Dramatic Play
We had a Doctor's Office. They'd played with these tools before when we had a Vet's Office, and they loved that. This time the focus was on people and they got right into their roles! Especially on the 2nd day. I have some great pics of your kids (which I'll get you on a cd at the end of the year, btw) playing in this center. We had lots of patients with broken legs and arms that had to be bandaged, and these doctors sure gave a lot of shots! No tears, though. We had sick babies that were loved and taken care of, and given lots of shots too. One "doctor" was walking around scribbling in her notebook, and kept talking about knowing everyone's diagnosis. Not sure where she learned that word, but she used it all day! The office even got busy enough, we always had patients in the waiting room. Good thing we had books to look at, and the classic dr's office toy to keep them occupied. It cracked me up, watching them sit and wait, then have the dr call the next kid in. It's all so realistic. This is the great thing about dramatic play. They get the opportunity to act out and play with real-life experiences they know. It's the great part about a play-based school.
Art
We did spin art, and I can't believe I waited this long in the year to do it. I have salad spinners I found at the DI for $2 each years ago (they can be $20 new). They drop in paint, spin it, then repeat. We did it with the normal paint, then watered it down to see if it worked better. Both worked well and it was fun to compare the 2 versions. We had a lot of color combining and I love that they are learning what the primary colors make when mixed together by actually seeing it happen.
We also played play dough, which we hadn't for awhile. We had the rollers and small letter alphabet stamps. It led to some great discussion because they were looking for the first letters of their names, so we talked about small and capital letters, and looked at our ABC posters in the rooms to find the small versions of the letters they knew. Great learning through play here.
We also played blocks, and more puzzles this week. They also used the scissors and glue more in the Writing Center, now that they've been reminded they're there. I like to supervise scissor use :) and they're doing really well.
We read The Little Engine that Could on Monday and they loved it. They had mostly all read it before. We read the e-book version on my computer, and for some reason, the same story seems more mesmerizing on a computer (and there were no graphics or anything). We retold it with a flannel board story, that was also out Wednesday for them to play again. We were stuck inside with gross air again, so we watched part of The Little Engine that Could video I found online. It was a cute cartoon version. They all knew what was coming next since we had just read and re-told it, yet they were still so nervous that the train might not make it up the hill in the end! I heard "I think I can" over and over during their play time on Wednesday.
Wednesday we talked about feelings in large group. Their faces were hysterical as they showed me what they would look like when scared, happy, sad, nervous, etc. I loved it. We role played what to do when someone makes you angry too. I think it's important for kids to understand that all the feelings they feel are ok, and not bad. It's your actions that can be bad. We talked about it being ok to be angry, but we practiced saying "I feel angry because..." instead of screaming and hitting. Let me know if I've cured any temper tantrums. :) My daughter still has them. We also talked about feeling proud, like the Little Engine did when she got to the top of the mountain, and talked about different reasons we feel proud. All this talking and such was done in smaller chunks between different activities. Really stretching these inside days!
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