Week 5.3 - Pippa's Flower Dance...

Pippa showing us her flower dance.

But how does this make her feel and what does it have to do with flowers?  "The song is about flowers and it's happy like the dance...we danced at my home."  I wondered if the children had flowers who would they give them to?  So, they made flower pictures:

Alexis dedicated herr picture to Pippa because she is nice

Francine opted  to make a garden for her yard and her whole family

Jeffery made a flower paper airplane, which inspired us to explore what sorts of insects fly near flowers

Orin's flower is for his mother because he likes her a lot

Tai made two rows of sharks teeth but had a change of heart, and modified it to a flower garden for school.

We watched a video about how and why bees pollinate flowers Without the bees we would not have any fruit.  Tomorrow we are going to create a play about the partnership between the bees and flowers. ...

Week 5.2 - A Super Lesson: hard work, determination, unwavering commitment

On Tuesday, we made Princess and Mario puppets, and finished tapping the course on the floor.  The children chose their obstacles: a log to jump over (rolled up blanket), two super jumping pads (2 yoga blocks), mushrooms (foam blocks) and a lake of death (1 blue foam block), and, of course, the Super Mario Theme Music.

The children are jumping over the treacherous log

The addition of the lake and a parallel course to rest in, should one land in the lake

Victory dance

So, what was the point of all of this?  Well, no matter what obstacles Mario faced, he always moved forward, and never looked back.  In the video game, Mario's goal is the save the princess and he does this with single minded determination.  In our game, all of the Marios and Princesses had the goal of getting to the end of the journey, even when the mushrooms or the lake posed a "threat."  The children embodied determination -- it is important never to waver in pursuit of our goals- no matter what.

Week 5.1 Lysander Super Mario Brothers ...

I am not one to play video games, so this was quite an education for me.  Last week, Lysander said that he liked Super Mario Brothers video game because he he plays Mario, who runs fast, and as Mario, he can beat his big brother, Jahan.  Video games are another way to role play, and have experiences outside of our current reality.  Lysander enjoys the adventure, and getting the jump, and duck down, and dive into things so we began to chart out a game of our own.

Lysander came to school on Monday fully committed 

The children mapped out what the course was going to look like

As they tapped the course onto the floor,  other children were drawn to the game

Week 4-3: What have we learned so far?

Today we took a stroll down memory and reviewed the different ways that we have expressed our feelings and interests over the past four weeks.  I used the images from our grouptime to job their memories.  The children recognized themselves playing the drums, painting pink bananas, reading the monkey song dot map and moving like tiny little mice.

The children at the roundtable review.

Before beginning the assessment, each child practiced writing their names.

Lysander, Pippa, and Francine are next to share their ideas and interests.  Today Lysander told me that he loves to play Super Mario Brothers because they jump, run fast, and get prizes.  He says he likes to win.  He likes to be  Luigi because he's faster than Mario just like Lysander is faster than his big brother Jahan.  :-)

Week 4-2: Puppets, Play, and a little Pandomenium

Yesterday the children continued the self-portrait exploration by making puppets and putting on a puppet show.  I had a plan- we watched the I Feel audiobook video again, for some inspiration.  I thought that we could explore their feelings.  However, the children ended up creating their own mini shows, pairing up unexpectedly, on their own terms.

While I did not understand the theme or plot behind their play, I did have the opportunity to observe them  a little bit better.  Francine and Alexis were acting out an elaborate scene where they were possibly flying and chasing and jumping:

"Okay, pretend we are two girls, one is me and two is you, we go up and then 'round and 'round, but not in the sky, just golden blue oceans, when I go, you can come to, but if you see it coming down then we just run like this and then JUMP, JUMP, JUMP..."

Alexis and Francine Puppet play

What does it mean when two little girls pretend to be little girls?  In essence, they were taking on the role of themselves, within a world of their dreams.  So, I pondered, what would renowned early childhood educator, Vivian Gussin Paley say?  She would probably say that children roleplay in order to expand their story and change their perspective.

