chalk, chalk, and more chalk

Today we all were totally re-couping from an amazing night at The Greatest Show on Earth, a super-fun treat on a school night for us. We had a chance to attend the Ringling Bros. s how in Baltimore, take pictures with some of the performers in a meet-and-greet beforehand, and essentially witness Maddy and Owen stare in wide-eyed awe at what is certainly not the circus that I remember from my childhood.

So after a busy morning at preschool, we took it easy. We created a few pages in our Alphabet Books, we read through a bunch of our library books, we paged through our complimentary (huge, gorgeous, and glossy) Ringling Bros. Special Edition Circus book.

Talking & Listening: We talked about our favorite parts of the circus, and we showed Cora all the pictures. Using the book as a reference was a great way to spark Maddy and Owen’s memories of the show and have them try to elaborate and explain the show to Cora. (It’s also a sneaky way of practicing speaking and listening, important parts of the balanced literacy framework!)

After rest times, we took a short walk and headed outside. And then we experimented with chalk.

Chalk: Maddy found a piece of sidewalk chalk that had been left outside in the rain for the last few days, and she became totally excited when she realized that it wrote much differently as a wet and soggy piece of chalk than a dry one. We found another piece, so we smeared, squished, flattened, and spread the pink and blue chalks until they disappeared, and everyone’s hands were stained. Maddy, Owen, and Cora drew anything and everything they wanted–racetracks, rainbows, stars, trees, and maps of the planets. I asked questions, helped if they asked me, and praised their hard work.