The Rocks are Alive ...

The Friendship Rock:

This week children are choosing, cleaning, and decorating their friendship rocks.  On Tuesday, Damon, Eva, and Zoe chose their special rocks, while Elaine, Matthew and Allye painted their rocks.  I asked the children why they chose their rocks, this is what they said:

Damon:  This is a BIG rock, my new friend can be big big like me and the Hulk, okay?

Eva:  It's a nice rock, I can feel it.  I'm going to clean it a lot.

Zoe:  I just liked it.  I don't know if it's a boy or a girl, right now it's just a rock with dirt on it.

Some children chose to paint their pet rock many colours and some chose to paint their rocks one colour for a variety of reasons:

Matthew:  It's just nice to see a lot of colour

Allye:  Purple and sea green are like Elsa and Anna

Elaine:  I like green.  Maybe my rock can go in the garden.

Once the children began to decorate their rocks with paint and eyes their rocks became alive.  Today, after Nico put the eyes on her rock she said "Now she can see me."  I asked her about what sort of things will she see when you take her home?  Nico said : "She'll see me draw, maybe I can teach her."  We both smiled at each other with a little giggle.

A gift for our friends...pt 2

Step 1: Open up the paper tubes

On Thursday, we attenplted to make the bouncy balls.  Unfortunately, they ended up looking like flat pancakes!  We decided to focus our efforts on the marble run instead. 

Allye and Matthew mixed yellow and blue to make teal

Elaine and Nico decided to mix purple and yellow

Allye and Mathew

Step 2 - Paint  !!!


This week Earth Groups marble run gift to the class helped us learn about how gravity affects the speed of an object.  WHY DOES THE MARBLE FALL?  Marbles do not move very quickly when the marble run is horizontal.  The higher the angle, the faster the marbles went.  We learned that when objects travel down an incline plane (like the marble run) gravity pulls them and the marble run (the plane) exerts a force on the marble (object) which makes it fall.

Allye testing the marble run on the ground at a low angle

Chloe and Elaine changing the angle and increasing the speed of the marble

A gift for our friends...

Last Tuesday, we reviewed all of the different things that we experienced with our friends in Earth Group over the last 6 weeks.  We made funny face pictures together, we played the 'Will You Be a Friend' song game together, we made the train together and the friend puzzles.  So now it was time to explore what we could make for our other friends in all of the other groups.

After charting their ideas, I summed up three possibilities:
1. A Super Duper Tall Marble run
2. Binoculars
3. Bouncy balls

The first two options were toys that stay at school for everyone to share and the third option is a toy that everyone can take home.  I found a youtube video of how to make a bouncy ball.  For the marble run, we are going to use paper tubes that we can paint.

Allye wants the marble run to be rainbow colour 

Children working on their prototypes

Damon showing how fast the marble run will be !

Damons picture of marble run and a bouncy ball

Will you Be a Friend of Mine?

Tuesday October 7, 2014

What makes a good friend?  A good friend shares toys, plays with me; hugs me; kisses me, likes to have fun, likes to laugh but not laugh at me.

When I saw Damon coming in this morning with his mother I noticed he brought an incredible hulk lego action figure with him.  I requested that he bring it to grouptime today and he said yes.  We passed it around the circle

After we passed the toy around the circle we started our shared art experience.  Most times when children make their project, they are the only one who contributes to their art but today we "shared" our shapes portraits.  Each child painted a shape, I named the shape and colour and then they passed their paper onto the child beside them to paint the next shape.  Although each picture had more than 4 "shape interpretations", the most important thing is that the children were perfectly agreeable to having everyone else paint on their canvas !  Now that's friendship !




   




We concluded group with 2 friendship games.  The first was Hello My Friend.  A child in the middle of the circle is blindfolded and a mystery friend says "Hello, hello can you guess who I am?"  The child in the middle asks 3 questions to find out who this person is !  The questions ranged from are you a boy or a girl; what colour is your hair; do you have a sister; and did you have 2 ponytails.




