Creating Our Castle

Since the Turtles made sketches for our classroom castle, it was time to get to work! Tamara helped cut out the castle, while the Turtles mixed custom paint colors to paint the castle. It was great seeing the Turtles' beanstalk story come to life with all the additions we are making to the room!

Some other fun things we did during the morning included:

watering our beans and sunflowers,

building VERY tall buildings with magnatiles (good thing Fran had lots of extra help from the Turtles),

and creating parking garages for all of our cars.

Then we set off to see Jenny where we began the class with one of our favorite greeting songs.  We even recorded it so that we could share it with all our families and friends.  In class today, we sang a Pete Seger story about a frog who went to the corner store,  made beats with wooden sticks, and peeled our bodies like a banana.

singing "Speckled Frogs"

peeling like bananas

pretending to have tusks

Teaching Peace, All the World Around

Here is the video we made with Kacie, for her students at New Jersey School for the Deaf. The children had worked had to learn the sign language for the song, and were so proud to share their song!

Marching for Peace!

Today was the big Peace Parade! We made new peace flags and set out to the big school to deliver the Peace Sticks that we had made for the classes who had helped us with our meanness research. We sang peace songs as we marched, and our flags waved cheerily in the breeze. In each room, the children took turns delivering the peace sticks and telling the children about our research. We also sangTeaching Peace to everyone we encountered. By the smiles on their faces, we could tell that we were indeed spreading peace!

pretzel snack in the hall

We are continuing to learn some new songs at Morning Meeting, and today acted out the slow sprouting of a seed!

Here are the words to the song:
Plant Our Seeds
Make yourself into a tiny little seed under the dirt.
This is the way we plant our seeds,
Plant our seeds,
Plant our seeds.
This is the way we plant our seeds,
When springtime is here.

What happens when it comes alive?
This is the way we sprout our roots,
Sprout our roots,
Sprout our roots.
This is the way we sprout our roots,
When springtime is here.

This is the way we pop through the dirt,
Pop through the dirt,
Pop through the dirt.
This is the way we pop through the dirt,
When springtime is here.

This is the way we stretch and grow,
Stretch and grow,
Stretch and grow.
This is the way we stretch and grow,
When springtime is here.

This is the way we shoot up tall,
Shoot up tall,
Shoot up tall.
This is the way we shoot up tall,
When springtime is here.


This is the way we open our bud,
Open our buds,
Open our buds.
This is the way we open our buds,
When springtime is here.

This is the way we bend in the breeze,
Bend in the breeze,
Bend in the breeze.
This is the way we bend in the breeze,
When springtime is here.

This is the way we smile at the sun,
Smile at the sun,
Smile at the sun.
This is the way we smile at the sun,
When springtime is here.