What Melts and Shadows and Reflections

Jamie entered the classroom and greeted his friends, "Good morning Jacob", "Good morning Harry", and "Good morning Lili". He joined Harry at the table to use eyedroppers and green watercolor paint to transform our 'Friendship Tree" into a Holiday Tree. While Lili was shoveling the snow in the sensory table she asked Jenny "Does this melt?" Then she picked up the snow in her hand and said "Look! I made a melt!" At Morning Meeting, Jenny shared this moment with the class and asked the children 'What is melt?" Lili said "It's snow!" and Harry said "snow", Jamie shrugged his shoulders. Next week we are going to do an experiment with water so that the children can discover what "melts".

Next we surprised Nadia with her Holiday present from The Sweet Peas Class. The children painted a flower pot for her when she was not in school last Friday and Jenny asked the children what they love about Nadia. Next, Jenny attached their words to each child's picture. Nadia was so thrilled and happy! Happy Holidays Nadia!

Then Jenny asked Harry to pick out a book to read before snack and he choose Shadows and Reflections by Tana Haban. This led us in to quite a discussion:

Jenny: "What do you see on the cover?'

Jamie: "Black and a hand."

Lili: "A body. It does not have any colors."

Jenny: "Why does it not have any colors?"

"Shadow!" Lili shouted with excitement.

Jamie: "Shadows."

We studied the images on the pages. The children noticed a page with a bear's reflection in water. "What's that?" Lili asked. Jenny explained what a reflection is and the children took turns looking at their own reflections in the mirror. The children commented on what they saw as they examined themselves in the mirror.

Jamie: "My tummy."

Lili: "I see my mouth. My teeth. I have two teeth. Eyelash. I'm a doctor."

Lili then brought over the picture of the Empire State Building from the book Olivia. Perhaps the discussion of shadows and reflections reminded her of a previous discussion we had about this particular page? 

Jenny: 'Lili, why did your show us this picture."

Lili: "Because it's a little dark. A little bit black and light."

After snack, we went on a dragon hunt. When we returned we sang Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer wearing red noses. Jacob and Jamie wanted to jump so we jumped around to some music. Then we had Yoga with Lakshmi. Katya, Lili's mom, helped us make wreaths for our Holiday Tree using green paint mixed with glue, pop popoms, and glitter on white plates. Then she read to the class. What an amazing morning!