Today was filled with an unusual amount of silliness and play, making it “one of those days” that brings out the creative in everyone and turns those sometimes morning frowns into smiles in the blink of an eye. We had fun learning about “us”. Taking pillow cases, the kids drew outlines of their bodies. This project will continue as the children add to their outlines, turning them into their own rendition of themselves.
During Drama, we warmed up by walking in different styles, e.g. slowly, mouse steps, elephant steps, on hot sand. Then we performed our own version of The Three Little Pigs, with two pigs and four wolves. We closed by playing two circle games. In the first, we made various nature sounds and, in the second, we took turns leading actions while the rest of the class “mirrored.”. Everyone seemed to especially enjoy being the leader for this one.
We also continued our session on “Espanol”. We started with a discussion about which countries of the world speak spanish, and counted the continents in spanish aloud. The kids took turns identifying spanish speaking countries on a giant globe. We then reinforced our usage of the terms “Yo quiero..” (I want) and “Yo tengo..” (I have), by having a face-off for various objects which the kids drew in a previous session. Each child was asked to articulate the item between them. For example, “El Dulce” (the candy) was placed between them, and each of the two contestants took turns articulating what it is they wanted on a microphone and loudspeaker, “Yo quiero el dulce.” The discussion bounced back and forth until each contestant had practiced articulation several times, ending with one of them proclaiming “Yo tengo el dulce” (I have the candy), to a round of applause.
During Math Games, the children explored things that are Analog and Digital from various angles. Analog tools represents data in ways that can express any value along a continuous scale. Digital tools represent data in discrete numerical forms. We will handle, play and talk about objects that represent the two concepts in groups of three. The following are the objects planned: clocks, scales; instruments-violin, voice, guitar and piano; Cameras-digital and film. We will talk about other examples and see what else we can come up with.
In Drama, we improved today using different costumes and came up with their own skits. The children were divided in 3 groups of 4:
Group 1 – A dragon, knight, narrator, police officer and sorcerer.
Group 2 – A safari looking for a rare flower that was guarded by a lion.
Group 3 – A lady walking her dog who got loose and got caught up with a monster. The hunter came to dispose of the monster and the lady retrieved her dog. Afterwards we played “guess what I am”.
The children also started working on their comic book creations, building characters, and plots in a graphic novel format. We used the book “Adventures in Cartooning” by James Strum, Andrew Arnold & Alexis Frederick Frost. We also discussed all the different disciplines and technical skills which are required to make a comic, and each child quickly learned which skill set they preferred in order to collaborate with each other on their stories and designs.

Digital, Analog, Comic Books, & Espanol