Snow Cream!

When your children come home and tell you they had ice cream at school, believe them.  It's true.  Even though we do not serve sweets at school, we took advantage of the beautiful clean, fresh snow this morning, and made some Cinnamon Snow Cream!

"But my dad says I can only eat snow that is coming right out of the sky." Yes, that's good advice.  So, we had to learn how to be so, so careful about getting *clean* snow.  What this means is the snow we use is not touching the ground, and it has not been touched by anything on top.  To find this pure snow, we looked for places outside that had lots of untouched snow.  Then, we took a spoon and carefully scooped just the top layer of it.  If the scoop went down to touch the ground, it was too deep.  We could only take the scoops that skimmed the surface-level.

1 clean bin full of clean snow

1-2 14-oz. cans sweetened condensed milk

A few generous shakes of cinnamon

Mix it up till it starts to look like ice cream.

We put it in the freezer for a little while before eating it.

Simple Warm Hat

I decided that in this week of talking about dressing for the cold, each of our preschoolers would have the opportunity to sew themselves a warm hat.  I was happy to find such a simple process for this.  It goes like this:

1. Cut a strip of fleece about 12-14 inches wide.

2. Measure around the kid's head to see how big to cut it.

3. Let the kid sew the two ends together, to make a tube shape.

4. Put the tube on the kid's head, and hold where the top of the hat should fit with your hand.

5. Cut the fringe on top by simply cutting 1/2 inch strips all the way around (about 3-4 inches down from the top). I did this by holding with my hand where the top of the kid's head came, and cutting one line from the top to that point.  Then, laying it flat to cut the rest of the fringes.

6. Tie off the fringe with a strip of fleece.  The kids learned to criss-cross, then dip through the loop, then pull it tight.

7. Place on the head of your adorable child and watch for the glimmer of pride to shine through their eyes.

Puddle Boats

This is the kind of thing that happens when, as a program and as a teacher, you open yourself up to the possibilities that lie within the framework of child-led learning.  Our theme for the month is snow, and for the week it's dressing for the cold.  Well... this week has been more like spring than winter.

This morning, at drop-off, I was having a conversation with one of our kids about how our yard was literally like a lake yesterday, the sand box being an island.  We talked about puddles, big and small, and what fun we can have in them.  He mentioned that at home he likes to make boats with his dad.  So, I asked him if he thought we should make boats in our lake-puddle.  His face lit up, and he said, "Yeah, then we can be pirates!"

Seeing the wheels of imagination turning is a wonderful thing.

So, instead of offering an art choice that involved mittens, I grabbed an empty tub and filled it with egg cartons, pipe cleaners, corks, and duct tape.  I brought it out, and we gathered wet sticks.  The kids came up with lots of different ideas about how to make boats, and were enthusiastic about trying them.  We discovered that if the egg cup are facing up, they will fill with water, and the boat will not float.  If we turned them facing down, they worked much better.

So much to learn in one little idea that came straight from the mind of a preschooler!

MLK

We spent the week before MLK day learning about him and his work.  First we learned how to say his name, and we looked at his picture, until the kids could recognize him and say his name.  Then, we talked about what is fair and what is not fair.  Would Martin Luther King say it is fair to only let people with curly hair eat lunch here?  NO. Would he say that all kids, no matter what they look like, can eat here with us?  YES. One day we talked about what is a dream and what does it mean?  We read a lot of books about skin, and talked about our skin just being a covering for who we are inside.  The concept of diversity was introduced via colors.  What would it look like if all the cars were white?  Boring.  What if everyone always wore a red shirt?  Boring.  We painted outlines of our hands and bodies with lots of colors.

Color math concepts

What is your favorite color? This is a more dynamic question than one might think.  Some kids recognize that their favorite color changes, even on a daily basis.  Some are committed fully to one color, others committed fully to all the colors.  Some kids can't choose just one, but can easily identify 2 or 3 favorites.  When I was a child, this question is the one thing I remember consistently lying about.  I told people my favorite color was yellow, when really, it wasn't.  My reason for this lie was that I felt sorry for yellow, because nobody ever chose it.  I wanted yellow to have at least one dedicated fan! With this logic today, and in this environment, I would have chosen orange.  Once we established who liked what color, we charted it, and talked about which color the most people chose, which color the fewest people chose, etc.  When I pointed out that nobody chose orange, at least one of the kids called out, "Yes, I like orange, because I like all the colors." So, indeed, it is deceiving to have that empty space next to orange, because the "like all" kids include it.

Free outdoor play

To many who are reading this, the benefits of free outdoor play may already be evident.  So, at the risk of preaching to the choir, I  want to highlight this benefit.

When they play, kids are not just goofing off.  They are doing serious work, and learning every minute of it.  Their job in their play is to create their own world.  Yes, this may involve actually creating physical structures, or elaborate scenes.  But, it's more than this.  They are establishing norms with their peers, creating their own culture.  If you think of a child's life and perspective, much of what they encounter is already decided for them.  Adults all around them are telling them how to be in this world. In their moments of play, they have the freedom to be what ever they want, with whatever cultural norms they establish.  Sometimes it amazes me how much time is spend on the negotiations of who is what, and in what relationship with whom.  But, that's the work.  The work is in establishing this social network.  The work is also in physically figuring out what works best on top of/beside/beneath what when building or creating.

