Week Twelve: Creative Storytelling

With a field trip to see a puppet show planned for mid-week, the girls were very interested in telling stories using different materials and spaces in the classroom. The light table continues to be a favourite, which is wonderful as it is an amazing learning tool, but that doesn't stop the girls from spending time throughout the week working in all of the centres. We have been exploring different ways for authentic writing opportunities, building on symmetry, and storytelling using our imaginations. Take a look at our learning this past week.

Z and G collaborate at the light table. Both girls initially begin with different ideas about how they want to use the materials and what stories they want to tell. With some encouragement to communicate these ideas, they co-create a beautiful scene that is filled with colour, light and texture, and also share a story about winter.

After sketching some bark that we found at the ravine, G adds some writing to her work. Here she is using our sight word cards to help her write some of the words that she needs.

M is counting seeds in the Nature Centre. The girls who have been participating in cooking club brought back apple and lemon seeds after making apple sauce. M uses the skills she learned while counting pumpkin seeds to try and count the seeds in front of her. She has pulled over a hundred's chart from the Math Centre to help her with this task.

The girls are working on drawing people in Art class. G is posing as the rest of the girls look closely at her shape and form, and draw this in their sketchbooks. Each girl is given the chance to be the model, and the girls enjoy finding creative new ways to pose for the group.

Z explores symmetry in the Math Centre. Slowly, she works through placing blocks over the pattern that is on half the page, and tries to determine how to place the blocks on the other (empty) half of the page to make the image symmetrical.

M and Z both focus intently on their symmetrical designs. M has figured out how to use a strategy where she places the block on the existing pattern, lifts it in the air, flips it over, and lands it on the other side of the ruler. This has proven to be successful in creating a symmetrical design.

The girls practice writing words as best as they can on the practice boards during Writer's Workshop. They are helping me write my sentence, and then together we read the words back to remember what we wrote.

G and her reading buddy, A, read one of our favourite counting books together. A lets G turn the pages as she reads the words. 

M carefully places materials on the light table as she thinks about her winter story. She tells us about the homes that she has created using clear containers, and has been thoughtful to create a home for each of her peers. The homes all have powers and protect them from the bad guys.

After seeing a fantastic puppet show in the morning, we wanted to write and draw about our favourite parts of the show. The girls expressed enjoying the storyline, seeing the "river fairy", and meeting all of the characters a the end.

G is spending time at the light table working on a story. She tells me about people going to Hawaii to help those people who might not have enough food to grow as strong and big as us. 

G is working on using the sounds that she knows to write words. We are inspired to write words that correspond with picture that we are familiar with!

Z tells me that she is dressed like this because she is preparing for winter. After all, it is the first week that has felt like winter this fall!

G creates a name-tag/seatbelt/headband for Yoda. 

G is proud to share the tower she built with our blocks in the Math Centre. After trying to build another staircase, G decided to try her hand at something new, and appears pleased with the result!

G works with our grade 5 All School Buddies to decorate a snowflake. Both classes will have "countdown calendars" in preparation for winter holidays where there will be a different act of kindness each day for the girls to try to accomplish. These were inspired by an interest in advent calendars in the grade 5 class.

The girls are experimenting with making art using their bodies in Art class with Brie. There was some necessary feet washing to be done once they were finished drawing!

M is focused on writing the words of a number of the picture cards we have in the Communication Centre. After starting her with only 5 words, she continued asking for more and more to work with. By the end she had close to 40 words written down!

Z is concentrating on writing down all of the sounds that we have worked on as a group through our phonics books. She uses the books to help her remember the order in which we learned these sounds!

A beautiful winter story created by G about houses that protect the girls in the class from the bad guys. I love the careful placement of the materials on top of the "houses". She also makes sure that I notice the snow on the ground in the scene.

Z carefully sketches the leaves that she borrowed from the art room while at the Nature Centre. It is evident that she enjoys paying attention to the shapes and details among these leaves, and is comfortable using a variety of materials to create her work. 

M uses the bingo dabbers that were recently donated to the classroom by a Linden family to create a unique piece of art. She tells me that she is making balloons for each person to hold.