Blocks: Our Visit from Imagination Playground

Gina, from Imagination Playground, came to The Co-op School today to talk to us about our amazing new blocks. She told us that an architect named David Rockwell discovered that his children liked playing with the large boxes their toys came in more than the actual toys and so he came up with the idea of creating large child-sized blocks. 

The kids had questions about how the blocks are made. We also talked about what we can make with the blocks (some ideas: playhouses, furniture, robots...), how it's good sometimes to make a plan before building and how to be safe when using the blocks.

 We discovered that we can stack up to 6 squares to make a slide.

  Two of our Co-opers worked together to make a /2 Sonic 1/2 robot-inspired sculpture.

 A house with a rainbow was built by 2 more of our creative kiddos!

Gina is a professional opera singer too and we ended with a lovely "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" sung out of a man-made "microphone."

Inquiry: The Bumblebee's Special Balloon Guest

The Bumblebee class is studying Balloons for their inquiry study and they had Balloon-Shape-Maker Extraordinaire Robert come in for an amazing demonstration!!

Q: "Are you making a T-Rex? How are you going to connect them?"

A: "Watch!"

Q: "How do you make it?"

A: "Blow it up and twist"

  Q: "How do you twist it without popping?"

A: "It takes practice."

Cooking: The Grasshoppers Make Pasta

The Pre-K Grasshopper class learned how to make pasta!

 YUM!!

Reading: The Dragonflies Enjoy Our New Library

“I have a Halloween book. I picked it because I like monsters.” 

 “I have a book about the community. It’s about all the people who help other people when they write stuff for them.” 

 “I picked this book because I thought I would like it. This ghost takes the scarf and then the guy takes the ghost and puts it on like a scarf. ” 

“My book is about Clifford. It’s about when he goes to school with his mom. I saw it in the white part. See? It has a white sticker.” 

“This book is about a little girl who has a baby. I like babies. The cover had lots of babies on it.” 

“I got an animal book because I wanted to see how animals look. Here is a snake. Do Toads give you spots when you touch them?” 

Inquiry: The Bumblebees Balloon Study Timeline

The Bumblebee Pre-K kids have embarked on another adventure: they have decided that they are really interested in learning more about balloons - how the float, why some float and some don't, how they deflate, what happens if you fill them with sand... 

So they are off!

Here is the timeline their teachers posted in the hallway to document their study and findings: 

The Imagination Playground is Here!!!

Phase one: Exploration
We got our new Imagination Playground blocks this week and, as you can see, the kids are just a little bit excited...

Dragonflies:

 “I was building a home for these little round things.  I was pretending that they were babies. We were playing with them and we builded a house for them.”

 “I really love them!  I think that we can make cool things with them.”  

  “They were fun. We made furniture. It wasn't just me.  [Other people] made the furniture, too.”

“I like these long ones. They make things taller!”

Spiders:

"Build a city we can play in!"

"I'm just helping moving things back and forth."

"It's enjoying to work together cause if you work together it can help."

 Bumblebees:

 "I'm building a castle!"

 "There's enough blocks for everyone!"

 "I am making a slide for the balls."

 "We can work together to make a castle."

Beetles:

 "They're big!"

 "I'm building a house."

 "Let's use these as hoses."  

" This is a train track."

Inquiry: The Bumblebees' Community Helper Movie!

The 4-year old Bumblebees made a movie for the culminating project of their Community Helper study. Throughout this 2-month long inquiry study, they studied various community helpers; such as firemen, policemen and EMT workers. They tried to think of a way to share what they learned with their families and the community. They came up with the idea of making a movie, wrote the story, narrated and helped with production. We present to you "The Cat That Got Stuck In A Tree." We hope you enjoy!