One thing I love about free play being outside is that there is a sense of space and freedom.  When the kids are outside, they drift freely between different projects or different play cultures.  On the day this structure was built, a small group of them worked hard to figure out how to build it.  Then, they dispersed and found other things they were interested in: some chasing chickens, some chipping ice, some rolling down the hill.  Periodically, they would come back to this and make some change or addition to improve it in some way.  Or, they would talk about who lives there, and where the different rooms might be.  There are likely few things in their life that are like this.  Most times, when kids work on something, it is put away when they are "done."  It's rare that something they are working on remains for them to return to at will.  It's the nature of being outside, with lots of interesting adventures to be had, but plenty of space and no agenda ruling the time that is put into it.  It's their experience of flow.

Rules

I'm convinced this exercise will always bring about insightful, interesting results: Spend lots of time with the same group of people, without really defining, out-right, what your social norms are.  Then, after a time, come together and ask the group what they think the rules are. 

This is probably especially entertaining with young kids.  We did it today, and the things they said were full of surprises.  Some kids had really insightful ideas that we didn't expect.  Others said things that made us wonder where the idea was generated.  Some responses had a perfectly clear source attached to them. Not only was it telling of what their experience in our own little culture is, but it was also telling of what is being communicated to them, here or elsewhere, in one way or another.  

I presented the idea as such: First, asking them if they know what a rule is.  Lots of answers of both "yes" and "no" ensued.  Ultimately and together, we came up with this definition: Rules are things you should do or you shouldn't do.  So, I told them I wanted to make a list of the things we should do here at our school, and the things we shouldn't do.  Here it is:

I think there will be more rules added.  I consider this a very organic list, so maybe after awhile, I will post the change we have seen in it.

Ice

This morning, upon arrival, our yard was covered in ice.

Yes, it poses a higher risk than usual, and there were times this admittedly made me nervous.  But, the kids were safe, and one of the benefits of spending lots of time outside is actually the inherent risk involved.  If they don't experience some of that, they can lack in confidence.  Another perk the outdoor play provides is the vast menu of "work" opportunities!  In all kinds of weather, there is "work" to be done.  Some is hard, some not so hard, but all of it is real.

For these kids, this morning, the ice was the perfect opportunity for them to be workers.  They found the garden hoes and chipped away at the ice, prying up bricks, boards, tools, sticks, that were covered in the ice.

 I didn't see one kid working alone.  All the chipping projects were group projects, and it was clear that they all knew they needed each other.  They shared not only in the work, but in the satisfaction of success!  Pulling up the object that had been held fast in the ice was such a thrill for all to enjoy!!

Snow much fun!

We have been having a lot of fun in the snow these last couple of weeks!  We're lucky to have a rich diversity of terrain, including a hill just the right size for toddler and preschool sledding.  Many times, as I've observed all these little bodies making their way through the snow, I wonder at all their brains are learning.  Whether the snow is light and fluffy, deep and stiff, or even icy on top, it provides a new challenge to their systems that is so good for growth.  I wanted to share a few of the ways snow play is encouraging their development.

Physical development: Snow play provides a sensory experience for them through tactile, temperature, and taste.  Walking in snow is not unlike walking in sand, the way it shifts beneath your feet with each step.  This provides a new challenge to walking and running that helps them to become more agile on their feet.  With each step, they are improving their strength as the snow slips back a little.  They are also improving their balance, because with the unsteady surface, the brain and body must be always communicating to find the proper center of gravity.

Proprioceptive development: The proprioceptive system is what allows us to understand where our bodies begin and end in space.  Each time these young ones take a step in the snow, they don't know exactly how far down their foot will go, before hitting firm ground.  The proprioceptive system is also responsible for us understand how much force is needed in order to change in object.  In the snow, the kids are constantly testing this out: making snowballs, digging ice, shoveling snow, building snowmen and other structures, pushing themselves down the hill on the sled, pulling up friends on the sled, etc.

Temporal Awareness: Footprints in the snow passively teach these children how far they have come.  They can look back at their footprints, and understand the passage of space and time in a visual way.

Physics Lesson: Playing in the snow allows children to experiment with gravity.  They build and lift and roll and throw.  They feel the gradual-then-quick motion of starting at the top of the hill and sliding down on the sled.  They learn how to pack snow in a ball, roll it into a bigger and bigger and BIGGER (have you seen our's?) ball.  They try to lift it, push it, watch it roll down the hill. These are all Physics experiments.

Creative Problem Solving: Yes, there are always creative problem solving opportunities, but snow play provides some new ones: pulling each other in the sled, working together to build something or push something up the hill.  Today it was how to get the sled up the hill when one friend doesn't want to get out of it.

Then, lest we forget to mention snow play is SNOW MUCH FUN!! Part of what is so great about it for the teachers is that the kids are busy and having a blast doing their very important work, growing their brains with every step and pat of their hands.  This is a wonder to witness!