Expressing Without Words

The children watched a famous mime actor, Marcel Marceau, perform 

"The Lion Tamer" using only facial expression and body language to tell a story.

A game of expression bingo provided an opportunity to identify feelings expressed and also to notice the subtle differences in a persons face that can completely change the feeling of their expression. 

The game required careful observation.

Careful observation

The children are very familiar with John Birmingham's story "Mr. Gumpy's Outing"

They chose which character they wanted to be and which naughty action they would do that would help cause the boat to tip over and performed the story with only a few words from the narrator (me). Our volunteer, Sunny, was Mr. Gumpy. The children were challenged to express the message "May I come too?" with only facial and gesture expression. They loved it! Simone suggested we perform it for the other children and all agreed. Afterwards at lunch I heard Esme invite Sofia "Would you like to come to my house and we won't use any words?"
The girls used gestures to communicate the invitation.

"May I come?"

"May I come?"

"Yes, but don't wiggle!"

A Party - Story Writing

Parties are the topic that was important to Bela, especially the food that's eaten at parties!

The children watched a video of a children's author being interviewed and talking about where he gets his ideas from. I suggested we write our own story about Bela's topic and everyone agreed.

What makes a story a story? A story contains a topic, characters, a setting, it usually has a problem and a solution and an ending. The children worked together adding details incorporating everyone's ideas. You can tell who added what by the colour. Next week the children would like to dramatize the story.

The Party

Written by Julia, Bela, Alfie, Simone, Esme and Wendy

Once upon a time there was a birthday girl named Melody, she had long golden hair, she was a nice girl and she was turning 10 years old. Her little brother was also a birthday boy, his name was Monster, he was a happy baby monster who looked like a baby and he was turning 2! They were planning a party to celebrate their birthdays together and they invited their school friend Tepalee, a little boy whose skin was blue from his blue light saber. Melody wore a golden shiny dress that was as long as the tip of her toes and her shoes were coloured rainbow sparkly.

Melody and Monster were having their party at the art studio, they were excited to paint their faces! When Melody, Monster and Tepalee got to the art studio they discovered that there was already another party happening. The children at that party shouted “Go away! We don’t want you here!” Melody and Monster began to cry. Tepalee had a great idea, he asked “Can we join your party?” The children looked at Monster and Melody crying and they said “Yes you can! We should say sorry for what we did!” The children joined together and celebrated and painted faces and ate cookies and cream, cake, cookies, chocolate ice cream, and chocolate vanilla syrup, and hot chocolate. They had a great day!

Swings - Poetry and Movement

The children tried this format for writing a poem about their favourite thing at the playground. 

The process gave them practice answering the question "why" and providing reasons for their preference.

Presenting our poems to the group.

Tire swing

I like it

Ask me why.

Because it goes fast

Because I like it when Ashley pushes

Because I tuck my head in when I go so fast

Because when it turns around I feel happy!

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Julia

Tire swing

I like it

Ask me why.

Because I like to swing

Because I like it when Ashley pushes

Because it goes round so fast

Because it makes me feel happy!

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Simone

The swing

I like it

Ask me why.

Because it is my favourite

Because I go so high

Because I can see everything in the sky

Because I can see the clouds

Because swinging makes me happy

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Alfie

  

Space net

I like it

Ask me why.

Because it is very fun

Because I love to climb

Because it bounces when I jump

Because I’m so high at the very top

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Sofia V.

The slide

I like it

Ask me why.

Because it makes me happy

Because I like to go down fast

Because when it rains I go down really fast

Because.

Because.

Because that’s why

-Bela

 A traditional English song called "Swing Me Up A Little Bit Higher, Obadiah Do!" 

has a gentle swinging rhythm that the children enjoyed moving their bodies to. 

They explored different ways they could swing their stuffies. As a final idea we used fabric to swing the stuffies as we sang. If you'd like to hear the song you can check out this site 

http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Traditional-music-in-England/025M-C1023X0085XX-6600V0

Swings - Poetry and Art

When Alfie was asked what is important to him he said the playground, especially the swings.

Robert Lewis Stevenson lived long ago and he wrote a poem called "The Swing". The children were intrigued with the fact that he's dead and wanted to know more about him. We did some research and discovered that he died in 1894, hundreds of years ago! He was a Scottish writer and he also wrote poetry for children.                                                                                                                                     

Robert Lewis Stevenson

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

                                      Till I look down on the garden green,
                                      Down on the roof so brown--
                                      Up in the air I go flying again,
                                      Up in the air and down! 

To express the swinging motion that Alfie loves so much we built a pendulum painter using an empty honey container hung from the ceiling with string! The children were thrilled to have a turn and watch the paint form "ovals" and "space" pictures!

Blossoms - Art

Simone's topic of interest is blossoms. 

She likes the pink and white ones and when she looks at them she feels surprised.

The children listened to a Japanese song called Sakura, which means cherry blossom. The children listened and then reflected what feeling the song evoked in them and wondered what feelings the artist was feeling. Most of the children felt scared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keF-KYKKYeI

Simone chose art as a way to express her thoughts and feelings about blossoms. The children were inspired by this picture and an interesting discussion took place as they noticed that everyone's representation of the cherry blossom tree looked different. Is there a right and wrong way? 

We looked at different artists representations of trees and noticed that they were all very different, especially abstract art. 

Everyone has a different perspective and that's amazing.

The hot air popcorn maker brought up many stories of making popcorn at home and the overall feeling was surprised - perfect for the feeling some of the children wanted to portray in their picture.

Surprised expression

Surprised expression

Trees - Poetry

Another way to express the love of climbing trees is through poetry.

Margaret Atwood wrote a lovely poem called Up in a Tree
and what better place to hear it than in the woods.
The children and I found a spot far off the path surrounded by trees and read poetry about trees. 

Some of the children were inspired to write their own poems . . . 

I love climbing trees

I love trees

Trees make me happy

-Sofia

Look! I'm up in a tree!

I'm so happy.

-Roy

Simone worked hard at trying to create poems that rhyme:

I am a tree

I am a leaf

I come and freeze

I am a bee

I make honey from a tree

I am a fly

I like to lie

-Simone

I climb when I'm a person

I fly when I'm a bird

I like climbing trees

It's my favourite responsibility

-Simone