The Letter Writing Club

Right now I'm taking a child development class and have the opportunity to plan my own special project. For my project I am going to work on curriculum planning, putting together 2 or 3 projects to be done throughout the week, and then I will restart the blog which I haven't touched for the last 11 months. I love contributing to the blog, thinking back over our days and sharing them with the families, but on average it was taking about five hours a week and just became too much. But with renewed energy and inspiration, here we are again, and I am so excited to share what we did this week!

As the kids arrived on Tuesday, they were greeted by a paper on the magnet board which read:

This Week
at Children’s Garden
January 20-23

*Recycled Paper Heart Mobiles
*Melted Wax Heart Window Suncatchers
*Borax Heart Crystals

The morning started out very slowly, as it was Inauguration Day, so I didn’t have any of the boys in the morning. After Obama was sworn in, Maya’s and Sam’s mothers dropped them off, and the fun began. Maya was very excited to have a project all ready to go-she’s always looking for something to do. Much time was spent using the pencil sharpeners to obtain crayon shavings, and I think they really enjoyed that part of the process the most. I think they showed an amazing amount of focus for 4-year-olds. They were both very proud of their creations (wax paper/melted crayon hearts) and then moved on to cutting paper with a variety of scissors and then drawing with markers.

After picking up the kids in the afternoon, I explained how there were three projects planned and that they could choose whatever they wanted to do. Once we got home, I showed them the three projects and then explained that there were also envelopes, paper, stickers, and stationery out in the playhouse in case they wanted to play office or post office. “Post office,” Katie declared, “I love playing post office!” I made snack for the kids, and while they ate snack and watched a short show, Katie snuck out to the playhouse, skipping the show and taking her snack out with her. Just before the show ended, Katie re-appeared with 6 letters in hand. She handed one out to each child and told them to wait to read them until the show was over. A few minutes later, the show ended, and the children eagerly tore into the envelopes. Here is one of the letters:

Well, there was an immediate stampede on the playhouse. Katie had created a "mailbox" for each child out of bags, and each had a name on it. I was left inside, alone, so anxious to share my projects with the kids, but I knew that there would be time later today and later this week, and that what they were doing with Katie was just so much fun for all of them. They were practicing their literacy skills all in the guise of play. I know for certain that if I had said, “Okay, everybody, today we’re all going to write letters to each other,” that I wouldn’t have had anywhere near the success that Katie did. I snuck outside for a photo of the excitement, but other than that left them alone until things naturally came to a close.