Focusing on Characters and Sound

Monday: Reading Stories and Drawing Characters

In continuation of our exploration of storytelling, we chose to focus on characters this week. We started off the week, with inviting the children to draw while we read to them. While not everyone chose to draw, the children remain engaged and attentive to each other and to their work at home. 

Wednesday:  Characters and Character Development

THE CHARACTERS AND THE STORY:

Reed brings a pink pig, a horse, and a cow. "Pig says oink, oink." Her horse and cow don't say anything. 
Violet brings a triceratops character.
Janie brings a "Bad cat. He's not nice to the mice. He woke them up... Because it was Cinderella. ...And Fairy Godmother."
Lucia brings an elephant. "Everybody else went o the zoo to find an elephant." "They eat something yum." 
Jack ​brings his pink dinosaur, Leif and another lovey named Foxy. "They find another dinosaur."
Maxon brings a little lamb and Elmo and Cookie Monster, and his lovey, Hoot. "Elmo is very special to me. He's red. Cookie Monster loves cookies. Chocolate chip cookies." (He then introduces Hoot after Elyse introduces her dragon character.) "And the dragon can breathe fire on them. 

What a great lot of characters and ways to think about them!

THE STORY: 
How will the characters get to the playground?
Cedar: "They can ride on a dinosaur [to] where the playground is."
George: "This dinosaur is riding on the doggie."
Cedar: "They're there now [at the playground]."
George: "Have to get a plane."
Audrey: "Cows digging in sandbox [at the playground]."
Sylvie: "She spins on her tail." 
Cedar: "Killer whale ate the rain cloud."
UH oh... Now what?
Audrey: "There's a house."
All the characters get into the house to hide from the killer whale rain cloud. While in the house they have a snack. What do they eat for their snack?
Sylvie: Hay
Cedar: Strawberry tea
George: A candy car
Audrey: Seaweed
Sylvie: The mommy cow has a bell and the baby eats it. 
​What will happen next? Will the killer rain cloud go away? Will the characters hark back from the house to the playground to play again? Stay tuned! ;-)

THE CHARACTERS AND... THE SETTING:

Cedar brings a white bunny, a pink pig, a doll with red hair, a cow with dangling legs, and an orange dinosaur name Lulu (sp?), and a killer whale (or orca). 
Sylvie brings Panecaka (sp?) - a doll from the Czech Republic, her purple bunny lovey, Lilac, a squishy cat named, Figaro, a brown cow, and an orca.
George brings an orange dog with a mask called Zuma (sp?) from Paw Patrol.
Audrey ventured out beyond characters and brought us a setting for our story with her drawing of a playground.

Friday: Sound, Beat, Rhythm, and a Dance Party

MAKE SOME NOISE!

Rhythm instruments with guitars and percussive instruments with maracas and wooden spoons. We even heard a "police car" song from George!

JUST DANCE!

We danced to Pharell Williams "Happy", Katy Perry's "Roar" and Idina Menzel's "Let it Go." We'll do more dancing next week!