Hello all,
Friendship Week was by far the friendliest week of the school year! Read on below to learn about all the fun that was had and the learning that took place!
The students returned to school after a fun-filled weekend with the usual materials in tow – a backpack, a lunch bag, rest time sheets… and a fruit? Yes! The students each came to school with one piece of fruit to contribute to the whole school Friendship Fruit Salad! The students placed their assorted fruits into a basket and began their day.
To help build some excitement for the fruit salad they would be making later, the students created a special tissue paper craft to look just like a bowl of fruit salad! Crumbling up and gluing little pieces of colored tissue paper into their bowls, the students were beginning to get hungry! Here is one student working and another showing the final product!
At rest time, the teachers sliced up all of the fruit and displayed it prominently on the table.
Before everyone enjoyed the sweet treat, the teachers created a list of all of the different fruits that were brought in. Here is the list they came up with.
During the creation of this list, the students were asked to raise their hand if they too brought in a particular fruit that was added. The most popular fruit that was sent in was an apple. The teachers asked, “If ‘Jenny’ and ‘Billy’ brought in apples, can only ‘Jenny’ and ‘Billy’ enjoy apples in their fruit salad?”
The students all shook their heads in their disapproval of this idea. They exclaimed that everyone can enjoy the apples because” Jenny” and “Billy” want to share their apples with everyone – and right they were! The teachers explained that because everyone had a hand in creating the fruit salad it would be called the “Friendship Fruit Salad”.
The final thing left to do before distributing the fruit salad was to sing a special song – Fruit Salad by the Wiggles!
The students took turns coming up to the table and selecting which fruits they wanted to enjoy in their fruit salad. From the looks on their faces, they really enjoyed their “Friendship Fruit Salad”.
On Tuesday, the friendliness kept going! Rather than with fruit this time, the teachers decided to use another student favorite to teach about friendship – Puzzles! The students took turns decorating their own puzzle piece with assorted craft materials. This puzzle piece was interlocked with other friends art to make a bunch of BIG Friendship puzzles!
Just like the fruit from Monday, each student had a very important role in creating these puzzle. The puzzles were so beautiful that the teachers decided that they would be the perfect project for a bulletin board!
Tuesday afternoon was spent creating a list of ways to be a great friend! Here is what the Tuesday group came up with!
On Wednesday, the students created a mini-colorful version of themselves to be displayed on the other bulletin board!
Taking a note from paper chains, the teachers linked all of the “mini-students” together to create this…
In the afternoon, the students created a “What Do Friends Do” list.
Wednesday evening was Back-to-School-Night and the Park Prep Parents came out in droves! Thank you to all of the parents in attendance!
Thursday began with a question, “Do you have to be the same to be friends?” The students voted to show what they thought. By show of hands, it was clear that the room was split. Rather than answering the question, the teachers introduced the students to two friends – Owen and Mzee. Now, Owen and Mzee are not your ordinary duo – Owen is a young hippopotamus and Mzee is a 130 year old tortoise!
In small groups, the students observed the clip below which shows, Owen, the hippo, stranded off the coast of Kenya after the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, or the tsunami, hit. Owen was saved by some volunteers who then brought him to a nature park. He quickly became friendly with an old tortoise named Mzee – which means wise old man.
Be sure to click on the link below to learn more about the amazing friendship between this hippo and tortoise.
Owen and Mzee (Watch the Between the Lions Video)
The students were so moved by the presentation that they could hardly contain themselves when they learned that they would be creating a tortoise craft – just like Mzee!
Using various colored papers to create the tortoise shell, the students crafted their very own Mzee to take home, play with, and befriend – just like Owen did years ago!
On Friday, the students not only learned about taking turns and being a friend, they “crafted” BY taking turns WITH a friend! The teachers wrote every students’ name on a slip of paper then tossed it into a hat. One by one, the students came up to the hat and picked out a slip to determine who their partner would be. Once the partnerships had been determined, the students worked together to brainstorm an idea for their partner drawing. With one partner working on one side and the other partner working on the other, the drawings began. After several minutes, each partner handed off the drawing to the other partner so that he/she could begin working on it. The end result was “Friendship Partner Art!” Take a look below to see how they turned out!
(The colors that each students’ name is written in shows the color crayon they used in the drawings)
Friendship week wrapped up with some very important role-playing of how to and how not to play in groups of three friends. A frequent issue in early childhood classrooms, the students participated in mini-skits like the one below to show that three friends can have just as much fun as two friends so no one needs to be left-out!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
Well, that is all for friendship week. As always, thank you for reading. Have a fun and safe weekend!
-PPA
Reminders:
Monthly Tuition Plan Users:
October Tuition is due next week.
Wednesday, 9/29 for all three day students
Thursday, 9/30 for all two, four, and five day students
Next Upcoming PPA Event:
Park Prep Annual Pumpkin Picking Party!
Friday, October 15th (2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.)
All students and parents invited to attend. Students will pick pumpkins in the park then decorate them inside the classroom.
Next Upcoming School Closing:
Monday, October 11th – Observation of Columbus Day
Theme for Next Week:
