GTMS Life > Blog May 9, 2023

April 2023-Sistrunk Classroom

K’s Circle Time Visits We had two visits from Miss Anne’s kindergarteners. Alexa and Naomi were both previously in our classroom as toddlers. They each selected a book to practice with and then came to read to us for circle time. We look forward to the K’s visits. This bring us so much joy. Continent Work […]

K’s Circle Time Visits

We had two visits from Miss Anne’s kindergarteners. Alexa and Naomi were both previously in our classroom as toddlers. They each selected a book to practice with and then came to read to us for circle time. We look forward to the K’s visits. This bring us so much joy.

Continent Work

We have been exploring the continents via musical instruments, a puzzle, song and a box.

The Continent Song

Oh continents, continents

Do you know the continents?

Continents, continents all around the world.

There’s Asia and Africa, North America, South America, Australia, Antarctica and Europe too.

The song is a fun jingle and an abstract concept. To make this exploration a bit more concrete, we use continent boxes. Most recently, we added the Africa box to our language shelf.

In the box there are a few photos, some mud cloth, kente cloth, familiar animals and a few new ones. There is an elephant, a gorilla, a lion, a zebra and a rhinoceros. Two that we are just getting to know are the oryx and the okapi.

Old Mikamba

One great complement to the Africa box is this book titled Old Mikamba Had a Farm. This is a song book that can be read to the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm. What differs is the setting of this book is in Africa and includes the native African animals.

Movement at Recess

With toddlers we often hear the pitter patter of swift feet moving across the room. Not only do toddlers have the innate desire to move, it is a necessity to their development. There is always time for free movement, dance parties and play during recess. They also make use of the climbers and hop on the small bike to work their gross motor.

Take a peek at this short video: IMPROMPTU DANCE PARTY

Movement in the Classroom

Within the classroom, deliberate and controlled movements are put into practice. Maneuvering around work rugs, tables and classmates while using careful walking feet is a regular occurrence. For example, cleaning up after a snack or meal helps them to build independence and promotes care of the environment. This may seem like a simple task. The children carry real glasses and ceramic dishes from their seat to the sink one piece at a time until they clear their space, again utilizing slow, careful movements. Here are two work options in the classroom that require the use of careful walking feet. Both of these have an object to carry around the space.

Flower Arranging

In celebration of Spring we introduced flower arranging.

There are many steps to this work including carrying water filled pitchers and glass vases. This gives the children an opportunity to set up something for the classroom, which they take such pride in. The photos below illustrate most of the steps of this work.

Philadelphia Matching Work

The children have a good amount of experience with photo-to-photo matching.

With this work, the two photos differ in scale. Hand to eye coordination comes into play with the careful placement of velcro to attach the small photo to the large one. There is a small basket with the small photos and their match is posted around the classroom. They travel around the room honing in on the details and similarities to find the match.

This work carries the theme of Philadelphia. It is directly inspired by our auction project. One large portion of our auction art piece is a cityscape which includes the same buildings and monuments as this work.

Next Stop, Philadelphia!

From November to March the children worked on completing our auction project.The children used skills and techniques that they have been practicing throughout the school year, including stenciling, shaving cream printing, dot painting, and collaging. This art piece is inspired by the book Freight Train by Donald Crews.

Below are a few more highlights of the process.