The last song game we played is called 'Will You Be a Friend of Mine.'  The children walk around the circle and tap each persons head and when the song ends the child in front of you is your new friend.  Then the two new friends hold hands together and walk around the circle together.

Elaine chose Matthew as his friend

"Will You Be a Friend of Mine?"
(Tune: Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Will you be a friend of mine
Friend of Mine
Friend of Mine
Will you be a friend of mine
I'm so lucky

________is a friend of mine
Friend of mine
Friend of mine
________is a friend of mine
I'm so lucky



Thursday October 9, 2014

Today we began group with the "Will you be a Friend of Mine" song game, being sure to make eye contact and smile.  Then we added a new game played to the tune of B-I-N-G-O:

I have a very special friend and can you guess her name-o?
E-L-A-I-N-E
E-L-A-I-N-E
And Elaine was her name-o.

We went through each childs name, counted the letters in each name on our fingers and compared who had the longest name.

We ended todays group with another "all-friend portrait."  This time we painted a face with the focus on using the thumb and index finger to hold the paint brush with a clothes pin.   Many children hold felt pens and pencil crayons with all 5 fingers wrapped around in a tight grip.  We used clothes pins to exercise their little thumbs and index fingers ("pointer and thumbkin").  We opened and closed the pins and chirped as little birds before clasping the paint brushes.  If the child squeezed the pin too much the brush would fall out!  By the end, all of the children adapted and learned how to lighten their grip, relax their wrists, and use their thumb and index fingers to grip- we're working on the first step to writing!

Nico counting the letters in Elaine's name during the "B-I-N-G-O" game

Allye chirping like a bird 

Elaine using her thumb and index finger- chirp, chirp like a little birdie !

Allye removed the paint brush and held it with her thumb and index finger.  Elaine holds the paint brush using her thumb and index finger - wonderful !

Nico squeezed the clothes pin a little to hard so she had to re-insert the paint brush

Friendship Skills & How to Make Friends

When I asked the children what we need to do to make friends, Matthew remembered how I end every yoga class:  Kind hearts, kind words, kind thoughts.  We put our hands over our hearts, mouths, and heads.  To explore more, we watched this 2 minute video on friendship skills.  What happened?  The friends found a way to share, and solve their problems by talking about their feelings.  But HOW were they able to do that?

Where were their eyes doing?   Were they closed?  Opened?  Looking at the other person.

What sorts of things were they saying?  That hurts me,  you can use it after me.

How did they know what to say?  Because they heard it.

The children working hard on their cards

Damon: Hey it flies like wings !

Allye:  It's just like my smile see !

Lunchtime fun: We are Friends !!

Elaine:  I like to smile; Please see me; I feel happy; Friends need to hear me

Eva: If you smile I will want to play with you; it is important to  look because they think you are nice; It is important to listen so your friends an talk to you;  This might make you  fee happy.

Matthew: It is important to smile because you want to make friends; You need to look at them or they will feel sad; You can play if they say you can so you have to hear; You need to look at them or they will fell sad; I feel happy when I get to play with my friends.

Zoe:  it is important to smile because it is kind; It is important to look so you can talk to them; When I am making friends it is important to hear music; It feels like I wan to play.

Nico: Because if you moosh you face I will not want to play with you; If you do not look at them they will be sad; You must listen because I call my friends and my moony to come play with me.  This make me feel happy.

Allye:  It is important to smile because it makes everyone happy; If you don't look at people then they will say no I don't want to talk;  it is important or listen because it makes people happy and makes children laugh and play.

On Thursday the children finished their friendship cards, and had some time to play with the train board and the friendship puzzles.  While Matthew and Allye were able to name each friend they had some trouble reading the names.  Allye came up with the idea that they could look at the cubbies !  So they matched the names and faces on the cubbies with the names and faces on the train - brilliant problem solving!