l is for lame

seldom do i set up a project that is so lame that we don’t continue on.  don’t get me wrong, almost every project evolves once the children get going with it.  what i have in my lesson plans is almost never exactly what we end up doing.

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this project was supposed to provide pages and pages of wood-stamped “nuts.”

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but the wood pieces didn’t hold much wood for printing or rolling, the paint wasn’t a warm brown-more of a greenish gray, the paper kept tearing. i abandoned it almost immediately.

truly a process-only experience.

t is for tube

i had no idea the joy this tube would bring.  i expected cars racing through.  i expected blocks racing through.  i’m surprised it hasn’t been colored or covered with tape.

tube hauling

but i didn’t expect kids to figure out how to launch cars simply by slamming it down on a shelf.  yes, it was loud.

tube hauling

and i sure didn’t expect the sheer JOY that the kids show in simply hauling this thing around.  all classes.  they just walk around with it.  all around the room.  no one has been knocked down yet.  no tables cleared either.

tube hauling

tube hauling

amazing.

tube hauling

thank you, mr rob, for taking a break from cootie to bring us the tube.

cootie

h is for haiti

when a preschooler’s mama has traveled to haiti, it provides the perfect opportunity to hear what kids know.

letter to dr jenny

just like the public service announcements on pbs cautioning parents in terms of children seeing too many images of the destruction of haiti, i hesitate to burst bubbles of protection that parents have created.

letter to dr jenny

but in vague enough terms with plenty of compassion, preschoolers shared what they knew about the devastation in haiti.

and dr. jenny, we wish you well as you travel home.  thank you for sharing your gifts with the world.