May 01st, 2020

Storytelling Game:
​The Little Blue Dragon

On Monday, we asked every child to bring a stuffed animal to meeting with them in order to could incorporate  a variety of characters into one cohesive story.  The story prompt was that a little blue dragon was lost and couldn't find his mommy.  Each group had a different journey with a teacher acting as the dragon's voice.

​Story 1: Going Back Home to a Cozy Treehouse
Melanie as Dragon: Where’s my mommy?
Wolf M: (as teddy bear) I’ll help you!
Cannon: (as alligator) Swim, swim, swim. Don’t worry, I will save you, don’t sink!  And then they found the [mommy] dragon.  [She was] In the woods, and she was sinking in a pond!
Grace: (as big fluffy dog) We go in the boat and we use our boat to get the mommy.  I hold her and I scoop her up and I give her to the baby dragon.
Oliver: Maybe he could walk home to find his mommy.  She get lost but she was thinking about something in a bird nest.  Then she got out and found her baby dragon.
Melanie:  How can they find their way through the spooky dark forest?
Lane: (Ba-Ba) The bunny has lights on its eyes.  And Yaya has a map too.
Oliver: Maybe they could make a treehouse!
Grace:  And a zipline!  The treehouse is gonna be combined with a zipline!
Melanie:  Do they have to climb a ladder up to their treehouse, to go to bed?
Oliver:  No!  Maybe they can just share a bed.  My mom’s bed has two parts for my daddy and my mommy.
Melanie:  Do you think they have a nice cozy fire?
Oliver:  Yes, a little campfire.  To get all that windy out.  And will not blow the treehouse down.
Melanie:  Wolfie, could your bear start a fire to help us roast some marshmallows?
Wolf M: YES! (his bear bounces up and down)
Cannon: Yeah, or s’mores!  You find the marshmallow, and the chocolate and the crackers then you have a fire, then you roast it over the fire, then you eat it!
Oliver:  They could have some marshmallows and eat it as dessert after their dinner.  And they could have mac n’ cheese for dinner.

Story 2: Corduroy Helps the Baby Dragon Walk Through the Spooky Cave
Dragon: I’m getting so tired, I need to take a rest.
Fletcher: Maybe you could cuddle in this.  (Gets out a pink backpack) There’s a zipper in it.
Dragon: (the next morning) I think it’s time for me to go through the spooky cave. 
Fletcher:  Don’t worry – Mr. Teddy will come with you!  The cave is his home.  I know how to get to the other side.  You follow the wall.
Dragon:  Do we need a flashlight?
Fletcher:  Yes I have a flashlight.  Let me run back home and get the flashlight and you don’t go away, I’ll just get the flashlight.   (he runs to get one, and we begin walking in the cave)
Dragon: Hey I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Fletcher:  Yay we’re almost there!
Dragon:  Wait I hear something – (Melanie: gobble gobble gobble)
Fletcher:  I think it’s just a turkey.
Dragon: Oh, good – we’re out in the sunshine now and do you see what I see? A big giant praying mantis.
Fletcher: (shocked face)
Dragon: And it’s hungry! I better run!
Fletcher: (smiles)  I think it’s a nice one. 

Story 3: Lobster Fights the Bad Dragon in the Garden
Melanie: (as dragon) I'm lost and I can't find my mommy anywhere!
​Emilia: Then the dragon got on the pony and they walked a very far way.  And then finally they got to the dragon’s home, and the dragon lived right next to his mommy.  She was guarding  the plants and sitting ‘cause the baby dragon was lost, but she was lost in a woods, and it was a very far woods away but they walked a very far way back home.
Maren: Then, the little dragon got lost again.  And the husky came and got it and the dragon hopped on his back and they rode back, and then the husky gave the dragon to his mom, and then the baby dragon was planting and the mom was guarding.  The husky is going back where it lives.
Ellie:  The kitty found the garden ‘cause they needed some help ‘cause the rhinocerous was messing up the plants so one day the baby escaped again and got lost so they kitty cat helped him to find his mommy.
Evelyn: The unicorn planted the watering. 
(Wolfie is showing a blue paper dragon that he brought to meeting)
Melanie:  Is that a nice dragon or a mean one?
Wolf B: Mean one! (smiling)
Melanie: Oh no! Is he going to light all the flowers on fire?
Wolf B: Yes. (a paper lobster appears next to him)
Melanie:  Is the lobster going to come to the rescue?
(Wolfie and his mom begin a dragon/lobster battle!  Melanie requests help from other animals)
Emilia: NEIGH NEIGH NEIGH NEIGH! (the pony fights the dragon)
Melanie:  We’re going to need to put this dragon in jail.
Wolf B: He’s too heavy!
Emilia:  My pony can lift up a whole house even.
Maren:  Husky’s not that strong to do it.
Wolf B: Putted you on fire.
Emilia: But my pony doesn’t feel anything!
Evelyn: I can carry the [baby] dragon on the unicorn’s back.

