Dear Families,
The B3s are becoming incredible observers who notice the world in great detail. The children planted Impatiens for Mother’s Day and took time to notice the tiny white roots and all the parts of the plant – stems, leaves, petals: “You know what I can see? Look! There is a teeny flower inside the big flower.” This attention to minute details was translated into still life drawings. The pot had a large circle at the top, the dish was also a circle. Everyone noticed that stems were like lines and leaves were, “little bubbles.” “The flower is like a circle, too, Mrs. Cooke!” All these elements came together in the children’s art work for their mother’s day cards. The details may not have been assembled in the same way they are assembled in real life, but I was so impressed by how concentrated the children were as they took on this challenge to notice and communicate what they saw, down to the blackness of dirt, the orangey-brown of terra-cotta, the pink and red of petals and the shapes of all these components.
These same skills came into place as we studied our “city.” I asked the children to brainstorm and solve the problem of making a map of their construction. We looked again at “the bird’s eye view” of New York City and how it had been transformed into a symbolic picture with lines, squares, color coding, etc. We put a long rectangular piece of paper next to their construction – each child first stood by their building on the city and noticed – where I am on the map? Who is next to me? Who is across from me? Then they tried to replicate this placing with blocks. This was hard! There was much conversation and discussion as I let the group work out this spatial and symbolic reckoning for themselves. When this step felt complete, they checked and rechecked their work – comparing the blocks’ placement to the placement of their constructions. Finally, they chose paper to represent their place on the map and glued these shapes down, adding names and roadways, just like ,“the map in the book.” As the children worked they began to sing a song together, “I live in the city, yes, I do. I live in the city, yes, I do. I live in the city, yes, I do, made by human hands. Red hands, yellow hands, white and brown all together built this town. Red hands, yellow hands, white and brown, all together make the world go ’round.”
Our next problem to solve is how to think of a name for our city. “What is a fair way to decide,” I asked. The children had many ideas, none of which involve voting! I am interested to see how their thinking about this may evolve in the next weeks.
We planted our little sprouted beans in the garden and hope they will grow tall. The children enjoyed carrying water from the stream to the garden and giving all the plants a good drink.
On Thursday we welcomed new creatures to our class – meal worms, beetles and tiny caterpillars that we will watch transform into Painted Lady Butterflies!
Thank you all for sharing a beautiful breakfast on Thursday. What a wonderful community we have! The children were so happy to sing together, break bread together, and just be together with their families in the class.
Wishing you all the the best for a beautiful Mother’s Day!
Sarah
