Puttin' on a fashion show

Today was a happy reunion with a bunch of the littles who have grown up and left daycareland. Generally speaking I don’t plan too many things on reunion days since our time together is precious and the kids just want to hangout with old friends. Mostly it’s a time for catching up with each other and sharing how much our lives have changed in the time since we last visited with one another.

That being said, the kiddies who land on my doorstep during the summer program are a random collection of kids from years past so the energy of the group is very different than it is during the school year. It can be tough for the graduates and the newer littles to click if their interests and ages are too far apart. In those situations I keep a few activities on the back burner to fill out any rough spots during the day or to bring everyone to a place of connection so we can move forward in our day happily. 

I should have known better than to even bother with any alternate plans with this group because they all seem to share a passion for fashion, pop music and pop culture. Shortly after breakfast two of my older daycare besties requested some “dance club music” and they informed me that it  needed to be loud, really really LOUD so they could dance. I offered up Queen and Abba knowing that the lyrics are not too questionable but they shot me down in favor of REAL dance club music. Then they busted out singing the lyrics from LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem in harmony and asked for me to find THAT song. A quick search on Pandora under the Cardio Dance radio station turned up just the right booty shaking music. 

The kids got to work showing each other dance moves they learned from music videos and dance classes. They worked together to come up with a few new moves by merging what they knew and what they saw other children doing until their “moves” morphed into a new routine. Seeing that everyone was interested in the dance theme, I offered to get out the disco ball and flashlight to make an official dance floor.

You would have thought I had just promised an actual real live performance by LMFAO. The girls squealed with delight as they rushed around looking for the perfect outfits to wear to the “big dance”.  As I gathered up the supplies for the dance floor they swarmed my feet shouting out ideas for outfits and transforming our little room into a dance club. There was quite a commotion as many glittery skirts were tried on and tossed aside until each dance participant had found just the right outfit. Meanwhile Sam, our only boy who does not share the girls passion for fashion or disco dancing watched for a while then decided to do his own thing with the marble tracks at the train table.

Once everything was set up the girls paired up and got to work choreographing a dance routine together. Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, Sam decided to put on a fuzzy scarf, back pack and some green goggles to join in the festivities. He even found a way to work his favorite thing ever - rope into a dance routine. He wrapped it around each girl’s waist then pulled it and as he did the girls went spinning across the room like ballerinas. Everyone wanted a turn with Sam’s rope dance and eventually the girls took over the idea and he moved on to dancing on the jumping spot with another friend.

In another area the oldest girls worked in pairs pulling each other through their legs footloose style then they danced with waltz like motions. The younger girls studied their movements and waited for turns to give it a try. Later all of the kids made a little conga line, followed by a coordinated group wave, that went up and down the whole line of children several times.

Somewhere along the line the group focus went from developing new dance routines to creating the most outlandish fashion statements. The three oldest girls decided they wanted to be “fashion models” and “designers” so they claimed the fairy den as their “backstage area” for designing dresses. 

They flipped on the lights and got to work fashioning outfits for themselves and each other. Some of the kids draped spare bits of fabric and scarves over themselves then attached loose ends with binder clips or asked me to tie them to create dresses. All of the kids worked together choosing outfits based on specific elements of the fabric or style they were working on. They discussed which colors went together and how much sequence or fuzz was a fashionable amount. When the largest girls came across dresses that didn’t fit, they simply tucked the tops of dresses down around their waist to transform them into skirts then they added fuzzy scarves or draped fabric across their chest to make a complete the outfit. 

The kids decided they needed a stage to complete their fashion show so they built one out of scrap wood and dubbed me the photographer / audience. It took some time for them to decide on the proper direction and height for the stage but once they did the construction was pretty quick. They laid wood planks on top of each other by staggering them in a double height pile, then they covered the “stage” with various textured fabrics and ran Christmas lights along the sides.  

I introduced the children to the term “catwalk” then demonstrated my best model walk complete with a hand on the hip and an exaggerated swagger. I explained how models do a little turn for the audience so that everyone can see all of the details of the garment. The kids ran with it and had a blast taking turns walking up and down the catwalk, hamming it up for the camera and switching up the outfits then taking another turn. The “models” waiting backstage helped each other change clothes quickly and line up again so there was no lag time between models on the catwalk. 

When all the fun was over we cleaned up and went outside for a little break.

Later as we ate lunch we looked at a slideshow of our project and revisited some ideas about designing clothes. We talked about our favorite elements in each outfit. We discussed the shape of garments, how we made them and which texture / color combinations were our favorites.

Then we viewed a video clip of real models on the runway in Milan including behind the scenes artistry involved in getting the girls ready. We watched as the make up artists, hair artists and designers all worked very quickly on the models to create a certain look in a very short period of time - just as we had done. As the models made their way down the runway, we discussed the colors, textures and shapes of their garments. We considered the materials the designer used to create the outfits, how the outfits were accessorized, which outfits we liked and which outfits we didn’t like. The kids even had some ideas about what they would have done to improve the designers concept.   

Just as we were wrapping up our discussion about how fashion designing, make up artistry and hair artistry are all related forms of art, Isabel noted that “Models are like a living canvas for designers” - How awesome is that? 

Designing With Interlocking Blocks

This morning I set out a set of wooden interlocking blocks for the kiddies while I put together the project I thought was going to be the highlight of the day: Drip Drop Painting. It was a rainy day  so I thought it might be a fun way to experiment with color and medicine droppers. 

Drip Drop Painting is the process of color mixing using medicine droppers. We needed to use up the remnants of paint from previous projects since we will be going on vacation next week :)

I was a  little concerned because we didn’t have enough painting spaces for everybody and judging from the swarm of kids waiting to paint, I thought a couple of kiddies would be disappointed at the prospect of having to wait. 

Turns out some of the kids were SO focused on block play that not everyone was interested in painting. So as some children left the block table for painting, others experimented with their abandoned designs. 

Notice the symmetry and balance of Jack’s structure. He was very careful to pick out pieces that matched so that he could create a more stable structure. As he worked he tested the durability of his “ helicopter car” by rolling it across the table and making adjustments as needed. He had an especially difficult time trying to get the wheels to stay on as he rolled it. Eventually he discovered that placing two support bars on the bottom of his car spanning both rods helped to keep everything in place.

As the children worked they stopped to examine each other’s structures to get ideas. Jack’s mobile structure inspired the children to build vehicles of their own, however we only had two rods for holding wheels in place.  I made an attempt to help everyone achieve their goal by improvising with bamboo skewers cut to lengths of the rods. Unfortunately the diameter didn’t work so they had to think up different ways to represent the idea of a car.

Sam and Logan made wheels for their cars by attaching disks to their structures in different ways. The wheels didn’t move but they seemed pleased with their constructions anyway. 

As they built and observed each other’s work the kids seemed to notice that symmetry played a part in creating a more stable structure. They represented their understanding of the importance of symmetry by finding matching pieces and discarding pieces that did not enable them to create symmetry on key parts of their structures. 

After they worked for a while I asked if any of the children wanted to draw a picture of their projects. 

Jack decided he wanted to draw "directions to make a car". We talked about how it would probably help him to draw the directions if he looked at the car as worked. While drawing he pulled off some of the pieces to examine them more closely. It was clear he was thinking about the individual shapes he used to create the larger piece. 

Addie also wanted to draw so she placed her block on the paper and drew her representation of it. Later she made a drawing device by adding a circular block to the end of her marker while drawing.

Will's first attempts at tracing his block involved making huge sweeping motions around the block. I showed him how to recreate the lines of his block by running the marker along the side of the blocks edge. After watching my demonstration he payed closer attention to the details of the block and made slower, more deliberate movements.

Sam set the two parts of his car on the table and drew his design for the wheels that didn’t move.

Carmen joined the table of children drawing their designs after she worked with the blocks. She listened to their ideas, watched their building and stopped to study their illustrations as she made a drawing of her own.

Some of the other children were more interested in constructing, deconstructing and experimenting with their ideas than they were in the drawing aspect of the project. 

When one child left his or her design behind, the other children experimented with the remnants. The simple act of positioning the project at a different angle or reshaping a few pieces had the power of sparking a new direction of play. 

When all of our inventing was done, the illustrators took turns sharing their concepts with the other children at group time. This generated an in depth conversation about all of the structures, including the ones created by children who did not choose to illustrate their designs.

Moving Centers Outdoors

The kids have had a super fun time getting used to our outdoor learning space. Every morning they start asking, “Is it time to go outside yet?!?” as soon as all the parents head out for the day. If we had a bathroom and some cots out there I’m pretty sure they would never come in. 

Setting up centers outside is a SO much easier than I thought it would be. It’s pretty great that the kids have much more space to work on large scale projects together or take a break and burn off some steam by running around the yard or pounding on stuff. That is a God send now that most of daycare land is comprised of boys with lots of energy! Some of the fun things we had planned this week were:

Dart Guns:

Dart guns and other target games have been popular with this super energetic group of kids. They especially love shooting dart guns at the acrylic easel because the darts stick really well. Unfortunately the guns I bought are VERY hard to use so I will be looking for something a little easier to manipulate on my next toy run. In the meantime these kids are likely to end up with Herculean hand strength and lots of patience from dealing with the current set!

