The Food Mystery

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In honor of our Pre-K Movie Premiere that will take place later tonight, we would like to present our final draft of our script entitled The Food Mystery. We actually had a total of 8 drafts but after the first three or four writing sessions it was pretty obvious that the story stayed exactly the same and only their characters changed. You’ll notice that in this version, there are not any copyrighted characters such as Iron Man or Cinderella. We explained to the students that it is important to come up with our own ideas and characters because otherwise, we are just stealing someone else’s idea. With some coaxing, and lots of trying out different ideas, we ended up with some pretty amazing characters.

Enjoy!

 

The Food Mystery

(March 11, 2016)
L.W. – a giant named Boxy
Z.W. – fisherman
A.H. – Policeman named John
C.S. – a princess
R.F. – a floating cloud
K.H. – a giant mouth that can walk
A.G. – a parrot
K.V. – a horse
M.H. – a building robot
S.S. – a witch
N.P. – spell Witch

House 1

(L.W.,  Z.W., A.G., and K.H.)
Once upon a time a giant named Boxy wanted to play a game so he invited a fisherman to come and play, “Fisherman, let’s go play some crazy games,”, and the fisherman invited a parrot, “Parrot come play,” and the parrot says, “Squawk, squawk,”.
They played the game for a long time and then they decided to stop for a snack.
The parrot says, “Let’s stop and eat some French fries and water, Squawk.”
Just then a giant mouth sneaks in and whispers to herself, “Ooh, those french fries sure do look yummy. Maybe I’ll just have a few,” and then eats a bunch of their food and then runs before anyone can see her.

They turn around and shout, “Where’s our food!?!”
The Boxy says, “Where are our french fries and water?”
The fisherman says, “I’m hungry!”
The Parrot says, “Squawk, The only thing that is left is a potato, squawk.”
They try to share the potato but it’s not very big.
The giant says, “I need more food, I’m still hungry.”

House 2

(M.H., A.H., S.S., C.S., and K.H.)
In the next house a princess, a robot, a police officer, and a witch all live together.
Everyone was having a dance party.
The princess says, “Let’s stop and have some pancakes and cupcakes.”
But before they could sit down and eat, the giant mouth, sneaks in and says, “Those cupcakes and pancakes look pretty good! Maybe I’ll just have a few!” but she accidentally eats all of the food and so she runs away before anyone could see her.
The witch says, “What!?! There’s no food!”
The robot says, “It’s a mystery! Who took our food?”
Then the robot walks out of the house and starts looking to see if he can solve the mystery. He looks outside and notices that there is a trail of crumbs on the ground. He runs back inside and is breathing hard and he says, “There are pancake crumbs outside. Let’s get our magnifying glasses!”
So they all run and get their magnifying glasses.

Just then, the phone rings. The princess answers it.
Princess: “Hello.”
Fisherman: “Hey somebody ate our food!”
Princess: “Somebody ate our food too! We found a trail of crumbs. Want to come search with us?”
Fisherman: “Sure!”
Princess: “I don’t know where it leads to, but let’s go.”

House 3

(N.P., K.H., K.V., and R.F.)
The spell witch lives by herself with her horse Majesty and her magical flouting cloud. All the sudden, Majesty sees a giant mouth trying to steal her food and she says, “Neigh, neigh!” and then spell witch and cloud see the mouth too.

The flouting cloud rushes to the spell witch and says, “Use your wand to get the giant mouth!”
The Spell Witch uses her magic wand and says, “Come here!” to make the mouth come closer. The mouth tries to run away but the spell witch locks up her house and she says, “Bibbidy bobbidi boo!” so she can’t leave. Then she says, “Lock up the food now, wand and stay forever, giant mouth!” to make the mouth want to stay in her house forever.

Just then, group of friends follow the trail of crumb and it leads right to the Spell Witch’s house.
The robot says, “One of you ate our food. Who was it?”
The spell witch says, “It was this giant mouth and she tried to eat my food too!”
The regular witch says, “AHA! I solved the mystery, it was the mouth that ate our food!”
Police officer John says, “That wasn’t nice. Please don’t eat our food again!”
The giant mouth says, “Ok, I’m sorry. I just didn’t have any food.”
The spell witch uses her magic wand to make a new house with a refrigerator for the mouth to live in.
Policeman John says, “Let’s all have a dance party!”

And they lived happily ever after.
The End.

