This was a fantastic Friday and a great way to end an exciting week. First of all, a note about our holiday programs. We are performing at the Bridge in Des Plaines next Friday. Check the Parent Notes email from the office for more details about the timing and location. Our current performance plan: take the stage, perform ‘Kwanzaa’, recite thankful moments, sing ‘Merry Christmas’, recite hopes, and be seated. Lyrics for both songs are included in the pictures at the end of this post. I could use your help making sure your child is ready to share what they are thankful for or are hoping for next year. In ‘Merry Christmas’, the line “Another year over, a new one just begun” got us thinking about what has happened this year and what we hope for the next year. We are having the first 6 students in line (Rebecca, Teddy, Bisola, Paolo, Niki, and Timo) share things from this past year that they are thankful for. After the song, to help ring in the new year, the second half (Jerome, Sokrates, Anja, Yianni, Tove, and Gia) are going to share their hopes and dreams for the next year. We are going to practice next week, but please start having conversations this weekend about what they could talk about. If they say something particularly great, feel free to message me so I can help them remember next week.
In our read aloud, we actually finished book two in the Tale of Despereaux. In our last three chapters, we were anxious to find out what happened to Roscuro. Anja thought the Queen was going to eat him, but a bunch of people all said she would want to eat a rat. Sadly, the Queen was so surprised that she actually died. Roscuro wanted to take somethign beautiful with him, so he took the Queen’s spoon and wore it as a crown when he walked out. Princess Pea was so angry at Roscuro that she glared at him and it broke his heart. Yianni thought Roscuro was going to fight, and Anja agreed that he could use the spoon as a sword. Paolo disagreed, since he didn’t think Roscuro would be strong enough. I disagreed with Roscuro on his revenge, but Timo said he understood, Princess Pea hurt him first. Apparently, in the next section of the Tale, we are learning about a little girl, so we are all curious about how she is going to be related to the story.
In our last light table exploration for the week, we made colored bubble baths and blew bubbles with straws. Rebecca loved blowing into a bubble to make it bigger, while Niki noticed the rainbow on the side of the rainbow, even if the water was colored. Teddy realized he could pop the bubbles by blowing on them and laughed when he realized it looked like fizzy orange soda. Paolo found out that he could make bubbles by blowing under the water but he could blow the water out of the way by blowing on top of the water. We learned a lot about how bubbles form and break, surface tension, and how to share space around something lots of people want (and we didn’t spill it on the floor!).
In our shape exploration today, we revisited our triangle picture from the beginning of the week, since we thought we could do a better job. We were right! Last time, we got maybe 10 triangles. This time? 20 different triangles! Paolo spotted a triangle in the sail, while Anja debated whether the end of the speech bubble was enough of a triangle to count. Tove saw the triangle at the top of the tower, while Timo made quite a discovery. He realized that the shape in the corner (the buoy) wasn’t just one triangle; it was 3! I am so impressed with the confidence and ability to discuss they’ve gained in just one week! Next week, you know it is going to get trickier, so bring your A-game on Monday.
It was a free build Friday, so we saw a TON of different buildings. Yianni helped his group build a basketball court, although Timo had to work pretty hard to make the hoops as high as he wanted them to be. This inspired quite a sports complex, as Jerome changed from building a ramp for his car to making a soccer field. Paolo then made a hockey rink and grabbed a marble to use for the puck. Sokrates then helped a whole team to build a soccer field, which he was quick to point out even had places for the people to sit and watch. Another group decided to build a series of houses for their dolls, which included a treehouse by Tove and Gia’s tower. Bisola was quick to explain to me that the tower was built for the Rapunzel doll, which made a lot of sense. Honestly, I was blown away by the creativity and ambition I saw in these projects. Free Build Friday might become a regular part of the schedule.
Have a great weekend everyone!
