I wanted to share some pictures from our first week of school! It already seems like ages ago that we met up again in our sweet school to meet new friends, visit with old friends, connect, play, get messy, dance and have fun!
The first weeks are always spent working on routines, establishing classroom culture, and easing back into the classroom basics. Many of the areas of the room weren’t open the first few days of school. We opened one area at a time and talked carefully about how to play, care for, and clean up each area in our classroom. The first day of school was focused on our new and improved block area.
We built an amazing road:
Most of the students stopped back by the invitation to add more gems to our classroom branches. We now have a beautiful branch filled to the brim with beads!
Sensory Play:
We explored with ice the first week of school! The children were given glitter star ice cubes, salt, colored water squeeze bottles, and other tools for exploring the ice cubes.
At first I thought the ice cubes were the most exciting part of this sensory tub, but pretty soon Ms. Lori and I realized that the squeeze bottles were actually the best part of this activity. These kids loved to squeeze the water, refill the bottles, and repeat the process again and again. I started the morning with many different colors in the bottles, but by the end of the day the water was a glittery blue. They didn’t seem to mind what color was in the bottle as long as it was ready to squeeze!
I love the ice, glitter, and squeeze bottles. It added such a fun element to a simple water sensory tub. The large bottles I purchased from amazon, they are restaurant bottles. A fun addition to your play at home!
Play Dough:
The first few weeks of school we have been playing with coconut play dough. This year I added mini popsicle sticks, mosaic pieces, mini shells, and gems. I always love to see their creations in the dough!
L’s creation!
It is always important to be dressed as a fairy princess when you are working with your play dough!
Process Art:
The first week of school Ms. Lori brought this amazing crayon melting machine to our art room for the children to explore. It heats up on a low temperature and melts the crayon pieces. The children “painted” with melted crayon on sea shells and onto paper plates.
Look at that smile! I swear M is giggling in the background!
A few pictures of the children interacting with our wonderful Ms. Lori the first few days of school!
One of the mornings we did a combination of process art and sensory play! I filled a tub with shaving cream, added ice cubes of paint, bowls, scoops, and popsicle sticks and paint brushes. The children loved mixing the melting paint into the shaving cream!
New Routines:
We have started a number of new routines this school year. This year we have “Classroom Jobs.” The children are very excited about these jobs and have been taking them very seriously. They helped me create the list of classroom jobs:
Plant Caretaker
Song Stopper (turns off the ipod for me!)
Light Manager (turns the lights on to the overhead and light table before choice time)
Line Leader
Play Dough Bagger (Bags up the play dough at the end of the morning)
Trash Collector (looks for trash under tables after snack)
Loft Manager (checks the loft after choice to see if any toys have been left up there!)
On Vacation
I will take a picture of our new Classroom Jobs sign that the children wrote!
D and M enjoying our light area together!
Just had to end of this hilarious picture of “practicing lining up.” This was the closest I got to all of them looking at me!
We’re off to a great start!
Crozet Play School 