Everything Old is New Again

For the month of November several parts of our curriculum will converge around theme of "going back in time".  After reading Donald Hall's classic, The Ox-Cart Man, which tells the story of family life on a New England farm in the 1800's, the children's interest life long ago was sparked. Since then we've begun making candles, added embroidery as an option at quiet time, and created a special space to pretend with some old fashioned props.  Our fifth grade buddies helped us out with paper weaving as well!

 

During Literacy this week we talked about books that are "old favorites"- stories that are so good we want to read them again and again until we know them by heart.  In fact, many of these stories are SO good our parents and grandparents read them and know them too!  Here you can see readers fully engrossed in these stories and in reenacting one of them...The Three Billy Goats Gruff!  After making character puppets we partnered up to make bridges out of blocks so we could practice telling the story with the voices of the characters.

On Friday when we took to the forest, we discovered a partially constructed wooden bridge that spanned a low spot of the forest floor.  Immediately, there was a great team effort to haul more sticks to reinforce and continue the cross pieces.  And before you knew it, it was the perfect place to "trip trop, trip trop, trip trop"- just like in The Three Billy Goats Gruff !