The Week in Review

4/24/2020

Most of us are finding that life under "stay at home" orders has its ups and downs. And this week, we found that in many ways our Zoom calls were filled with many wonderful moments, but also some challenging moments. We're all learning as we go and some activities resonate more with certain children than others. What's clear is that although Zoom allows us to connect, it's really a distant second to being/working together in the Rainey Room. As we continue to work out the kinks, we thank you for coming along for the ride.

Monday: The Golden Carrot Game

Continuing on our learning thread around games, we created a game using the children's ideas. The Golden Carrot game was engaging for most of the children and it was fun to see what they chose for their game pieces.

Tuesday: The Get Moving Game

The children had great ideas for actions to do during the game. Wolf M suggested, "We could do hopscotch." Ever the animal enthusiast, Cannon's movement idea was, "Gorillas thump their chests." Lane suggested, "spinning." In the second group, Grace proposed, "leap," and Emilia suggested, "ballerina dance." But not all children participated and some participated but we couldn't see them because of their camera angle.

Wednesday: The High/Low Game

This online version of the card game, "War" was very challenging. With more than two players and without being able to see each other's cards well (even in gallery view) this game wasn't as successful as we had anticipated. The children tried their best, but over Zoom it can be challenging to hear one another clearly.
Despite that, we do think this game has value and hope that parents might revisit it with their child. Playing the game is a fun way to help build numeracy skills. Plus, being able to win cards and go through, "war" is fun. (Though we do suggest a different name!) In case you need a refresher on the rules: Each player turns up a card at the same time and the player with the higher card takes both cards and puts them, face down, on the bottom of his stack. If the cards are the same rank, it is War. Each player turns up one card face down and one card face up. The player with the higher cards takes both piles (six cards).

Thursday: The Storytelling Cube Game

Though waiting for a turn was sometimes hard, this game proved to be lots of fun! We definitely suggest families play together at home. Notice some interesting story elements that got included: setting, dialogue, word choice, problem/solution.

Oliver (cat and fairy)
“The fairy was on her tree and her kitty was very nice. The cat just chased the fairy. She ran through inside a tree and the cat just ran out and licked her on the cheek.”

Palmer (robot and cat)
“Once upon a time there was a robot and a cat. And they decided they would go to school. Their teacher told them to go for recess. The end.”

Cannon (gorilla and bee)
“The gorilla stole the honey. The gorilla went to jail. But the gorilla escaped. And then the police saw him and put him back in jail. Then he escaped. Then they put him back in jail. Then he escaped. Then they put him back in jail. Then he escaped. A bumble bee stung the gorilla. And a dragon came. But you know what, a dog named Jazz came and put the police in jail!”

Gigi (bus and rain cloud)
“A bus was rolling down the lane when rain came down on the roof. And the road broke into teeny pieces. So there was no problem because the bus had wings. So the bus just flew in the sky. And then they got home. The end.”

Wolf M (dog and bird)
“There’s a dog on the street and a bird. They walked to the beach. And the bird said, “Let’s cool off!” Then they runned uphill. Then they saw a bowl of peas.”

Maren (dragon and house)
“Once upon a time there’s a dragon that lived in a house and the house was not big enough for the dragon. And there were no more houses so he decided to look in the jungle. The jungle did not have any houses either. But then he decided to live outside and make a house. The end.”

Lane (fairy and bird)
“Once upon a time there was a fairy and a bird. They were doing a race with a lion. And you know who winned? The bird winned the race then the fairy goed and sitted down on a chair. Then they keeped doing the race. The bird flyed away and the fairy was alone. And then the fairy cried and then the bird found the fairy. The end.”

Emilia (gorilla and fairy)
“Once upon a time there was a gorilla and it was looking for his friend Buttercup. And it (Buttercup) was a fairy. And then, as soon as he found Buttercup there was a dinosaur with Buttercup. And then the gorilla just tried to punch him and when he punched him he got madder and madder and madder. The end.”

Olivia (bird and bee)
“Once upon a time there was a chick and the chick saw the bumble bee and it was scared of the bumble bee. And it ran away.”

Grace (cloud and gorilla)
“Once upon a time there lived a gorilla and a cloud. And the cloud was looking all over for gorilla and popped out of their house but then a dragon came and spit fire at the gorilla. The gorilla went to the swimming pool to cool off. The end.”

Ellie (fairy and cloud)
“Once upon a time there was a fairy and a cloud. And they loved nature. So one day they spotted a zoo so they went to the zoo and said, “Hi, I’m a fairy and a cloud. Who are you?” The end.

Fletcher (fairy and gorilla)
“Once upon a time there was a little fairy and there was a little gorilla. They were little children. (MR: Were they so little that they could sleep together on a flower petal?” They could sleep together on a flower. (MR: Maybe a spider comes to eat them?) They didn’t get eaten because a bird ate the spider. The end.”

Friday: Charades

Another fun and engaging game for many of the Rainey Room friends. We used to play this together in person and the children have improved tremendously since we started. Thus far, we have always played within the category of animals but we might be ready to branch out! It's an easy one to play at home because you don't need any materials, just imagination.

Show & Tell Sharing

It was so fun to see the different items children shared this week. Some will hopefully inspire other families, others have inspired our workshop plans for next week. Some common themes: books, stuffed animals, projects children built, coloring/drawing/painting.