Seuss Architecture

Tuesday morning I sat down at the table by myself while the kids were arriving and playing. 

I started to sketch this picture. 

The kids were instantly intrigued and started bombarding me with questions.

What is that place? What are you drawing?

I told them that they would just have to wait and see. I asked them what theories they had about it.

"Is that the Lorax's house?"

"No, but you are on the right track."

At circle time I hung up the picture and asked them what it reminded them of. What do you notice about it? 

This is how we started our conversation about Theodore Geisel, a.k.a. Dr.Seuss. 

I explained how he was an "imagination expert" and that he could use his imagination just the way kids do.

 He was very good at rhyming and writing words, but he also was an amazing artist. 

We started investigating the way Dr.Seuss liked to draw his houses and buildings. The kids noticed right away that he often included stairs. 

"There's a Wocket in My Pocket."

We looked at a couple books to find other things he commonly included. I introduced some vocabulary and so did the kids. I mentioned all the arches and columns. 

One child mentioned that all the windows were semi-ovals. :) 

"The Sleep Book"

 They noticed that he often included chimneys and smoke and of course stripes. 

Many times the features are crooked and curvy.  

"The Lorax"

The kids have been practicing their own drawings to include the same components as Seuss. We talked about how he drew his pictures with black and then added the color after. 

Another activity that we did on Friday was to make a tally chart as we skimmed through books.

We checked which books included the features that we have been practicing. They were really excited to shout out the items as I flipped through the pages. 

"The Sleep Book"

Snakes.

Four years ago, I had a boy in my preschool who LOVED snakes. I would have considered him an expert back then. He would spend hours studying any book he could find with snakes in it. 

He has been asking for several months to come in and teach us all about the slithery reptiles. 

Today he finally shared his knowledge with the preschoolers, during a very well prepared presentation. This inquisitive eight year old boy may have found his calling early in life. 

The preschoolers did not take their eyes or ears off of him, well except his sister, who has heard it all a million times. :)

This might be part of a new "returning graduate" series. 

Any takers?

We may not have had snakes on the playground back in 2010, but here is one picture that I've always kept close at hand of today's visitor. :)

Pizza!!!

The kids made their own pizzas today with our practicum student. It was a success. I was worried if they would actually eat their creations. There were a couple kids who were unsure, but gobbled them up anyway.

Happy Valentine's Day

The kids have been working hard at home over the last couple weeks to write out their valentine cards for their friends. We have also been creating mailboxes at preschool.

 I am always impressed with the amount of genuine manners and kindness that spreads around the circle as they are opening each note. 

Special of the Day: Messy Hand Day

We have been doing our Daily Specials for a couple months now and the preschoolers continue to enjoy them all.  Today I let the birthday boy decide which kind of day we should have. He chose messy hand day with clay. Some of the other kids suggested play dough instead and so I offered to take out both. The divide between the two tables was too extreme not to document, but both were full of social interaction and imaginative conversations.  Both groups stayed engaged at their tables for about 45 minutes.

At the play dough table the children were involved in a chain of play scenarios. At first they used heart cookie cutters of  multiple sizes to create their families. Slowly they starting creating families out of other things (balls and snakes).  Lots of dialogue and squishing, molding and rolling. 

Words were exchanged.

At the other table, we found the clay had dried out a bit. I gave the interested kids the bowl full of clay and added water. I told them they would have to get it wet to soften it up.  

They started out with exploration of the slippery clay.

 

Then it turned into a full body experience. At which point I had to take a deep breath and focus on all the things they were learning, especially the friendship that seems to be forming.  The dialogue was so creative and rich that it was fairly easy to take a step back and not think about the clean up process.

Leaving a slippery trail. Slippery trail. Leaving a slippery trail.

Adding more water.

To read more about some other Daily Specials: 

Special of the Day: Drawing Lessons

Drama Day: The Magic Kingdom