Group Time November 28

Line of Inquiry: Decorations tell human stories and help us know one another

Similarities and differences in ideas about what a decoration is

The children have spent the past few weeks sharing decorations from the cultures and connecting with one another. We will be looking at quilt's as a way of sharing stories and connecting with one another.

The story Mr. Nick's Knitting is about two friends who share a hobby; knitting, which they do together everyday on the train on their way to the city.  When Mrs. Jolley falls ill and must stay in the hospital for a very long time she is very sad at having nothing interesting to look at.  Mr Nick knits her a quilt of all the images the saw as trey looked out the train window, a quilt that tells the story of their friendship together.

Can we make a quilt that tells the story of the children in the Wind Group? The children enthusiastically brainstormed ideas for decorations they could use on their square that would express who they are. Some discussion happened as they practised being open minded and accepting that what might be a decoration to one person may not be to another and that's okay.

Group Time November 22

Assessment

To assess the children's understanding of the lines of inquiry I put together a slide show of images from our explorations: feathered head dress, steel drum, paper lantern, stuffed animals, and a shamrock. I asked the children what they thought about these pictures and recorded their responses. Right away they identified the decorations with each child and country. Indeed the children understand that different cultures have various decorations and that they are connected to people's stories!

I made the statement "Only Trinidad has head dresses" The children disagreed and Chloe said that China has some and the question was formed "Are there head dresses in China?" We researched the question and Google Images gave us many examples of traditional Chinese head dresses. "Can we make one?" wondered Natalia. "Can we?" I asked. Everyone responded "Yes!" and so we set to work.

The children are beginning to understand that there are similarities in ideas of decorations across cultures.

Group Time November 21

Line of Inquiry: Exploring a variety of decorations from a variety of cultures

Decorations tell human stories and help us know one another

Today was Nico's turn to bring some important decorations from his home and culture and talk about their stories. Nico brought in a mouse that is the character on a TV show his mom watched as a little girl. Another stuffed animal was of a bear playing rugby, a sport played in New Zealand where his paternal grandparents are from. There were a few more items and I asked Nico where he kept these things and he replied "In my room!" The children began talking about the things they have in their rooms and we made a list of their decorations: Adyson, Hao Hao and Byron have stickers on their walls, Chloe has a sparkly ceiling and flowers, Natalia has bears, Rocco has animals, YuHa has stuffies, and Nico has a bed, blanket and pillow.

We watched a video of Margret Wise-Brown's Goodnight Moon. Then the children circled the things they thought were decorations in the room. The drama area has been transformed into a bedroom and the children were given time to play and decorate as they wished!

Group Time November 15

Line of Inquiries: Exploring a variety of decorations from various cultures

Decorations tell human stories and help us know one another

Julia's culture is from Ireland and Scotland. Kai's family also shares a Scottish heritage. Julia's mom sent an email describing some decorations that are important in their family and a link to show the plaid that their clan uses in their kilts. "What's a kilt" someone asked. Julia showed the ballet skirt she was wearing and said "This is a kilt"

We researched this together and listened to bagpipes played by a man in a kilt and we watched some dancing Highland dancers wearing kilts. Byron loves music and started bouncing along. All the children wanted to dance and they studied the girls moves and tried to imitate them. Just precious!

St. Patrick's Day is a big celebration in Julia's family and they use shamrocks to decorate and make shamrock cookies. Julia brought  in her special shamrock cookie cutter and her Papa's special sprinkles and we made cookies together, enough for everyone. The children decorated the cookies with the sprinkles, "But not all of them because they belong to my papa"

Group Time November 14

Line of Inquiry: Exploring a variety of decorations from various cultures

What a wonderful resource families are for the children's exploration! This weekend Rocco's Granddad emailed me a plethora of information on decorations and food that are from Rocco's Trinidadian culture! His email included stories of Rocco playing the steel drum back home and his mom told of the beautiful feathered head dress she wore at festivals and is now used as a decoration along with the steel drum.

Included in the email was a link to an amazing boy who plays the steel drum. The children were captivated! I've included the link, this little guy is definitely worth checking out! How fortunate are we that the daycare has a small steel drum, the children were keen to try. Soon with chac chac's in hand and taking turn on the drum music filled the room!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=cncVDvWLPus

We researched some picture of head dresses worn at festivals and the children made their own feathered rendition. The children watched the dancers with magnificent costumes and got up to dance with them! What a great family-home connection and how special for Rocco to have his Den Den's stories shared with the children!

Group Time November 8

Line of Inquiry: Exploring a variety of decorations from various cultures

Thank you parents for providing information on your child's cultural background. Today we looked at the world map and located the countries the children's ancestors are from. We will spend the next few weeks exploring decorations from the cultures of the children (form).

Adyson, Natalya, Hao Hao, Chloe and Byron's ancestors are from China. What are some common Chinese decorations? We researched this questions and the results from Google Images were picture after picture of red and gold decorations, many of them lanterns. We read about why gold and red are such important colours and learned that they represent good luck and happiness.

We read "Moon Festival" by Ching Yeung Russell and the children listened intently as the story described how lanterns were used in this festival. The story mentioned Moon Cakes and this intrigued the children. "What are Moon Cakes?" many wondered with curiosity. Adyson said she had eaten Moon Cakes before. Many of the children wished they could try them too. Does anyone know where they can be purchased?

The children used red and gold paint to decorate their own lantern which we will use to decorate the daycare. I observed many of the children exploring with patterns. After Julia's suggestion we listened to traditional Chinese music as they painted.

Group Time November 7

After searching for decorations in the daycare with Debbie the children decided that we need more decorations. All of the children are working on a group project, decorating tiles that will be displayed along the length of the daycare.

Each group decided what materials would be needed to decorate their tiles.

The Wind Group chose:

• paint
• markers
• hearts
• Christmas trees
• feathers
• sparkles
• marshmallows

Thank you to YuHa and her mom for being the first to bring decorations to decorate one of the tables for lunch. The children are learning that some decorations are just for looking at and some can be used and held. The candles set a soft glow and the children felt like the table was special!