International Fairy Tea Party 2015

This was our third year participating in the International Fairy Tea Party. Every year looks different from the last. This year was a very hot day and eating outside comfortably was not an option. 

We started the day by decorating a fairy house with sparkles, which can be seen here.

We shared a fairy book down in the woods, before we came up to our classroom.

I told the children that I had seen some flutters and flitters up by the school and suggested that maybe the fairies had arrived to see the new house they had created. 

When we arrived inside the school, we couldn't find any fairies, but we did find a wonderfully decorated lunch the fairies had left behind for us to say thank you. 

Pizza Project

Today we made pizza, but we didn't eat it. Actually we did eat pizza, just not these ones. 

We were just Preeee-tending. :)  Lots of silly conversations about the differences

between making these pizzas and real pizzas. 

First you spread on the sauce. Some people like more sauce than others.

Then we added the cheese.

Then you add the toppings that you like best.

Some like to make  their pizza fast. Some take lots of extra time.

Place them in the oven to cook. 

Make sure you set the timer. 

Pizza is a great conversation starter.
They all look so different!

Circles, Spots and Polka Dots: Art Show 2015

This was our Third Annual Circle, Spots and Polka Dots Art Show.  The goals is to create art with circles using many methods over several weeks. The children love the repetition of using the circles. They love that we can find circles anywhere at anytime. 

It opens their eyes to the fact that circles are a huge part of our lives and world. 

The Art Work

The sculpture was created with recycled materials that families contributed from home.
The artists took turns adding pieces over the course of a week. They were able
to come back and add more pieces as the sculpture grew. The base of the
sculpture was a piece of artwork created for last year's art show.
After it was finished the artists each shared a title or words about the piece of art, which
were displayed around the edge of the table with their names. 

Each child selected circles from a large collection of paper circles that
had been cut from construction paper and hole punches. They glued them in layers
from largest to smallest. Each child had one circle stack displayed on this tower.

These circles were created with tissue paper and glue. The children chose their strips and
used glue sticks to attach them. The next step was to paint over them with watered down
white glue and a paint brush to create a shiny and smooth effect. They then folded the edges
onto the back or cut them with scissors.

The children each had turns to wet-felt balls from white and dyed wool. They also created clay beads.
Some children had a chance to paint the beads and others sewed the strings together.
This was truly a group effort. The strings were attached to a horizontal stick and hung from the ceiling.

The artists used three different sized tree blocks to print small, medium and large circles.
I loved how much their personalities were reflected in the way they chose to use these materials.
They wrote their names with a silver sharpie on the front of the display.

These were created with school glue that had blue watercolor added to it.
The children were shown how to slowly make circles by squeezing and moving the glue bottle.
They were also shown that they could make dots instead of circles.
A day or two later after they had dried, the children used watercolor and q-tips to add more dots,
fill in their circles or create new circles. The labels displayed the children's titles for their artwork.
Names such as: Ocean, The Future, and Circles.

 The Show

Families were invited to attend our art show on a Friday evening. They were encouraged to sign up to bring a circle themed food to contribute. Of course we always love seeing the children and some parents coordinate their outfits to match the theme. This was our biggest year yet and we decided to make it an indoor/outdoor event. The art was inside. Food table and activities were on the playground attached the preschool.

Each child could find a picture of themselves hanging from one of the balloons around the classroom.
The pictures were taken the week before to look as thought they are floating away.

I always love to display any extra circles that I can find around the classroom and
our favorite circle themed books. The children created
many of these circle garlands to hang around the art show as well.

The children helped draw chalk circles up our stairs and along our ramp
to welcome guests to the show.

Everyone seemed very relaxed and the artists were SO proud to have their families attend.
I was very excited that we had 100% of our children attend with family members.

Bubble blowing was a big highlight for the children outside.

The children were surprised to find a Ball Pool under the covered climber.
The enjoyed lounging around and being silly with friends and siblings.

There were many circle themed foods contributed by families.
This is a chance for the parents to show their creative side.
Notice even cups, plates and napkins have polka dots and circles on them.

