Welcome Christine!

What a wonderful, busy week we had! On Wednesday, we welcomed Christine to Terra Luz. She's been focused on observing, interacting with, and getting to know the children. Christine brings with her a wealth of knowledge and ideas, and such a passion for early childhood education. We are so grateful to have her with  us!







Building on the focus of Color and Light, we're beginning to investigate Shadow and Light.


Questions being asked of the children:
"What is a shadow?"
"How do you think shadow is created?"

I began tracing the children's shadows on Tuesday, and they quickly realized, we couldn't trace any shadows the rest of the week because the clouds were covering the sun!

Other Snippets


Cutting fabric for our book of Colores en Español.




"Today, I'm a bruja"
-Alaira

Light Table Exploration

Light Table Exploration (Krista)

This week was our final week of color and light exploration at the light table. This was a time for the children to use all of the tools that they've become acquainted with over the past month, and some new materials, as well.

Our offerings included liquid watercolor, shaving cream, gelatin molds, tissue paper, diffusing paper, construction paper and various sizes of bubble wrap.

As they have done over the last several weeks, the children worked in small groups. Because they were familiar with the tools and materials, they were comfortable and had more freedom to create, and their creations and conversations reflected this.

It's important to note that, on the surface, these explorations are all about color and light, but there is much deeper work being done. The children are Scientists and Explorers. New vocabulary is learned, collaboration is happening, problem solving skills are enhanced, fine motor skills develop, and literacy and math concepts are explored (for example: several children drew letters in the rainbow-colored shaving cream, and we often counted the number of pipettes, water colors, brushes, etc. in both English and Spanish).

Comments from the light table:

Mia S: (upon hearing that we would be working with bubble wrap at the light table) "Oh, I'm really looking forward to that!"

Anika: "Let's turn the lights off so it can glow in the dark! The paper feels like wetness when we put the water colors on it!"

Corbin; "The paper turned to color!"

Jason; "This is a snake! I painted it green."

Alaira: "Oh, this is starting to blend. The blue and yellow are making it all green!'

Anika: "Let's see what happens when I put more paper on top of this wet paper, will it stay dry?

Lucca: "Let's share the pink now Sophia--look at this Ms. Krista, we shared the pink!'

Gwen: "Look at all those spots I made with the pipette--I am squirting them out of here, do you want to see this?"

Sophia; "This is awesome! I write an S for Sophia!"

Anika; "Let's see how I can write my own name."

Jalie: "I'm going to work to cover EVERY bubble with paint!"

McKenna: "It makes a squeaking sound when we use the brush!"

Mia G: (singing while painting) "Painting, painting, painty painty paint, paint! We love the light table because we get to share the paint!"

Atticus: "This is the color world that we have!"

Mia S: "I am making a canvas!'

Damon: "I've got red hands with all this red jello that we have here! I'm going to crush it up and then we can just toss it up in the air and it comes down on this light!"

Ava: "this gel stuff feels really cold and smooth like a river stone."

Natalie; "Thank you for letting me have fun with this light and cream Ms. Krista! I had fun getting messy with friends!"

Comments from the classroom:

Corbin; "I'm following you around because i LOVE you Ms. Krista."

Alaira: "When I get bigger, I'm going to go to work and Jason will take care of the kids."

Introductions

Hi everyone!

My name is Christine Lau and I am excited to be starting as a part-time assistant at Terra Luz on Wednesday! I recently moved to Austin from Los Angeles, where I grew a love for early childhood education. I went to college at UCLA studying psychology, education and applied developmental psychology, in which I was able to intern at a high quality childcare center on-campus. I have always loved young children, but what immediately struck a chord with me was the way that they respected children as competent learners and equal citizens. We were exploring the Reggio philosophy and I was attracted to their amazing work as well as their high value of community. I had the opportunity to be a lead teacher in the infant room at a Reggio inspired school for a year and have learned so much from that experience. I am thrilled to have found a Reggio inspired school in Austin and look forward to the relationships, joys, wonder, challenges, and victories that are we will share together!

Update on 620 Property

We met with a general contractor and his associate who is an ADA compliance representative to look at what conversions would need to be made on the 620 house to make it operable as a preschool. There are some modifications needed and we're going to ask for some variances on others.We're trying to keep costs as minimal as possible in hopes of making this place a viable option for Terra Luz.

My husband and I left with a good feeling and both parties are eager to get the numbers so we can all make a decision, but it all boils down to the numbers. The contractor should have the estimate ready to give the owners by the end of this week. Keep those fingers crossed! :)

This Week in Photos [Watercolor and Gelatin Exploration]

It's always interesting to see the difference in how the children encounter different mediums and in this case, it was gelatin! We did this activity last year, and as you will see, it doesn't gets old.  Krista posted a write up below.













Mia celebrated her 4th birthday this week and we lit the birthday ring. It seems like just yesterday, Mia turned three!






Baby Quilts, stitched up by Melissa. Thank you sweet mama!!




Children practicing gross motor and perfecting balancing skills with our new wheelbarrows, donated by Tanya! Muchas Gracias!!


Christine visits and joins in on our morning gathering.


We had an intimate farewell for Ms. Kellyann on Friday. We presented her with a photo collage of her year with us and quotes from the children, and enjoyed our last moments together with our sweet teacher and friend. We wish Kellyann all the best, and hope she can come by to visit us!

I also launched a Terra Luz facebook page. I had done one previously, but it apparently got 'cached', so a new one is up!

