Mrs Wishy Washy

I introduce Joy Cowley's, Mrs Wishy Washy by being Mrs Wishy Washy while I tell the story using props.

Then I leave the props and book available for the children to retell the story.

This book comes off the shelf every year and with it we always play with mud on the art table.

The mud is chocolate pudding that was made with water instead of milk.

Along with the 'mud' there are farm animals to jump, roll and paddle through the mud.  And tractors that slip and slide and make wonderful tracks in the mud.

I leave the book out and encourage the parents to read it out loud while the children are playing.

And when the animals or tractors become too muddy they go in the tub for a wash.

"Wishy-washy, wishy-washy"

Look the math that happened.

Pay It Forward

This summer was one of the best I ever had.

My husband and I spent a month in Europe cycling and touring through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, a little of Italy then cruised to the Greek Isles.

 It was fabulous.

Plus while I was away I received messages from Donna at Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning that I was one of the winners in their Pay It Forward game.  Yay!  Soon after I got home from my trip I received their parcel of goodies from Melbourne.

Now it's my time to Pay It Forward.

So if you would like to play AND are willing to pay it forward from your own blog, then here is what you do.

Leave a comment on this post stating that you want to play, and I will randomly choose three players.

You can be from anywhere in the world!!

The rules are:

• To the three participants I will send a fun package representing the west coast of Canada but you must be willing to Pay it Forward to three more people.
• Comments will remain open until Sunday, September 25th.
• If you are chosen you will need to send me your postal address so I can send you a parcel from British Columbia.
• After you receive the package you will need to “Pay It Forward” in the same manner on your blog.

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.