Leaves & Branches, Trunk & Roots

We’re going to make it today! -Mattias
Because we have lots of tin foil! -Logan

Which part should we make today? Pat
Let’s vote!!  (how nice that the kids suggest voting!) -Travis

There are a few more body parts that we need to make: another boot, torso, arms, head

We voted between boot and torso.

Boot: 2 votes
Torso: 6 votes

I had the Logan (Bellwether) get markers and paper so we could vote on who was going to be our torso ‘model’.

Does anyone NOT want to be wrapped in tinfoil and tape? -Pat
Mattias pulled out of the vote.

The tally:

Ryan: 1
Lillian: 0
Simone: 0
Travis: 2
Logan: 0
Morgan: 3

After winning the vote, Morgan also pulled out and Lillian was chosen (by Morgan) to be the model, to which all the children agreed.

What do we need to make a torso? -Pat
Tin foil!!! -Simone
Tape!! -Ryan
A human! -Logan
Scissors! -Mattias

We then went around the classroom in search of our materials.  Once found,

We have all the ingredients!! -Simone

We made our torso.

She looks like a tinfoil lady! -Mattias
She looks like an army! -Travis
She looks like a beautiful prince! -Logan
She looks like a ballerina! -Ryan
She looks like a pretty lady! -Morgan
She looks like a mommy! -Simone

How do you feel? -Pat
Funny!  Tickly, just so tickly!! -Lillian

The “orange” emotion story by the Big Kids

(anticipate, interest, vigilant, eager, watchful)

Once upon a time there was three fighting dragons and they wanted to eat some cookies. (Simone) And then there was a little girl who was anticipating to go to Disneyland and the dragons followed her all the way to Disneyland. (Ryan)  There was a little boy and then he was interested to go to Winnipeg and he was 4 years old. (Travis)  The monster was vigilant and ate all the dragons.  He ate all the whales and then the fish and sharks. (Mattias) The monster was eager because he threw up the dragon.  The dragon was stil alive in his tummy! (Lillian) The dragon was very sick and got fired on and then he was very watchful and then he died. (Travis)

The “yellow” family emotion story by the Trees

(Ecstatic, Blissful, Joyful, Happy, Serene)

Once upon a time, in a land far away there was a happy house.  In the house there was a clock and I am so joyful because there is a Cinderella! One serene day, Cinderella went to speak to the calm mantle clock.  The clock chimed “Hello.” Just then a blissful Rapunzel, Belle and Ariel came in.  Cinderella, Rapunzel and Ariel all gladly cleaned the happy house.  Then all were ecstatic because they could go home to the castle.  When the princesses returned, they cleaned the castle.  Then the castle clock chimed and they all woke up.  THE END.

Ryan:

It’s something you have to take care of.  Change the diaper, feed it, burp it and give it ove.  My Mom and Dad took care of me as a baby.  But I didn’t like the stroller at all.  I liked being holded in my Mommy’s arms.  I grew up when I was supposed to, but it as better being a baby because I was smaller.

Chloe:

Babies come out of tummies.  You cut it out with scissors.  They cry, but I didn’t cry when I was a baby.  But I was silly at bedtime – I was hitting my mom!

Aidyn:

If it’s a girl or a boy, it will come out as a girl or a boy. I was a girl baby.

Lillian:

A baby mean’s when you are in the hospital and the Mommy says “Come out now”.  When I was a baby I was in Mommy’s tummy and I said “Get out” and I became Lilly! I cried when I was a baby because my Mommy put me in a baby cage and I didn’t want to sleep.

Joel:

A baby is when you are born and you take care of the baby. Mom or Dad or adults take care of it. My Mom and Dad take care of me, looking at me when I was a baby. When I grew up, I started to grow up and, well, a long time ago I stopped being a baby.

Morgan:

It’s something like a brother or a sister. I was a sister girl. I was born before my brother and Joel was born before me!

Emily: I baby. I was two. I’m not a baby brother. Tyler has a baby brother.  I’m a girl.

Mattias:

A baby is a child that’s very tiny.  Really super doper tiny.  I was a central baby because I was broken in the neck and my head had to be built!

Logan:

A baby cries and it crawls and it pees and that’s it.

Summer:

The Baby goes in your tummy and it gets bigger and it comes out.  They get stuck.

Caelan:

It’s small. It crawls. It cries. I started being bigger – and then a sapling and then a tree and not a baby no more!

Tehya:

Baby say crawl, I think. Tehya’s baby called Huxley. I’m not a baby – babies stay home with Mommy.

Travis:

It looks like a boy and girls look like boys when they are a baby. They cry all the time. I cried because my brother was older than me and my eyes weren’t open and my brohter was yelling at me.

Teacher Tom, painting teacher extraordinaire, suggested this painting activity.

Well, sort of.  In his classroom, they had one board  and a small amount of paint under the “bridge”.

Of course, I thought we could see his bridge and  match it by two…

Crossing the river on the thick board was way too easy for our children.  Fearlessly, they hopped, crawling and walked across…but turning corners was a bit scarier.  Clutching onto the table legs, the children carefully moved onto one of the thinner 2 x 4′s, and even then, only after encouragement from friends and teachers.

