First graders created monster masks and movement patterns (both locomotor and nonlocomotor) to encourage imaginative retellings of the story Monster Trouble. They worked in small groups to show how they would get through a sticky trap set by a young girl. Later this month they will begin acting out the chapter book My Father's Dragon.
Would you like to know "Who's in Rabbit's House?" Just ask a second grader who has been exploring this African folktale. The children love portraying the many animal characters in this tale of trickery. We have been working on differentiating movement and voice for rabbit, frog, elephant, jackal and rhinoceros.
In conjunction with the third graders' study of Native Americans they have been exploring the story of The Jumping Mouse. This story from the Lakota tribe helps children see the sacrifices that this tiny mouse gives may take away his senses, but ultimately not his dream of reaching the Far Off Land. Students became the mouse and got to experience a blindfolded trust walk as well as a heightened sense of smell.
The fourth graders have been continuing their character work on The Twits. They are evaluating themselves and each other in their ability to remain in character using believable detailed pantomime to create scenes. The favorite scene so far seems to be where Mrs. Twit tricks Mr. Twit to eat spaghetti full of worms hidden in tomato sauce.
History has been coming alive as the fifth grade classes have been learning about and experiencing
what life was like for children who were sent out west on the Orphan Train. They have been shocked by the lack of child labor laws and how these children could be torn away from family. By creating newspaper headlines, tableaus, and scenes the students have delved into an important but often forgotten time in our history.