Dear Families,
We began our week transforming colored wool into beautiful circular mats for mother’s day. The children remembered their experiences working with wool from the fall when creating ‘apples’ to use as counting tools. Each child took time to tease apart the batting and fill a pie plate with a fluffy, colorful nest. We sprinkled water on the nests and began to pat the wool down. The fluffy fibers hooked together and the nests turned into a solid piece of wool cloth! We added soap and “flipped the pancakes” until we had beautiful “woolly worlds.” “It looks like a map,” someone said. “The purple is water.” “The pink is North America. That’s like our map!”
Our bean gardens have also continued to transform! We noticed little shoots growing upwards and tiny roots growing down. “The bean stayed in the middle!” One day, the scientists in our class dissected Lima beans that had been soaking in water and some beans that had sprouted in our clear bags. The children took time to look carefully at the outside of the beans and noticed the seed casing was covered with little lines and a small opening was at the top. I told them that was the ‘belly button’ of the bean and the place where the first little shoot would emerge from inside the bean. We wanted to see if we could see the very tiniest beginning of a bean. Inside it was amazing to see a very teeny tiny baby bean nestled between the two halves. Inside the sprouted bean we saw what baby leaves look like before they emerge! We also looked again at our wonderful “Egg” book, that shows many pictures of what happens inside an egg as a baby chicken grows. The children compared baby chicks in their shells to baby plants. Both were connected to their protective enclosures and both had to crack what held them in order to grow and be free. “I think they need some air,” someone commented.
On Thursday we watched a few minutes from a Jackson Pollock documentary to prepare for our collaborative effort with the Pre-k to create a platter to be auctioned at the Art Soiree. We noticed how Jackson put on special boots when he painted and they were splattered with paint. He liked to put his canvasses on the ground so he could feel closer to them and walk around them. Sometimes he painted outside! We learned that he wanted to paint what he felt like instead of painting what things looked like. Someone commented that Pollock’s painting looked like, “…snow. Cracked snow.” We spread a tarp on the grass and each child took several turns flicking paint from a brush onto the platter. Our brushes never touched the plate! Sadie wrote on the back of the platter: “B3s Pre-K.” She signed for everyone.
In the midst of a week rife with tick bites and Strep Throat, it was lovely to be so appreciated by this community. Thank you all for the many lovely tokens of love: beautiful flowers, pieces of art, and wonderful food and the time to savor it! I feel very fortunate and appreciative of all of you.
Please remember to go to Ralph’s Pretty Good Cafe in Chatham before the 15th of May if you have the chance. Beck got to see his work displayed and it was a very meaningful and pride-filled experience!
Also, Mrs. Atwater invited us to partake in a tradition of her class – a special breakfast in honor of parents the Thursday before Mother’s Day. More details to follow.
All the best,
Sarah