Pre-K Makes a Movie: Part 3

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We are excited to announce that we have officially finished filming our movie! The students worked so hard on designing costumes and sets, learning lines and where to stand, and how to patiently wait while others delivered lines. That’s a lot to ask from 4 and 5 year olds, but they pulled it off with ease! Now, while we wait for our fabulous videographer Weird Eric edits and scores our movie, please enjoy the third draft of the play. This version was written on Feb. 17th and became the base story for our final draft. After rereading draft #2, the students had decided that they needed to write a new script that had one cohesive story line, rather than several separate stories. We also discussed how stories need to have a problem, so we decided to try thinking of a problem first and then creating a story around it. The result proved to be a pretty amusing, cohesive story!

Enjoy.

Third Draft

L.W. – a talking football

W.S. – Dark the triceratops

Z.W.– a talking soccer ball

A.H. – a lamp

C.S. – a talking building

R.F. – a chicken that talks

K.H. – a talking bone

A.G. – a talking stinky sock

K.V. – a horse

M.H. – a talking baseball

S.S. – a witch

N.P. – spell Witch

 

Problem: The bone keep eating everyone’s food and at the end of the day there isn’t any food left for anyone, even the bone.

Person keeps going into Campbell building

A running scene

Someone wants to wear the sock

 

Once upon a time the football (L.W.) wanted to play a game so he invites the soccer ball (Z.W.), and soccer ball invites the stinky sock (A.G.), and the football invites the triceratops (W.S.). They play the game for a long and time and then they decided to stop for a snack. Just then the bone (K.H.) comes in and eats all their food and then runs before anyone can see her.

They say, “Where’s our food!?!”

Soccer ball says, “I’m hungry.”

The sock says, “The only thing that is left is a potato.”

They try to share the potato but it’s not very big.

The football says, “I need more food, I’m still hungry.”

 

In the next house, the lamp (A.H.), a baseball (M.H.), a witch (S.S.), and the building (C.S.) all live together.

Everyone is having a dance party and the decided to stop and eat some food.

The building says, “Let’s stop and have some pancakes and cupcakes.”

The witch says, What!?! “There’s no food!”

The lamp starts to pace across the room and comes up with an idea!

The lamp says, “It’s a mystery! Who took our food?”

The baseball rolls out of the house and starts looking to see if he can solve the mystery.

He looks outside and notices that there is a trail of crumbs on the ground. He runs back inside and is breathing hard and he says, “There are pancake crumbs outside. Let’s get our magnifying glasses!”

So they all run outside and start to follow the pancake crumb trail.

Just then the phone rings.

It’s the soccer ball and he says, “Hey somebody ate our food!”

“Somebody ate our food too! We found a trail of crumbs. Want to come search with us?”

“Sure!”

“I don’t know where it leads to, but let’s go.”

 

The spell witch (N.P) lives all by herself. She sees the bone (K.H.) try to steal her food and she stops her and uses her wand to make her come closer. The bone tries to run away but the spell witch locks up her house so she can’t leave and then she locks up her food too so that the bone can’t get her food. The spell witch uses her spell to make the bone want to stay in her house forever.

The second group follows the trail of crumb to the spell witch’s house and the baseball says, “One of you ate our food. Was it the bone or the witch that did it.”

The spell with says, “It was the bone and she tried to eat my food too!”

The regular witch says, “AHA! I solved the mystery, it was the bone that took our food!”

The lamp says, “That wasn’t nice. Please don’t eat our food again!”

The bone says, “Ok, I’m sorry. I just didn’t have any food.”

The spell witch uses her magic wand to make a new house with a refrigerator for the bone to live in.

The spell witch unlocks the bone and then they all have the dance party.

And they lived happily ever after.

The End.

Pre-K Makes a Movie: Part 2

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In this installment of the Pre-K’s script-writing adventure, the gang attempts to change the existing script based on the new characters that they have picked. As they move through the story, they are challenged to change bits of the story so that the story make sense. In the first draft, Elsa freezes the sandwiches with her ice powers, however, now C.S. has changed her character to Super Girl, so she also has to change her super powers to match her new character. This proves to be a more challenging task as the students delve into more complex problems in their writing. While the story is incredibly funny and imaginative, it ends up being four completely different story lines.

Will the students find a way to create a story that ties all of the characters together? We’ll find out in our next installment of “Pre-K Makes a Movie”. Until then, please enjoy our second draft!

