As we all, children and adults alike, settle in to the school year, we need to create our own class community. This means of course getting to know each other, finding out about everybody's likes and dislikes, as well as learning about the things we are confident about, and the things we might need more help with. It also means becoming familiar with, and confident in, our environment; the special space that is our classroom. Without its class members, the space is simply a room with furniture and resources, but once we add the children, it starts to become a community. It is vital for the children to feel a sense of ownership and of pride in their classroom, and with this in mind, one of the first things we aim to do is have them create artwork for our space. We want to ensure that each child has the opportunity to create something themselves, but that these pieces can then be put together to create something that represents the whole group, much in the same way that when all the individual class members come together, we become a community. As you will see, the results speak for themselves. We have found that the children are so proud and excited to come into the classroom, and see that their space is slowly being transformed by their creations. The artworks help the children develop a genuine sense of ownership and of belonging. One piece of art the children worked on was a hanging mobile, created simply by hanging a branch from the ceiling, and then adding items to it. First the children used pipettes to drop paint onto cotton wool pads. This required the use of fine-motor skills to operate the pipettes; squeezing to collect paint, and then squeezing again to release it onto the pads. Of course it also involved much discussion over colours. Each child painted several cotton pads.... The painted cotton wool pads were then threaded with a needle by the teacher, and hung from the branch which was already suspended from the ceiling. Later in the week the children were invited to add to the piece by threading a combination of beautiful beads and real chestnuts onto string. These were then added to the branch. Below is the beautiful resulting mobile. We also worked on creating a 3D birthday calendar. This took some time and effort! The children were excited to see twelve blown up balloons, and were surprised to hear that they were going to cover them with a mixture of paper and glue (paper mâché). This first part was sticky but fun work, with a sensory element to it. Spreading the gluey paper out over the balloons felt funny! NB It was such sticky work, that it proved impossible to get photographs of each child at work, but you can see examples of the process below. The paper and glue-covered balloons were left to dry for a few days. Then an exciting thing happened. During our group time, I showed the children how we could now pop the balloons with a pair of scissors. They expected a big bang, but in fact the sound in this case was just a quiet hissing as the air escaped and the balloon deflated inside the now-hardened paper casing. It was exciting to see that the paper remained in the shape of the balloon, even after the balloon was entirely removed from the inside. The children touched the paper balloons and noticed that they had hardened. Now we had the perfect balloon shapes, but they were rather boring colour-wise, so the next job was for the children to paint them. Each chose the colour they wanted, and the balloons began to be transformed... The finished balloons were hung from the ceiling and labeled with the months of the year. The children's pictures will be added to the correct month so that we can keep track, month by month, of whose birthday is coming up. These are not the only artworks that were made. Two others can be seen below. Both were again the result of combining the individual work of each child to create a collective piece. In this way the children are beginning to claim the space as their own. We look forward to hanging up the family photographs shortly. Please do come in when you pick up or drop off your child, so that you can admire your child's classroom with him or her.
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Welcome to the PS1H and Owlet blog! Each week I will write about some of the learning that has been taking place in class. Learning at this stage in a child's life is all-encompassing, and it would be impossible to share all that the children discovered, explored or learned in one blog each week, but I hope to at least give you a peak into what is taking place; a small 'snapshot'. The first two weeks have been a time for the children to make connections to each other and to the new environment; to explore, discover and investigate. In doing so they... ...used a variety of construction toys to design and build (see below). They took care of the baby dolls, ensuring that they were fed and rested, reminding us to speak quietly around the sleeping babies (see below). They loved using playdough to sculpt and create; squashing, squeezing, rolling, pinching and cutting. As they played, they worked on strengthening finger muscles and developing fine motor skills (see below). They participated in sensory play (see below). They ate snack and lunches together, sometimes trying new foods (see below). They painted and explored colour (see below). And they played outside, using climbing equipment, hoops, slides, swings, balls, water and of course, the sand (see below)! Shirin and I very much look forward to a wonderful year of inquiry and play-based learning with PS1H and Owlets, and are excited to meet the remaining members of our class over the next few months.
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