Classroom Stories Night Collaboration...

We want to thank everyone again for the wonderful attendance last week at Classroom Stories Night. It was wonderful to share some of the learning and hear your ideas on how we can extend the work. A few of your suggestions have already started coming to fruition and we wanted to highlight them here!

Doctor Play Leads to Measuring

During Classroom Stories Night, Danica suggested that one way we might explore the concept of height was by having the children lie down and measure their bodies. On Friday, Alexandra and Fletcher collaborated to measure a long chain he had created:

On Monday, we used photos of that experience as inspiration.  After showing the children what Alexandra and Fletcher had done, a small group decided to try something similar.  Because they had built such long 'cube trains' to measure we decided to compare the cubes to the lengths of their bodies.

During Classroom Stories Night, we also discussed measuring the children's feet. Laura lent us her shoe measure device and today we began exploring the size of our feet. We measured, put a sticker of our shoes sizes and made footprints. More friends will have an opportunity to continue this work tomorrow.

Also related to measuring and Classroom Stories Night, the children have been exploring parents' heights. 

After further reflection, we have been contemplating how to make the parents' heights more "readable" for the children. More on that soon!

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Fairy Village Work

Many of the friends contributed to converting the fairy houses into a village.   Olivia, Emilia, Grace, Alexandra, Lane and Fletcher all participated today.  There was so much incredible problem-solving, negotiating, and innovating.  We ran into a lot of trouble with how to fit the furniture into the house - we'll keep you posted on any solutions we might find tomorrow.

Olivia: This can be the locker that keeps the door like this.
Emilia: But we need a chimney.
(Olivia begins pushing furniture through a small door. Grace puts a carpet on the roof but Emilia asks her to move it for the chimney.  It keeps tumbling off so they decide against it.)
Emilia: This is where we can keep our soap and towels! (is holding a small dresser)
Olivia: I'm just trying to get this in the house.  (She pushes the bed in through the door) I don't know... what to...
Alexandra: I know what to do! (She finds smaller furniture that will fit better)
Emilia:  This can be the dinner table.  But where do I put it? There's no more spaces.  Oh.... A pinecone! I've been needing one for a fairy house.  There's a spider on it.  Do fairies eat spiders?
Alexandra: Guess what Melanie?  They cook on the roof!  (she has placed kitchen furniture up on the roof)
Emilia: Guys I found coasters.
Grace: We're running out of room!! :(
Alexandra: How bout, they can use this for a mixing bowl. (she is holding a nut shell that Wolf B brought from the farm)
Emilia: This hangs down so when the raindrops come from the sky, they come floating down.
(Olivia has begun making a "playground" and puts out square blocks "where they can jump. Fletcher joins our group, and he uses a "table" Palmer made as a car with 5 seats.  He makes a long road.)
Fletcher: And now they're starting the car!  They're gonna find the treasure and bring it back home.  This is where the home lives.  They're gonna go to the smokey place, where the bears live!! ... It's just a story.  :)
Alexandra:  If you tape the tiles to here, they can get across.  It's a clubhouse fairy house.   (she creates the pathway with popsicle sticks, then Fletcher helps her tape it in place)
Fletcher: Now they can go back home.  (Fletcher has made a ramp on his road.)
Alexandra: This is perfect for a path because you can just go under it.  (She has a tall semicircle block)

And.... we had a Mystery Reader! Thanks William!