Happy Friday!

Happy Friday Everyone!

This was quite the short week. Willow friends enjoyed a day filled with movement, creativity, sensory play, and friendship! We started off our morning by visiting another new space. We went to the gym after breakfast and took some time to get some energy out! This space, much like the collaboratory, is kept very clean and allows us to engage our gross motor skills in a very positive way!

Once we got back into the Willow Room we had a class meeting. During our meeting we discussed a technique called tapping to help us re-center our bodies when we have big emotions. I thought that you may hear your children talking about tapping so you should probably know what it is! Below is a video that we watched this morning. Feel free to try it at home too!

I have noticed that the children love most anything to do with water. So I put out paintbrushes and water at our chalkboard. I watched as these two friends headed over to this space. WM started painting and said, "woah, look it's darker on this part" and JD respond, "look, look you can see some other writing! I'm going to paint on the writing and see what happens." They then both tried to paint over the old writing, noticing and talking about the letters that they saw as they painted!

The excitement surrounding the snow outside continued this morning so I put snow in two bins for the children to explore with. This time I put out three jars with only the primary colors in them and told the children that they would have to mix colors in order to make new colors! They loved it and eventually it turned into them filling the jars with snow and creating potions. I can't believe that they are still talking about potions!

The girls have been working hard on their 3D homes. These homes come complete with family members, pets, furniture, pictures, addresses, and many more pieces from home! Yesterday we talked about how they were having trouble with the paper standing up. I asked them what they would like to use and FD suggested cardboard. Today I brought in three different kinds of cardboard and set them on the table. I didn't give them any directions and watched them go to work! They immediately went to the art shelf and grabbed scissors, tape, and markers. Check out their amazing work!

"I made a picture for the wall."

"I made a chair and a bench."

"There's a big person and a small person and I made a cat."

"This is my cat. I used cardboard and tape to make it. It has eyes and ears and a tail!"

"This is my cat box."

After they worked on their creations for awhile they then decided it was time to play. They took everything that they made into their space and began a beautiful game of pretend with some amazing storytelling to go with it!!!