Workshops

This week we hosted four Zoom workshops - two on Tuesday and two on Thursday.  On both days, the 10am group focused on drawing, while the 2pm group focused on Building.  ​Children brought a large variety of materials and techniques to these workshop times.  Having our hands working was an excellent conversation-starter.  ​

DRAWING  quotes:
Wolf B: I'm cutting out a camel.
Wolf M: I'm coloring Dumbo.
Oliver: I colored in my whole page.  I cutted my page into pieces for my animal friends to play with it.  It's for decoration.  There's so many pieces.
Maren: (showing her drawing sketchpad) I think this is the first page I did.
Grace:  Mommy says when it's summer we're gonna do a lemonade stand.
(We mention the treehouse from the dragon stories)
Maren: My mom's brother had a treehouse when he was a little kid.  My grandma told stories about it.  My mom climbed up the treehouse and fell off the zipline holder into the mud!  She had to go to the hospital.  She got stitches on her face.
Grace: I do not know what stitches are.
Maren:  Stitches go on people when you can't put a bandaid on, like your face.  Like Lilly, she fell off a chair and she had to get stitches on her chin!
(some time later)
Oliver: My daddy got me comic books.  It's very nice.  When Superman was a baby he was in space.

(Maren holds up her notebook)

BUILDING quotes:
Emilia: I'm gonna build with train tracks.  I already started! 
Cannon:  I'm just stacking mine up so I can get so much.  It's my big stack.  I'm stacking it, it will get more higher.
Emilia:  it's as tall as my nose.  But I want to make it go all the way up to the ceiling.  But I know it's going to fall!
Cannon: What are you building, Evelyn?
Evelyn: A car.
(Lane says she is making a police station and Cannon says he is too)
Cannon: Now I just need to make the cages.  This is a jail... not a police station.  There's spooky animals.  There's a tarantula.  There are so many spiders.
Emilia: Mine is SO TALL!  I made a basement so it wouldn't fall down.
Will (Lane's brother) : Wow we are really working hard on this thing.
Lane: Will is not that much inspiring.  I'm inspiring him.
(Palmer shows his "bad guys")
Palmer:  They're making coffee.
​Olivia:  I made a big tower!
Grace: I'm gonna build  a humongous castle.
Wolf M: I'm gonna build a building with a lot of stuff in it.
Fletcher: [I'm building] a Metro.
Oliver: I'm building an ice castle for my Elsa doll.  I could put a little tower on it.
Palmer: [I'm building] a lair for the bad guys.  But it has good guys.
Brooke: What do you like about your building Wolf?
Wolf M: I like how I connected them.
Oliver: My second plan is to build a volcano.  It's gonna be tall to hold all the lava.
Fletcher:  And there's a metro that can move by itself.  It has four wheels and four cars. (He counts)
Oliver: Your metro is very long!
Fletcher:  Thanks.  Because I just built it long.
Grace: Grandma is coming on the metro next week.

Cannon's jail

Emilia stands on a piano bench to add to her tower

​Thanks for playing the unicorn game with us!

Keeping in Touch
It has been such a delight each week to see the Rainey Room children and families! Thank you for continuing to log in every day.  We're thankful to be a small part of your daily routine.
Special thanks to the Rodriguez for sending out everyone's symbols as stickers through the mail!
If you get the chance, we encourage everyone to send out some messages in mail to the other members of the classroom this weekend.  It will mean a lot to the recipient!
With that, here are some snapshots from the week that bring us joy.  See you Monday!