roots & wings

When Leslie was the only preschooler in my life I couldn't even fathom what life would look like for us when she became a teenager. I didn't know that we'd be living in Florida. I wouldn't have thought I'd be teaching preschool. Back in those days I lived in a mostly blissful state. I truly got up each and every day and gave thanks for our beautiful life. I didn't take any of it for granted. I had spent six years taking my temperature, getting shots, having surgeries, and wishing on every star in the sky. I wanted to be a mama more than anything in the world. I can't even describe how it felt when I finally held Leslie in my arms for the first time. The closest I can come: love at first sight. She was an easy baby, an agreeable toddler, a language loving preschooler. I wanted to show her the world. I wanted to keep her safe. I wanted to give her deep, strong, loving roots that would carry her through this life.

Fast forward to 2010. I am now the proud mama of a high school freshman and we are moving into territory that feels a little unstable, a bit otherworldly. Leslie has grown into the most lovely young woman. She is confident in who she is. She is gracious and funny and creative and thoughtful and smart. And she is doing what all teenagers do - taking those first tiny baby steps away from us and out into the world. I know that this is normal. I know that this is right. But it's scary. I'm not ready. I need more time. Oh, I know she wants to try out those wings. And she should. I'm really trying to remember that the roots are strong and will carry her where she needs to go. And when she needs a soft place to rest and the wings are tired, I'll be here to be the landing and push her back up into the sky.

crayon/watercolor resist

These Silky Crayons are great for watercolor resist art. They have the consistency of lipstick, are a little messy, and glide over any paper so smoothly. What more could a 4 year old ask for?

You can just use water as a wash and the color will run. We used liquid watercolors and the results were nice and vibrant once they dried. (Sorry I didn't get photos of the final product.)

One of my littles asked me: Why do you always take so many pictures of the table?! Ha - they are so observant!

art from the recycle bin

Raided my recycle bin at home and the basket in the classroom this morning. My littles are pretty good about recycling at school so they were very interested in knowing why I was retrieving things from their bin. They were excited when they found out we were going to use all of the "junk" to create paintings. I showed them how to dip the items in paint and press it on paper. Some things made a better print if they painted the object with a paintbrush and then pressed it on the paper. One little painted the entire salt container and then rolled it down his paper. The results were cute and the process itself was a huge hit. The art table was the most popular place in the room today.

smelly paint (and dough)

I try to find ways to use some of our five senses whenever I can. This week we made smelly paint. We modified Ms.Jessi's (gettingmessywithmsjessi) puffy fingerpaint recipe. We mixed unscented shaving cream, a little Elmer's glue, and a packet of Kool-Aid to create a really creamy, yummy smelling paint that felt so nice on our hands and made our classroom smell like my childhood! My little's had never seen or tasted Kool-Aid. I guess that explains why I had such a difficult time finding it at the grocery store.

We also made teacher Sallie's famous Kool-Aid playdough, starting out with the basic homemade dough recipe and adding Kool-Aid rather than food color.

rondo vario

Some of my littles still need some shape recognition help so I was excited to find this simple wooden bead game which not only provides shape recognition but also color recognition and fine motor practice. To play, you toss two dice and determine a color and shape combo. Beads are strung together to make caterpillars. The littles found this game to be very exciting and once I gave the entire group instructions it was fairly easy for most groups to do it on their own. I love it when something is simple, fun, and has educational value to boot.

instinct

I spend a lot of time writing lesson plans, thinking about developmental objectives, forming and reforming my personal philosophy of teaching. But I realize more and more that when I don't worry so much about what I need to accomplish and simply listen to what it is the children need I am amazed by the learning that takes place. Our school doesn't allow children to bring toys and things from home. (They do anyway.) Yesterday one of my littles brought in a treasure map. I noticed it peeking out from under her shirt! (She knew that some adult would be asking her to put it in her cubby.) As we prepared to go outside she quietly asked me if she could bring a treasure map. And I am so happy that I listened to my inner voice. More than half of the class spent their entire time outdoors searching for treasure, cooperating, sharing, and meeting many of those developmental objectives that I'm always so worried about.

Another fun thing we did yesterday was bring out the silk scarves during circle time. Silk scarves have always been one of my favorite props for the preschool classroom. They can be made into capes and pirate headgear and princess dresses and lakes and pastures for the farm animals and coverings for a hide-out and blankets for the baby dolls and . . . Because I came to this group of littles in November I've been slowly changing things and introducing them to things that would have been in my classroom from the start. They were in love with the scarves. The color. The texture. The way they move through the air. The scarves are taking up permanent residence in our classroom.

mono-prints

We used acrylic block frames and a brayer to make mono prints this week. The littles rolled the paint on the acrylic frame and then drew an image in the paint with a q-tip. To make a print they placed a piece of black cardstock over the image and rubbed. They loved the process. Some of the prints didn't turn out as crisply as I'd hoped. I think the q-tips got saturated with paint and then didn't work as well.