Continuing the snow and cold exploration.

With the snow, came ice!

The sensory table is full of pre-made icebergs and polar animals. This was a favorite for everyone and the next day we even colored the water with food coloring, blue!

Our igloo house, made from a rescued appliance box.

Painting huskies with toothbrushes. The brushes gave a fur like texture.

The good old chestnut!!! Liquid water color frozen with craft sticks.

Contemplating my place.

I am in awe at the massive amount of bloggers out there with wonderful and informative websites!!! There is so much good work happening in the name of authentic play and the values of childhood. I am very new at this and am pondering where I can possibly fit into this network of creative, resourceful and informed peers.

My hope is to use this blog as a learning tool to measure my growth in the field of early childhood education and as a parent of two wonderful and sweet boys. I endeavor to start some of these fabulous and therapeutic crafts such as needle felting, painting and creating. I hope to make new friends and connections to feed my curiosity to learn new things. Let's hope everyone starts to read.

The beginning.

I guess you maybe thinking, why did she start a blog? Well, over my twenty years in the field I continuously encounter "What are my children doing all day? Just playing?"
Well, yes I hope that is what all preschool children from the years 0-6 are preoccupied with! I subscribe to the ideals of Waldorf and Reggio Emilia. It is my goal to explore the realms of hands on learning and experimentation. I am driven to fiercely defend the longevity of childhood and the experiences that occur in these years that are full of creative potential.
I also am blessed to work with twos and threes. You know that age group that no one wants to work with because "they don't do anything!".......

Why is she doing this?

I guess it is time to explain why I feel compelled to start this blog. It is my hope to document the natural and authentic learning that occurs in my early childhood classroom of 15 twos and threes and celebrate new endeavors with my own children.
Over the past twenty years I have worked with young children both in the U.S. and across the pond. I am now enjoying the experience of discovering my own teaching philosophy and reading in depth about other pedagogues. My love of the arts and everything creative can be overwhelming sometimes, and is the foundation for all of my daily experiences with my students.
I will be posting photos of projects, enquiry and all sorts, periodically.

These are our personal color wheels, that were created after we had made a cooperative wheel as a class.

I am passionate about Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, educating the whole child, thus feeding their soul.

These are the color mixing bags that we created for the students to explore the event of mixing two colors of tempera paint in ziplock bags. This has been a successful way of creating new colors without the mess and even those students with sensory issues can enjoy the process.

It snowed here in Maryland and the students took the color work outside. I filled up the spray containers with a mixture of liquid watercolor and water. The more water the better. The students spent more than 20 minutes spraying the snow. The colors mixed easily and this was a great way to practice the refinemnt and strengthening of each child's hand muscles. Some children struggled but tried hard with a great deal of  patience. 

Taking turns and being patient are important skills to learn in the social system of the classroom. We waited for our turn with a specific color and shared with our friends, when we were done.

One of my student staff commented, "This looks like the frosting on a huge cupcake"...... The colors were more pastel than I had intended but the results were beautiful!

Here is the snow friend created by my students. They are 2 years of age! "Here we have to get arms.." They really are so creative, as they searched the playground for items to make the face. 

O.k. So I did not plan this activity and the students discovered this themselves. I find this is the best way to drive the curriculum. The water from a friend's watercolor painting, spilled onto the marker paper and we were away. I really liked the way the colors blended together and resembled a pen and ink creation.

We revisited this exploration again the next week and the students come and go from the table. The freedom of the water moving across the paper was engaging.