The Animal Restaurant

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With each new year, and new group of students, I’m always so fascinated to see what types of games the students create with one another. Sometimes it’s a classic game of tag or “cops and robbers” but more often it’s a game that they created from their own imaginations. This year, many of the students were interested in collecting seeds from around the nature playground. When asked why they were collecting the seeds, they responded that they were for the animals to eat at the animal restaurant.

Since that day, the children have been working diligently to create different confections for the animals to eat. Some children helped by gathering a variety of natural materials for the kitchen such as rain water, grass, sand from smashed rocks, wood chips, acorns, pine needles, dirt, rocks, and what they had decided are lemons (but are actually walnuts). Once the materials were gathered, they students took turns adding them to the concoction they were working on at the moment. Some days it has been a cake, other days it has been a stew or a salad.

As other children have been inspired to join in the fun, new animal kitchens have popped up around the nature playground as well. A new animal restaurant was created yesterday in what we refer to as the”mud kitchen”, except that this restaurant has a twist. The animals that eat the food from the mud kitchen gain special powers like rainbow powers and storm cloud powers. Animals that wish to dine in this restaurant can use their special power to ward off bad guys that they may encounter in the woods.

 

We are very excited to see where this game will take us in the following days or even weeks. Tomorrow we will be working on making signs for the restaurants. We will continue to observe the children working in their animal restaurants and hopefully we can find a way to turn this wonderfully imaginative play into a full-blown unit of study. We will keep you posted as the play progresses!

Give it a try.

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I can do things by myself.

Throughout the day, parents, teachers, and children encounter obstacles that present an opportunity for practice and learning.  As parents ourselves, Katie and I realize how much easier it is to simply do some of the quick and easy tasks for our young ones.  I’m sure there have been many occasions where I simply put my child’s shoes on for him so I could get him out the door in a hurry.  We get it.  However, beginning around 2 or three our children are capable of and should be expected to accomplish a lot on their own.

In case  you’re are still a bit sceptical, here is a list of skills we know *3-5 year olds CAN accomplish on their own:

  1. Putting on their own:
    Jacket/coat
    Shoes/boots
    Clothing, including pants/underpants/shirts/skirts/dresses/socks/mittens
    Hats
  2. Opening their own:
    Bag of pretzels/muffins/chips (anything that comes in a chip type bag)
    Bananas
    Clementines
    Juice boxes (except for Honest Kids…I can’t even open those)
    Tupperware
    Applesauce (with the exception of those new squeeze bottle ones…who’s idea were those screw-on tops?)
  3. Personal care:
    Nose wiping
    Bathroom needs (all regular wiping, cleaning routines…unusual accidents understandably require help)
    Hand washing
    Sneeze/cough covering
    Brushing their own teeth

The good news is we see ourselves as a great practice ground for these new independent experiences. It is much easier for children to adopt unaccustomed roles and routines when they are also in a new environment.

I’m sure my own children take advantage of me whenever they get the opportunity because I’m their Mom.  I’ve been there too long and lived through too many routine changes from infanthood to pre-teen.  Yet, they would never consider pulling the “I’m too little” card on one of their teachers. (Well, maybe they would, but thankfully the teacher wouldn’t fall for it.)

We are here to help them grow and become more independent as they mature toward the ripe old age of 6.

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*Children and adults with true physical challenges might find these tasks more difficult.

Read more @ Responsibility? What’s that?

Welcome to Pre-Kindergarten!

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Welcome to the North Hill Campus @ WT Pre-Kindergarten class! We’ve only been in session for two 1/2 day periods, and already Mrs. Pless and I have taken over 250 photos of your children in action.

This is the spot for all your news.   Here, you will find out more about the research projects your child delves into this year.  Announcements, funny quotes straight from your children, and insights into their learning will be posted here.  If you haven’t already, I suggest that you subscribe.  This will insure that each updated post will land safely in your mailbox.

Here is a peek at what has been happening over the last two days:

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.

My favorite part was…

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After we returned from the Aviary, our students wrote in their journals about their favorite part of our trip. Below are their answers.

Pre-k Visits the Aviary

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Yesterday, our class traveled to the National Aviary as a culminating activity for our study of birds. The students were surprised to see that many of the birds were not behind cages but actually were able to fly/wander around the room as they wished. Some birds kept their distance, while other birds tried to camouflage themselves within our group so they could escape the room! We learned that some birds eat fruit, seeds, and worms while other birds eat the meat from dead animals and how important they are for our environment. The class was treated to an up-close encounter with a zealous vulture who enjoyed jumping down from the trainer’s arm to check out the reflexes of our students. Some friends that were lucky enough to feed mealworms and fish to the birds in the Wetlands room and we all had the opportunity to feed a bowl full of nectar to the Lorikeets. Some students were a little nervous having the birds so close to us (the Lories actually land on your hand to eat) but all students persevered and were calm and respectful to the birds. One student, as we walked out of the Lorikeet room, exclaimed, “That was heaven!”.

During this field trip, our class also had the opportunity to participate in a project that Mrs. Weber has been piloting, called Big Shot Camera. WT purchased cameras, which arrive disassembled, and the fifth graders worked to build them into functional digital cameras. Mrs. Weber then has spent time with each class teaching the students how to take pictures of the world around us. Our class chose to use the cameras to take pictures of the all the birds they saw during our trip.

We were so proud of our Pre-K class throughout this trip. Not only were their many other schools visiting the Aviary, but the students were challenged with being so close to these unusual animals. The students followed all of the directions, showed calm, listening bodies, and truly showed us how much they have matured over the course of this year. It is very clear that our students are ready for next year.

 

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.

Day of Gratitude

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Today, we celebrated our Day of Gratitude at the North Hills Campus at WT by doing some spring cleaning around the campus. Each grade worked on different projects to show their appreciation of wonderful seven acres of land that we are lucky enough to have at our disposable each day. The Pre-K class worked to move all of the sticks away from the pathways on the Bear Track Trail and then they covered it with a fresh layer of hay. The students had to use teamwork to pull the hay apart and cover as much of the trail as we possibly could. We discussed how it is important to take care of our school and the environment so that we can continue to play and learn in the nature that is around us.

 

Flying Machines

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Our interest in flying birds has sparked an avalanche of engineering ideas.  One student suggested that the best way for us to study the birds would be to build a flying machine.  This way we could observe our feathered friends more closely.

Many of the children have begun creating prototypes (their word, not ours).

On another day we asked them what materials they would need for their machines. (We want to make sure we’re prepared!)

“metal, string, more metal, and gas”

“We have to do little wires to make them work.”

“very small metal pieces”

“We need some wire that carries electricity to keep the boosters working.”

“We need a plug as big as this building so we can go far.”

“Or, we need to make a fire on a stick and it attaches to the wire.”

“We can make a seat out of fabric.”

“We need shirts to make a buckle, it buckles in front and in back.”

“June is when the birds come out.”

“We need a parachute and a lighter, in case the boosters go out.”

“And metal cages to catch the bird, with food in it.”

“fabric for the wings”

“We need feathers for the wings.”

“space gears”