Our study on mail continues to evolve based on the interests of the children. Two notable trends have emerged based on their play activities and explorations, specifically related to paper and mark making.

Recently, I have noticed the children show interest in manipulating paper in various ways. Some examples of this include utilizing tools such as scissors and scrapbook punches to transform the paper into new shapes and forms, as well as folding and bending. Besides the obvious benefit of developing fine motor skills, these explorations also offer opportunities for the further development of cognitive processes. Through their exploration and manipulation, they are discovering that paper is not just simply a surface to write on, but rather, something that can be used for many purposes. Some examples of this include snipping paper into small pieces to make “money” and “sprinkles for a birthday cake.” Other uses include folding paper into tubes to make a telescope or microphone. Based on these observations, I plan to offer some activities in the art studio to allow the children to explore this interest in more depth.

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Our Spirit Week started off with an exciting visit from our friend Elwood as well as friends from Longwood Athletics to celebrate Little Lancer Day!

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Before recapping our events today, I wanted to provide a correction to my post from yesterday. We are postponing parent conferences at this time. We will be scheduling conferences later this month. If you have an immediate concern and need to see me, please let me know.

Out on the playground this morning, the children continued their exploration of balance. The balance beams that they constructed last week evolved in several ways this morning as they experimented. By turning the crates on their sides, the children were able to gain height, increasing the risk factor. They also added multiple beams onto the crates, which allowed them to cross side-by-side with one another.

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We spent our morning at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA) today! (Please Note: this is a very picture-heavy post!)

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Outside on the playground today, the children constructed several balance beams to traverse across.

This activity is a great example of “risky play”, which is defined as thrilling and exciting activity that involves a risk of physical injury, and play that provides opportunities for challenge, testing limits, exploring boundaries and learning about injury risk (Sandseter 2007). Benefits of engaging in risky play in early childhood are immense. Chief among them is that risky play experiences encourage development of cognition and problem-solving skills. Additional benefits include promotion of motivation and self-confidence, as well as motor skills development.

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Despite our delayed opening, we were still able to take a walk across campus to visit the Children’s Literature room at Greenwood Library. The children enjoyed selecting books from the shelves to look through. The Children’s Lit room also has a wonderful bird’s eye view of the new Student Success Center construction site through large floor-to-ceiling windows!

We are proud to be a part of the Longwood campus community and enjoy partaking in all of the sights and sounds that our beautiful campus has to offer!

We are looking forward to getting back on our normal schedule tomorrow!

Happy First Day of Spring! To celebrate the change of seasons, we took our explorations outside to enjoy our rainy weather. Before going outside, I told the children that we needed to collect some rainwater for a project for our plants. I asked them to make a list of items that they thought we could use to do this. We came up with all sorts of containers that might work, including buckets, bowls, and even a bag! After making our list, we searched around school to gather up the items we needed.

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Because of the mild weather and at the request of the children, we spent extra time outside on the playground this morning after our walk. Despite an ominous looking cloud in the distance, it stayed dry and fairly sunny! The children divided themselves into several groups to play. One group created and acted out a campfire scenario. They built a campfire using hula hoops, wheels, and straw. To add to this, Elliana, Lane, and Aliyah gathered up broken foam pieces that had come off of a pool noodle to use as marshmallows for roasting! This play scenario grew in complexity with the children adding new elements to act out a story about a night spent outside camping.

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The highlight of our Friday morning today was an exciting walk to campus to play at “The Beach” (a.k.a. the volleyball courts between Stubbs Hall and the student union.) Our full-day students have visited the beach several times with Miss Woods in the afternoon, so we were excited to share this special place with our morning program friends!

On our walk to campus, the children commented on the trees and flowers along the path. We saw lots of yellow daffodils! The children recalled their color experiment with Mrs. Smith from a few weeks ago where they placed daffodils in dyed water and watched as the daffodils changed color. We also noticed that there are several trees that are beginning to bloom with flowers.

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Our study of mail continued today as we collaborated on a plan to construct a mailbox for Mrs. Jackson. In small groups, the children looked through the photos of mailboxes that we had collected over the past few days. First, I asked the children to describe the various features that they noticed on each mailbox. It was interesting to see what stood out to them as they viewed the pictures. The level of detail in their observations was fascinating to me! Many of them pointed out that some mailboxes had locks for a key to open, while others noted whether or not the mailboxes had a “lid” on top. I had expected them to notice broader features like color or size, but instead, they honed in on these more fine details!

From this observation, we made a list of features that we would need to consider when creating a mailbox for Mrs. Jackson. Some of those deemed most important by the children included that:

• the box needs to say “MAIL” on it
• the box needs to have a lid at the top and the bottom
• the box needs to have a flag
• the box needs to have shapes on it

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