Weekend Links

I'm really enjoying this blog, Make and Play, written by a mother and art educator in Russia Serbia (thanks vera!).  It is filled with children's work that is truly open-ended and carefully facilitated to make it meaningful and engaging.    The painting wall at their home and the banging wall in the woods are amazing!

Since I am clearly obsessed with TED talks, I'll share this one : The idea of "the balcony" is one that we need to embrace as early childhood educators.  It is so easy to act on our own feelings or assumptions about children's behaviors (and adult behaviors as well!), but stepping out and taking an outsider's perspective is worth the extra time.  I can see this being a real tool in problem solving with children.

I checked The Magic Hat by Mem Fox out of the library, and we have been reading it over and over again.  The teeny tiny stop sign is especially popular.

It is my niece's third birthday today, and I got her one of my favorite games for preschool : Snails Pace Race, made by Ravensburger.  It is a competition-less game: everyone takes a turn rolling the colored die and moving the snail corresponding to the color rolled; and the goal is to get all the snails across the finish line.  So no one "is" the pink snail, but you sure can predict it will win and cheer for it.  Someone even made a little video about it:

Happy Weekend!