We can't believe the week is already almost over! We had a sweet day today. As usual, we began with a bit of hide and seek. Then we switched up our schedule and read two books while eating snack, Come to the Fairie's Ball by Jane Yolen and The Rainbow Goblins by Ul de Rico. We also wrote two collaborative stories, transcribed below.
The Flower Blew Apart
Fortunately, the two fairies found each other in the middle of a flower petal.
Unfortunately, there was wind, and it blew the flower petal apart.
Fortunately, the wind stopped blowing.
Unfortunately, the flower fell anyway.
Fortunately, a dragon came down and ate them!
Unfortunately, the dragon was not used to eating fairies and flowers and he got a stomach ache.
Fortunately, this meant that he vomited up our good fairy friends.
Unfortunately, they were very, very messy.
Fortunately, the petals came out too, and they were clean, so they got to dry themselves off.
Unfortunately, the petals broke.
Fortunately, the dragon broke into pieces.
Unfortunately, the pieces were to small to put back together.
Fortunately, we could use the pieces of the dragon to build fairy houses.
Unfortunately, they were not sticky.
Fortunately, they had some glue.
Unfortunately, they tested the house, and the glue was not dry yet.
Fortunately, the glue still stuck.
Unfortunately, the house still broke when it was sticky.
Fortunately, the fairies didn't care that their house was broken, they just lived under the pieces of the house.
Bees and Squirrels and the Heavens
Once upon a time, there lived a bee who cooked, but he over salted the cat, so the cat got messy and salty and went up the wall, and the heavens broke open, and the three squirrels, they ate grass and got sick and then got better because medicine helped them live longer. A tree went up there into the broken heavens.
We read these magical books and told these magical stories to prepare ourselves for our first activity, building Fairy Houses! After talking about what kinds of things fairies and goblins would build their houses out of, we went back into the wooded area and collected leaves, sticks, rocks, and other natural items. Sally brought some fairy house material from Tucson, so after we picked out our natural treasure, we looked through that and picked out shiny things, seashells, flowers, and smooth rocks to help us build!
Then the fun began! We grabbed our loot bags and headed back into the woods to start building! We teamed up and worked on three houses all nearby each other. Then we decided to make paths between them to create a magical village.
We were delighted to see how hard they worked on these houses, adding detail after detail, and using them for dramatic play upon completion. They could have kept playing for hours, but we decided it was time for them to write about their creations! So, back to the blanket we headed for some poetry and drawing. As we worked, several park visitors stopped to take pictures of our houses! We took this as a huge compliment and called out our thanks as they passed us. See our work below!
Ubalo's Fairy House
Hector's Fairy House
Lyla's Fairy House
Esmee's Fairy House
We shared our fairy house stories, packed up, and headed to Mount Prospect Park for lunch and play time before the museum. We also finished reading My Father's Dragon! We'll start on the next book, Dragons of Blueland, tomorrow.
When we finished playing, we put on our field trip glasses and headed toward the Brooklyn Museum. All the kids are excited to take their sunglasses home tomorrow at the end of camp! They all have a favorite pair, and everyday when we get them out, they ask, "Can we take them home today?" It's hard to say no, and tomorrow we won't have to!
With our shades on, we walked to the museum. In the lobby, Tom Sach's boombox retrospective is on display, and we had a hard time keeping our bodies still with the music blasting out of them. We made our way up to the fifth floor to check out Stephen Powers's Exhibition, Coney Island is Still a Dreamland (to a seagull) and the other American art on display there.
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When we talk about art with children, we ask them three simple questions: 1) What is happening in this piece? 2) What do you see that makes you say that? and 3) What more can you find? These questions always spark interesting conversation and can even result in poetry!
The piece above is called Replica of a Winged Figure from the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial. Curious about the woman in the piece and what she's doing, the kids sat in front of it for a few minutes discussing all the possibilities, which resulted in the poem below:
Replica of a Winged Figure from the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
by Elm Tree 2016
It looks like someone going through a tunnel
It looks like a woman in a coffin
She has a blanket
She’s wearing a long dress made of pajamas
The dress feels like coral
It feels like my aunt’s baby’s cheek
It feels like an eyelash
She is moving fast because she’s using her hands to crawl
She is suffering because she goes squirming around
She looks like an angel going through a tunnel
It is dark and dangerous because there's a rhinp sleeping somewhere in the tunnel
She is carrying plants and leaves
She is underwater because I see the waves
She is made of cartilage and skin
Inside her is veins and blood
And her heart and her blood
We also looked at a piece of abstract art and talked about how art can convey meaning through color and shape and how different people can see different things inside a piece of art, walking away with totally different meanings.
After discussing the piece above, we went back down to the lobby to draw our own pieces of abstract art. We asked the Elm Tree Crew to ignore meaning while drawing and just see what they can make thinking only about color, shape, and lines. When they all had filled up as much of their page as possible, we asked them what they could see inside the picture, what the shapes and colors meant to them. Check out the results below!
Ubalo's Art
Esmee's Art
Lyla's Art
Miriam's Art
The Museum is so big and fun, we plan on going back tomorrow to check out some more of the exhibitions! Can't wait to see everyone for our final day of Elm Tree 2016!!!
<3,
Sally & Molly
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