Imagination Playground
The children were very excited to be back at school after their winter break. They were surprised when they were able to visit the community room to discover some new equipment with various shapes and sizes of soft building materials called "Imagination Playground." At first, they built several creations in small groups, but when they discovered they'd used up all the pieces, they decided to connect their structures which resulted in towers and castles connected by bridges!
The next day, our Nursery friends enjoyed playing with the same materials again, this time being more familiar with the pieces. They first completed an obstacle course (which the Kindergarteners who had used it before had set up). Then slowly, the children made their own creations including: castles, boats, a limbo bar, a high jump bar and ramps for the balls. This activity was wonderful for the children to work together, use their imaginations to make newer and bigger structures, establish rules for their play (they decided the rules all by themselves!), as well as compromise when they wanted to use the same pieces but there were not enough. Well done, Nursery friends!
The children will continue to have opportunities to play with these materials as the school year continues.
The children will continue to have opportunities to play with these materials as the school year continues.
Imaginative Masks
As the children have completed their paper mache masks that they had been working on little by little, they continued to show interest in other masks and found paper masks with funny features such as broccoli hair, colorful mustaches, and lace hair. They took turns pretending to be different characters with the masks.
We talked about masks more during Circle time which led to a discussion about facial features and feelings. We wondered what it meant if someone was smiling (the children agreed that that meant someone is happy) and why someone might have a sad face or tears (the children said someone or something hurt their feelings).
Next, the children were able to create their own masks. Many of them were excited to have lipstick or eyeshadow, while others liked the idea of their masks having colorful hair like some of the masks the children had seen the previous day.
We talked about facial expressions that masks portray and continued to talk about feelings. Many of the books we have been reading associate colors with feelings so the children began to talk about how colors made them feel. Some friends said that yellow was a happy color because it was the color of the sun. Others said dark blue could be a sad color because on rainy days the sky is dark and it's not as cheerful as sunny days. The children agreed that rainbow colors were the happiest because rainbows make them happy. We introduced the children to the artwork of Takashi Murakami, a famous Japanese artist who is known for his colorful almost cartoon-like images. As we showed the children some of his more recent artwork on the monitor, many of the children became excited. Anna came up and shared that she had actually visited his exhibit at the Mori Museum with her parents and said his artwork was funny. Eugene said he visited as well and that at first he thought some of the people in the artwork were monsters. As we investigated the images more closely, we learned that the 'monsters' were people and had many lovely colors surrounding them so the children said these figures in fact looked happy. As many children said they had seen these posters around Roppongi Hills, we asked if they would like to visit the museum as a class...which resulted in a resounding "YES!" Our Nursery class will take a short visit to see the exhibit next week.
Next week we will continue to read books about feelings and colors and further investigate the colorful artwork of Takashi Murakami before we visit the museum to see it for ourselves.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
-Julie and Natalie
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
-Julie and Natalie