 

Second Draft

(Feb. 9, 2016)
L.W. – Red Hulk
W.S. – Yoda
Z.W. – Incredible Hulk
A.H. – Mike the green power ranger
C.S. – Super girl
R.F. – a chicken that talks
K.H. – Loretta
A.G. – a duck that blows bubbles out of his mouth
K.V. – Elsa
M.H. – Zombie Pig Man
S.S. – Darth Vader
N.P. – Thorn Rosa

Once upon a time the Incredible Hulk (Z.W.) is in the loft. Then the Green Power Ranger (A.H.) came and meets him for lunch. Then Super girl (C.S.) came out and said, “Hmm probably I should use my laser eyes to burn their sandwiches”. The Hulk (Z.W.) puts the sandwich in the fridge for 6 hours so that it cools off and then he warms it in the microwave.
Red Hulk (L.W.) was flying a ship and saw a red light and Zombie Pig Man (M.H.) was crossing the street to the taco shop and Red Hulk (L.W.) said, “Get outta the way”. Thorn Rosa (N.P.) hops on Red Hulk’s ship. Then Red Hulk came and found the sandwiches and then eats them up. Thorn Rosa (N.P.) presses a button and it tells them where the Incredible Hulk is. Loretta (K.H.) comes flying in a different ship and stays on his ship until she gets to the market store. Loretta goes in the market and eats a taco.
Yoda (W.S.) says, “Buenos dias. Como Estas?”
Incredible hulk (Z.W.) says, “I don’t understand those words. I don’t speak Spanish.”
Yoda (W.S.) says, “It means ‘Hi’.”
Incredible Hulk (Z.W.), “Hi, how are you doing? I’m doing good. Have you had a busy day yet?
Yoda, “Yes.”
Incredible Hulk, “What have you been doing that’s busy?”
Yoda, “Playing around.”
Incredible Hulk, “What games?”
Yoda, “‘Sorry’ with my mommy and daddy and by brother Miles.”
Incredible Hulk, “What time?”
Yoda, “Today, before I took a nap.”
And then they were friends.
Then, Duck (A.G.) makes a boat out of ice and he sails back to land and he goes on a bus back to town and he eats pizza. Then the chicken (R.F.) crosses and street and he sit down and he watches the cars and eat a sandwich. Darth Vader (S.S.) turns on some music and Elsa (K.V.) comes over and starts dancing. Then everyone comes and joins in the dance party.
The End.

Pre-K Makes a Movie! (First Draft)

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For the past several months, our students have been working together to write their very own screenplay. Starting in January, we periodically sit the children down and ask them what kind of story they would like to write. We usually start by having each child choose a character and then they take turns adding details onto the story. The story is completely their own and can include almost anything the students’ dream up. The first few writing sessions usually result in a story that has little to no plot and often very little dialogue. It takes a few practices to understand how to work together to create a story that not only makes sense but involves all of the characters.

The next time the children sit down to write, they can choose to either change the story they wrote last time or try to write a whole new story. The students are allowed to change their characters and the storyline as many times as they want until spring break. Now that we have returned from spring break, we will begin practicing our lines for the play and designing costumes and sets.

On April 26th, our friend Weird Eric will visit the class to film and help us turn our little student-written screenplay into a movie! On May 19th, we will premiere the Pre-K Movie to our families and friends. Until then, please enjoy the students’ first draft.

First Draft

Jan 7, 2016

N.P. – Thorn Rosa

A.H. – Blue ninja 1

R.F. – Creeper 1

C.S.– Elsa 1

K.V. – Elsa 2

M.H. – Minecraft zombie 1

L.W. – Yoda

L.Z. – creeper 2

W.S. – blue ninja 2

Z.W. – Minecraft zombie 2

K.H. – Princess Leia

A.G. – Blue ninja 3

S.S. – Blue ninja 4

 

Once upon a time the Minecraft Zombie 2 (Z.W.) is in the loft. Then the blue ninja 1 (A.H.) came and meets him for lunch. Then Elsa 1 (C.S.) came out and said, “Hmm probably we should take their sandwiches and freeze them”. The minecraft zombie 2 (Z.W.) and the creeper 2 (L.Z.) warmed up the sandwiches in the toaster.

