Mar 16 2012
Today we finished the spacesuits! They are on their way to get their names embroidered this weekend and then they will be ready to wear for space exploration. The children when we were trying them on today got a little giddy with the prospect of having their own spacesuit so that has been fun to see!
I am going to be sending home a notice about our next field trip on Monday so be looking for that!!
Mar 16 2012
This morning, Mr. Smith came over to me and told me there were lots of spring surprises in the courtyard. I shared with tour friends what I had heard and asked them if they would like to see if any changes had occured to the space. As we made our way to the courtyard, I heard exclamations of, “WOW! It’s growing!” and “Mrs. Argus- daffodills!” and many other words of excitement. We talked about how these changes had occured and made predictions as to whether or not we would see other changes as the weeks progress.
Mar 16 2012
Today we had a great pizza day!
Some of our friends started making a base drum.
Leah, Zakeyah, and Shayla work on the base drum.
They used a metal tub and other classroom materials.
They used wood blocks for the pedal and a pencil, rice, and a balloon for the drum stick.
Our other friends were creating a drum band.
La'Mount, William, Martavious, and Larry use their drum set to create a song.
Mar 16 2012
Provocation for storytelling: What stories can you tell with these materials?
Friends work to create a camping story with our natural materials.
During my trip to the Opal School in Portland, I learned about story provocation with materials. There is much being done at their school around Story Workshop. Story workshop is a process where children are encouraged to tell stories with rich materials placed thoughtfully throughout the room and are also guided with some questions as a provocation. We have introduced some natural materials on a new shelf that have greatly intrigued the children, including seed pods, branches, shells, and other things. We encouraged the children to ponder using the materials to tell a story. There is a question in a picture frame on the shelf that reads, “What stories could you tell with these materials?” Some of their stories have been so rich and interesting. (as you probably can see from the pictures above.) Miss Schmidt and I also encouraged the kids to tell stories about worms with clay and watercolors. The question asked of them was, “Do worms have stories to tell?” Their creations have been incredible. Such imaginative and passionate stories have arisen from this question.
David and Christian work on telling worm stories with watercolor.
Mr. Beery and friends work with stop motion animation to create a worm story.
Mar 15 2012
One way we are working on inferring is by playing a game of who am I? Mr. Nored led a wonderful discussion and game where he gave descriptions of a person and then based on that information the children had to guess who that person was.
Today he had the children write their own cards where they were putting information about a person in class. Half of the group read their cards and had children guess who they were writing about…they were inferring so much not to mention they were having fun doing it!
