Tai - story of the lion and the monkey

   Tai likes lions and monkeys in the zoo; therefore, he has chosen to put a puppet show together for his topic. Tai wants to express playfulness, happiness and special friendships between animals through his puppet show. 

Tai coloured the lion and the monkey and glued them to make puppets.

   On the day of Tai's puppet show, Tai expressed happiness and playfulness with his laughter and hopping puppets. He also explained that the lion and the monkey play toys and share cars and Lego together. At the end of the puppet show, the children talked about that lions and monkeys don't play together in real life. Tai said he liked the sharing between the animal friends in his imagination. After the puppet show, Tai also reflected that he would like to speak louder next time, so his friends could hear clearly.   

Lysander - play tag with my friends

Lysander shared with Camille about playing tag on the playground.
He loves being chased and chasing people because he is a super fast runner.
Lysander said he feels happy when he plays the game even if he is "it" and he wants to express feelings of happiness and excitement by painting a picture.



Through the discussion with Geraldine and Ann, we found that marble painting would be a good way to express his happiness and their speedy movement of playing tag at the playground.
Lysander chose seven marbles to represent himself and his friends at the playground. Then, he practiced controlling the marbles rolling within the tray; it was more challenging than he thought!

Also, Lysander did a little presentation to his friends in the Earth group to talk about his artwork and feelings. Lysander discovered that it was difficult for his friends to understand him when he didn't look at his friends. We thought it would be better to look at the people we talk to when we express ourselves.

Pauline - silent drama about helping her baby sister

Pauline has chosen to do a silent play.
During the discussion with Camille, she decided to act out:


1. Keira holds Pauline's finger when they walk together
2. They jump on the trampoline together
3. They play horsies together
4.Pauline makes breakfast for Keira and they eat together

On the day of her presentation, Pauline talked to Geraldine and Ann about what props she needed for the silent drama. Showing her independence, Pauline collected the props she needed into the white basket from the classroom.

Pauline prepares breakfast for Keira.

We eat breakfast together!

Alexis - story about how Avery and I came to this world

Alexis told Camille a beautiful story about how Avery came to this world.
Alexis - "Mommy, Daddy and me caught Avery who fell from the sky. Then, we wrote the names on a piece of paper. We put this piece of paper on the door of the house."
She decided to share this story to her friends in the Earth group.

Alexis chose water colours (visual arts) as the medium to express herself.
Alexis recalled and told the story to Ann while she was painting the pictures. Four pages of water colour picture were created for her story telling.

Interestingly, Alexis added a page about the trip that her family went on a train during the weekend. She was eager to include this wonderful experience with her family into the presentation to her friends. I was glad to see Alexis being both a thinker and a communicator during the presentation. She knew clearly what she needed and wanted, from the amount of pages she needed to the choice of colours, to express her story and feelings.

In reflection, Alexis said she liked the part that her family went on the train. She liked the way her presentation was. She would keep the same way to present the story for next time.

 

Pouring Art - Expressing Different Views

This Friday, we started our art time with the question "why do we make art?"
The children expressed their ideas:

• Howard - people like to do art.
• Orin - we make art nicely.
• Simone - it's fun to make it!
• Pauline - for decoration.
• Alfie - it's pretty to look at.

Then, we found that there are art or pictures inside many of our books. The pictures help us understand the books better. As well, we draw pictures or cards at school for mommy and daddy. Isn't it a great way to express ourselves through art!? 

Ann - "I wonder if everyone would have the same thought about a piece of art." While we know art is a way to express ourselves, we started to wonder if we have different ideas about the same piece of artwork. We did a survey to see how the children think about that. There were 13 children thought people would have the same thought about a piece of art work; while 19 children (some changed their mind) raised their hands to agree that people might think differently about a piece of art.

Then, we watched a clip of Holton Rower's painting. After the video, the teachers expressed what they think of the art.
Ann thought the art was very colourful, but it felt heavy with so many colours.
Mary thought it was calm to watch the paint dripping down.
Sunny thought it was calming and brought her a peaceful feeling. 

Alfie wondered - "But... what is this art about?" 

The children were eager to express what they think the art work means.

Sarah - "it's like a rainbow!"

Simone - "maybe it's a decoration."

Enxin - "a colourful box."

Orin - "it might be a present inside the box!"

Many artists express themselves through artwork. By admiring the art work, we are triggered to think and express ourselves as well. It's wonderful that we, being open-minded, can express and share different ideas about art.

The children all had a chance to make pouring art.

Express Yourself (Sound Travels) - little blue & little yellow

This week, we started our new unit - Express Yourself (Sound Travels)!


I read the story "Little Blue and Little Yellow" by Leo Lionni. The children connected to what they've learned in our colour unit right away when they saw the book cover.

According to the notes at the end of the book, I explained to the children that Leo created these pictures for his grandchildren on the train. He ripped paper from a magazine to help him tell the story.

We discussed how it is a good way to tell a story. Story telling is an important part of expressing ourselves! Then, the children were asked to close their eyes and think about a story they want to share.Taking some time to form the ideas we want to share is a way to practice reflecting skills.

The children tore or cut coloured tissue paper to create pictures for their story. The teachers helped the children to record the words of their story.

Here are some stories the children want to share:

"This is the swing!
And the slide in our play ground."

"This is Julia; and this is me!
We live close to each other."

The children created pictures to represent their ideas visually to help them express themselves more easily.

Water and Oil

The children were fascinated by the magical white crayon message and water colour last week.
So, we continued to explore how water and the other materials affect each other this Friday.
The children were asked "what are some differences between water and oil? or what are some similarities?"
Julia - "water is white (clear); oil is yellow!"
The children also agreed that both water and oil flow; they are liquid.

"What will happen if we pour oil into a cup of water?"
Orin - "the water will become yellow!"
This experiment reminded the children colour mixing from our colour unit.
As Ann poured in the oil, the children were all amazed that the oil floated on the top of the water and they didn't mix together.
Henry - "It's like bubbles"


Then, the children had a chance to do the experiment with oil, dish soap, and coloured water.
We observed the colour and oil pattern changes in the water.











As well, the children used oil and brushes to draw or leaves messages on a piece of paper.
We could not see the picture clearly when the oil dried on the paper. However, we could make the picture show up when we dipped our paper into the water with blue food-colouring because water and oil don't mix!