Yoda (L.W.) was flying a ship and saw a red light and Minecraft zombie 2 (M.H.) was crossing the street to the taco shop and Yoda said, “Get outta the way!”. Thorn Rosa (N.P.) hops on Yoda’s ship. Then Yoda (L.W.) came and found the bad guys and he turns them into bunnies and then Thorn Rosa (N.P.) finds the bunnies and they’re standing near the toaster oven and she locks them up in a doorway. Princess Leia (K.H.) comes flying in from a different ship and becomes friends with the zombie bunnies. The blue ninja 2 (W.S.) also becomes friends with the bunnies. Blue ninja 3 (A.G.) makes a boat out of ice and he sails back to land and he goes on a bus back to town and he eats pizza.

The creeper 1 (R.F.) crosses and street and he sit down and he watches the cars and eat a sandwich. Blue Ninja 4 (S.S.) turns on some music and Elsa 2 (K.V.) comes over and starts dancing. Then everyone comes and joins in the dance party.

The End.

 

 

Heave-ho, me hearties!

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When the students came back from winter break, they noticed that something new was added to the loft. They spent most of the morning studying the contraption and making guesses about how it could be used. The hook seemed to be the most recognizable part of the tool and it quickly was decided that it had to be an anchor. After some exploration, we sat down with the students to explain that the new tool was called a pulley and it was used for carrying various items from the top of the loft to the bottom and vice versa. The students spent a few minutes learning how to use the tool safely and troubleshooting how we could safely attach the rope to the loft. Then it was time to test it out!

 

“It’s in the mailbox!”

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That was the sentence that inspired a creative endeavor today.  One of the children had drawn a picture.  When I asked her where it went, she said, “It’s in the mailbox!”  Hmm….I don’t currently have a mailbox in our room.  I mentioned this discrepancy and she suggested that we could make one.

Pull out the boxes.  Put out the paint. Find a smock and get ready to create.

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The following conversations took place while the children painted:

Mrs. Forst:  What do you do with a mailbox?

“Mail can come in it from the mail truck.”

“Then when you come in from your car, you’ll get some mail.”

Mrs. Forst:  What is mail?

“Mail is some kinda mail.”

“You have to put something in it, like a person.”

“Mail is paper.  It has like pictures and stuff.”

Mrs. Forst:  Where does the mail truck come from?

“That’s too hard.”

OK.

Mrs. Forst: How do they get the mail in the truck?

“They open the back and the mail guy puts the mail in.”

Oh, yeah. I forgot that our wee ones are so literal.

 

“He won’t let me be [do] what I want!”

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This is a common complaint in the Pre-K classroom. Sometimes it’s “he”, sometimes “she” and most often “they.”  No matter which pronoun precedes the declaration, it is certainly “not my fault!”.  The Pre-K child’s development of fairness, self and place in the social world drives the logic behind feelings of inequity.

Here is an example of a conversation I overheard recently.  Two children were already engaged in a game of “family” under the loft.  Two other children wanted to join in on the game:
(all names are ridiculously fictitious)

Ivan: Mrs. Forst! Mrs. Forst! She won’t let us play! 

Blessing: But, Mrs. Forst, They aren’t playing right!

Harold: Yeah! She won’t let us play her game!

Mrs. Forst:  Blessing, tell me what happened?

Blessing: Ivan “grrrrrred” at me and he breathed in my face.

Ivan: I was a bear! I was a BAD bear and I was going to eat her.

Blessing: And Harold just yanked all of our food away. He didn’t even ask!

Harold: But I didn’t have any food.

(at this time the words were flying like bats out of a cave, I had to do something to make the discussion more focused…)

Mrs. Forst: Ivan, what do you want?

Ivan: I want to play with them.

Mrs. Forst: Blessing, what do you want?

Blessing: I don’t want them to be bad bears and steal our food.

Mrs. Forst: Ivan, ask her how you can play in their game.

Ivan: What can we do in your game?

Blessing: You can be good family or pets.

Continue reading “He won’t let me be [do] what I want!”

Of Liquids and Solids

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Ah! Spring weather is upon us. We’ll see warmer weather, leaf buds, early crocuses and, of course….

MUD!031315_9502

Wonderful, gooey, ooey, sticky, icky mud!

As the snow melts, the runoff  creates a thin trickle that percolates down to the field. The tiny rivulet runs down the slight slope toward the grass, spreading wider with each inch.

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Once solid footing becomes squishy and murky.  Your boots call out, “schlp, schlp,” until you realize that only one boot is still making noise.  The other is embedded in the mire. Hop, hop, hop back to your boot.

