January 16th, 2020

Police Officer Atkins visits!
Here is a small portion of the dialogue we shared with him.  Other discussion points were: calling 911 in emergencies; men and woman can both be police officers; the food in jail is bologna sandwiches; be kind to others on the playground.
​Officer Atkins: Do you know who a stranger is?
Grace: People you don’t know.
Officer Atkins: She said it right - people that you don’t know.  I’m a police officer, I’m friendly.  Let’s say for instance you get lost.  If you see me, you can come to me, I’m not considered a stranger because I’m a public servant and I will help you find your parents.  You can look at this things to determine if I’m a police officer.  Do you what this is?
(All): A badge!!
Officer Atkins: That’s correct.  Each badge has a number on it, and this is my number assigned to me, 3390.  Also look for the word - what do you see on the back of my uniform?
Oliver: Letters.
Officer Atkins: How about the “P” word?
Oliver: It says Police!

Officer: We got some cool equipment here.  Every police officer is assigned a flashlight.
Oliver: Yes, like Fire Steve has a fire flashlight.
Officer: Yes, so for instance if you’re in a dark room and we need to find you, we can say “ah we see you, come on out!”  Also we use this to find bad guys.
Oliver:  If bad guys run away super fast you gotta catch ‘em in your big police car.
Palmer: And throw them in jail.
Officer: That’s right.  And we also carry an ink pen, so we can write your name down.  We carry a pen and a notebook.  Another thing we carry is a business card. (He hands the business cards out to each child!) You can put it in your scrapbook.
Emilia: My dad should’ve seen this! (smiling) I’m starting a scrapbook.

(He shows us his body camera, then his radio)
Officer: If I want to talk to my friends, I’ll call them using my call sign.  My number is “Foot Beat 206”
Lane: Did you just say foot?!
Officer: Foot beat!  So, I walk the beat most of the time. My dispatcher would hear my call sign and she would answer.  Watch this.  (He radios in, saying “Radio check")
Dispatcher’s voice over radio: “Loud and clear”

Officer Atkins made each child a "junior police officer."  We got to go see the police car and motorcycle.  We asked Officer Atkins if he ever got scared, and if he ever had to be brave.  He said it takes courage to be a police officer, but he would "put his life on the line to protect citizens".  His visit left a huge impression! 

Continuing our use of the Sewing Machine
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Some exciting elements of this machine are all the different devices and gadgets that make it work, including...

• The pedal - children have to learn through practice how to go "medium speed" (not too fast, not too slow)
• The "foot" - There's a medal foot which keeps the fabric in place as the needle travels in and out.  Children have been learning how to put this down using a lever.
• The "cutter" on the side, which has a tiny razor that cuts the thread
• The rotating knob that changes the pattern of the stitch (different zig zag looking shapes)
• Another rotating knob that makes the needle go up or down

Police Ideas in Dramatic Play
In the conversation below the pictures, you can see that children were synthesizing some new information from Officer Atkins in their play.  Wolf even made his own badge!

Lane: We need tickets for the bad guys.
Wolf M: We’re police, we take the bad guys to jail.
Lane: These are both safety rules for us.  Let me put the safety rules in our police book.
Wolf: But where are the police badges?
Lace: Here are our police cameras.
Emilia: (to Brooke) Good luck, I see 100 (bad guys) in the ocean. I’m going to get them.
Lane: Officer Emilia, there’s an emergency.  It’s west.  (using map) Guys I’m packing up for the emergency.
Cannon: Officer Emilia, I saved the humans!
Emilia:  Great!
Wolf: Police officer Cannon…
Emilia:  Officer Brooke there’s an emergency.  Lane is in the car but she’s not answering.
Wolf: You gotta be brave.
Emilia: Officer Brooke there’s an emergency. There’s fire and sharks behind you!
Lane:  There’s fire at 911 station.
Cannon: Put perfume so the sharks can’t follow us.
Lane: I got my work stuff in my car.  I got a police badge in my bag.
Emilia: A map in case we get lost.
Cannon: We need to get the police boat now.  We need a T-rex.
Wolf: This is 911-324.
Cannon: I’m gonna roar at the bad guys and stomp and take the bad guys to jail.
Emilia: Brooke I’m on my way to all the bad guys and put them in jail with handcuffs.  In the night, I was catching a lot of bad guys.  And guess what… they got out of jail and I was watching them the whole time.
Cannon: I caught a lot of bad guys and they got out of jail too.
Emilia:  I’ll catch them.  Should I take notes?
(it’s nighttime, so Wolf and Cannon go to sleep)
Emilia:  Brooke, good morning, good news.  I catched all the bad guys.
Cannon: What?! I don’t see them.  They unlocked their cages and got out.
Emilia:  Let me take some notes.
Cannon: I’m going back to sleep.
Emilia:  Something very strange has happened.  It says on my walkie talkie there’s a stranger right next to me.  But there’s no strangers.  Everybody … get to work!
Wolf: Get the strangers!