images to build on

I've been looking through my many, MANY photos from the last school year to reflect and reinvent for the new year. As we will work to incorporate Reggio philosophy into our work this year, we'll build upon...



Our natural world. Trips around the community and to the botanical gardens will inspire. A goal for myself is to be more attuned to the comments, inquiries, and discussions between children and adults...these insights will lead us into deeper inquiries and projects in the classroom.



We'll represent our ideas through many mediums like sketching, painting...




sculpture...and much more

beyond time for real change

The education debate has been stirring, thankfully, for some time now. But with the mainstream documentary, Waiting for Superman, set to hit theaters in September, the debate may actually lead to changes. Check out this Op-Ed piece from the Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/opinion/25friedman.html

Taking advantage of New York

This weekend I visited Governor's Island and was pleasantly surprised to find that the island has been inhabited by the arts. The Children's Museum of the Arts (CMA) offers fun and free art experiences for children now through September 26, it's definitely worth a visit, you can copy and paste this link to learn more.

http://cmany.org/pages.php?pn=GovernersIslandOutpost

CMA is a museum I hope we get to visit as a class this year on a field trip. If your interest is piqued and you would like to take your family to the museum here is a link along with some information to get you started.

http://cmany.org/pages.php?pn=home

Children's Museum of the Arts
182 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 274-0986
(Located in between Broome and Grand)

General Hours
Monday and Tuesday CLOSED
Wednesday through Sunday 12pm-5pm
Thursday 12pm-6pm

Admission $10/person (1 to 65 years)
Pay as You Wish Thursday 4-6pm

The Beginning

I am sitting in our classroom...already getting completely excited about the new school year. There are several changes that I want to make this year, inspired by the many Reggio books and blogs I've read over the summer and from visiting a Reggio private school over the summer. I hope you and your child are getting excited as well, it will be a wonderful year.

I was just writing the supply list for the year when I got stuck on how to describe beautiful junk. I decided it was worthy of a full blog post, since we will will be using beautiful found objects and "junk" throughout the year for sculpture, collage, and art projects. We often throw away items that can be transformed by the creative hands of a four year old. Some of the things you may want to bring in from home are listed below, but feel free to bring in anything throughout the year that you think can become part of a work of art!

- buttons
- yarn
- fabric scraps
- scarves
- egg cartons
- shoe boxes
- packing peanuts
- CDs
- boxes with lids (all sizes)
- empty plastic containers
- plastic containers with lids(transparent and opaque)
- plastic screw-top container lids (peanut butter, spice bottles,
coffee jars)
- unpainted metal jar lids,

Here are two pre-k blog posts all about beautiful junk. For some reason the link function isn't working but you can copy and past them into your URL...Enjoy!

http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/2010/08/junk-art/

http://simpleorganic.net/the-three-rs-go-back-to-school/

I'm very much looking forward to meeting parents and children in just a few more weeks! If you happen upon the blog before school starts and you want to come by the school to meet me and see the classroom just email or comment on here and we can set something up!