Hi everyone,
We began Wednesday with the children retelling the story of The Big Bad Pig and the Three Little Wolves. Then we acted it out. The children chose characters, huffed and puffed, and in the end, made friends with the big bad pig.
While in the yard we discovered our tree had new leaves, our bulbs planted in the fall had bloomed, and several sleeping snails that were woken.
Alex came from the Brooklyn Conservatory, and drums were heard emanating from the big room. She said the children did great! While some children were making music, the others were beginning storytelling. We talked about how stories usually begin and how we could use animals as characters. We identified who the characters are in several books we've read. One group created a tale involving a dragon whose head was chopped off and given a shark head. The story ended with cupcakes and cake for dinner. The other children told a story about a turtle that surfed in California, narrowly escaping a cheetah that tried to eat him because he thought the turtle was a rock. This story ended with the turtle going to his mom and dad's house.
We wrote a story with the whole class too. They titled it The Legend of the Lost Treasure. The children were excited to act it out. There was lots of (pretend) fighting, and a newborn baby dragon who found a toy.
While story-writing, we are exercising listening and language skills, analytical thinking, and pre-writing skills. It is empowering for the children to create the stories and take charge of the characters who regularly die but have miraculous recoveries and magical powers transforming them into other beings or turning them invisible. When acting, they get to chose to be a character or an audience member, or practice pretend fighting, running in place, or how to die, among other things. It's a struggle to hear the narrator sometimes because the actors have a hard time listening while in character.
Next week: more writing and dinosaurs.
See you Monday,
Therese