Well! It's been a busy few weeks and I missed a blog post! Oops and apologies for the few followers. :-) 
However! Back in full effect with plenty of time for a catch up...

Well week 3 was all about listening to music and observing our feelings and thoughts. The music was classical and started of with depicting the seasons – we listened to Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, Vivaldi's Winter, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Pachelbel's Canon in D major, Rimsky's Flight of the Bumble Bee, and the Nutcracker. As the week went on and we were becoming more familiar with those ones we added the theme music to Star Wars, the Sorcerer's apprentice, and the title music of Harry Potter. We listened to Jazz – John Handy's Hardwork, and The Pink Panther theme tune. And it all went crazy when we played 'Let it Go'! 

It was a lovely week and the children said that some of the music made them feel sad, they wanted to march, they thought about flying in the air – like Batman!, they wanted to sway, and they thought of snowflakes skipping. We took advantage of the sun on a Friday afternoon and had our circle outside whilst basking in the sun and letting the music wash over us. Beautiful. 

Onto week 4:

The Continents of the World. 

As we approach our main focus this term of animals of the world in danger it seemed a good idea to identify the different continents and where they are. 
We brought the puzzle map and globes into circle and began to name them. 

The children discussed what they knew about them. 
One boy said, 'The Amazon is a river in South America.' 
This made a girl scrunch up her face in a thoughtful way, 'The Amazon?!' 
She turned to me, 'Isn't that a shop?!' 
I nodded, ' As big as the river!' 

Tim and I for the past year have often talked about bringing our extremely gorgeous border collie to the park to join the children on park days.

Finally, and to the absolute pleasure of all the children, that day arrived last week!
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Archie greeted the children as they arrived in the morning. Most of the children were very excited although there was a small group who were not sure. I get it. Archie, although the most gentle and good natured dog, is also a big dog. In their eyes, from the ground Archie comes up to their shoulder height. Can you imagine?! If I came face to face with a dog whose nose could sniff my shoulder I would need some strong reassurance too!

And so Archie joined us as we set off into the park walking alongside the children who, all hold on to our waking rope, had eyes glued to him!

As soon as we could Tim took Archie off the lead and began flinging the ball far and wide for the dog to fetch. It was brilliant! The children loved watching him chase the ball and bring it back to throw again.
 
Once we got to the playground the children took turns in groups of three to step out of the playground and help  throw the ball for Archie. There was an ample supply of volunteers! What was lovely was that the children who had been a  little tentative were keen to give it a whirl. Even the girl who had been the most shy and nervous wanted to throw the ball for him. She came back declaring, 'I like Archie!'

So a wonderful success! The children asked if Archie would be coming again and we agreed very quickly that he should be a regular fixture on park days.

The next day the first boy through the door asked 'Is the doggie here?' And quite a few of the parents let me know that Archie had been a feature of conversation. They talked about how he had run really fast chasing the ball, how he had done a poo and Tim had picked it up! And also how they had tired him out. :-) 
As one parent said 'Archie is the new celebrity in our household!'

Well the conversation went something like this...

Me: Hmmm... so I have a question. What should we name our new room for the two year olds?

Child 1: "The baby room." 
Me: "Is it a room for babies?" 

Child 2: "The little room." 
Me: "Hmmm..."

Child 3: "The Princess room."
 
Child 4: "The Prince room."
 
Child 5: "The Incredibles Room."
 
Child 5: "The Batman Room."

Child 6: "The Hulk Smash Room!" 

Okay, I seemed to sense a little bit of a pattern emerging. 

Child 7: "The Octonaut Room."

Child 8: "The My Little Pony Room."
 
Child 9: "The TV Room." 
But we have no TV!
 
Child 10: "The skateboard Room."
And how would that work?! 

Child 11: "The ski Room." 
Similar thoughts!

Somehow these wonderful suggestions it just weren't hitting the spot. 

And then a breakthrough moment...

Child 12: "The Globe Room."
Okay, so let's put that to a heavily weighted vote in which my vote counts as the deciding one! 
Me: So shall we agree on the Globe Room then?! 

The nods to the floor decided it. 

So the children and community at Albany Montessori are are pleased to name our new space – The Globe Room!