Start of Another Year

Well, here we are, at the start of another new year. I always look forward to this time. It’s great to see returning friends and to meet new ones. As with last year, we are planning on being outside as long as possible. We almost made it through September. I think there was one morning that was too chilly to start outside, but we were able to get outside eventually. This year, as Miss Heidi and are were setting up, I noticed a few toys/items that I had stuck away to be used for just the “right” thing. The problem was, the “right” thing never came around. So this year, I just decided to stick them all out and let the students decided what to do with them. The results were amazing, as they always are when I surrender the control of the learning to the students. Here are some highlights.

The fist things are these cut up pool noodles I’ve had for years. My intent was to let the children use them as swords since they are safer then sticks. But for some reason, I never got around to setting them out. And by some reason, I mean that I couldn’t bring myself to allow that kind of play, so they sat in my closet until now. Of course the majority of the use is fighting, but there are a few things that surprised me. They were used to make a campfire. They were used to measure the slide. I can’t wait to see what other ideas will come.

I have set these alphabet foam letters out before, but not often because I didn’t want to deal with the mess. I knew the first thing would be for all the letters to be taken out. And it was. But then, other uses happened. The letters were used to spell names and put into rows. And my most favorite, they were used to decorate the trees with a rainbow alphabet. I’m still putting the letters back in everyday, but that’s okay because they are being used in just the “right” way.

Someone gave me these tennis balls years ago. They have a face drawn on them and a mouth cut out. They were used as a singing aide. I never used them for that, mainly because I had put them away and forgot about them. But out they came this year. The first, and expected, thing was sticking fingers in them. How fun is that! Then it was discovered they could be an ice cream cone when put on a sports cones. They also could eat the grass and whatever is in the sensory table. They were even a home to a few rolly pollies we found.

These inflatable monkeys were a big hit. Whether hanging out in the parachute (another thing I gave up control of and let the students use it however they want) or in the trees (where some great planning and strategizing took place to get them down).

Here are some other highlights of our first month. Lot’s of creative play, finding new uses for old toys. An art project of creating a self portraits that turned out so cute. And some fall crafts (only got pictures of one, I need to get back in the habit of taking pictures).

And of course, lots of writing. A fun new game, that two little girls came up with, is writing letters, cutting them out and hiding them for friends to find. I also made sure that the clipboards are always available, with plenty of paper on them.