8/24/2012 Friday

Today I, Arielle, returned to Green Sprout from my Alaskan cruise vacation. I returned from Seattle yesterday and read the blog entries from the last two weeks to catch up on what has been happening in the classroom. Before I left for my trip I was hand-writing each child’s daily notes in individual journals and am very excited about switching to the blog to share information and communicate with the community. I found it a very effective way to keep up with the class and look forward to posting blog entries, as I love to write and personally feel that the best way I communicate with families about their sprout is through writing. Please feel free to provide feedback on the blog entries as I am willing to compose them however you would like (diary method, bullets about each child, etc.) Also, my cell phone number is (512) 496-7807. Please send me a text so I can save your number in my phone and save mine so you can text me in the future as needed. Also, my email address is arieatx@gmail.com J

Throughout my trip I was excited about meeting the new class and this morning I was very happy to return to work. We only had two pre-tots (Ancel and Olive) come to school today so Wrenn, Alanna, and Joey from the toddler class joined us. It was great to have three special visitors join our class!

                We started our day out on the playground. It was great to spend time with the entire Sprout community, including Liz and Cass (the previous primary teachers,) who visited us today and worked with the primary class. Olive helped water the garden and enjoyed the company of Cherokee and me (she got to bond with me for the first time!) She spent a lot of time being held and talked to by both of us.

                We came inside for hand-washing and snack. It was fun to have the company of the three toddlers!  They were excellent role models for their younger peers. After snack we played in the classroom for a while. Olive loved making towers with the legos, Ancel and Alanna played with pretend food items, Joey stacked toys, and Wrenn enjoyed some light reading in the book center.

                During circle time we sang the Hello song, a very exciting experience. Then we talked about the calendar and today’s date, and I read aloud a book I bought a few days ago at the Pike Place public market in Seattle (Good Morning World, by Paul Windsor). It has beautiful pacific northwest Native American style illustrations and wishes a good morning to a variety of different pacific northwest animals (bears, badgers, ravens, salmon, butterflies, eagles, marine life, etc.)

                After circle time we went outside on the deck for some free play until the toddler class joined us for the community music circle, a very fun Friday experience. Jackie (a co-teacher from the toddler class) brought out her guitar and once she started playing and singing the children immediately started hopping, wiggling, and dancing with huge smiles on their faces. Ancel, Joey, and Wrenn were the first to get in on the action. Eventually Wrenn decided to sit down in a chair next to Jackie to listen to her sing and play. When her song was over she handed him the guitar and he proudly held it as Joey strummed it.

                Throughout the community music circle time, Ancel, Alanna, and Wrenn enjoyed climbing on the playhouse, which included going through the windows and over the sides of it, then sliding down the slide or exiting through the door.  Joey rode around the deck on a bike and Alanna eventually joined him, then they stopped to play for a while at the water table. Ancel eventually moved on to exploring a folding chair. He knocked it over and then tried his best to move it around and reposition it back to its original position. Olive spent most of her time sitting in my lap and getting to know me, as well as observing the community music circle activity and excitement.  She eventually decided to ride a bike and took some time choosing which one she wanted to use. The rocking eggplant turned out to be the winner. She happily and proudly rocked it back and forth. J

                Nap went smoothly with a comfortable transition to snack. While the sprouts were eating cheerios Cherokee showed them the hanging yellow crystal ball that I brought from my house. The kiddos loved looking at the lovely rainbows it made when held in the window. Olive was very interested in holding and touching it. This kind of experience is the type that I like to reflect upon when planning upcoming interest-based activities. Perhaps I’ll bring some crystals next week to share with the children.

I lit some incense during snack to add some nice smells to the room. Once they were done eating they began an art project in which they were provided pictures of landscapes and animals, glue, markers, and construction paper. Olive and Ancel were very interested in using the markers, and Joey and Alanna decided to do lots of gluing of pictures first, then some coloring. It’s cool to see how the pre-tots differ from the toddlers in their artistic and creative development. Afterwards we did some free play in the classroom. Ancel and Joey rolled cars all over the place, Olive stacked toys, and Alanna looked at books. We ended our day by going outside and playing on the playground.

Next week I will be working with Lizzie, as Cherokee will be on vacation. I’m excited about continuing to get to know the awesome pre-tots and begin our year of Reggio Emilia and Montessori-style learning and discovering! Have a great weekend!

*Side note: I’ve noticed lots of runny noses today! Is it already allergy season?

*Also, if you are reading this and do not see the pictures from today, that’s because Cherokee is going to upload them when she gets home tonight so please check again later. Thanks!