We Decorate: Mouse's Birthday!

The children have made connections between decorations and celebrations. 

Today we explored a celebration they know very well - birthdays!

I webbed the children knowledge:

"What do you know about birthdays?"

We went over their ideas and I asked "Is this a decoration?" 

I drew a box around the decorations. The children determined that some things were decorations (balloons and flowers) and some things were decorated (cake, goody bags).

I introduced "my friend" Mouse, it's his birthday and he'd like to celebrate.

The children quickly set to work decorating the drama room with things they determined were decorations: balloons, fabric and flowers.

They decorated a cake with coloured icing and sprinkles.

The candles were lit and everyone sang Happy Birthday for Mouse!

Happy Birthday Mouse!

We Decorate: Decorations and Celebrations

Lines of Inquiry:

Exploring a variety of decorations from various cultures (form)

Building on the children's prior knowledge prior knowledge:

Decorations can be used to decorate out home on holidays

Sharing pictures of decorations used in various celebrations led to discussion about what items were used for decoration and stories of decorations used at home for celebrations. 

I reminded the children that last week they noticed that Button Blankets used in FIrst Nations celebrations had specific colours. As they looked at the pictures today I asked them if they noticed any specific colours in these celebrations.

The two pictures that prompted the most discussion was Halloween and Hanukkah. 

They noticed lots of orange and black for Halloween and blue and white for Hanukkah.

"What is Hanukkah" asked Rielle

Luckily Sophie, who celebrates Hanukkah, brought in a book that described the celebration and the decorations used. 

The children explored orange and black paint - colours used in Halloween decorations.

We Decorate: What is a Decoration?

Can a button be a decoration?

Lines of Inquiry:

Exploring a variety of decorations from various cultures (form)

Similarities and differences in ideas about what a decoration is (perspective)

A child asked this question and led us into today's investigation. 

First we looked at some fasteners we have on our clothes; zippers, snaps, and buttons. The children practiced the mechanics of these on special frames. 

Some West Coast First Nation communities use buttons to decorate special button blankets worn during ceremonies.  We researched this together through image searches, a video and a story and the children worked on a paper version of a crest that might be used in the centre of a button blanket.

Choosing a button

Commitment!

We emptied a bag of buttons and marveled at the many colours, shapes and sizes. Sorting through my grandma's button collection was a favourite pastime when I was a child. A button blanket might use as many as 300 buttons, today the children had to chose just one for their crest - a challenging task!
The children were committed to covering the white space in red crayon. "Why are we using only red?" wondered Esme. We referred to the images we searched and noticed that only the colours red, black, and white were used. "That's just how they're made!" concluded Rielle. In the beginning Alan thought it would be too difficult to cover all the white space but he stuck with it and felt very pleased by his commitment. 

Responsibility

There was a whole bag of buttons to clean up. Esme, Sophie and Oliver showed responsibility in offering to clean them up!

New Unit: We Decorate Our World!

Who We Are

Central Idea: People use decoration and this helps us learn about each other

Lines of Inquiry:

Exploring a variety of decorations from various cultures (form)

Decorations tell human stories and help us know one another (connection)

Similarities and differences in ideas about what a decoration is (perspective)

Gathering children's prior knowledge helps teachers plan future lessons.

With Halloween just gone by the children had lots to say about decorations 

they had at their homes and in their yard.

Prior knowledge:

Decorations can be used to decorate out home on holidays.

I asked the children if they had decorations on their clothes, 

there was some discussion about what was a decoration and what wasn't and 

so I turned this into a question:

Are buttons and zippers decorations?

Eric Carle's Hermit the Crab is a story that led the children to think about comparing things that are plain and things that are decorated. Then they decorated their own Hermit the crab shell.

Sound Travels: Music Webs

The children have some definite ideas about the music they'll compose!

What feelings and ideas do you want to express?

What instruments and sounds will you use?

Tyreese:
Sad music: The babies are crying because the fire engine put them in jail. The babies are in big trouble because they banged all the trumpets down!
Cello, guitar, crying, sirens

Oliver:
Happy music: I'm ice skating with all my friends. I keep trying to skate backwards but I keep falling down. It's a little tricky for me.
Bass drum, tuba

Rielle:
Sad music: A giant came and stomped on the bumblebees. Giants love stomping on bumblebees. Stomp! Stomp! The bumblebees were hurt but they got up.
Trumpet, saxophone, stomping sounds

Alan:
Loud music: There's trouble! Trouble with bad guys, they push everything down and we have to go to China
Cymbals, guitar

Sophie:
Mad music: The mermaids are swimming to the city. They swam so far away and it made the dolphin mad!
Bongo drums, harps

Rylan:
Brave music: Drivers are in cars driving to Africa to play. But there's soldiers there, bad soldiers. The drivers get out and the soldiers fight them. Then "poof" they were gone!
Oboe, xylophone, fighting sounds, poof sound

Esme:
Happy song: There's flowers growing in my garden. I pick some flowers for my grandma and give them to her to keep. Grandma's happy!
Harp, glockenspiel

Sound Travels: Feel the Beat!

In preparation for the summative activity at the end of this unit 

the children have been working on several concepts: 

music has a form, music can express and evoke feelings, music has a beat

 Many of the children have already decided what feeling they want to express in their music.
"But how will we do it?" asked Esme
I introduced the children to Garage Band and we listened to a few instruments.
We will use this program to compose their music.

Today's activities provided an opportunity to understand that music has a beat. 

Next week I will connect this to what they've learned by exploring 

that beat tempo can also express feelings and ideas. 

There's a beat in our body . . . can you guess? Our hearts! 

We listened to a sound clip of a hear beat and 
notice how the tempo stays the same.

We explored this further using a drum. 

One at a time the children took turns trying to match my beat as I varied the tempo. 

I observed that the children tended to bang the drum harder as they increased their tempo which could end up with a damaged drum! They practiced a fast tempo with softer taps on the drum.

Sound Travels: Sounds and Feelings

Certain sounds in our environment evoke feelings within us. 

Identifying facial expressions

To help the children become more aware of this they first identified feelings from facial expressions.

I introduced the idea that some sounds can cause us to feel certain feelings and we listened 

to different sounds and talked about our reactions. The children were accepting of the fact 

that they had different perspectives and it was okay to feel differently. 

Reflecting on how we feel

We listened to an ambulance siren, an dog barking, a witches laugh, howling wind.

Music can have the same effect!

We listened to Bach's Organ Toccata and it didn't take long for most of the 

children to express the music made them feel scared. 

It's not surprising that this piece of music is often in music scores for horror movies!

This music makes me feel:

Roy - happy          Bela - scared

Esme - happy          Jason - scared

Oliver - happy        Trystan - mad

Rylan - mad          Tyreese - scared

Rielle - sad        Alexis - happy

Sophie - happy