Anna's Class Notes

This week we designed houses for fairies or other small creatures. These were fantasy creations using natural materials gathered from our surroundings. We made these structures outside on the day before the big windstorm. The next day it was interesting to observe what happened to the structures we made and what features were still standing after all of the strong wind passed.

At choice time the children made giant bubbles, built lego houses, experimented with constructing with cardboard and other recycled materials, and observed a praying mantis that was found near Tonka Town. 

I have begun reading a chapter book called The Wishtree, by Katherine Applegate, to the class. This is a story told from the perspective of the tree. This book is an excellent text to anchor and extend our discussion of empathy as we think about the way an author can imagine the point of view of someone (or something in this case) outside of themselves. As the story unfolds we will learn how the wishtree came to be and we will meet the complete cast of characters that inhabit the tale. 

 We read the book Freedom Summer, by Deborah Wiles. This book is told in the voice of a white boy named Joe who lives somewhere in the south of the United States in 1964 when and where segregation is legal. The story is about how Joe and his friend John Henry, who is black, share many things in common, like swimming in the hot summer, but only Joe is allowed to swim in the town’s public swimming pool or buy a popsicle in the general store. The boys rejoice when a law is passed making it illegal to keep the pool segregated, but then have to face the upsetting and tragic decision of the town to pave over the pool rather than allowing black people to use it. We talked about how people have worked very hard to change unfair laws, but that isn’t always enough to change the way people treat each other unfairly based on their race. This brought up a lot of questions about racism. I do not have the answers to all of the questions that children had, such as “how did racism start?” and my response to the children is that we will be learning as much as we can together about history and what we can do to disrupt and end racism.     

We read our books in the wind and the sun, and more children shared finished writing pieces. I rearranged the classroom to create more floor space and a sheltered place to gather in cases of high wind like we had on Tuesday. We had another physically distanced outdoor gathering with Julie’s class and learned a new “name game.”