Little Photographers

One of the parent's of the school lent us his tripod the other day and the children LOVE it!  It has been wonderful watching them take pictures using this new tool.  There was something so inviting about a camera set up on a tripod that had children clambering to use it.  Here are some pictures of the children using the camera and their photographs.  The kids have really been into photography and this is a new element that I am sure we will be playing around with for a while, I can't wait to show them how to use the timer or do a long exposure.

A young photographer busy at work

Taking a picture of his friends at play

Pure joy in taking her friends picture

Her muse caught in a moment

A friend posing for the camera

 The image captured

Enjoying another element of photography, viewing the picture after it has been taken

This photographer enjoyed carrying the tripod around the room to get different shots

Here he lines up a picture of his friend racing cars down the tubes

Now in a different location getting a picture of his brother

I am sure there will be more to come



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

Reggio Emilia Influences

In keeping with some of the ideas of the Reggio Emilia Approach, I have been trying to take a lot of photographs as part of the documentation process. My husband has been encouraging this, and as he was home over the summer, he was excited to join in the fun. During our last week he went around recording and interviewing the children at Art and Soul. He then surprised us by projecting the interviews on the wall as well as a slide show of the photographs from the summer. It was a real delight, especially watching the kids run up to the photos and try to touch the images. The experience showed me how they love to respond to images of themselves and their families, but also how they delight in seeing themselves talk and be in a video. There is a sense of connection that is beyond their inner space of who they are, for they are beginning to see how they are part of the bigger world. It is interesting to observe them learning that their actions, reactions, and voices have a place in this world.

Making Stars With Milk

This is just a little experiment we did at school.  While I was doing a search on the internet I saw this on You Tube and loved it.  All it takes is a little milk in a shallow bowl or plate that has an inset.  Add several drops of food coloring to the milk right in the center, and then place a q-tip with dish soap on the tip in the center of the food coloring.  The result is that the colors push out in a star like design. 

Unfortunalty my video camera gave out so this is a brief snip of our experiment.  It is a shame because some to the reactions were priceless.