Storytelling and Other Magical Moments

 The Butterfly Castle or Les Chateau des Papillons The Twins were delighted to have the light table glowing when they returned to the EAL classroom after the holidays. They noticed a new setup and a few new jars of loose parts. They worked together in English, French and Russian creating, Les Chateau des Papillons.  "We can do the castle in English and in French! Only the beautiful things can live there. Not ninjas because they may break the wings. Ladybugs and princesses are okay." A and F Inspired by the concept of a butterfly castle I asked my other EAL groups what a butterfly castle might look like, without showing them the light table. I asked them what a butterfly may need to live in the castle and who they could share the castle with.  These are their illustrations and ideas.

Imagining Dialogue: Inspired by a walk in the snow. Light Table Stories: Creating beautiful moments with language and play Design Thinking: Creating possibilities to design, test, change and play  

This year I decided to link the creation of personal story boxes to our Unit of Inquiry, Where We Are in Place and Time.  Here is the story of our stories.

As our kindergarteners prepare for their seasonal concert, The Festival of Light , we consider light in all parts of our learning. How does light change our decisions when we play? How does light enhance our stories? How is light different in different celebrations? How do light and dark make us feel? We offered little lights during play engagements and Writer's Workshop. The element of light was uniquely different to each child... The light was there to hold the princess and to make it pretty. - Esma The light in my story was thrown at the football player to knock him down by the fan. - Tigran The light helped find the way back home. -Anthony The light was the mom (an angel light) and magic for the poor people. - Mia The light helped the football guy and the pig go further along on the path. - Alex The light told the pets to take off their jewelry. - Juliet The light got hot and melted the snow. - Konstantin Above children are wo...

What happens when a bucket of princesses goes missing? You create a story about it.  Using the creative juices of some of my kindergarten students we imagined where the princesses went and what they did all day. This created opportunities to practice storytelling language and other communication skills with peers and teachers.

We filled our Outdoor Learning time with snow's natural provocations - sledding, digging, sculpting, rolling and just playing. I added a bit of color to see how the discussion would change. While many students stuck to soccer in the snow and other gross motor activities, we also had snow filled paintings and designs.  Some painted small snowmen and today The Snow Bakery opened up, with beautifully decorated snow cakes and one rainbow ice soufflé! Happy Artists. Almost the end of thirty minutes of collaborative painting! "Can I use a pro scope to take a closer look?" The bakery in full working order. A fresh strawberry cake is on the right. 'I call this the rainbow soufflé!"  Beautiful colors.

After Christmas is an amazing (and cheap) time to find loose parts on sale at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, various Dollar Stores, Jo-Ann Fabric and even Target. Here are a few of my last minute purchases on my visit to the US. Even decorative pieces from gifts were valuable for my back to school stories and play. Different balls, ornaments and marbles to add to construction, stories, designs and light table creations.  Ornament hooks that fit nicely into old wooden pegboards. I will add this to my screws, nails, small straws and golf tees. Pegboards are great provocations for math, but also fantastic for small (contained) storytelling spaces. Cannot wait to put these by the light table and construction area. These will be added to two story boxes. They were less than a dollar with the sales at Hobby Lobby. Perfect inviting story box provocations. Although not on sale, I always love some rainbow ribbon, for those spontaneous magical moments.

My first attempt at using Adobe Spark Pages.

When children have time to play on the light table I make sure to not say "What are you making?" but always ask, "Would you like to make a story on the light table?" or "What is your story about?" This way of simple questioning has created an environment that when students go to the light table they always tell a story, or create an image with a story.  I have collected loose parts from around the world, donated from friends, found at dollar stores, and quickly picked up things that were going to be thrown away and have created a beautiful space to share them, hoping that their beauty is equally part of the provocation... Loose Parts Light Table Images and Stories "This is that time when the leaves fall down and the people are playing in the leaves. (Fall)" "The lady bugs are in the middle of the beautiful place. They are eating. The flower is beautiful and the sun/stars are there." "This is the bea...

As we inquire into systems of organization in kindergarten we joined with our Primary Arts Specialist to look at how and why we can organize through art.  We thought about why artists make decisions about art, color, line and why they make decisions about their art. They created collaborative art pieces during their time with her and during this time she also introduced the book, Tidying Up Art , Ursus Werli. This made me think about out our collabroative EAL Story/Art, The House with Thirteen Stories.  (See blog post) I asked my students to go back to and look at our story, that was still hanging on the wall. I asked... How can we tidy up our art? Each child took their own personal "story" and cut each piece of their story. In my different EAL group lessons we began organizing the cut objects into categories.  Numbers. Windows. People. Stairs. Animals. Big Things. Things Inside the Home.  Snowflakes. etc... We cut and glued. Organized, ...

I wanted to use some of the new tools that we purchased for an open ended provocation at Outdoor Learning.  All I needed was broken electronics, some screw drivers and a place to organize all the cool pieces or loose parts. The focus, attention to detail and negotiations made with all the pieces that offered a fantastic opportunity to observe language, confidence and also fine motor skills. The group at the table are intently working and  sharing the materials. The foreground shows some of their thinking with the bigger parts. Gray. Silver. Black White. Clear. They chose to sort by color, material, size and texture. Asserting themselves at times in order to be heard and understood.                                   What do we do next with all these amazing Loose parts?