Elliot has been honoring our school by sharing his family's love of music with us. On Thursday mornings Elliot's dad, Spencer, has been coming to Steppers with his guitar and singing songs with our friends. As soon as Elliot and his dad arrive friends start rushing into the Resting Room because they are so excited to sing and dance together!   

Some of our favorite songs to sing are:
If You're Happy And You Know It
Hokie Pokie
The More We Get Together
The Alphabet Song
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Old McDonald Had A Farm
Down By The Bay

Spencer has also been sharing his knowledge about guitars with us, like what different parts of the guitar are called and how to play it. Some friends have even started playing instruments right along with him!

Please enjoy some of the pictures we have taken from our special musically filled mornings with Elliot and his dad. And always feel free to join in - the more the merrier! 

We would also like to thank Elliot, Julia, Spencer, and Jessica for sharing their passion for music with us! I know all of us teachers look forward to our musical mornings just as much as our kiddos do! 

While participating in this activity, my friends engaged in several Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS) including, but not limited to:
Domain 1 (Approaches to Learning) Elements 1 and 2 (Play and Exploration and Initiative)
Domain 2 (Social/Emotional Learning and Development) Element 3 (Relationships with Peers and Adults)
Domain 3 (Growing/Moving/Being Healthy) Element 1 (Motor Development and Coordination)
Domain 7 (Creative Arts and Expression) Element 2 (Music)

After we made our salt dough fossils, we decided it would be really cool if we could dig them up like scientists excavate real fossils. I thought burying them in oobleck would be an interesting way to introduce the concept of excavation to my friends because of the varying properties of the material.

When friends started arriving in the morning, they noticed the oobleck in the container and immediately started playing with and manipulating the oobleck inside of it.  

As they were exploring the oobleck, Zinn said, "Hey! There's something at the bottom. I think there is something in there! Hey! It's one of our fossils!" Then Levi said, "I found a fossil too!" And the real hunt began! Everyone began digging through the oobleck in search of more fossils. Zinn started putting the fossils that were discovered in the smaller bin next to the oobleck container. While we were looking for our fossils, we talked about paleontologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists and why those scientists may need to dig fossils out of the ground. 

After all of the fossils had been extracted from the oobleck, the little scientists started experimenting with the substance with fervor! Some of the experiments performed involved filling containers, observing the oobleck drip from various objects, molding it into a solid, and changing the amount of time hands and cups stayed in the oobleck to find out how long it took for them to "get stuck".  

Gage even took the gloves off that he had been using while playing with the oobleck and touched it with his bare hands. His reaction to the feel of it, and Ada's reaction in response to his, is definitely one for the books! Gage showed tremendous courage and confidence in himself by taking a risk and allowing the oobleck to touch his skin. I know this act will inspire other friends to step out of their comfort zones and try new things as well. 

As fun as it was to excavate our fossils from the oobleck, my friends are already talking about other ways we can practice our excavation skills. Be on the outlook for more fossil fun! 

While participating in this activity, my friends engaged in several Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS) including, but not limited to: 
Domain 3 (Growing/Moving/Being Healthy) Element 1 (Motor Development and Coordination)
Domain 8 (Mathematics) Element 3 (Measurement, Classification, and Data)
Domain 9 (Science) Elements 1 and 4 (Physical Sciences and Engineering Design)
Domain 10 (Social Studies) Element 4 (History)

Last Thursday, I noticed Felix was playing in the mud area outside for a very long time. He looked so focused on the task he had given himself I just had to go over and find out what he was doing. He explained he was looking for fossils. He walked me through the whole process on how to put the different types of dirt together to create the perfect conditions to find a fossil. Elephant, dinosaur, goat, eagle, and blue whale fossils are just some of the items he was finding.  

The next morning Felix asked if I wanted to help him make some more fossils. I was more than happy to oblige. While we were in the process of collecting the kind of dirt that we needed some friends started asking questions and coming over to help. By the time lunch was ready, we had quite a collection of fossils, including some dinosaur eggs. 

On Wednesday, Felix and Isaak brought in some really incredible treasures from their home to show all of us. They had three real fossils from their home they wanted to show us: a fish fossil, a conch shell fossil, and an actual dinosaur bone fossil! Everyone was so excited about seeing what real fossils look like up close. Then we decided to make some of our own! We immediately got to work. 

After creating our fossils, we put them on some baking sheets and baked them in the oven all day. The fossils that came out of the oven were full of spectacular detail and as hard as rocks, just like real fossils!

Stay tuned to find out what we had in store for our newly formed fossils....

Greetings, everyone! 

What a great start we've had to our new school year! As we've been getting to know each other over the past couple of weeks, our school has been filled with lots of laughter, excitement, creativity, and love. New relationships have been forming between teachers and students alike while established friendships are strengthening. Kindness abounds as our new friends are shown the ropes by our returning students and become accustom to our daily flow. 

Please enjoy this sampling of our adventures!

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We've been engaging in lots of dramatic play taking care of our babies, cooking meals, and exploring various characters (pirates, teachers, chefs, to name a few). 

Some of us experienced making bread with Liz for the first time and our returning friends were able to use their prior knowledge to show their new friends how its done.

We've been using our gross motor skills and collaborating to create obstacle courses and jumping schools.    

We've been developing our fine motor skills by creating magnificent pieces of art with manipulatives like playdough, magnatiles, and even some puzzle pieces. 

It's been incredible to see how quickly my friends have become comfortable with the dynamics of our school and are already creating a unique group rhythm. I can't wait to see how it will grow and evolve over the school year!

While participating in these activities my friends engaged in several Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS) including, but not limited to: 
Domain 1 (Approaches to Learning), Elements 1 - 3 (Play and exploration, initiative, and problem solving)
Domain 2 (Social/Emotional Learning), Elements 1 - 3 (Emotion and self regulation, self awareness, and relationships)
Domain 4 (Language Development), Elements 1 - 5 (Listening, speaking, and knowledge of language)
Domain 7 (Creative Arts and Expression), Elements 1 & 3 (Visual arts and dramatic play)