Light Table Exploration Photos [Color Blending and Shaving Cream]

Adding some more photos from last week's exploration with color and shaving cream.
Color blending and Gelatin pics coming soon!
























Powerful, isn't it?

light Table Exploration (Krista)

This week, we continued our exploration of color and light. We worked at the light table with clear gelatin molds and water colors, and it was very, very exciting.

I feel so lucky to be observing and recording the children's experience with these materials.

The shear joy that they feel while exploring the texture, sights and sounds of the gelatin and watercolor is apparent.

Here are a few quotes, and Andrea will post photos soon:

Corbin: " This is FUN Annika! How about you come here and try this too--it's like jello and you can break it up with your fingers!"

Jalie: "It feels so cool....COLD EVEN!!"

Sophia: "I got a big piece--let's use our hands, oh it's very beautiful!"

Lucca: " I want another color--it's in my hands now!"

Gwen:"There are so so many pieces of this pretty stuff!"

Jason: " It's cold!"

Damon: "Look! I'm a jello man, look at this stuff here!"

Mia S: "We can put color in and then we can just cut it with the pipette--I made a big bunch, a big bunch of colors!"

McKenna: "I'm going to put this yellow in here like this right here."

Alaira: "This is the light color area and here is a dark color area to work with."

Natalie: "Watch what I'm gonna do--I'm putting the pipette in...what's this stuff called?"

Atticus: "Here is the green part!"

Sophia; "This green is a fish--it's nemo."

Eddie: "This is a funny cookie that I made for my mommy."

Mia G: "This is fun sharing, isn't it guys?"

**We took some time to wish Ms. Kellyann well today--we know that we will see her again, but ohhhh how we will miss her sweet presence in our daily experience...

Beans and Volunteers Needed

If any of you have extras around the house, we would love if you send some to school for fun sensory activities we're setting up:

• Popcorn Kernels
• Bags of Lentil Beans (kidney, pinto, and black)
• Large bags of Rice
• Old flashlights (for upcoming focus on Shadow)
• [Child Friendly] Magazines for cutting out pictures and letters

We're also putting a call out for a couple parent volunteers to assist the teachers with preparational tasks at home (i.e. cutting/shredding fabric for upcoming weaving project, cutting out letters for writing center, etc.)

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Christine will be visiting Terra Luz this Thursday morning to shadow Kellyann in order to get to know the children, environment, and the flow. She is able to join our community sooner than expected, and her first day will be next Wednesday, the 27th!

Early Literacy

For those older children who have shown an interest, I’m excited to have started some small early literacy groups. I’m doing this because some children are showing an interest in print awareness, so I’m simply guiding them as they explore this. As a former elementary school teacher, it’s important to me that this be done in ways that are natural and meaningful to the children, and not in a regimented, and excessively didactic way.

As parents and educators, it’s important to be mindful of our children and their development, and not become obsessed and push our children before they’re ready. We should give children time to get used to, and familiar with the look of letters and words, before beginning any type of formal instruction. This is a very good reason, among many others, for letting the child themselves decide when he/she wants to start to read. And we want our children to build a love for reading, so they become life-long readers. So many older children and adults have a dislike of reading, and it makes me wonder, why?

Back to the topic of print awareness. I would like to share this analogy. If you take a sample of printing of a different language, say Japanese or Arabic, and try to find the words that occur most often on the page, it would be difficult as the words may look like a jumble of strange shapes. In the same way, it takes a child some time to get used to the shapes of letters and words, to the point where he/she can see at a glance that this word is like that word, and this word altogether, is different. One of the reasons why children from unlettered homes are at a disadvantage when they start learning to read may be because they lack familiarity with the shapes of words and letters.

Terra Luz is a print-rich environment and a wonderful selection of books are everywhere throughout the schoolhouse. The children have a HUGE passion for books and having stories read to them. So, one project I began working on with some of the children is asking them to make up a story and dictate it to me based on a picture-only book. Not only does this help your child’s cognitive, creative, and speaking skills, the other children are working on listening to their friends in an informal setting. This is meaningful and fun.

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We are also going to begin sending informal Home Reports home. For those veteran Terra Luz families, this is similar to what I used to do with our Home-School journals last year. The home school report is simply a short update on your child and their experiences and our observations at school. We tossed around the idea of bringing back the home-school journal (in which parents actually write back and return to school), but we want to make sure this doesn’t end up being too time consuming for all parties. We'll see how the home school reports work, and go from there.

Have a fabulous weekend!
Andrea

This Week in Photos

Erinn, mama to Lucca, came in on Tuesday an offered a wonderful opportunity. In small groups, Erinn gathered the children around to assist in sewing a handmade placemat. She cut up and brought scrap fabric from her stash so the children could choose their design. In this RTW (ready to wear) world, it's nice for the children to see the beauty of the art of sewing, and they REALLY enjoyed this!







Mia creates her drawing for the centerpiece of her placemat.








Watching


Erinn will return next week to finish up the placemats. We are SO grateful!
Thank you sweet Mama!

Other Snippets





"My Daddy"
Sophia


Mia asked if she could write notes and draw a picture of her family on my clipboard.








Light Table Exploration ::
Shaving Cream and Color Blending

Krista extended on the watercolor blending from the previous week, by adding the element of shaving cream.
*See post below for her write up. So NEAT!












Looking at this last photo, what do you see?
I see hot lava.