Play at School

This post is for the parents.  Pick up is such a brief and hectic time of day that I am often unable to give a full description of what the children did that day.  Here are some pictures of them at play that I thought would give an idea of what their play is like at school.

This is a video of the "Robot Dance" the kids were doing one day at school.

I loved it!

Doing marble runs together

More Marble exploration

Making play dough (please excuse our large compost pile!)

The play dough with sparkles and food coloring

The finished product

Ella playing with a black light in the bathroom (our only totally dark place)

Building towers and block roads for their "wheelie" animals to travel on

Doing construction

Playing doctor and nurse

Cars and trucks are always a highlight for the kids.

playing with static

tumbling and dancing on the mat

Painting the snow with popcorn!

giggles and scribbles during free draw time

Mud Kitchen

Here is our well loved Mud Kitchen on a very clean day!

 

A very tasty mud soup made in our

Mud Kitchen inspired by "Let the Children Play," a wonderful blog site and preschool in

Australia

"If I had a Hammer"

An aspect of The Reggio Emilia Approach that I really love is giving children real tools and materials.

I believe strongly in the abilities of young children, and that with a little effort and patience in assisting and showing children how to really work a tool, they will gain the skills to do it on their own. 

I have been wanting for some time to create a genuine construction area.  This area has not come to fruition as quickly as I would like, but I felt I had put off using tools for too long.  To get them started we began to use hammers and tacking nails in our pumpkin we grew this summer in the garden.  I didn't have the heart to carve this pumpkin because it was so beautiful, so we had it as a decoration, but it lived a good life and now is our hammering block. We also use pliers and the end of the hammers to take the nails out.  It is a great way to work on fine motor skills.  I can't wait to see what is next!

Thank You to Our Beautiful Pumpkin!

measuring the pumpkin and table.

Elianna stated that the table was "20-13-80 inches long."

The Tire Project

I Love the days at school when unexpected projects emerge.

One day we were playing with some tires I had picked up at a garage.

I asked the kids if they liked how the tires were set up.

They said they couldn't really play that much with them, so I asked them if they would like to

make a tunnel out of them.

This was a hit. We began to dig a hole to place the bottom part

of the tires in the ground.

They then busied themselves with filling the tires in with the earth we had

dug up.

Here are a couple shots of how we originally had the tires.

Here are our industrious kids hard at work!

Here is the finished project. So far it has been a slide,

a dragon's perch, a hide out, and a horse!

Camping Play

 When school started up in September, the children started a spontaneous game of playing "camping."
They would pack up the play kitchen food and go into a play hut and say they were camping.  This evolved into making campfires out of blocks and placing the food on the fire. 

Each day there was a little more they would add to their play.  They started to go fishing with the felted fish and frying them up on their little campfires.  I loved this child driven play, and to add new elements to it I made the felted fire in the above picture.  This took on a whole new kind of play because of course we had to roast marshmallow blocks on sticks!  Around that time my mom asked if I wanted a play hut tent that she was getting rid of, perfect timing!  And so, the camping game continued to be a love of ours. 

Then to surprise the children, I asked them if they wanted to make a real campfire. This brought the game outside and added a tasty element because they roasted real marshmallows and made smores.
It was fun having them make the fire pit, stack the wood, and sing campfire songs as we roasted the marshmallows.  I love this about having a school at home, the fact that we are able to be outside making real campfires is a wonderful thing.  I also loved the authenticity of this play and going along with what the children were guiding with their imagination and spontaneity.

For an art project, the next day we took the charcoal from the fire and made drawings with them.  We also did one of my favorite activities with rocks, which is to rub them together with a little water and make rock paint.  The kids loved creating art with natural materials, it is always a thrill, this one in particular because since this project they use the rock paint as face paint during outdoor free play.

A little crayon for the eyes make this charcoal, rock paint, crayon picture complete.

A visit to The Campus Children's Center at UVM

In creating Art and Soul Preschool something simultaneously happened, a deep love and desire to make Art and Soul a Reggio Emilia influenced preschool.  Though we are small now, I know that this school will grow and with it the ability to really focus on the Reggio Approach.  

I have always wanted to be a part of making an interdisciplinary K-12 school, the thought of doing a preschool did not come to me until a year ago when I wanted to create a program for my young daughter to go to.   This past summer an opportunity to create a co-op preschool came my way, though that school did not take off, I was introduced to Reggio Emilia by one of the mamas.  It took me about a month before I was hooked.  I have been finding as many books as I can on Reggio Emilia and when I started Art and Soul, I knew that I wanted it to be a Reggio influenced school. 

Some of the aspects about Reggio Emilia that has me so excited is the emphasis on art, and not cookie cutter art, but a genuine sensory exploration of art and art materials.  Another aspect about Reggio Emilia that pulled me in is that this approach to teaching values children as whole, capable individuals.  It takes their interests and approaches the study of that interest from many different perspectives, and really engages the learner: teacher and student alike.  This to me is the precursor to an interdisciplinary school.  Taking an idea and applying it to many aspects of life, explorations and learning.

Aside from reading about Reggio Emilia, I wanted to see a school that used the Reggio Approach.  In one of the books I was reading I came across The Campus Children’s Center at the University of Vermont.  Just last weekend I went for a visit and was like a kid at Disney Land.  I was even taking pictures of their supply closet.  I would like to share these pictures because another wonderful aspect of schools that use the Reggio Approach is the thought and beauty they put into their environments.  It was truly and inspiring and overwhelming experience.  I can’t wait to continue to transform my space!

infant room

Construction Work Bench

Tools out for kids to use

Play area in Toddler Room

Dramatic Play Area...I really wanted to play here

Mirrored Ceiling Panels in the Studio

Colored Window Hangings in the Infant Room.

 I wish it wasn't snowing to see how they cast light and color in the room

Loft and Hide Out in Preschool

I love the simple-clean look to everything.  It felt like someones house rather than a school.

This is a great thing for me since I am doing this out of my home.



Items on shelves in the storage closet.

I love these pictures for the ideas of what you can present to children,

but also the way in which they are presented. 

Reggio has this way of making things visible and accessible which

is wonderful and empowering for children.