It was inspiring to watch as the children conquered their fears and crossed all of the bridges, sometimes holding hands, hugging each other, or freezing momentarily when they realized they were “on their own”.

I have a newborn baby who is colicky and, well, if she doesn’t hate me, she at least thinks I’m useless, as I can’t keep her happy for more than 5 minutes.  Right now, I know fear.  I don’t want to face it, or keep on going, or roll out of bed at 2 am, 3 am, 4 am ,4:30 am, 5 am, 6 am, and then for fun, 6:30 and oh look, time to go to work!  Every time she starts to whimper, I know fear.

The children played with fear today.  In a safe way, something they knew wasn’t really scary, that they could stop anytime they wanted to, but that they would challenge themselves to beat.  And they all did.

Even more impressive, once they stared down the fear of balancing over the river, they tried to make it more scary.  ”Watch out for the scary sharks!”  ”And the alligators!’ “And the dolphins!”

Scary dolphins?  Whatever works – in their minds, they were crossing over infested waters; they were explorers conquering the difficult and unknown. And the joy they had when they reached the other side was contagious.

I’ll try to remember that tonight at 4:00 am…

We are updating our parent and child “what to expect at school” manual – and so are soliciting advice from existing students:

Things to know

Put your squares on the whiteboard cause that’s where they go…they mean which work you were going to. – Mattias

If you pull a teddy bear, it will break. Take turns and don’t grab it.  You have to share. It can be difficult to share. – Lillian

No hitting. It’s dangerous.  You can hit the ground. – Ryan

It’s too hard! – Mattias

Or, you could hit a comfy chair then. – Ryan

No biting, it’s bad because it’s not good for you. You can bite broccoli. – Morgan

No screaming, it will hurt our friends ears.  Talk nicely, and if someone’s talking and you want to talk, you can wait and say excuse me and then wait to talk to them. – Travis

No pushing because it’s dangerous and it’s not nice.  No teasing, because it’s kinda not nice because it hurts feelings.  No Na na na na boo boo, things like that. – Simone

Get to know your class – the kids and parents.  Find a buddy and playdates! – Mr Pat

Rights

I don’t have the right to cut my hair or other people’s hair.  Just to have barbers cut my hair.  Hairdressers and barbers have the right to cut hair.  Because the barbers are careful not to cut your ears.  It would be bad to cut your ears off because you couldn’t hear anymore. But you’d have the right to go to the hospital. – Lillian

I don’t have the right to cut other people’s hats or clothes. Or socks. You have the right to wear clothes and hats and socks.  But not to cut socks.  I have the right to cut paper with scissors. Only paper. – Summer

You don’t have the right to take bows off your dress because you would rip it and you have the right to dresses that are not ripped. – Aidyn

You have the right to books that are in the teepee. But no ripping else the library won’t let us get more books.  No rights to ripping books. – Travis

If it’s raining and not sunny outside you have the right to go outside and get water everywhere even on your eyes and even mud and it’s fun. – Morgan

You have the right to snack.  One snack. Because you have to learn, you get 1 and then 2 and then 3.  1 at a time. – Mattias

You have the right to listen to the teacher. And all the kids listen to the teacher. And the teachers have the right to listen to the kids.  We all listen! – Chloe

You have the right to the water table.  No dumping the water out or you can’t have the water table because there is no water. There is a right to water in the water table.  If you dump it out you should be banished for all the weeks. – Caelan

At group time, there was a gift on the chair.  It said ” Dear Big Kids, happy new year. look up. love, baby Kazja.”

The group looked up.

It’s up there! – Morgan

I think…I think baby Kazja put it there. – Lillian

It’s tin foil! – Mattias

So we can work on our body person! – Morgan

Kazja put it up there because she’s capable. – Lillian

Or maybe Kazja’s Mommy put it there. – Morgan

The children discussed the body foil person and that it would be finished later this week.  Mattias, as the bellweather, then opened the gift.

What is it? – Travis

I wonder. – Morgan

It’s wrapped…..and it’s green..it’s like my chocolate advent calendar at home but now there are no chocolates inside. – Mattias

Finally it is opened…it is a large green calculator!

Is it a bank? – Mr Pat

No, it’s a calculator.  It puts a # on  a screen because it’s how you keep a number.  It’s a button…the buttons got different numbers. – Mattias

That’s 2 lines! – Travis (pointing to the = sign)

What does it mean? – Mr Pat

A symbol! – Mattias

It’s equals. And this one? – Mr Pat

That’s plus. – Ryan

And what does 1 line mean? – Mr Pat

Minus! – Ryan

And x – Mr Pat

Exit! – Travis

And this (division sign) – Mr Pat

It’s a robot symbol. – Mattias

That’s a checkmark. – Lillian

It means square root. So what do we use the calculator for? – Mr Pat

It helps you know the time. – Travis

No, that’s false. That’s a clock. – Mattias

Calculators help you order things.  Books.  I ordered books with my mommy on a calculator. – Ryan

The children explored the “solar panel”, discussed the O N button (which, yes, we agreed, says on. Travis also knew that C meant Clear.)  Finally, we tested the calculator, and it told us 2 + 2 was 4, 1 +1 was 2 and 9 plus 10 was 19.  Wow.

Lot’s of excitement with our big green calculator!  More to come….