Friday, November 8, 2019

Lane & Lou Lou day!

As Leigh and Sam weren't at KW we had a small group of just Lane and Lou Lou. However, we had some special surprise guests of Lily and Hugh who joined us outside and then had a visit from Vikki, a visiting educator who has been observing at the school. Vikki joined us as a mystery lunch guest and stayed to observe the afternoon on her last day at St. John's. Lou Lou asked Vikki to come back another time and the girls gave her hugs goodbye. 

Monster Light Shows

"No one table setted like this before." -Lou Lou

We had planned a children's choice day today with several options on the list. However, Lou Lou and Lane became so inspired by their collaborative table decoration today that we added another option: a monster light show! The idea came from observations of the children wanting to play with the monsters during lunch and Lou Lou saying the monsters can be used as finger puppets. Thinking of our recent shadow play, we wondered if the children could make a light show with the monsters. Lane and Lou Lou were keen on the idea!

During the Monster Light Shows the children had so much to say their teachers could not write fast enough. Here is just *some* of the dialogue during the shows:

Lane: "Let's put the light here."
Lou Lou set up the monsters and beads on the light table.
Lane: "How about we do a story about the monsters go somewhere."
Lou Lou: "How 'bout they go to Rainbow Land?"
Lane: "Or how 'bout they go to Fairyland...it's scary there."
Lou Lou: "How 'bout it's called Rainbow Fairyland?"
Lane (Agrees and then to the teachers): "Who wants to watch the show?"
Lou Lou: "The show will be more beautiful by decorating it. It will show up the whole  city. The light will shine up."
Lane: "The show is going to begin soon." (She hangs beads over mini shadow screen) "Let's hang that over. The monsters have to fly over town and then the whole stuff will be ready."
Lane: "The monsters make a rainbow with their bodies. And then another monster comes and lay down in the light."
Lou Lou: "He said, 'I want pizza.'"
Lou Lou: "We need to turn ALL the lights off and all the...(points at the window s)." 
Lou Lou: "This is the sea. The sea is not quite ready. This is going to be the narrow side."
The girls play for a bit setting up and vocalizing aspects of their show ideas.
 In a quiet pause, Lou Lou looks up at Lane, smiling: "I will invite you to my birthday, Lane."
Lane: (explaining the show to the audience) "The show is ready. One at a time you will come up and tell the story. There is no eating in this place., but you can write" 
Lou Lou (moving finger puppet monsters on her fingers over the edge of the table and growling): "Once upon a time there was a monster. All the monsters lived in Rainbow Fairyland and they wanted to hit people down and poke them in the eye. They were so mean. And they got even meaner. They came to the people and punched the down and poked their eyes. And they (monsters) were never seen again."
Lou Lou: "We're going to break the show...like when people get water."
Lane: "Once upon a time there was a monster behind and once upon a time they went down into the ground. The little bitty monsters came up and down."
​Lane added some decoration to the light pad; one section was in the shape of an L: "We're going to put L because this is going to L movie today. Prepare the scary movie but not too scary.  Have you ever heard this happy movie?"
Lou Lou tells a story about "an ugly monster. (named Orangey) So ugly that no one would give him a turn...he was so sad he never even cried...he was so unhappy...but then his best friend, Yellowy" came along and stood up for Orangey. "This is Yellowy. It's his first time at this school...they became best friends forever and they became so happy."
Lane took a turn: One upon a time there was a monster who walked through the town and pushed everyone down with a big belly push...he flied through the air to find more town people and he makes them so cuddly and once in Fairyland...they were all hugged up and the monster jumped...and leaped through the sky."

Building Clay Lanterns

After the monster shows, Lane and Lou Lou created clay lanterns. (This was a plan Lane was certain of right away at meeting!) They used fine and gross motor strength and coordination to roll out their clay slabs, trim the edges to create a sharp rectangular slap, and cut markings through the clay to allow the light through. While the children worked, they talked about the process, the Thanksgiving Feast, and holiday.