Welcome ladies and gentleman…boys and girls it’s time for a PUPPET SHOW!

Today the Tel Aviv class decided to put on their very own puppet show. Eliza and I were making a pet shop out of magnet tiles and we didn’t have any animals to put in it. So…we decided to draw some! After we drew some horses and puppies we decided to put them on sticks which made us think that they could be puppets! We re-arranged the tent to look like a theater and soon the excitement had caught on throughout the whole class. Some were making puppets, others were setting up chairs and the rest were practicing and deciding what music should be played during our star performance. It was great to watch they idea take off and spread with so much enthusiasm. Putting on a show is not an easy task- there are LOTS of decisions that had to be made and lots of voices to be heard. The Tel Aviv kids did a great job of using the problem skill of “negotiation” which was hard, but it was neat to see how much growth they have had using this skill throughout the year.  After some puppet creation and some practicing, the lights were out, the music was on and a beautiful show was preformed! Great Job Tel Aviv Friends!

Hanging up Art!

Last week the Tel Aviv class decorated coffee filter to explore color mixing while creating flowers. I have been meaning to put them up on our bulletin board under the sky, but I hadn’t gotten around to it. This week I mentioned that I was going to do it and Eliza asked, “Can we help?”  So Eliza, Hannah, Molly, and Lily set to work creating a beautiful bulletin board. They used tacks to post the flowers under the sky. I loved how the girls not only used the tacks for practical purposes but created patterns and designs with the tacks to make them decorations as well, they became part of the art rather than something that was holding up the art. The girls were so proud of their art and their work beautifying our classroom. Thanks so much Ladies! We couldn’t have done it better ourselves!

One color per cup

This morning the sunshine children did some bead sorting...but it was difficult to figure out what the directions were. We decided on a color that we liked best and then each child filled their cup with that color. However, as the activity got started, each time a child put a bead in the cup, they changed their color.

It was fascinating to see that the directions that seemed quite obvious to me, really weren't clear and the children were frustrated with the task. I modeled again and again as Brett, Lizzie, Aleeza, Zachary, Ben and Noah Sussman watched me intently. They really wanted to get it right!

After 3 or 4 examples, I began to hear "ok, I'm doing blue." "I like orange." "Maybe I'll try red." As I peeked in their cups, each cup contained only one color. However, that wasn't the best part...when I looked up at their faces, I saw HUGE smiles. They weren't smiling because they were putting all blue beads in their cup. They were smiling because they achieved their goal - even though it was challenging at first. They were proud of themselves and it showed!!