More Keva Creations

Here are some more Keva block designs built in preschool this week.

Persistence                                                                  Originality

 

Balance

 

Teamwork

Patterning

Today (and last week) for Counting Jar, we worked on patterns. First, I made a three-cube pattern (red-black-white-red-black-white). I passed it around the small group and had each student figure out what the next color would be to keep the pattern going.

Next, I pulled out the Counting Jar pattern, which was blue-yellow-orange-blue-yellow-orange. The kids' job was to copy the pattern exactly and them put their work in their own Counting Jar bag. Then, I had them choose their own colors to make their own patterns. Some kids chose two colors and some chose three.

When everyone had a pattern copy finished, we brought all the bags to closing meeting to check each others' work. As we checked each pattern to make sure it matched the original  blue-yellow-orange, we then added it to the tower. By the end of checking everyone's work, we had a tower that was longer than the width of our meeting rug.

We decided to count the cubes to see how many we had used in out long patter. I showed the kids how to break 10 off at a time. We counted by Towers of 10. We ended up with exactly 90 cubes. We also noticed when we placed the towers of 10 next to each other, we discovered a new pattern. The colors made diagonal lines.

Keva Mania

I wanted to thank all of the parents for their generous holiday gift. I was able to purchase a set of 400 Keva Planks and we have been expanding our building skills in the classroom with them. While the uniform building planks appear unassuming, the creative possibilities with them are unlimited.  I played with them over break and, with a lot of patience, made some of the more challenging structures. I showed these pictures to the class and talked about how some of the buildings took me 5 or 6 tries before I got them to balance and stay standing.

The kids in the class have had some time to explore with them and they have attempted to copy some of the ideas from the pictures in the book that came with the planks. They are learning some principles of how to build solid and strong.

The larger projects, like the tall tower that grew taller than me, foster group participation. A few kids at a time added stories as the tower grew.
We have noticed that block building in general is getting more inventive and creative since we have had the Keva planks in the room.
I am looking forward to the future designs the kids invent.

PIzza! Pizza! Pizza! it's a lots-a lots-a fun

The pizza parlor is looking pretty good. The kids are busy in their chef hats. They are taking orders, talking about favorite ingredients, baking pizzas in the oven ans dividing them into slices. We used hole punches in yellow paper to make cheese for a shaker and we punched red and orange for hot pepper flakes. 

We acted out the story of of The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza as we read the book last week. We've been singing. "Pizza Pizza Pizza!" Here are the words:

Pepperoni and zucchini and a lots of mozzarella

Pepperoni and zucchini and a lots of mozzarella

Pepperoni and zucchini and a lots of mozzarella

Pizza, pizza, pizza it's a lotsa lotsa fun!

Pizza, pizza, pizza it's a lotsa lotsa fun!

Pizza, pizza, pizza it's a lotsa lotsa fun!

We had the same question: Who puts zucchini on pizza? 

We made some English muffin pizza. The kids had a choice of pepperoni or plain cheese. Some chose to just have sauce (no cheese). They tasted great.

Our Wild Selves

     When Kristen Hughes came into the read The Chicken in the Family last week, she shared the website Build Your Wild Self with us. On this webpage, you make a kid who looks like you. You pick you eyes, hair, mouth and clothing.

Once you have an avatar, you can add various animal body parts to build your wild self. When you are done choosing head dressing, arms, legs, bottoms, wings, ears and a background for your wild self, you can print it out.

The site will print the picture and a description of each animal the body parts you chose. for example, we had a, "Lio-wal-ringo-antula-fly-tiger."

Around this entry are some various examples of our wild selves that we made on the site. We decided to use our wild selves to be new name tags in the classroom. Now when the kids use the planning board to choose the area in which they are going to play, they mark it with a picture of their wild selves.

Family Soup

Our Family Feast day was a great event on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We invited adult family members and younger siblings to come enjoy friendship soup with us. We made the soup by having each student and teacher bring in a vegetable that was chopped. We added these to basic chicken stock and simmered it on the stove. Simmer was the word of the day.

This year our soup contained carrots, celery, jeruselem artichoke, purple cauliflower, corn, parsnips, green beans, jicama, onion, potatoes, yellow squash, and probably some other veggies I am forgetting now. We also enjoyed some chocolate chip banana bread that the kids made the week before when I was in Washington DC. If you are interested in learning what I learned at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Conference, you can read it on the Early Childhood Programs blog.

While we enjoyed the culinary delights of preschool, we also celebrated Thanksgiving with Tasha and Erica from the Bookmobile with our donation check for $450.00. It was wonderful to share are soup and celebration with them.
We also saw a video of "I Can Do It," a song the kids have learned this fall. Beth also read I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, which has become a Family Feast tradition. Thanks to everyone who helped sing "A Thanksgiving pie, which was really too dry. Perhaps she'll die." Beth's voice was fading fast.

We also collected all of the food that we used in our grocery store this month in order to give it to the Fairfield Food Shelf. When we gathered all of the cans, boxes, jars and bags, it filled three boxes. The kids helped haul it over to the food shelf and we let Nancy know it was there for the next pickup.

And the winner is...

The votes are tallied and the result is in. The recipient of our $450 donation from the money we made selling Snowflake Fudge is (Drum roll please.......)

The Franklin-Grand Isle Bookmobile!!!!

The other organizations that were in the running for the donation included The Fairfield Recreation Department (and playground committee), The Vermont Special Olympics, The Bent-Northup Memorial Library, Fletcher Allen's Children's Hospital, Ronald McDonald House in Burlington, and The Fairfield Center School Music Deparment.

The kids learned a little bit about each of these organizations and the good work they do. Then they each voted for their two favorites in the first round. The top two vote-getters went into the final round and everyone got one vote for their favorite. The runner up, in the end, was the Ronald McDonald House of Burlington. 

Beth has invited the Bookmobile staff to join us for our Thanksgiving soup on September 24. At that time, we will present them with the check for our donation. We are thrilled to be able to support the Bookmobile and the great work they do bringing library resources to the rural communities in the northwest corner of Vermont.