Piles of Sillies

Today began with sculpting and stories. We used biodegradable packing peanuts, that adhere to one another when you moisten them. Some friends stacked them, some mushed them together, and some put together buildings. Others discovered that that peanuts "disappeared" when you stirred them into a puddle of water.

At Morning Meeting, we practiced singing the song, Make New Friends, in our regular voices, and then in our monster voices. We recorded both and got to listen to the difference in how we sound.

Then we read the book, Leonardo the Terrible Monster, which gave us some new ideas about the many ways monsters can look.

Next, Kevin got to share pictures of his new fish (Bubbles and Nemo) and tell his friends about his aquarium. He enjoyed calling on his friends and answering their questions. Today's Choices included:

Books

Sandbox

Animals and Blocks

Snack

Monster Making

Lots of friends came over to make monsters, which involved a LOT of decisions: What color, what shape, how many eyes, arms, legs, horns, what kind of hair or fur? IT also involved a great deal of tearing and cutting and gluing. Then, friends gave their monsters names and some of them added details about their monsters particular likes or dislikes.

Then we headed outside, where friends enjoyed another spring-like day. We worked some on our treasure box, played in the sandbox, rode bikes, swung, and played "magician" (another new bit of dramatic play that has emerged). Because it was so nice out, we had another story, in the sandbox, before we went inside for lunch.

Over lunch, the Little Frogs engaged in a lively discussion that started after they had shaken off all their "Sillies" and piled them up in the middle of the table. We started trying to figure out what to do with all these sillies, and began to wonder if we could trade them for something - like alligators. Other friends suggested monkeys, bears and giraffes. Naturally, we had to begin planning where we would keep them and what they might eat. Bears seemed particularly problematic (alligators, for some reason, were not). Although most everyone had strong opinions, nothing was really settled...we are not even clear on the market value of sillies, at this point.

An Inside Outside Day in Winter?

Once again, our Super Heroes came to protect the room and, not long into in, we had nothing but Super Heroes!

Some friends used their super powers in the name of food - helping to cut up pineapple and mixing up a new batch of pizza dough for tomorrow.

At Morning Meeting, we passed around the pineapple top and gave it a closer examination. We wondered about how it grows.

Next, Carol read the book that we all wrote the other day, and we talked about what was missing. The Little Frogs realized that our story didn't have a name! Their suggestions included:

Little Frogs’ Ideas for the

Name of Our Book:

Pineapple                  Alexander

Hot Dog That Flies     Evan

A Tree                        Kevin

A Monster                  Miles

Guinea Pigs               Mason

A Celery                     Boone

Tiger                          Hannah

A Bear                       Cameron

Next, we noticed that there were no illustration (we have learned that word in our discussions of the many books we review). As there is a monster in our book, we started by creating a monster as a group. It came out looking quite amazing. We also read a book called, I Need My Monster, which had lots of different kinds of monsters in it, and gave us some good monster ideas. After a very special snack of fresh pineapple and blueberry muffins, it was time for Inside Outside Day. We did not think we would have another one of these until spring, but the weather check revealed that it was a very warm day, so we got to do it. In the Turtle room, our Choices Inside were:

Monster Making

Oil pastels

Tools

Sandbox

Books (There were also Books outside)

So we took full advantage of all of our opportunities.