Water, Magic and Memories

The excitement level was palpable this morning, so it wasn't long before we had a brief Morning Meeting and opened the door for our final Inside Outside Day. We brought our snack outside and burned up some energy.

Next, we got out the hose and, with the excuse of cleaning toys and furniture, began a wild romp in the water. Pretty much everyone got soaked!

Then the Turtles insisted on putting on another show. This one was very loosely cast, with a fluid kind of script. Next, it was time for our Magical Adventure!

With our recorders playing, we marched out to the grove, where we sat together on a blanket and had our Moment of Silence. Next, Tamara and Carol told the story of their amazing journey to visit the Old Turtle and get some magic for their Turtles - for Being Brave in the future and Remembering Turtleland. Each Turtle then took a turn putting something in the center that they wanted to remember. Out of the velvet bag came a Turtle Shell full of Magic Necklaces, and the Turtle's sang a magic chant:

"Turtle, Turtle, brave and true

____________ is a Turtle and we love you!"

Each Turtle's name was filled in as they received their necklace.

With a magical potion, we drank a toast to the year we've had, and the future we wish for all our kids. Again playing our recorders, we marched back to our classroom.

There, we got to preview the movies for tomorrow. It was a lovely final day.

WE WILL MISS YOU TURTLES!!!

Telling Stories

In yet another attempt to confound the Turtles with math, Carol got out the abacus today, and showed them how to use it for addition and subtraction. They were, once again, not fooled by our wiley ways and managed to get the correct answer. Then, they got together and worked out some problems for themselves,

Some Turtles also discovered a new way to get the cars to go through the tube much faster.

Then, after a tragic tempera paint accident, Tamara decided to use her gory appearance to weave a scary story of mayhem, about The Alligator That Attacked!!" The story was so successfully mortifying, that the Turtles immediately asked for it to be told again.

Another Inside Outside Day brought magnatiles and cars outside, and they were a very popular choice.

Inside, the children continued the process of narrating their storybook. They are very excited to finish and be able to show there families.

At Storytime, Carol read, Sleeping Bobby, a different take on Sleeping Beauty. The Turtles have found that there are many different ways to tell basically the same story.

Blog #150!!!

We got ready for Morning Meeting early today, to beat the heat for Inside Outside time. Tamara tried again to stump the Turtles, by having them add up objects of different values. Once again, they could not be fooled.

We had some more yoga as letters of the alphabet.

At Morning Meeting, we talked about how to make the final decision for our Story title, and gave voting a try. We had a clear winner, and then went around and asked the Turtles whether or not they were ok with the choice, and they were!

For Inside Outside time, we had playdough...

...wild strawberries...

...dramatic play...

...swinging and running...

...and more illustrating for our Story!

There was also a full theater production, with narration and musical accompaniment.

What's in a name?

Even before Morning Meeting, we were a very busy bunch. There was snack to be made...

...books to be read...

...and animals to tend to.

Then, for our "Stump the Turtles" math question, Tamara tried to trick everyone by adding in multiplication! Just when it looked like we'd finally fooled them, the Turtles figured out the answer.

We tried a new kind of yoga today, by turning our bodies into different letters.

At Morning Meeting, the Elephant returned to read us the final(?!) version of our story. It does not yet have a titles, and the elephant's suggestion of calling it "The Elephant's Story," did NOT meet with the group's approval.

Carol showed the class the backgrounds that have been created so far, as well as each of the story parts that would need an illustration.

At Choice Time, some kids began to create new story illustrations.

Outside, there was snack, magnatiles, bookmaking and baby washing...

along with swinging, climbing, water painting and bikes.

Inside, Sarah Lynne's mom helped the kids with a secret project, while a very complicated family worked through issues around marriage and child and kitten raising.