Dress-up and Building Castles

This last week was pretty great, both for the kids and for me. Dress-up and building occupied a lot of the mornings this week, with castles and the new box-blocks and some towers and houses. Watching the kids cooperate to build things that were taller than their heads was pretty awesome. It's also interesting to hear negotiation about personal space and language about being careful being mirrored - we're always careful what we model, but it's really gratifying to hear it processing.

It's always the right time to play with words, and this week was a lot of fun with that, with some conversation about the words in the books we knew, some experimentation with sounds and letters, and circle time is a favorite time for playing "guess the word" on big sheets of paper. Brought that back to our hands-on materials with markers and butcher paper, and a pretty watercolor activity Patty set up on Tuesday where we painted the first letter in our names with contact paper - some of our friends got excited and used so much the letters weren't really visible, but I love the familiarization activities, and they love getting to work with paint. Letters and numbers continue to be a big part of our curriculum for the kids, and for those who are a little too young, it's still a great time to be included. Thursday, we made some lovely stained-glass windows you'll see hanging up as you come in on Monday. More projects to come!

Friday, we took a quick trip around the block, collected pine cones, picked dandelions, and visited the Bear. Often, the themes I introduce on a day take second fiddle to the kids' play, and that's fine. So we sang "What Shall We Do With a Pirate Sailor" and they built ships out of blocks. 

Coming soon: building another planting bed, planting peas this week, starting our herb garden, marigolds, and learning to take care of some house plants. 

See you next week!