May
01
2012
Mrs. Argus
Regan checks out the hens!
This morning, our class excitedly went outside to check to see if Thelma, Louise, or Dottie had left us any gifts. To our disappointment, they had not laid any eggs, but our class did not give up on the girls. Later in the afternoon, we went to check again, and low and behold, we had one, beautiful brown egg! We aren’t sure which hen laid the first egg, but the class talked about figuring out which hens lay which eggs.
The kids were also enthralled with a new provocation in our room this morning. Yesterday evening, the storm knocked down a small bird’s nest in my yard. Unable to put it back into its place, I brought it in for the kids to see. Next to it, I placed a question, “Who lived here?” The kids were encouraged to use watercolor pencils to tell the story of the nest. There were some incredible stories, I can’t wait to see what the kids come up with tomorrow.
Carriea's picture tells the story of the wind knocking down the bird's nest.
Who lived here?
Ruth, Messi, and Regan create stories about the nest.
Tags: chickens, story telling, story workshop
Mar
19
2012
Mrs. Argus
This morning, a large group of friends explored storytelling about plants through the use of pastels. The stories are a wonderful reflection of some of our learning about gardens and growth. Sascha and Aidan also chose to incorporate bees into their plant stories and had some interesting ideas about what bees do with flowers. This hopefully leads to an investigation!
The creation of the greenhouse!
We were also lucky enough to be given a mini greenhouse by a friend of the classroom. This morning, Messi, Da’Sean and Monica worked with our Butler friends to put it together. They even planted four different plants- carrots, eggplants, tomatoes, and onions- yum! Hopefully, the greenhouse gets the germination process started and we can eventually transplant the veggies to our actual garden.
We get a visit from some special friends- Butler Blue 2 and Butler Blue 3- Trip!
Tags: creativity, garden, project, story telling
Mar
16
2012
Mrs. Argus
Provocation for storytelling: What stories can you tell with these materials?
- Angela carefully chooses some natural materials to tell her story.
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.
We also have another exciting event take place in the morning. We were lucky enough to have Mr. Beery come in and dabble with us in stop motion animation. Using a simple Ipad app, a small group of children worked with Mr. Beery to create a worm story. The finished result was SO NEAT! The class loved celebrating the hard work of our friends and are all anxious to have their turn at stop motion animation with Mr. Beery.
Mr. Beery and friends work with stop motion animation to create a worm story.
Tags: creativity, curious, project, Reggio, story telling
