October 06th, 2021

10/6/2021

Outdoor Games. Building Skills Through Play

The "bunnies" sneak up on the "Hungry Fox."

Outside this week, KW has been playing a lot of movement games together. Our current favorite is Mr. Fox (also called Hungry Fox). As we play, we practice our counting, one to one correspondence, boy awareness and listening skills. Here's how we play:

The object of the game is to avoid being tagged by Hungry Fox
The children will start at the beginning of their safe zone ask “What time is it Hungry Fox?”
Whatever time Hungry Fox says the children will take that number of steps towards Hungry Fox, leaving their safe zone.
If Hungry Fox says “its lunch time” the children must run back to their safe zone without getting tagged.
If you get tagged you freeze until Hungry Fox turns you into one of his helpers.
When you are a helper you begin to tag other children when Hungry Fox says its lunch time.

Making New Colors

Cate: "This red is getting a little darker. It's purple."

On Tuesday, we decided to make new paints for the easel. Although we had many different ideas, one of our biggest goals was to create a light pink. KW friends tried to problem solve together to create their perfect color for painting.

Frannie: "I want to make pink with red and white."
Cate: "I think it looks like a pinky red."

Cate and Frannie attempt to mix a large amount of red with white

Cate: "It's very reddy. Maybe if I add some yellow?"

Cate adds yellow to her colors but is not satisfied with the end result. Capers makes a suggestion.

Capers: "A lot of white and a little bit of red. That's what my mom showed me."

Tandem painting with our new colors

"You know what this could be? A rainbow catcher!" - Lily

Lily - We should make the rainbow first.
Wilder - These (the gems) would make a good rainbow.
Finlay - (With small colored canisters) I’m making a rainbow catcher.
Lily - Mine is going to go in here, through the gems, and it traps them.
Wilder - (With colored egg halves) It already has two rainbows in here and the mountain catches them. They can’t escape.
Finlay - So you see these ones (tubes) that don’t have holes in them, when they get all filled up, they flip. After you flip them, they’re trapped! There’s no way out!
Lily - Mine gets trapped in here (under egg shapes).

Lily and Wilder use the strategy of matching symmetrical containers to top the rainbow gems.

Frannie - I’m going to put the gems in here. I’m making a little home for the gems.
Wilder - (Stirring a bowl of the gems) I’m trying to make gem juice!
Cape - (Loading up egg shapes with gems) Now they can’t escape.
Frannie - (Building a tall tower with gems inside) Now they’re really trapped.
Cape - (Building with the cage-like pieces). These have to go in the cold area. There’s a top and bottom cold area.

How About We Build a Castle

Jordan: What do we need to make a castle?
Wilder: A flat bottom
Finally: Points on top of the towers.
Lily: First, let's starts with the base

Today we decided to work on our teamwork and problem solving with some large scale cooperative building. Finlay, Wilder and Lily decided to build a castle. Although our first attempt was unsuccessful, we realized our mistakes when we did not reinforce the taller blocks. With that in mind, we restarted with Capers help and created a new, stronger castle.

They keep falling down! - Finlay

Capers New Strategy

Capers: My strategy is a little different. My strategy is this. (He turns his arms sideways to indicate using long blocks to reinforce the ones that are already up).
Capers shows Jade and Wilder his idea.
Jade: I want to help.

Building Outside

Finlay: Where is the train going?
Lily: Chugga Chugga Choo Choo
Finlay: The train is going chugga chugga choo choo!
Several friends: It's going to Disney World and Legoland!