Exploring Percussion instruments:

The kids set up a little “band” with some of our percussion instruments. One of the kiddies figured out how to rub two bumpy trays together to make his own instrument while some other kids experimented with sound by hitting different objects with mallets. We pounded cymbals and hit stuff with sticks. As they worked we discussed the difference in volume and sound as they hit solid, hollow or metal objects.

Board Games:

The kids are really into board games lately and Zingo was a huge hit. If you haven’t checked this game out, it’s a lot of fun preschoolers. The picture matching, letter recognition and finagling of small pieces in the bingo slider made it so that everyone found Zingo to be a fun challenge. Since Sam brought the game to share with his friends, he took on the responsibility of teaching everyone how to play. The kids took turns rotating in and out of the game for over an hour. 

Fence Weaving:

I’ve seen tons of great weaving projects on Pinterest so I thought we would put our own spin on weaving by adding it to our fence as an ongoing collaborative project. It turns out that weaving is kind of tricky. Moving the ribbon in and out of the fence was a challenge; often the children would work on a ribbon for ten minutes or so only to have completely unwoven their piece by the time they were finished. Even though some of their attempts of weaving did not yield the intended result, the kids were delighted to watch the wind send ripples through the ribbons.

The Gigantic Magnetic board:

We’ve used the garage door for letter play, magnets and a gigantic easel. The kids loved seeing how high they could push magnets by using their hands or climbing on the picnic table to get a little more height. We also used some heavy duty magnetic clips to hold paper in place for drawing. As they worked, some of the kids discovered that covering the paper in marker revealed a cool design from the imprint on the garage door. 

Outdoor Classroom

Our house has what my Aunt Sue calls a “tiny little postage stamp of a back yard”. It’s so small that when we moved here from our double lot in Royal Oak I hardly thought this teeny speck of earth was worth putting any effort into. I tried a couple of times over the eight years we’ve owned the house to get into the yard but it was no use. There’s no fire pit or swimming pool to lure me back there and every side of our lifeless little rectangle is closed off preventing neighbors from wandering over for a chat. To top it all off it’s hotter than hell out there!

Last year as I was surfing some of my favorite blogs I noticed all sorts of fantastic ideas for outdoor classrooms. Some of my favorite spaces started out so tiny and barren that they made my little yard look quite glamorous. It got me to thinking that MAYBE I should quit whining about all the things I don’t have and work with the things I do have.

So I quit whining and started pinning everything that looked like it might work for us. Josh and I got to work making the best of our space. We did a little reconfiguring by boldly pulling out some perfectly beautiful bushes to put in vegetable garden for the kids to tend. I'm not that great at keeping plants alive so I was super proud of all the veggies we harvested. I also created a mud kitchen out of an old cupboard  - that turned out to be a total flop but the kids had fun with it for a season before it collapsed in on itself. 

We rigged up a water wall, turned a wheelbarrow into a sensory bin and we had lots of fun with large scale building projects. My favorite backyard addition of the summer were the acrylic easels my awesome husband made out of junk laying around in the garage. The kids LOVED them!

This year we are kicking off the season with a much more positive attitude toward our tiny space and I’m hoping we will spend most of our daycare days outside in our improved outdoor classroom. It’s so much easier to work with the kids outside and they have much more autonomy since they don’t have to wait on me to clean up before they can move on to other activities.

Some of our learning centers include:

The gardening area:

The kids have been hard at work weeding and turning the garden with garden tools, diggers and dump trucks. We are also putting together an herb garden for future cooking projects and sensory projects....

Reading / Quiet Area

We’ve created a little reading nook in a tent that only cost 15 bucks at the end of the season last year AND it folds up neatly behind the kitchen area when we want to store it. It's currently Carmen's favorite place to hang out reading to her babies....

Dramatic Play

Our new and improved mud kitchen was found on the side of the road - the kids were thrilled to have “saved it from the landfill” We will be sticking with playdough in the mud kitchen until I can imagine some place to put the mud kitchen so that it doesn't ruin the grass. I do like to entertain adults here sometimes too :) For now we brought out some of the indoor play food, dolls and baby care items that can be stored outside .....

Music

We have a little music area with a triangle and wind chimes. We have lots of other instruments to add to this area later this summer....

Art

Of course there’s are acrylic easels from last year, hopefully next week we will have pumpkins growing behind them instead of weeds soon!

