Pre-K Play: First Draft 2015

Many of you already know that our students have been hard at work writing the script for our Pre-K movie since the beginning of January. Now that we have finished our final draft, we thought it might be fun to look back at the development of our story. Below, you will find the first draft of our play. This copy of the script is written word-for-word as described to us by the students, so please ignore any run on sentences or the lack of actual dialogue. However, if you look closely, you’ll see their ability to include many important story elements such as a beginning/middle/end, as well as a problem and solution!

You’ll also notice that several students choose a character but then do very little in the actual play. Typically, we start each script writing session by acting out the story line that was previously written on another day. This helps the students to see how big or small their roles are and then gives them an opportunity to change it (if they so choose).

The students were allowed to make as many changes as they wanted to their characters or the story line until the beginning of March. Since then, we have begun practicing our lines and designing our costumes and sets.  On May 8th, we have invited our videographer friend, Weird Eric (of WT Summer Camp and Applefest fame), to help film and turn this fantastic story into a movie! We are very excited to dive into the movie making process!

But first, please enjoy this little window into an exploration in script writing!

 

 

First Draft

N.M. – a  flower

V.H. – Anna

Z.W. – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

R.M. – a rainbow flower without a stem

A.H. – a baby unicorn

Z.B. – Elsa

P.M. – Mickey Wizard

L.W. – Woody the cowboy

L.L. – Snow White

J.K. – a forest guy

 

Once upon a time, Woody found a cage and he looked in and he said, “Wow there’s a little dog. Hey, you wanna play?” and they played together and he said, “I’m going to throw this football like a quarterback.”

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse plays football too and then he paints with his brother and then he calls the mickey wizard to come over to have a big party and they all play with their family. Then they have a sleepover. They heard Mickey Wizard crying. He’s crying because he lost his magic wand. Now he has to get a new one. So Mickey Wizard goes to the store to buy a new a wand.

Just then, they see a princess named Anna. Woody says, “Anna would you like to stay over”. And Mickey Mouse Clubhouse says “ok, we have 400 beds for you sleep in” and then Elsa comes and they invite her to stay. They tell her that there are 400 beds and that she can sleep with her sister and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will stay with his brother. Just then, Mickey Wizard comes back from the store with a wand and he feels happy.

“Hello, Mickey Wizard,” they say. They tell him that there are 400 beds and he can stay with Woody in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’s bed.

Elsa sees Snow white who is riding in on a baby unicorn and everyone invites them to stay for the sleepover. Everyone gets tired and they all go to sleep.

The next day everyone wakes up and they decided to go outside and play. When they get outside, they find two beautiful flowers and they pick the flowers. The forest guy says, you have to put those flowers into the water. So they take the flowers inside and put them in some water.

Then the baby unicorn gets lost! So everyone goes to look for the unicorn, except for Anna who stays home to take care of the flowers. They looked around and they realized that the monster had taken her into the cave. The forest guy hears a sound and he thinks it’s the baby unicorn and it was the unicorn. But Snow White says, “this will take forever to find the unicorn!”

Mickey wizard breaks the cave with magic from his wand and he uses his magic wand to bring the unicorn to him and to safety. The baby unicorn made it back to the house safely. Everyone says, “YAY!!!”

The End.

The Playground Has Arrived!

The Imagination Playground arrived on Tuesday morning and we finally got to take it out and play with it this morning! WE LOVE IT!  It was such a lovely day, we took it out onto one of our patios.  At least 4 grades played with it today.  I was amazed that the children made such complicated structures the first time they had their hands on the blocks.  However, the second time we went out, the buildings were more sparse.  It seems as though their initial visit was a willy-nilly building frenzy, while their second visit entailed much more contemplation and experimentation.  This slower pace made it look as though less was being done, but actually more thought was being put into block placement.

Here are some of the things I observed today:

[slideshow]

The Imagination Playground is Coming to WTN!

I am so very excited to share the news! The Imagination Playground (IP) is coming during the month of April to visit WTN.  The Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC) recently purchased this playground through a grant funded by the Grable Foundation and is allowing the members of the Play Academy of Pittsburgh to borrow the set for their school sites.  Miss Herald, from the WTN Kindergarten, and I have been working with the Academy twice a month since it’s inception and are thrilled that it is finally our turn to share the Imagination Playground.  It has already visited Fox Chapel Area School District, The CMU Children’s School, and the Fox Chapel Area School District Family Literacy Center.

Our initial plans are for it to be available for use in the P.E. room.  We are working Ms. Brand on incorporating the IP into both P.E. classes for all of the grades and for use during open multi-purpose room times.  The equipment may also be used outside, but we’ll have to wait and see what the weather does before we commit to taking it out into “the wild”.  Also, keep your eyes open for clean, “found” objects that the children could use to fuel their creativity.

I’ll be sure to post pictures of our PK kids using this new resource here!

If you are interested in seeing the Imagination Playground in action, you might want to check out “Build-it-yourself playground helps kids imagine” at CNN or “Building a Better Playground” from TIME.  If you’d rather just get it from the source, here is the video posted by KaBOOM!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHVAn7SdmbU?rel=0&w=480&h=390]