#1
First things first! We finally got to finish celebrating my sweet Hubby's birthday with the rescheduled hockey match between the Dallas Stars and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night. This was so much fun and very much unexpected. I figured when they rescheduled the event for a Wednesday it was going to be out of the question (see I'm married to the church via my husband and we lead bible studies on Wednesday night!). However, we found wonderful substitues and decided to continue in our celebration of the wonderful man God has blessed my life with and go and enjoy a night out! It was fun and best of all our home team won, Go Jackets! (we are originally from C-bus).
#2
Zero the Hero made his appearance again this week!! On the 10th of April (because we had school and the date contained a zero). I have modified the way I do Zero the Hero due to circumstances. I now teach a 3 day a week program and so counting every 10 days would take WAY too long to get to 100. So I just celebrate with a little treat every time we are actually in school on a date that contains zero and journal about what "zero" left for us. It has been a great way to keep the kiddos paying attention to numbers in general. This time around we had die cut 1's and a mini donut left on our snack mats. The kiddos had discussion (facilitated of course by me) about why Zero left the things he did. They have caught on pretty quickly that Zero really likes round things because he is round. They eventually figured out that they could make the number 10 with the objects he left them! Fun for the kiddos and great for their budding brains!!
#3
We were studying birds this week and what is bird week without a cute art project? Now, I can't take credit for this one, but my teaching neighbor Ms. Kim did the most adorable extension after reading the book Owl Babies by Martin Waddel. For a closer look, check out my shelf on shelfari. I did read the book with my class and we did a venn diagram after having a discussion on nocturnal animals. We decided to compare bats and owls (since we had previously studied bats during the Halloween season). They did a great job, but thought the name of the chart "venn diagram" was a really funny word:) Kids at this age are so sweet!! My sweet neighbor managed to squeeze in an art project that used cotton balls to create the 3 owl babies!! Absolutely adorable!! I will need to remember this for next year. This is a pic that I found on pinterest, but my neighbor used just 1 cotton ball per owl and googlie eyes instead of construction paper. Still super cute!! I'll have to remember to take some pics of hers and post.
#4
Instead of a craft, we did a journal entry. I had a whole bunch of pictures of different types of birds that I gave to the kiddos to pick one that they liked. Earlier in the week we had talked about how we might draw a bird on our own using simple shapes, like circles, ovals, triangles, etc. So the kiddos took the pictures (which conveniently had the name of each bird on it) and drew their version and wrote the name. This is the first time I have ever given them actual lines. I know that the opinions vary about when to start using lines for writing, but I just wanted to see what they would do. It was interesting actually. Some didn't use them at all, while others drew their own lines to use.
#5
As a part of our bird week, we of course had to paint with feathers!! I normally offer kiddos the choice of table or easel, but this time, I asked them to use the easel. I only had one kiddo who really did NOT want to use the easel. It was surprising how much the kiddos who don't usually prefer the easel, LOVED it. I always tell them how important it is to try new things!! We had a lot of fun painting with a variety of feathers and "feather-like" objects.
Don't even get me started on the importance of paint in a child's early development!! Some of the important ones can be reviewed below for those moments when your adult brain and fear of mess tries to convince you otherwise.
“Given an easel, paper, and paint, and no directions, every child will paint!” (Katherine H. Read 1967)
Paint and Physical Development
- Painting provides numerous opportunities for advancing physical abilities including fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and visual perception (Danko-Mckee & Slutsky 2003). In addition, teachers regularly observe children developing gross motor skills, sensory integration, grip strength and balance when working at the easels.
- Research has documented that the act of painting promotes lateralization of the left and right brain hemispheres (Feldman 2003), improving the brain’s ability to integrate functions such as creative thinking with planning and execution.
- The process of painting can be a soothing sensory experience for young children. At Bing, it often aids in separation from caregivers and can be used as a tool to process emotional experiences.
- The medium of paint has the ability to transform feelings and ideas into visual form, offering children a means of communication other than verbalization.
- Engaging with and conversing about paintings (both those created by children and professional artists) promotes an awareness of and an appreciation for the aesthetic qualities in art and in life.
- The act of painting supports the development of self-efficacy, self-restraint and self-correction (Feldman 2003).
- Painting supports the development of a self-concept (Feldman 2003).
- It provides an opportunity to observe peers in their process and connect through a shared interest.
- Group painting invites planning, turn taking and collaboration.
- Painting also supports group project work as a method of documentation and sharing children’s ideas.
- Painting involves a number of cognitive tasks for children, such as “experimentation, exploration of cause-and-effect relationships, critical thinking skills, and visual discrimination” (Danko-McGee & Slutsky 2003).
- While painting, children encounter opportunities to learn about colors, shapes, sizes, textures, categorization and numeracy.
- Painting inspires planning, problem solving and symbolic thinking, as well as discussions involving a child’s own observations and evaluations.
- Painting can encourage children’s discussion of art terminology, qualities of the paint, order, direction, location and spatial relationships.
- Children often incorporate story elements into their work or provide a narrative of their thoughts and theories while they work.
- Research with young children suggests that children who are encouraged to draw and paint at an early age will later learn to compose stories more easily, more effectively and with greater confidence than children who do not receive this encouragement (Applebee 1988; Clay 1995).
- Finally, painting also provides the opportunity to explore visual patterns, imagery and literacy concepts that precede formal writing (Olshansky 1995).
Just wanted to share a few important reminders as to why getting a little messy every day is important! Hoping you have a terrific Friday!! That's the News, Views & Stews of my week. How was yours?
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