 

 

 

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On the other side of the new swamp, friends concoct a meal fit for the king of ooze.  Into the bucket go shovelfuls of solid and liquid H2o.  Buckets of watery mud are carted to the pot, adding to the brew.  To add more mud or stick with ice? Does it need more wood chips?  Did you stir it twice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWwhfpvZmi8

All this in a mess. A natural mess compounded by art.  How to get clean, where even to start?

The snow! The snow!

We’ll roll in the snow. The abrasive top coat is just enough to scour our suits.  We leave brown streaks behind to show where we’ve been.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2KoWgDAKn8

We’ve explored measurement, space and fluidity, too.  We’ve mud on our face.  It’s time to go in.

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The Paper Bag Princess

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The_Paper_Bag_Princess

Recently, we read a story called The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch; the well-loved author of Love You Forever and many other wonderful stories. In the story, Princess Elizabeth is described as a beautiful young princess who lives in a lovely castle, has beautiful hair, and expensive clothes. She is betrothed to her perfect match, Prince Ronald. Until one day when a dragon comes along and smashes her castle, burns up all her fancy clothes with his fiery breath, and captures Prince Ronald. Princess Elizabeth decided to put on the only thing that survived the fire (a paper bag) and sets off to save her prince.

When Elizabeth finally meets the dragon, she uses several very sneaky tactics to trick the dragon into exhaustion. Once the dragon is out cold, she rushes in to save Prince Ronald, but he scoffs at her appearance and choice of clothing. He tells her to go away and not to come back until she looks like a “real” princess. Elizabeth smiles and says, “Ronald, your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum,” and Princess Elizabeth decides not to marry him after all.

After the story, we discussed why Princess Elizabeth decided not to marry Prince Ronald. Many of the students concluded that Ronald was not very nice to her and that she should be allowed to wear/look however she wants. Others decided that sometimes, the princess gets dirty and saves the prince. One child even stated that it doesn’t matter what clothes a person wears, what matters is that they are a nice person. We decided as a class that it’s fun to imagine and tell lots of different stories. Boys can pretend to be princesses and fairies.  Girls can pretend to be princes and dragons or maybe just a princess who likes to get dirty every once in a while. When we play, we can be anything our minds can dream up and the true moral of the story is that life isn’t much different. Regardless of our age or gender, we can be anything we wish to be if we just spend a little bit of time imagining.

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Princesses can never get dirty.

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I was a bit 20121211_6555thrown by a comment made during a small group discussion today.  I’ll try to replicate the conversation. Of course the names have been changed to protect the growing identities of our young social scientists. Let’s call them Marcella and Hildegarde.  The two children were discussing the action in a plot they were creating.

Hildegard: The boys can go out and do hard work and build.  And the girls can have tea parties.

Mrs. Forst: Girls can build and boys can go to tea parties.

(The two children laugh at my comment.)

Marcella: (scoffs) Princesses can’t build.  They NEVER get dirty.

Mrs. Forst: What if they want to go milk the cows.

Marcella: (aghast) They don’t do that! That’s what villagers do!

Mrs. Forst: What if she puts on work clothes so she can go do some work?

Marcella: She can’t dress like a villager. That would be hideous.  They [princesses] never wear “ragedy” clothes.

The conversation that followed included Marcella’s definition for “ragedy” (torn and ripped up and dirty) and an emphatic group agreement that princesses would never do actual work.  I countered with a few questions.  If a princess has to stay clean and fancy all of the time, does she ever get to have any fun?  At some point Marcella and Hildegarde identified themselves as villagers.  I asked them if they ever wore “ragedy” clothes.  Of course, the answer was a resounding “No!”  Being five years old, they didn’t notice the gap in their logic.

Next, we had a political discussion:

Hildegarde: It doesn’t really matter, because the villagers are in charge of the whole kingdom.

Mrs. Forst: Why is there a princess, then?

Hildegarde: (exasperated) All castles have princesses.

In our class, we are encouraging all of the children to explore many different roles as they play.  We want them to know that all options are open for princesses, princes and villagers.  Women build things. Men design dresses. Girls design computer software and enforce laws.  Boys sing and create dazzling culinary feasts.  Humans create. Princesses are not made of glass. They can get dirty. They can wear work clothes (without any rips and holes) and they should never be forced to stay in the tower, segregated from the rest of the world.