What we did this week:
Although it was a short week, we still spent plenty of time learning! The children really seemed to enjoy the introduction to our author study. We will be spending a number of weeks looking at books by Eric Carle. We will also be developing some special art projects that will be inspired by the way he makes his book illustrations; and this week we started our study!
Since Eric Carle uses lots of colors in his artwork, we talked a lot about rainbows. The children helped hand paint a rainbow, which can be found on the bulletin board in the play room. We talked (and saw) how light through a prism can make a rainbow. We also tried to see rainbows through crystals and the children decided that we should hang them in the door so we can get the rainbows from the sun. Although we are not putting them in the doorway, we did hang them and as we get to much sunnier days we may move them around the room to find a better spot for them. Right now the children decided they should be the chandelier in the home living area.
Continuing with colors, we read the book, "Hello, Red Fox." When reading this book the children were able to look at a specific color animal and then look at a blank page next to it and see the opposite color (as found on a color wheel) in the same shape. Some children even tried to draw their own animals and make the same thing happen. We also had the opportunity to make "color soup" and mix it to see what colors we could make!
While reading the book "Draw Me A Star" the children heard all about drawing different pictures and some chose to make their own stars in the art center. And while we were being artists, this week in home living we decided to be painters instead of cooking. The children decided to take the paintbrushes into the home living area and pretend to paint. Some even chose to wear paint smocks!
We also made popsicle stick shapes to go along with our book "The Secret Birthday Message." And just to bring this book to life, we received our new block shelf today and the children had to solve the shape riddle (just like in the book) so they would know which blocks I need to either take off the shelf or put on the shelf!
One of the favorite activities was a snack activity. On Thursday we made a fruit salad rainbow. We had lots of fun with this and even had a great discussion!
Listening In:
Morah Amanda: We...
Mussie: We are going to have a funny snack. We are going to have a rainbow snack!
Morah Amanda: Yes, we are going to have a rainbow snack.
Children: Yeah!!
Morah Amanda: What color comes first in the rainbow?
Miriam: Red!
Morah Amanda: And what fruit is red?
Mussie: Strawberries.
Morah Amanda: What color comes next?
Tyrus: Red
Morah Amanda: Red and then...
Levi: Orange
Morah Amanda: Orange. And what fruit can we use for orange?
Tyrus: I see green in the rainbow!
Morah Amanda: You are right, but we aren't to green yet. What fruit could we use for orange in our rainbow?
Class: Oranges!
Morah Amanda: So we used strawberries for?
Class: Red
Morah Amanda: We used oranges for?
Class: Orange.
Morah Amanda: What color comes next?
Levi: Yellow!
Morah Amanda: And what fruit do you think we could use for yellow?
Mussie: Banana!
Levi: Now we made the top of a rainbow!
Morah Amanda: We have red; we have orange; we have yellow. What other color do we need?
Tyrus: Green.
Morah Amanda: What do you think we could have that's green?
Miriam: Kiwi!
Tyrus: It smells so good!
Miriam: It smells sour!
Morah Amanda: We are going to skip blue cause we couldn't find blueberries and we are going to move to purple, or actually something closer to indigo. And what are we going to use? What fruit would be a purpleish-blueish color?
Class: Grapes!
Morah Amanda: Now we have made a rainbow fruit salad!
Looking Ahead:
Next week we are going to focus on some of Eric Carle's books that talk about food. We will be making some food in the classroom. While we are going to do some real cooking, we are also going to be pretending to cook and will be taking classroom items and using them to make foods. We will also be talking about the days of the week and writing words that begin with the same letters as the days.
Hanging crystals to make rainbows in the classroom
Looking through the color wheel
Coloring a color wheel
Eating a fruit salad rainbow
Painting a rainbow
"Painting" in Home Living
"Painting the Fire Man's Hat
Making shapes out of popsicle sticks
Drawing a brown dog, later seen as a white dog 
Drawing a star
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