BOX BOX BOX BOX

Learning opportunities for the children this week included playing with cardboard boxes.  Playing with a cardboard box can build skills that some toys can't, such as creativity, imagination, and resourcefulness.  Cardboard boxes inspire creativity and imagination as the children build upon, transform, and reinvent them.  The cardboard boxes held the children's imagination and attention for lengths of time, and we witnessed children coming back to the boxes throughout their morning.  Our play was unstructured in that we gave the children the opportunity to explore the versatile, open ended material (boxes) with no end result in mind.  We put out the boxes and let the play unfold! 

We are all about cardboard boxes here-the rug was filled with boxes of all sizes and we called it  "box land".  Each day brought  iterations of doghouses, vehicles, hideouts, spaceships....you name it and it happened. Boxes offered the children endless opportunities, and agency in imaginative play.  Markers were brought in for decorating or creating buttons and steering wheels and controls.  

There was  a social component in which the children shared ideas with others and learned to make room.  There were rules for box land, which we created together. The children realized that if we were rough with the materials they would not last.  We also reiterated "ONE child per box." 

For this post, I'm sharing pictures of our box discoveries, as well as "words we've heard" as the children negotiated box land.  

"Anyone want to come in my house? Just knock on the door"

"I need a long box I can fit in. It's perfect! Well, it's a little longer but that's okay."

"I'm in a box too"

"When you have a nightmare you can come to my house okay?"

"I need it dark but I still need some light." 

"flap flap flap flap flap flap"

"I don't think airplane wings move when you fly"

"Am I flying?"

"It's a little funny because you said you were on top! It is HOT in here."  

"I'm staying inside my house" (giggles)"

"Hmmmm Hmmmm Hmmmm Hello is somebody in here?"

"I have books and maps, I'm all set!"

"Now I got some food on my trip"

"Come in! I'm going out the door."

"We can MAKE maps    !"

"Giant house together. We can build a giant house together."

"Grab some roof supplies." 

"Let's make a bigger house. How about we make a bigger house?" 

"this is a Lamborghini vroom vroom vroooooooom"

"I have a basement right here."

"You have to bring your house closer to mine. If you move it here then I can come in the back door."

"We're going in an airplane infinity one ninety nine"

"Look! We have a t.v. We don't have to drive the car it drives itself"

"Put the left side on the left side." 

"Okay, I'm going in."

"This is connected to you. I need all the power in the belly."

"How about we can make an ultimate play station. I'm going to put it on top of mine."

Until Next Time,

Michele

Experts!

A favorite activity has been occurring in the PreK classroom:  each child is narrating and illustrating their own story.  To approach this project, each child is asked "what are you an expert in?" or "what would you like to write about?"  and off we go!  The children independently chose topics, colors used, how many pages their story was, and we were their transcribers.  Completing a project like this gives each child agency as well as a sense that their words have power. Imagine that a crowd of friends listen to your words and remember their favorites!  This year the stories were about all sorts of topics:  family especially, but there were stories about lawn tractors, soccer playing, dinosaurs, and unicorns.  Each child took care to illustrate each page of their book, and we created a title page and wrote "The End" when we were finished.  

We gave each child the opportunity to sit in front of their peers as their story was being read (and they were free to edit the details!), then accept comments.  Each author received a loud "bravo!"  

As a teacher of young children, I find this writing and listening activity to be quite telling regarding each child.   The stories are really sort of "self portraits" as the children are speaking from their hearts.  Some stories are magical, some are very factual, and all are well received by the audience! We also learn about our listeners, as they are able to comment on details from the stories. Another way to help our classroom form as a community! 

 

Read Across America Day 2021

We celebrated Read Across America Day in high style here ! 

We had a costume parade......

a special numbers snack......

which received high praise!

Each child told their own story.......

Elf on the Shelf watches their owner and reports to Santa.

Pigeon wants to drive the bus.

Piggy dances.

Pete the Cat brushes his hair.

The Caboose Who Got Loose was driving and the train jumped off somehow and snapped the coupling.

Curious George accidentally dumps the dirt out of the dump truck that the workers were going to use.

Pete the Cat rocks to his own beat.

Moana saves the necklace and gives it to Nefertiti.

The princess dances and has beauty sleep to recharge her sparkles. 

We loved seeing the imagination of our families and the enthusiasm of our readers!

                                                   

The Pigeon has to go to school. 

                                                                                

Harry Potter is in a book. He helps good guys. 

We watched our own show on the screen!  We watched the K performance of the Mitten early in the day via zoom.  The stories that we performed and watched came to life for us.  




Altogether a very nice and busy Read Across America Day!


To continue our celebration of RAAD, we held a READATHON on Monday!  The children arrived in their pajamas ready to read. 

We read 23-24 books! Each child brought home a card with their total on it.  

We are excited to donate our earnings to the Red Bookshelf, and will be counting the money and celebrating our work!  








Until Next Time,
Michele