt for the sand.

Rocks and shells for crabs to hide under.

 This morning as soon as the children hit the beach they were turning over rocks 

and shells finding crabs.  Little green crabs that they easily pick up.

No fear for most of the children.

We were lucky to find two hermit crabs too.

The bigger one was being shy when I took this picture.

Using Recyclables at the Easel

I've been trying to clear out my storage room knowing that I'll have more donations coming in this year.  So what to do with a box of dividers from apples?

Why not put them at the easel to paint on instead of paper.

 

Some children were a bit unsure and refused to paint on it.  
Others who were unsure gave it a try.  At first making small strokes or dabbing the paint here and there.

Or using the brush to push the bubbly part flat.

Other children were very intrigued and couldn't wait to paint on it so they buddied up.

And a couple showed quite the enthusiasm with having a new way to express themselves.  Almost like Jackson Pollock (I had a little floor clean up after).

I heard some of them telling their parents that they were making new colours.  I noticed that some had one or two strokes of paint and then stopped, while others, like the one here, was covered.  What I noticed the most is that it slowed most of the children's process. As they pulled the brush down the bubbled cardboard it swayed from side to side instead of the smooth motion they were use to.
I wonder what else we could find to paint on.  Any suggestions?

Rearranged Art Area

In my first post this school year, when I talked about setting up the classroom, I mentioned how much time I put in to thinking about the arrangement.  How can each area be improved?  How were the children playing in that area last year?  Did it meet their needs?

Over the past few years I collected and expanded the 'loose parts' available for the children to create with but I couldn't figure out, till nearly the end of last year, why they weren't using them as much as I had expected.

It was because I didn't give them enough table surface to create.

This year's new art area is shown in the above picture.  

I changed the long table, from last year, with two smaller tables.

One table will hold an art idea that I provide for the children to explore.

The other is left clear for them to use.

In the first three days of school it has been used almost constantly.

Going with my focus on opening the areas, I moved the easel away from the wall and set it between the art area and the next.  The shelf that was there is now along the wall.

With one simple move and the children are using the easel far more than they have it the past.

Summer is Over

Hope you have enjoyed summer vacation.

My husband and I did a bit of traveling, camping and hiking.

One new thing that we started this summer

was a blog for my husband's garden railway.

The railway takes up our whole back yard.  He has done a wonderful job

of winding it through the plants and trees that are well established.

When he was building it and looking for buildings he realized that Playmobil people

fit to scale.  So we started to find it at thrift stores and on swap pages.

It's amazing the many, many scenarios that Playmobil have created.

He based his layout after the old TV show called Petticoat Junction.

And the stars of this railway are Opa and Nana 

(which will be us once our first grandchild is born)

 so we called it Opananaland.

This summer Opa and Nana traveled with us and when we saw trains or models

they posed for some pictures and then blogged about it.

It's been fun creating stories and posing these two.

If you want to follow along or just take a peek you can find it at

https://opananaland.wordpress.com/

Setting Up

Every year my classroom looks different. 

It starts in June when I'm giving everything a thorough cleaning.  I'm thinking to myself what worked (with the set up), what didn't, what were the children interested in most, what area did I see that only girls were using, or mainly boys were using.

I don't know if you go through a similar thought process but it helps me look at the class fresh and answer the question "How best can I use this space?"

And I know the smaller spaces will change throughout the year but generally where I set the large furniture in September is where it will stay till June.

This is last year

This is this year.

Can you see the biggest difference I made?

I moved all the big shelves to the walls to open up the space.

I'm hoping to encourage the children to feel free to move materials between the areas.

There are more changes too but I'll get into those another time.

What do you think of the set up?  Does it look inviting?  Does it look open or cluttered?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

From Frogs to Fishing

I try to use our toys, materials and equipment in a variety of ways.

Last week I shared the children playing Frogs on a Log.

Once we released our live frogs I changed the frogs to fish.

Turning the half round over and it became a boat.

Going fishing went well with our camping play.

After they caught what they wanted the fish disappeared

to the campfire for a fish fry.