Friday Fun!

Ah...Jason...our music friend. The Owls have quickly learned to love the time spent with him and their trips to the music room. Today we were introduced to rhythm sticks, and Jason led us in an introductory exploration of how to use them to create different sounds. We noticed that we could use different surfaces, and saw that if we use the sticks in different ways (some sticks had rigid sides), we heard different things. Jason led us in a poem that introduced counting to a rhythm, too.

 

 

 Jason also showed us a beautiful story called "We All Sing With the Same Voice" by J. Philip Miller and Sheppard M. Greene. The story was told through song, and the Owls joined in the singing of the chorus, as well as using hands to move with the song.

We continued painting our mailboxes, and are ready for the next steps! Stay tuned!

We also enjoyed a warm(er) morning visit to the big playground.

Static Electricity a la slides!

Enjoying autumn gifts.

Other Owl Happenin's:

Reggio Emilia and Reading More Stories

The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education is recognized as one of the highest quality, deepest and most beautiful ways to teach young children. It comes from a small region in Italy, Reggio Emilia, and so at regional and national conferences, there is always a buzz when "the Italians are coming!" This morning we got to see a presentation by Lella Gandini about ways to link documentation and assessment. Documentation is at the core of Reggio Emilia and is one of the places that we at AFS are incorporating the Reggio Emilia approach, both through the blog, through the classroom displays, and through the individual child portfolios (which are almost ready to be launched!) The wonderful thing about Lella is the poetic yet no-nonsense way she gets to the heart of an issue. While assessment is often thought of completing a list of standards, Lella described assessment as the tracking of children's learning and questions. Such an inspiring perspective!

Our next session was with Isabel Baker of the Book Vine. The Book Vine is my favorite place to find books for young children, so I was excited for Isabel's session on best new books for preschoolers. Just like the Owls, I love being read to, and so this session was a treat! There was even a special surprise at the end with James Dean, the illustrator of Pete the Cat, doing a live painting!

She read us many many books. Here were my favorites:

“Green” by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, a great book about moving beyond a simplistic primary colors into many beautiful shades of green.

Anti-bias book featuring men and women in non-traditional jobs: “Clothesline Clues”

Imagination and dramatic play: “What are Little Boys Made Of”

“And Then Its Spring”

“There Was A Tree” by Rachel Isadora, based on the classic song

“Bea at Ballet” by Rachel Isadora

“Bal Yoga for Kids” by Glenda Kacev and Sylvia Roth (with CD and DVD)

“The Day Louis Got Eaten”

“Z is for Moose” by Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky

“Alphabet Everywhere” by Elliot Kaufman (architectural alphabet) story extension with parents: use magazines to cut out pictures to make new alphabet for classroom

“A good alphabet book is a piece of art. It has something to say. We look for alphabet books that are fun, that are works of art.” –Isabel Baker

Mail Box Beginnings

Today, the Owls began to create our personalized mailboxes to go along with our letter writing study! Thank you to everyone (including Middle School!) for donating shoe boxes to us, because we put them to very good use this morning. The boxes were given a layer of primer paint, and everyone was encouraged to be as expressive as they wanted in their decorating. It was interesting to see some friends choose to use only one or two colors for their box, and some friends did not hesitate to apply (and reapply, and reapply...) all the paints available. It was also interesting to see the level of care and concentration given to the project; some friends worked incredibly meticulously, some friends enjoyed the ability to mix and spread freely on their surface. We will be continuing to customize the mailboxes over the next few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a large game of fire pets happening today. In case you aren't in the know about fire pets, I'll fill you in: you put on a firefighter's hat, get on all fours, and process to bark and/or meow at will. While this type of game is commonplace in the Owl room, the level of inclusion and cooperation taking place today was very noteworthy.

 

 

Other Owl On-Goings:

  

 

Packing up...

...The entire dramatic play area...

...To drive to Disney World!

¡Noticias de Alicia!

¡Bienvenidos familia, amigas, y amigos! Welcome! For this school year, 2012-13, I will be teaching Spanish to the youngest members of our AFS community and I couldn’t be more excited. In fact, our journey has already begun. During our “clase de Español” (Spanish class), we have been practicing words for greetings. My aim is for the children to demonstrate an understanding of Spanish words used when greeting someone as well as common and polite gestures such as a hand shake or a wave. The phrases we have been working on are:

¿Cómo estás?  (How are you?)

¡Muy bien, gracias! (Very well, thank you!)

 ¡Asi, asi! (so,so)

No muy bien, gracias. (Not very well, thank you)

¡Hasta luego! (See you later)

¡Adiós! (Good-bye)

To reinforce this new vocabulary, I introduced the children to a few songs. To the tune of “Are you Sleeping...”, sing with your child the following:

Buenos días, Buenos días

¿Cómo estás?, ¿Cómo estás?

Yo muy bien gracias, yo muy bien gracias.

¿Y tú? ¿Y tú?

And, to the tune of “London Bridge”, try these:

Hola means hello,

hello, hello.

Hola means hello

¡Hola amigos!

Adíos means good-bye

good-bye, good-bye

Adíos means good-bye

Adíos amigos

Also, we have been practicing how to say “Thank you” and “You’re welcome”. I have a little friend who will help me reinforce these terms at the end of every class.  Ask your child who this little friend is.

¡Muchas gracias! (Many thanks)

¡De nada! (You’re welcome)

So, go ahead and give it a try! Practice at home with your child how to greet one another in Español. Until my next “noticias” (news) ....

Paz,
Alicia

Flying to Atlanta to Learn to Read

By car, shuttle bus, plane and train, Carol and I (and our puppets) made it to Atlanta!

After going up the city's longest escalator...

we checked into our hotel, which is the shiny cylindrical one in the middle

with a view from the 23rd floor! There are 73 floors all together. 

Then we went to our conference where Mem Fox read stories to us. Mem Fox is beloved story book author from Australia, and she spoke about the incredible importance of reading-aloud to young children. From these early experiences, young children learn to speak, listen, read, and most importantly love books. For the youngest children, she talked about the centrality of rhyming, repetition, rhythm. I think of books like "Chugga, Chugga Choo Choo," and "Llama Llama Misses Momma." For slightly older children she said that it is important that the book change the child's "emotional temperature." It should make them think and feel something, engage them in the emotional process of the story. And afterwards, instead of the rote question and answer we adults are so prone to, she delightfully suggested a gossip session, where you can hash over the story and images with the children connecting them to stories from your life or ideas and fantasies of the children.
On her website, she has a wonderful section for teachers and families on  how to read outloud. I really encourage you to check it out as it is a wonderful reminder of the *magic* that is reading together with young children.
It is so wonderful to be surrounded by such a confluence (over 25,000!) of amazing early childhood professionals! We are excited for the sessions in the next few days, and for our big presentation on Saturday!

Carol has lots of ideas to share.

We are right next to beautiful Olympic Park.

And we are very glad that we are not going to this conference which did not look nearly as exciting as ours!