Week Thirty Three: Budding Actors
It was another wonderful week in the Early Learning classroom. One of the highlights for me was watching the girls continue to practice for Junior Drama Night - they know their lines and their cues, so were able to start perfecting their acting and stage movements. It is incredible how many lines they are able to remember, and how supportive they have been of each other when someone needs a hand. All of the time we have spent working together on this has strengthened their collaboration and cooperation in and out of the classroom, and I notice that they are easily able to independently manage problems or disagreements that arise. We are looking forward to Junior Drama Night on Thursday. Here's a peek at what else they got up to this week.
K is building a house for the marbles that are bad. In her house she put a bed, sofa, toilet, and a refrigerator. Her and G realized that they had used all of the same materials and had built identical houses.
The girls are reading books and working on practice boards. K is busy looking through the book bin for a new story to read – she settles on Rumpelstiltskin. This is one of the many ways the girls use to calm down or transition between activities during the day.
G is finishing up her 3D Figures booklet. It looks like this is not a pyramid, but is a big hill or mountain.
K is wrists deep in salt at the Light Table. We have been exploring what patterns and designs we can make by mixing the salt and light. The girls have also been interested in adding salt-proof classroom materials and "digging" up the salt. (We are very grateful to Myrna who does extra vacuuming on messy days!)
G is incredibly focused as she gets started on her 3D Figures Booklet. She has watched her classmates work on theirs last week, and wanted to get to work on hers early this week. Her first page includes a pyramid, but she tells me "this is not a pyramid, it is a roof on a house".
With a bit of practice sewing, S has created a zig-zag design on her new piece of burlap. She explains that she has to go "back and forth, back and forth" to make it look like a zig-zag.
M has also gotten the hang of sewing, and continues to work on her blanket project. Each time she visits the Art Centre she picks up where she left off and adds the next colour to her work.
S is very pleased with herself after making a crown to include in her costume for Drama Night.
In Art Class today, Brie is teaching the girls how to draw a frog. They work through the steps one by one, adding small parts each time. This requires a lot of patience, spatial awareness, knowledge of shape and line, as well as focus and listening abilities.
M and K are practicing their scenes for Drama Night. Sometimes we choose to practice on the roof to remove some of the distractions of the classrooms. Today, however, there was very noisy construction going on next door and it was hard to hear the girls' lines. The noise encouraged them to speak up and project their voices, which is something that we have been working on!
M shares her streetcar with the class. She has spent her time at building constructing a track on which the streetcar will travel. She has even thought about the passengers inside the streetcar, the station that it leaves from, and the different tracks that it can go along. Very creative!
Z shares her building of the Eiffel Tower. She is holding onto the place where good people get to stay. Not pictured (but definitely created) was also a place where bad people had to go, and this was away from the rest of the structure.
Look at S's two-storey home. Each storey opens so the people can get in and out, and closes so they stay safe.
G and Z meet between their centres to tell each other about what they're working on. G is on a picnic with her baby (in the picnic basket) and Z has been making smoothies and is sharing them around. I'm not sure about you, but a salt smoothie might not be exactly what I want mid-afternoon.
S and M generate ideas in the Nature Centre around what plants have, need, and give. Together, they consolidate their knowledge about plants and are likely building new knowledge as well.
One of my favourite things about sewing in the classroom is that it requires the girls to slow down and to take it step-by-step, stitch-by-stitch. G's focus look makes me think about how hard she is working on both the spatial layout and her fine motor control to achieve what she wants here.
The girls performed their play, Kindness Wins, on stage at Junior Drama Night with incredible voice, passion, and maturity. I am very proud of this accomplishment, a first experience for many of them. Left to Right: M -- Rose, the princess; G -- Bluealicious, the kind fairy; Z -- Cheesecake, the neighbour/scientist; G -- Pinky Woof, Rose's dog; S -- Pinkalicious, the other kind fairy; K -- Bo, the evil wizard.