The garage door also makes a great magnetic board for working with letters...

Clean up

There’s even a little makeshift hand washing area complete with soap and a towel to clean up after painting or digging. Addie was having lots of fun taking her baby to dig then giving her a bath. Carmen thought it would be fun to dump the soft bodied babies in the water too - guess we’ll be needing some more babies that can be bathed outside!

Building a Chandelier

I love working on light projects with the kids so I decided to scout out the displays at Somerset Mall last weekend with my daughter in search of ideas. While we were out I came across a really cool bamboo light fixture with Christmas lights wrapped in the center of a circular bamboo tube. It was thinking it would make a great base for a weaving project so I snapped a picture of the marvelous thing even though my daughter ridiculed me mercilessly for it. Over the weekend I thought about how we could use Christmas lights to make a chandelier of our own. 

This is what we came up with using some of the things we had kicking around our room.  

Materials: Clear Tube (from Lowes), Christmas Lights, Ribbon, Packing Tape, Scotch Tape, Tubes (from Arts N Scraps), shower curtain rings, and lots of imagination!  

Our set up looked like this:

I wanted the kids to come up with the design so I explained that a chandelier is a fancy light that hangs from the ceiling. Then I gave them a little time to look at the acrylic tube stuffed with Christmas lights and offered them materials to experiment in their own way. 

The kids got to work with the scotch tape, scissors and ribbon. For those of you who have never turned a room full of two year olds loose on scotch tape and scissors you are in for a treat! Scotch tape was hanging from every surface and fingers were tangled up everywhere.

There are lots of problems to solve, lots of ideas on how to get the sticky tape free from everything it got caught up on and lots of opportunities to practice patience! Over all they did really well. The children took turns helping each other, studying each other’s ideas and experimenting on their own. 

As they worked, everyone had a different strategy for getting things to stick on the acrylic tube. Some wrapped ribbon around the tube many times only to have it all unravel and fall to the floor, others tried to stick ribbon to the tube only to discover that they had misplaced the tape or that the tape had no stick left to it because they had repositioned it too many times.

There were a lot of failures and some successes but all of the work belonged to the children. 

Somewhere along the way Will remembered a project we had done a while back where we used tape to pick up glitter and paper scrapes. He used that method with wide strips of tape and created long strips of tubes that he had carefully collected and positioned closely together. The rest of the children collaborated with him to fill his strip and started strips of their own. 

When it was finished we all stepped back to admire their handy work. Doesn’t it look beautiful? 

Handprint Tissue Paper Trees

We made these super simple handprint trees to celebrate spring!

First we traced our hands and cut them out....

Then we collected lots of green tissue paper from our cutting station and glued it on.

Some of the children decided to add flowers from our handy flower hole punch, that hole punch is a great way to work our hand and arm muscles!

When we finished them, we added a pretty green frame to make the colors pop.



Happy Spring!

Happy Spring!

We have been SO busy exploring all the changes outside this week! Every year with the season change and all the added light in the day the kids get a little tweaky and we all have a serious need to be outside as much as possible. 

On monday we spent most of the morning out hunting for signs of spring. We found lots of flowers popping their little heads out of the ground basking in the sun. I’m no gardening guru but we were able to spot a few of the familiar flowers of the season: daffodils, hyacinth and petunias. We searched for worms, stomped in puddles and took a peek in the composter to see how our plants were breaking down so we can feed garden when it’s time.

On Tuesday got our glow on by constructing this cool ping pong game. It was the perfect way to spend a rainy day. We even figured out how to add bumpers to the table so that we didn’t have to spend as much time chasing the ball around the room!

On Wednesday we discovered a rainbow as we were coming inside, the children knew that somehow the rainbow was created with light so we looked for the source. We discovered the light was coming from the peep hole in the door which sparked a conversation about how glass and light can create a rainbow. The children conducted their own investigations using magnifying glasses to cast orbs of light and create rainbows with light. 

The children also practiced getting their pincher grasp down while writing on the light table. Some decided to write letters, others traced shapes under the glass or worked on own drawings. While they worked I explained how holding a marker close to the tip in the triangle grasp makes it easier to control. After my demonstration the children paid close attention to their grip and fixed it or asked for help when they forgot how to hold the markers properly.

On Thursday we painted outside at this little outdoor paint station. We used binder clips to attach paper to the fence and collected stones to hold our papers on the table so they wouldn’t blow away. We also made footprint butterflies in celebration of spring and discussed the virtues of eating spinach and berries to keep our bodies strong. Best of all they thought the smoothies were a special treat so they all begged for more spinach!