Imagine

We made earth hand prints. We put glittery stars all around our "earth". We talked about the Earth and how important it is to take care of it. Happy Earth day everyone!

The children made beautiful flowers for our middle room.   They painted coffee filters. Chris helped them sew the buttons on and string them together.. They make our classroom look so colorful!

We "sprouted" Lima beans.   First we soaked them in water and put them in a wet paper towel inside a clear plastic bag. We also put beans in a bag with no water to see if they would sprout. The beans with the water sprouted and the beans with no water did not. The children learned that in order for a seed or a bean to "germinate" they need water. We planted the sprouted beans in soil , watered them, put them in the sun and waited for them to grow. We learned that plants need soil, water and sun to grow.  We planted our Lima bean plants in our garden.

All the children worked very hard to put on a special performance for our spring celebration.They made fairy crowns,wizard and gnome hats, cupcakes ,wands and playbills. Our play was called "a Fairy Kind Gnomalot" . It is a play that teaches the importance of kindness. It was written by our very own Chris...We can't thank her enough. It is a great play. The gnomes grow cupcakes for the woodland creatures that live in the Imagine forest. The Fairies teach the gnomes and wizard how to work together.They learn that through kindness they can create a peaceful place to live. The fairies,wizards and gnomes are all living happily ever after in the Imagine forest. Gnomalot has become a very peaceful place.

The children have been building ramps. One day this week I put large cardboard tubes in the classroom to see how they would use them...I asked the simple question "how can I use these tubes?  I am a big fan of Jean Piaget and his thoughts on constructivism. He believed that knowledge is constructed and not given. Children build on prior knowledge to formulate new understandings of the world around them. I've added these two links if you would like to know more about constructivism and Jean Piaget.   http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index_sub2.html http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/history/constructivism.html

We did a lot of  thinking about peace this past week.  We talked about kindness , and how in a word where people are kind to each other there is peace. The children drew pictures on fabric of peaceful or kind things. Each child sewed two buttons to attach their drawing to the flag.   We hung them in our preschool over our kitchen. They are a lovely addition to our classroom.