Francine and Alexis "hiding" behind their puppet-selves.

Pauline preferred to play with Pauline Puppet face-to-face.

Week 4-1: If you could ....

This week, it was time to take that concept even further and ask the children to think about how they would style their hair etc.  We looked at pictures of people with different hairstyles and talked about what that says about them.  For example, a picture of a person with a mohawk says that they are "brave and scary."  So, if you could do anything you wanted,  what would you look like and why?  We started out with a blank slate, and this is what they created:

Alexis has long hair because she is a big girl, it's okay to have hair over her eyes, she can still see.

Jeffery says he has hair all over,  he is tall and has fire power inside .

Lysander liked bright green colour and has big hair all over.  His mother would not let him have hair like this.

Orin is an older boy with a mustache- he wants to be taken "seriously" so his picture is black and white.

Pauline portrayed a smart boy with glasses and a mustache who has a lot of ideas for games.

Pippa has pink hair and lots of makeup because it is fun.

Tai has a red peacock on his head, glasses for magic, and a funny smile to make people laugh.

I did not anticipate the children portraying themselves as someone who is older with presumably more power and ability.   The children seem to think that having the ability to wear makeup, special glasses, and facial hair means freedom and freedom means power.   Perhaps they feel as though they have to wait until they are old enough to "wear makeup" or have a mustache to be taken seriously.  This is such a reminder for me to acknowledge children as my legitimate and equal other who have an inherent right  to be heard and seen.

Week 3-4: Alexis: hair choices and the like ...

Sometimes Alexis likes to wear coordinating hair clips, and ponytails holders "because it's nice sometimes...I like the colour when it matches my shirt."  Alexis says it make her feel "grown up, like a big girl ready for school."  Last week four of the children began to explore the idea of how they see themselves by drawing on the dry erase boards.  We watched an audiobook called I Feel and I asked, how do you feel right now, can you draw a picture of yourself....

Alexis drew a picture of baby Alexis when she had very short hair
Pippa drew a picture of herself with pink hair, with the shining sun to help it grow

Orin drew a picture of a girl with 3 rings on each side because he felt "just, silly."

Week 3-3: Bicycle Wheel and the SpokeN Word

Tai adding the finishing touches to his wheel

Alexis using the straw as she blows the paint 

Children's circle of sharing - they passed around the glue, paint, and the droppers!

 Yesterday, some of the children drew wings and jets on their bicycles so that they "could go super fast." Today I asked: if a bicycle has wings and flies is it still a bicycle?  Why?  The children agreed that it is a bicycle because the wheels stay on the ground and on the bike.  They also cleverly noted that the wheels on an airplane "go inside the belly while flying" so it "not the same as a bicycle."

 

"If you move really really fast, then you will ride fast."

"Going down a hill makes you go fast."

But children, if you could go that fast, and fly anywhere or any place you wanted to, where would you go, I wondered out loud?  Here was what the children said...

To the moon, to the alien planet to fight the bad guys, to see the stars, to Hawaii, to Grandma's house in England 

And so today we explored what they will look like by creating our own bicycle wheels with blurred colours representing high speeds.

Children have ideas and theories and thoughts and opinions about things - we just have to ask!  And while I could have enquired about how we do travel to the moon, today I decided not to.  I just wanted to support their dreams and dream along with them.  Perhaps one day the children will become poets and touch the moon.  Their dreams can have wings too. 

Week 3-2: Tai's bicycle ...

