Preparations Continue

We had another rehearsal today, and it went much better! The actors waited quietly for their parts, and we could here the lines much more clearly!

We also continued work on our costumes, using the sewing machine. Sadly it broke! Tamara will have to take it to the repair shop! If anyone has a sewing machine at home and would be willing to sew some hems on rectangles of fabric (it's super easy!) we would love some help!








Other goings-on:

moon-sand on the light table

Matthew's building

on a walk "somewhere we've never been"

"Do we go left or right?" the teacher asked. "Left!" the Turtles declared.

We found a group of rhododendron bushes that we had never explored.

It was like a secret world!

a visit to Dave's apple tree

Facilitating Dialogue, not Enforcing Turn Taking

The block area was very popular this morning, and I sat down to observe all the goings-on. I recently visited the TriBeCa Community School in Manhattan where one of the teachers described their approach to problem solving saying, "We don't negotiate turn-taking; we facilitate dialogue." I loved this framing of the issue, and so I sat down with the intention to try it out. It turns out there was a lot  of dialogue to facilitate, and that with very little help, the Turtles are able to really navigate some of these conversations. Instead of asking directive questions like "Who had it first?" I ask questions like:

What is the problem?
How can we solve this problem?
How did that make you feel?
Did you tell your friend?
How did that make your friend feel?
What's your idea?
What's you friend's idea?

With a little bit of support, a couple different dyads worked happily and constructively for almost half an hour! They built castles, garages, and a highway.

We also had an impromptu creek adventure. A couple of children noticed that there was a hula hoop and a ball stuck in the creek.

Tamara sent them out to rescue them.

We soon discovered that the hula hoop was stuck!

The two Turtles called to their friends, and soon we had a whole bunch of Turtles working on the problem!

 They could not get it unstuck, until finally they called Fran who they declared was "super strong!"

 Sure enough, Fran was able to free the hoop by dislodging the metal sign and everyone cheered!

Other activities:

Visiting Photographers

At Morning Meeting today, we did a dry run of our Turtles and the Beanstalk with the children speaking their parts! They were so excited! We also realized that the end of the story doesn't quite make sense. The editors still have some work to do!

There were many color mixing activities today:

And so beautiful outdoor time:

It was Debbie's birthday so the children surprised her with a serenade!

Today the Turtles were visited by some professional photographers. They were inspired and asked Ariell if they could try out the class's camera themselves. They took turn, and got some great shots from unique perspectives:

There were also several shots from their perspectives that they thought were hilarious!