Young Toddlers & Toddlers
Hannah Pagel, one of our upper school science teachers, invited us to explore a blow up planetarium today! Prior to the visit, during morning meeting, children clapped out the long word, “Planetarium”, learned more about what a planetarium is and found out what to expect. Children expressed their excitement to see stars and planets.
After snack, we wandered up to find the planetarium. Once inside, it looked just like we were outside. We saw the sun move across the sky and then it get dark as it ducked behind the mountains. Dots of various sizes covered the dome and Hannah explained that these were stars. Then Hannah introduced us to constellations and the idea of how they are used to tell stories. We saw unicorns, lions, mermaids, bears, and even a few monsters! Here is what children had to say about these constellations…
“Whoa that snake is three snakes!” -Gigi
“Rarrr a lion.” -Ari
“I like stories about outer space!” -Finn
“Look, there’s a crab, I love the crab!” -Sierra
“There’s the big moon, it came back! It just went to Mexico!” -Owen
Young Toddlers & Toddlers
Children continued their conversation around jobs during morning meeting. When asked what types of jobs could happen to help our classroom Gigi stated, “We can clean up all our toys.” “And I helped with the eggs.” Sophia reminded us. Children were then introduced to the job chart and the different types of jobs they might find on the job chart. Some of these jobs include:
Fish Feeder
Plant Waterer
Floor Sweeper
Book Selector
Bell Ringer
Boot Organizer
And Holiday when you just need a break.
Starting next week, children will have the opportunity to choose a job each day after they put on their indoor shoes, wash their hands, and sign in. “I can’t wait to feed Goldie!” Owen stated excitedly.
During focused explorations, children were invited to engage with liquid watercolor at the easel and mad matter in the sensory tray. Children were fascinated with the way the paint slid down as they pushed and moved their paintbrush on the paper.
Pre-Kindergarten
Children continued to explore ice today, as well as the concepts of melting and freezing. Magnifying glasses were used to inspect frozen ice balls with treasures inside. Hot water was poured into snow-filled jars to see how the warmth would affect the snow. Children were fascinated and excited! “We are real scientists!” -Elsie
Meanwhile, the group of children at Sage Brush Hill discovered a frozen vole, that Colton promptly named, “Mr. Vole”.
“We need to bury it super super deep in the ground” -Theo C
“And write his name in the snow!” -Theo S
“And if it comes back alive it will know where its house is because its super close.” -Ronan
“You are 100 years old today, Mr. Vole” -Theo Clos
Preschool & Pre-K Studio
Preschool and Pre-K children were invited into the studio to explore the magic of mixing colors today. Each palette contained a variety of colors that children could mix in various ways to make as many colors and shades of those colors as they desired. During this process here is what children had to say…
“Wow I’m making green but it’s a special green because it’s dark and has a touch of blue in it!” -Saul
“Look at all these green squares I made. You think they are all the same but guess what? They are a little different. I did that by adding a little white and then a little more white on that green one and it changed how it looked.” -Soren
“This color is beautiful. It is like a summer flower. This color is my favorite color purply blue.” -Lucinda
“Wow this is red but with a touch of some orange, which makes this pretty special this color.” -Anara
Outdoor Explorations
During our outdoor explorations meeting today children were greeted by the puppet, Adventure Cat, who asked children to share with him how to be safe around a campfire because he’s never built one or worked with one before. Paige reminded Adventure Cat and everyone that “you shouldn’t run or jump around the fire!” Colton shared that “you should only ever be around fires with grown ups.” Following explaining to Adventure Cat all about how to be safe around a campfire, a great new year review for everyone, a small group of children worked together to build a fire to open space for the relatively new activity of fire stoking and exploration. Children first reviewed with a teacher how to be safe stoking the fire and observing the effects of the fire on their stoking stick. Poppy observed that her stick was “like a bubble wand, but it shoots out smoke.” While poking around in the fire, Wiley expressed “I wanna move this log over there!” While working with the fire Arlo excitedly shared “I’m poking the fire!” Curiosity and joy were abundant amongst our young explorers this morning as they practiced impressive responsibility and teamwork.
