Now that our afternoons are hot and the sun bakes our play yard in the afternoon, we are starting our mornings outside to take advantage of the shade and cooler air. This week, we were able to add some new "loose parts" to our play. One child's family is working on some electrical work and brought in leftover lengths of pvc pipe, which the children have been using for their own "electrical work". We also dug the hardened soil in our mud kitchen and added some fresh potting soil and water to keep it soft and malleable. The sun had baked our mud kitchen solid! We play for the morning, then wash hands and have a snack. After children finish eating, they begin to clean up the play yard. When everyone is done eating and cleaning, we all join together for a mini circle time where we play traditional circle games like "The Farmer in the Dell". Today, I introduced them to "London Bridge is Falling Down" which no one wanted to end, but it was time to go inside to cool down. These kind of circle games really work at the child's ability for self control. They learn to move together while holding one another's hands, not pulling too hard, but also holding on tight enough so as not to let go and break the circle. They learn to both sing and move at the same time which works on the child's co-ordination. They learn to take turns and also that sometimes, they have to accept not being chosen to be "The cheese" or "the farmer" and that we'll play again next time. These are important skills for the human task of working and playing with others.
After coming in from outside, the children use the bathroom and wash their hands (and feet!) before coming to our circle. We start our inside time after snack with our usual circle followed by a story and if there is a project or it's bread day, we head to the table for that activity. This week I read some stories that I felt went along with some of their pretend play. One book was "Princess Sylvie" by Elsa Beskow about a princess who goes exploring in the woods with her father. Today, because we always have pretend play that involves our cats and dogs, we read "Hairy MacLary from Donaldson's Dairy" and "Hairy Maclary Scattercat" by Lynley Dodd. The language in the Hairy Maclary is very rhythmical and the characters have delightfully fun to pronounce names. I find these books are excellent for language development in children. They were originally recommended to me during my Montessori training.
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