What an awesome week we had together in preschool class! Last week preschool friends found out the names for all of the chicken friends at Camp Scene. This week the children got to use a fancy Nikon camera to take photos of the chickens so that we can label these pictures and post them outside of the coop for visitors to see. We continue to walk down to the coop daily to feed the chickens. The children have already made a list of foods that the chickens cannot have but it has been a real treat to discover what foods the chickens “LOVE!” Here are the results of the first photo shoot:
Chicken with Spring Flowers by Thais
The children really know how to position the camera and press the silver button!
Oscar and August are curious about the doors on the chicken coop
“They go up one ramp and sit at the top” -Oscar
“Is she laying an egg?” -Hazel
Here the children repaired a watering can using duck tape and poking holes in it to allow the water to sprinkle out. “Why do they call it duck tape?” -Hazel
“The seeds are cold” -Max “Let’s move them to a sunny spot!” -Sloane
“I think they call it duck tape because it’s like duck feathers.” -Vincent
The children decided to place the seedling pots with our carrots, spinach, kale, cantaloupe, tomato, peppers, and flower seeds in a nice warm spot on the playground. There the seeds get a good spray of water each day from preschool friends and the twos and pre k friends have been happy to join in. 
Lately the children have been exclaiming, “LOOK AT ME!” when they play on the play structure on the big playground. Above Thais tests her strength and Effy and Lilla swing to their own songs. Claudia, not pictured here said “hot diggity dog” as the children showed off their stunts.
Over spring break Sandra will be working on the preschool environment to make it even more beautiful and interesting for the children than it is now. These changes will assist in improving the flow of the day and help the children use of the provocation areas in a more meaningful way AND aid in bringing consistency and beauty to our classroom. Earlier this week you may have seen the daily page photos of the children choosing paint colors to adorn our walls and selecting pictures from magazines of comfy chairs and lovely fabrics. In our “Preschool Cafe” area the children have been eating morning snack at tea time and children’s suggestions for that area ranged from fresh flowers (Lilla) to curtains and blinds (Claudia) and Oscar suggested that we add a music center to our classroom environment “with a saxophone!” chimed in August. Carter, Everett and Sloane insisted that we get more blocks for the block area and were certain that more squares and equilateral triangle magna tiles would improve the “Construction Zone.” With the support of Teresa and Janine there will be items purchased to make this transformation possible but we need your help too. If you have any beautiful shiny things such as crystals or metallic objects feel free to bring them in. We will be including the children in on this transformation of course and there will be much planning when we return from spring break.
Reminder: Dear Parents, we have been reviewing the respect agreements and would appreciate using these same agreements at home and give examples so that it all makes sense to the children
Our Respect Agreements:
1. Respect Health
2. Respect Safety
3. Respect Property
4. Respect Others
5. Respect Yourself
It is especially important at this time to remind the children about respecting property with the new room with new materials we need the children to understand how to use these materials in a respectful way. Example: Sandra may say to the children, “This is a glass vase and it has delicate flowers inside, please look with you eyes and smell with your nose but don’t tip the glass over or pick the flowers apart…that’s not respecting property.” Feel free to use your own language and the point should be well received.
Thank you to Benny’s Mom, Mona, for coming in to read to the children today. They really enjoyed Benny’s selection of Duck Feet by Dr. Suess