Yesterday, Tai pulled me aside to tell me something important:  "Camille, I have a bike with training wheels and it's really fun."  So today we explored what it means and how it feels to ride their bicycles.  Here were some of their thoughts:

Brainstorming chart

Jeffery - I like to go fast from way up high

Orin - I like doing wheelies, jumps and cartwheels

Tai - I like going super fast, it makes me happy

Alexis - I like to ride at the playground

Pippa - I like to go to the bike cafe

Pauline - I ride on my deck with a helmet

Lysander - I go so fast I can fly, I love it

The Children's Bicycles

For thie artwork we used two circles and one triangle.  The children know their shapes and they can identify that the wheels are circular, but some disagreed with my choice of a triangle as a frame.  The process takes precedent so that the children can feel free to describe their creation to me.

Orin - there are four seat..the bike transforms into a race car.

Alexis

Tai - My bike turns into a spaceship

Pauline - jets in the back make it fast

Lysander

Pippa

Jeffery - My bike has wings so it can fly

At the very end of our time, the children wanted to play, so I stood back and watched something amazing.  A few children gravitated towards the locktagons- a construction toy.  The built bicycles- flying bicycles!  The cognitive leap from conceptualizing something on paper and  then creating what they imagined, is quite an accomplishment!  The children are developing their visual-spacial processing during their impromptu play.  This lead me to ask...are jets and wings the only way to make your bicycles go really fast?  Perhaps we will explore this tomorrow ...

Orin showing Jeffery how to make the wheels

Orin flying his bicycle

Jeffery's bicycle

Week 3-1: Jeffery's Superhero: Strength in movement

Lysander's Superhero Pose

Pippa's Superhero pose

Tai's Superhero pose

In the last grouptime, the children were moving their arms and bodies to show me how strong they are. Their facial expressions were also equally telling: eyes squinted, lips pursed, with gutteral loud sound effects.  The children believe that their voices must change, bodies must tighten in order to be strong, as if to protect themselves or to  create a barrier.

After choosing their capes and scarves we began to explore:

This is what it means to be weak.

Our next exploration

Children moving with strength and confidence to the Amelie Soundtrack

The children gravitated towards "play fighting" moving their scarves towards each other without making physical contact.  I signaled the children for a "T.O." or timeout, with my hands in the "T" position.  I asked them, "Why are you moving the scarves towards each other?"  Jeffery said, "I am like Optimus Prime, I can fight.  Orin said, "It's okay because we are not hurting each other."  And he was right.  The children were exploring their own personal space and respecting the space of others.  They were laughing, making sound effects, and maneuvering up, and down.  This is what we call consensual coordination: without plan, the children had a sense of how to be with each other.

I then posed the question: "Children do you feel strong if you move while lying down on your back?"  Only two children tried this. I wonder ...do the children prefer to connect with one another making eye contact, exchanging smiles and laughs.  A community that laughs together, learns together!

Lysander exploring movement on his back.

I then wondered what would happen if we changed the position of the scarf from the hands to the ankles.  Only one child was willing to try this, when I asked why, Orin said "because it is too scary."  I think the prospect of kicking one another was unappealing so they continued the exploration with arms and hands.

Next, we made "strong and soft music" with a drum. The children decided that strong meant loud like a lions roar and soft meant being like a little mouse:

Orin helps Pippa play like a lion with the mallet

The boys gently strum, with each finger, like a mouse.

Week 2-3: Jeffery's Superhero: Strength in Poetry

Jeffery's loves superheroes- Optimus Prime, Skylanders, Tennage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Spiderman.  The other children also expressed their admiration for Mini-Mouse (Francine) and Princesses (Pippa). I wondered out loud:  What makes a Superhero so Super?

they help people

they are kind

they put the bad guys away by fighting them

they share because they have a lot to give

they can fly and make webs

And with that, each child created a poem about what it means to be a superhero. 

Each child practiced tracing their name and them writing it below.

Her are some examples of their poetry:

A superhero is ....makes magic words in the rainbow; helpful, happy; caring

A Superhero is not ....a bad guy; a monster

I realized that it is challenging for the children to express how they feel about superheros in words, as they continued to jump up, swimg their arms, adn "show me" what a superhero is.  In our class class we will use our bodies to explore strength.