Another beautiful day in Brooklyn! Today was full of adventure, bubbles, sunglasses and more! We started off playing in the wooded area as usual, but since the kids like hiding and searching together, we taught them a new game called sardines. In this game, one child hides while all the others count. Then they head out in separate directions searching for the hidden kid. As each person finds the hider, they join them in the hiding spot until they are all crammed together like sardines in a can! We called the last person to find the hider the winner, and they got to hide in the next round. The kids enjoyed this twist on hide-and-seek, and we played several rounds before heading off in search of the Endale Arch, where we spent time writing sidewalk chalk poems last summer.
Once arriving at the tunnel, we staked out a shady spot in the grass and warmed up our writerly muscles by recording a collaborative story! We each added one word at a time to the story. We like to call this process, "The Many-Headed Expert." Check out our stories below!
Many-Headed Expert One
I am very mad because there's a bear in my cereal! I hate bears in my house, and I hug his ear in the cereal, but it is leaking all over me, and bears eat pineapples (wow!) when you hug them.
Many-Headed Expert Two
Grass is so pretty. I love grass, and trees are a big hula-hoop (wow!), and they're for big in outer space (wow!) (wow!). Someone in outer space is calling for help, and he said, "help me now because I am bit, stuck, and cold, which me in space is scary. A disaster."
We felt like we had a little more energy to get out, so Molly busted out the bubble gun, and together we tried to pop as many bubbles as possible!
After warming up our bodies and brains, we hunkered down to write and illustrate a few "lie poems." Of course, we reviewed that when you fib in poetry, it can be funny and that readers of poetry generally don't expect every word of a poem to be true. Here are the kids at work!
And here are pictures of their poetry!
Hector's Poem
Esmee's Poem
Miriam's Poems
Lyla's Poem
Then we wrote some more lies on the tunnel wall!
After this, Sally surprised us with field trip sunglasses to wear this week as we trek to and from various locales in and around the park. Check out how cool we look in our new shades!
From here, we were off to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. It was super crowded! We all managed to stay together, though, and work as a team to lug around our cart, checking out the plants and fish and bugs.
We also continued our work with comparisons (a poet's greatest tool) while collaborating on this poem:
Elm Tree Garden Poem
Bees are big and fat
The flower looks like a banana getting peeled
The dead rose looks like a beehive
The grass looks like green lollipops
The flowers look like white fuzzy pompoms
The dragonfly looks like a tiny helicopter
The tree leaves look like green beans I can't see
The mushrooms look like lights
The fish feel scabby
The fish look like bananas
They smell like salty things
The turtle looks like a plastic thing floating around in the water
The turtle looks like a rock
It is slow like a snail
It is slow like ketchup stuck in a jar
By this time, we were all getting hungry, so we headed back to Mount Prospect Park to find a good lunch spot. The park was as crowded as the gardens, but the Elm Tree Crew didn't seem to mind one bit!
First we ate to calm our grumbling stomachs. Then we rested and listened to two more chapters of My Father's Dragon and to a picture book called Guess What by Mem Fox. The kids loved it so much, they asked us to keep reading it over and over!
After a round of "come with me my friends" and some more bubble chasing we got started on another set of poems, this time inventing a new kind of plant and writing about it.
Here we are at work:
And here are our poems:
Lyla's Poem
Miriam's Poem
Ubalo's Poem
Esmee's Poem
Hector's Poem
Finally, after two days of writing, it was time for the sprinklers! We reapplied sunscreen and changed into suits and headed to the sprinkler playground area. However, once arriving, the kids played on the jungle gym instead of going through the sprinklers! Only Esmee dared to run through. All of the kids had fun though, and everyone made new friends in the process!
We closed out our Tuesday together back on the Mount Prospect grass, reading and writing one final collaborative story. After listening to the book Fortunately by Remy Charlip, the kids wrote their own story using Charlip's back and forth method, transcribed below:
Fortunately
Unfortunately, my foot's asleep.
Fortunately, my foot is still attached to my body.
Unfortunately, my foot still hurts.
Fortunately, my foot has a band aid on it
Unfortunately the band aid fell off
Unfortunately, my foot does not have leaves on it
Fortunately, I don't like leaves
Unfortunately, my foot is getting sunburned because it doesn't have any shade
Fortunately, I found an umbrella
Unfortunately, the umbrella blew away
Fortunately, flowers came
Unfortunately, so did a flower-eating beaver
Fortunately, the beaver brought some cake
Unfortunately, he ate all the cake, and the cake wasn't even meant to be shared!
Fortunately, a tree ate a bird
Unfortunately, the bird was my best friend
Fortunately, he tasted really good
Unfortunately, the bird pooped in the tree
Wait, didn't the bird get eaten already?
Yeah!
It's okay, let's keep going!
Fortunately, it landed in the beaver's tummy so he got a tummy ache
Unfortunately, a dog stepped on the bird's poop
Fortunately, they were wearing shoes
Unfortunately, their shoes were filled with water!
THE END
Feeling tuckered out, we ended the day by listening to a few more chapters of My Father's Dragon before heading back to Grand Army Plaza for pick up.
Can't wait to see everyone tomorrow for our Prospect Park Zoo trip!
<3,
Sally & Molly
No comments:
Post a Comment