Tuesday, October 8, 2019

10/8/2019

Shadow Ballet: Getting Ready!

In September, Joslin proposed that we could make a show with shadows. That big idea has been a part of our planning document for weeks, and we believe we are ready to tackle it! Today was a day for laying the foundation by asking the children questions about story line and making backgrounds. This was the conversation before lunch:
   Jessica - Do you want the shadow ballet to have a story?
   Louise - It's about dancing. Twirling and elegant.
   Grace M. - Dancing . I choose splits.
Sally - The princess was dancing and twirling and doing horse steps. And kings and princes.
Grace M. - In a whole story there could be like princess, unicorn, ballet, queen, and maybe a butterfly. All of those attached.
Grace D. - Maybe we can say, "I want what I want," and another one could do what they want. Maybe have our own idea in our head.

  Jessica - And what kinds of backgrounds would we need for the ballet?
Louise - I know what it could be..... a castle
   Austin - I could do that.
   Louise - And a rainbow, and a sun.... and berries..... the berries are going to be on the side where the kites (we had been talking about kites.... more on that in a bit!) are and a shoe store.... and it is snowing.

Children drew on transparencies with a variety of materials to create possible backgrounds. There were a lot of flowers, a few people, a boat, and a rocket ship. Grace D. and Lou Lou talked as they worked:
   Lou Lou - How does this look?
Grace D. - Gorgeous!
   Lou Lou - Great! I worked really hard on it.
Grace D. - Give yourself a pat.
   Lou Lou - You can call me Lou Lou or Lou Lou Louisa. Or you can just call me Louisa Sale.
Grace D. - OK. Hi, Louisa Sale.

Buildings and Backgrounds

There was a variety of light sources throughout the room today. Sam and Austin began their day by building with projected light. Others joined in as the afternoon progressed. The overhead projector doubled as a place to check to see if the drawings on the transparencies projected well. Austin and Sam also created colorful backgrounds by using the stained glass blocks on the projector.

"Let's Go Fly a Kite!"

In case you had not heard yet, this year's Book Fair theme is "Let's Go Fly a Kite." Children in all of the classrooms will be making kites to decorate the book fair space. KW started today by painting!