Theatre mini project

Our class is slightly obsessed with Mo Willems books, and many were inspired and excited about our upcoming trip to the Ulu Pandan Community Theatre for Elephant and Piggie are in a Show! A group of students (some of whom came and went throughout the project) used recycled materials and things they found in the classroom to make their own theatre.

“I’m going to make a plan! I will draw it out!” –Liam

(His plan is below the final project.)

“We need to make it big…theatres are really big.” –Malia

“But theatres have different areas sometimes. You know when you go to the movies? There are different ones. I’m going to make a smaller one on the side” –Shayne (He then started making his own mini theatre to add to the side.)

“We should make the people to go in the seats. Our mommies and daddies and kids. And us!” –Ella

The students paused often to look at their progress, and paused before they started at the beginning of each day. There were also side conversations, and discussions of which Elephant and Piggie books were their favorite and many many quotes from the books!

“We should wait until we see the show to draw Elephant and Piggie.”-Rania

“Yeah, then we can draw them really good.” –Map

“I wonder if Mo Willems has seen this show…” –Malia

After we saw the show, the students added the curtains and stage for the characters. They took turns showing off the theatre to the class and describing the important parts.

Pictures from March 14 to 16

Friday Update March 7 to 11

We have been busy!!  So many learning adventures and explorations going on! We celebrated Jasper’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASPER!) and had an amazing field trip!  Thank you to Neetu and Mina for organizing blue cupcakes to celebrate our new baby, and for so many thoughtful presents and beautiful handmade cards! 

Our explorations and activities included…

*We took a field trip to the Ulu Pandan Community Theatre to see Elephant and Piggy are in a Play! The kids LOVED the bus, LOVED the show (they were laughing all the way through it!) and LOVED being together!  What a great day!

*Our mark making and maker space areas still continue to be popular!  Thank you again for sending in envelopes, paper, stickers, paper towel tubes, water bottles….you name the item and they are using them!  Many great inventions happening!

*Some of our students had the great idea to use some of our materials to make a theatre! (It seemed to be inspired by our field trip that was coming up when they first started this!) They used many of the recycled materials, but also looked through the shelves to find tiles, wood pieces, popsicle stick people…the list is endless and the project is still ongoing, but listening to the discussion as the kids were working was amazing.

*A different group of students started making an airplane and airport! There were wings, a cockpit, pilots, travellers, suitcases, and signs to show what was happening. There was much discussion that it was a Singapore Airlines plane going to Canada or Thailand!  More documentation will be posted so you can see how elaborate these projects were becoming during this week!

*There was a lot of practicing of letters, numbers and sounds this week, through games, writing, and fun movement activities.

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Wednesday, March 16: I am at school but at a PLC leadership meeting so there will be a sub teacher in the classroom.

Thursday, March 17^th and Friday, March 18^th: PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES.  Our students do not come to the conferences and do not have school these two days. *If you would like to talk to Ma Laoshi about Chinese, please sign up on her schedule (the same page that my sign up is on.) Ms. Laura’s is also there, however she is away for the conference days and will be doing her meetings on a different day.

March 19^th to March 27^th:  SPRING BREAK: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

*Please return the red library bag and books on Monday!!

MANGO AND JELLY!!

Mango and Jelly are a special part of our classroom family. We have talked a lot throughout the year about being kind, gentle and respectful to our sweet animals.

Since I have returned from maternity leave, the students have a renewed excitement about the piggies, and have been observing them, drawing them, drawing FOR them, writing letters to them and reading about guinea pigs. This has also led to interest in talking about other animals. This is some of our conversations about two of our favorite animals. J

“I wonder do Mango and Jelly have birthdays. I make them a cake.” –Jimmy

“I love the guinea pigs because they are so soft and furry!” –Map

“And so fluffy to hug and cuddle!” –Jasper

“Really, really, REALLY fluffy!” -Malia

“Mango and Jelly are the sweetest.” –Aria

“And the gentlest! They are so gentle to us.” –Liam

“Yeah, they are gentle cause they don’t bite us, right Liam?” -Xavion

“They are so so cute, aren’t they?” –Hudson

“I think they are beautiful.” –Si-Yoon

“We give them so much good food. They need food.” –Maxton

“That’s why we have to help Ms. Lynsey feed them. They like so many things. I did that at home when Mango and Jelly stayed with me.” –Rania

“In my home they walked all around my house but didn’t run away!” -Ella

“They also need a cage to live in, right? They have a good cage for when they are not walking around my house or the class.” –Dylan

“And they talk to us through the cage! They go squeak, squeak, when they tell us they like us or when they want food or to look out of their cage! Those are such cute sounds!” –Daniel

Cloud Explorations Continued!

We asked Ms. Cuthbert, the librarian in the Elementary School if she had some books on clouds, and she found us It Looked Like Spilt Milk and Little Cloud. We are looking for some more fiction as well as non-fiction books right now.

Our class decided they wanted to head back outside to observe the clouds in the sky again, but this time see the clouds “from a different ground spot.” We went out to the track.

“The sky is so blue! Wait…is that THE MOON?!” –Malia

“The moon is up in the day?!” –Mena

“Yeah, sometimes I have seen it before like that.” –Maxton

“The CLOUDS look like the moon!” –Rania

“The clouds are so fluffy. The sun is so bright but I can keep looking at the sky because it is so relaxing for me.”  -Shayne

A chorus of “yeahs” heard all across the class.

The students are in the process of finding other ways to represent what they are seeing in the sky and in the clouds.

Through the project so far the students have been using fine motor skills in writing and drawing, observation and recording skills, and have had fun exploring and expressing what they have experienced with a variety of materials. Many of the students also noticed how calm and peaceful they felt just looking at the sky, and how being outside made them feel fresh and happy.

“To get all there is out of living…Never be in a hurry to stop and sip life, we must never lose our sense of the enormous value of a minute.” –Robert Updeegraff