December 12th, 2019

Steve the Firefighter

The Rainey Room started off the day with a visit from firefighter Steve!  Steve is a colleague of Addison's, a firefighter and father to a 4 year old.  He was the perfect expert visitor for the Rainey Room! Steve answered the children's questions and listened to their comments/stories.  "You put out fires," said Oliver.  
We asked him if he's ever had to crawl through fire.  He said he had, and commented, "I was pretty scared.  It scary.  But you gotta do your job right?  You gotta protect people." 
Steve showed us tons of equipment from being a firefighter, including his leather helmet, his first aid kit, a lifejacket for water rescues, flashlights, and more.  He helped us understand his rescue equipment by naming the Paw Patrol characters that have similar rescue jobs.  Wolf M said, "I have Marshall at my house."

A Fairy Village for the School
Work on the fairy village on the entryway light table continued today. Palmer, Wolf B., Olivia and Grace added to the beautiful start that Evelyn, Lane, Oliver and Alexandra worked on yesterday.  Today's big focus was adding more Christmas trees, touches of snow, and milk for the fairies to drink. Afterward, the group embarked on drawing representations of the fairy village. Be sure to check it out tomorrow morning!

Balance Scales

The balance scales we ordered arrived! Today was our first day exploring with them.
During morning meeting the children had a "light" introduction to the new equipment. We did tell them it's a scale but didn't give them name balance scale or discuss how it works. This intentional choice was made so that the children had the opportunity to explore and "mess about."
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Educational Philosopher David Hawkins described this phase of learning: 
"There is a time, much greater in amount than commonly allowed, which should be devoted to free and unguided exploratory work (call it play if you wish; I call it work). Children are given materials and equipment-things-and are allowed to construct, test, probe, and experiment without superimposed questions or instructions. I call this phase "Messing About...."

Wolf M noted, "But it looks like a seesaw."
Emilia put the plastic cow on one side and bricks on the other. She said, "The animal is lighter." Later she changed her mind and decided the cow was heavier.
As Fletcher was working to balance the sides he commented, "I need something to put it up." And later, "It's too heavy."
Fletcher and Maren took turns making their sides heavier and saying, "It went to my side" 
When Evelyn played with Fletcher she added items to her side and said, "Mine is heavier." But then she began to empty items from her side and said, "I'm making Fletcher's heavier."

It was a great day of exploration and learning with  our new resource that was purchased from the Wish Tree during the Fall Fundraiser!

TRAVEL PLAY   -  Travel play was hopping again today! 
Fletcher: We're here at the train station.
Emilia: The train start moving!
Fletcher: There's a rock on the tracks! Hit the brakes!!!!
Oliver: I'mma stake those rocks with my safe bunny baby. (Oliver uses magic powers to fix the problem.)
Fletcher: We're stuck on a bridge with a broken track.
Emilia: We're gonna fall off the mountain.
Wolf M.: I put my stuff here. I need food for this journey.
Fletcher: Can anybody rescue the engine? The train is falling! I'm back with all the cargo. You saved me.

(using map)
Emilia: We're right here. We're traveling all the way to Michigan. That's a long trip.
Fletcher: How do we get to this island?  (Fletcher grabs a pillow) This is a boat. This pillow can be a boat. Who else wants to climb aboard.
Emilia: I don't have any money.
Alexandra: You can have this money. (she hands her $40!)

SEWING!!!
Sewing pillows continued today.