Some of the menu:
Circle Pasta Salad
Pepperoni, Cheese and Crackers
Circle Cereal Mix
Circle shaped fruit salad
Mini Pizzas
Cookies
Circle Tortilla Chips and Salsa
Meatballs
Circle Cut Veggies

 The children are so proud of their artwork and of course a chance to share their preschool with their families. A big thank you to all the families of Inch By Inch who continue

to make this event wonderful for us all.

You can find previous year's posts here and here.

May Day Festival

Our teacher Angela planned a wonderful celebration for the children and has shared the experience here for everyone to read about. Thank you Angela for all the loveliness you bring to our little community.

Despite all of the recent illnesses and other setbacks, I still set out to do a small festival with the children as a part of my Lifeways training. Thankfully, festivals are a source of healing and harmony for a community, in our case the children were the community. It's very easy to forget that what is central for a festival is really to come together to celebrate, in one sense our togetherness, and in another more specific sense, depending on the festival, spring.

May Day is a wonderful chance to welcome the joys of spring and to come together after a long chilly winter. I brought a very simple small version of this to our preschool. The children don't need long explanations or fancy decorations, they really just need a few drops of magic in what is already there. We spent a majority of our festival outside on the most beautiful spring day in which the blue sky, rays of sunlight, singing birds, and budding flowers were all the decoration I needed to make it special, and of course their favorite place to be. I imbued a little magic into the celebration by introducing Lady Spring who had finally awoken from her long slumber and began to spread her springlike ways with flowers, berries, and more. These two things were really the platform of our celebration, magic and magic outside.

We started the morning with a short story about Lady Spring (whom we had the chance to meet briefly), a song, and finally a joining of hands to gather outside for the activities. 

We joined the birds, blue sky, and dandelions, to craft our own magic wands to fly in the wind, join in a spring snack of berries and coconut cakes, and finally to dance around our maypole decorated with ribbons in the many spring colors. 

A lot of these activities, small, but meaningful were special to the children. One child even suggested that before we dance around the maypole we collect as many dandelions as we could and all throw them in the air at the same time, what a small yet joyous activity inspired by Mother Nature for our festival. It was really the simplest parts of the whole celebration that brought them great pleasure; plucking dandelions from the ground, waving wands in the wind, joining on our rock for a special snack, and singing songs together. 

One of the most amazing things about sharing this day together was watching the joy in the children's faces, seeing them engage with each other happily, and playing outside joyously with what Mother Nature provided for them. We certainly felt a sense of healing and harmony in our tiny community for that time spent together.

Check out more Outdoor Fun at the...

Storytelling: Who? What? Where?

This week we have been focusing on the parts of a story. This includes both storytelling and also investigating the books that we are reading.

We have been focusing on the Who? What? and Where? of the story. 

When we create the story, we start with "where?" and create  a scene. This can be as basic as setting out a piece of fabric to stand on. 

Then we move to who. Who is going to be there? We choose fabric or costumes to show our characters. 

And then finally, what are they doing there and what props do we need? 

One of the stories we worked on was our own version of "The Big Turnip."

Each child got to choose their character and the costume they needed to represent that character. We also practiced taking turns being in the audience and clapping at the end of the show.

Group One

A bear planting the seeds in the garden.

Bear's friend Chicken watering
the seeds.

The sun shining on the seeds.

Bear pulling on the vine of the giant berry, but it was TOO BIG!

Bear, Chicken and another Bear trying to pick the berry.

Two chickens, two bears, and a blue monster all working together.  And the sun up in the sky.
"And the pulled, and they pulled, and they pulled..."

Group Two

Blue Monster planting seeds in his garden.

The sun shining on the seeds. 

Blue monster, a bear, a duck and a red monster trying to pick the watermelon.

Along came a tiny green chicken. They pulled. And they pulled. And they pulled.
Until FINALLY! Pop!

The children continued the storytelling after I stepped away. A couple of the children took turns being the narrator/director of the play. I can't wait to see if the same story line appears again during free play. This has been just as much of a learning process for me as it is for them and I look forward to taking it further with them.