So Much To Do

Today, the Turtles came in busy and stayed that way all day - there was barely enough time and space to contain them and the many things they set out to do.

Towers were constructed, superheroes arrived, guinea pigs were fed, maps were made, boats were built, the North Pole was conquered and Mary Poppins showed up with her young charges. All of this even before snack!

At Morning Meeting, we had a wide-ranging discussion about what the Turtles think makes for a good story. Characters, they decided, were very important, as was setting. They also realized, through their own examples, that most good stories also had a problem that needed to be solved.

Next, we reviewed the characters that each of the Turtles have chosen for our story, and some decided to change theirs (making changes and improvements as we go is part of our creative process). We began working on choosing the characters that will be having the problem, from the list we brainstormed last week.

At Choice Time, Turtles played Numbers Lotto, watercolored and continued their construction projects. We also started "sketching" our characters on the Smart Board. The Turtles have learned to look at what they want to draw and make a plan for how best to do it, that includes positioning, color choices and shapes.

We had some outside time and the Turtles got a chance to run and bike.

They also worked on a big vat of mud and stick soup, and found a worm that was rescued and relocated to our garden.

Sarah Lynne's mom, Dawn, came in to read us an especially funny story called, The Three Little Cajun Pigs, before it was time to sing goodbye to our half-day friends and have some lunch.