Tel Aviv LOVES Snow!

The Tel Aviv kids have been spending LOTS of time in the snow this week! The snow has been fun and it's not too cold when you are wearing the proper snow gear and this combination has meant that we have been spending over an hour outside each day! We have made snow angles, snowmen and practiced our climbing skills! While making a snowman yesterday Lily, Charlotte, Josie, Molly and Micah Rosin negotiated how to roll the ball and where to put in the sticks for arms. often times they had different ideas for how they envisioned the snowman but they were able to use their problem solving strategy to create a solution that everyone was happy with! Later in the morning we went up to the parking lot and practiced climbing on the snow banks. I was impressed with how each child navigated the plains of snow and carefully paid attention to their footing as they slowly climbed up the snow banks. It was quite a site to see and once they got to the top, they roared with laughter as they slid down. Such fun mornings playing in the snow! We hope that it will stay warm and snowy like this for the rest of the week!

Micahs' Masterpeices!

 We have been talking about snow all week long and today we had a lot of "snowy" material out so we could make our own snow scene colleges.   Charlotte and Molly came over first and had fun cutting and gluing the paper in neat shapes to look like snowflakes, they made beautiful art and then left the table for snack. While they were working I made my own snow scene and then left it on the table.

When I came back I found both the Michas working really hard on creating their own similar snow scene. When I asked Micah Rosin about his creation he said, "it's like the one that you did but different, I liked that you had a snowman with three circles so I did that, but I wanted to have a sun so I made two!" I love that none of the art that was created today looked like what I made, I don't want kids to try to create the same things as  a grown-up, their work is often SO much more creative! However, I loved that Micah Rosin saw things that he liked and incorporated them into his work, and saw things he didn't like and choose to not use those aspects. I was also impressed at how well
both Micahs paid attention to detail!

Well done everyone! Beautiful colleges all around! It is neat to watch how the class responds to new choices in media!

Snow Adventures!

The Tel Aviv class had so much fun playing in the snow today! The whole class went up the stairs to investigate the big piles of snow next to the parking lot. We climbed them and scooted down them they were so neat. Adam said he could see as far as the fire department! After a bit some kids were ready to go inside and went with Lauri to have circle time while the others choose to play more outside. Micah Rosin, Micah Gladstone, Elias, Charlotte, Noah and Zachary stayed outside for an extra half an hour and enjoyed the beautiful weather outside.

I love spending time outside beyond the walls of the playground because we leave all the toys behind. For a full half an hour the six of them entertained themselves by using snow, sticks, each other and their imaginations. They built camp fires, dug for treasure, played house  and more. We walked around the playground fence and spent some time by the trees and wooded area next to the playground. They were all engaged in powerful imaginative play and it was a such joy to watch these six kids just being kids. After the extra half an hour tummies began to rumble and we said goodbye to the woods and hurried inside to make more snowmen, this time out of paper and bananas back in the Tel Aviv class. 

I can make a Snowman!

The Tel Aviv class is working on their cutting skills. So we decided that cutting out snowmen are a perfect way to practice circles! We had paper with different size circles on them and kids could pick out which three (or four!) they wanted to have as their snowman. When Molly first saw the paper she said, "I can't cut circles I can only cut squares. " I told her it didn't have to be perfect that snowballs come in all shapes and sizes and it's just fun to practice! Micah Gladstone showed her his and exclaimed, "see I can do it!" We looked at Micah's together and saw that it was beautiful even though it wasn't all cut on the line! Micah was proud of his work and Molly was ready to give it a go! Many kids spent the part of the day cutting circles; however Josie and Molly were enjoying creating snowmen so much that they went on to glue the circles to big blue pieces of paper. We are going to keep working on the project over the next few days. Soon we will have enough snowmen to fill our whole classroom!

The Snowy Day

What is there to do on a Snowy Day? You can find out in Ezra Jack Keats' classic story The Snowy Day which won a Caldecott medal back in 1963. It was good fun to share at circle this morning. The little boy in the story explores the winter wonderland he awakens to by experimenting with the snow in a number of different ways.

We asked the children whether they would like to build a snowman or make a snow angel in the fresh snow that's falling today. Some of them told us about the icicles that are dripping at their houses.

The Rainbows are always interested in the process of measuring ingredients and stirring to combine them. Today the children took time to make some bran muffins with raisins which they ate along with some fresh pears for snack.

Let it snow...

On Tuesday, the Rainbows were thinking about snowmen. They made snowman pancakes together as well as some mitten pancakes. The smell of freshly cooking pancakes filled the classroom and drifted into the hallway. Making our own snack is such a fun treat! Some of the children experimented in techniques for getting the maple syrup onto the pancakes as well as directly into their mouths.

At circle time, the kids heard a story about a girl who built a snowman over and over through the course of a winter. The animals made off with the edible eyes, nose, and mouth that she used in creating her snowman. Each time the snowman began to melt, she would find a way to save part of the snowman in order to start anew with fresh snow.

The Rainbows also enjoyed using glue to create artistic representations of snow creatures out of cardboard discs, colorful decorations for features, as well as fabric and cotton balls for texture. Hopefully some of you will get a chance to build a snowgirl or snowboy today!