Welcome to SMASHVILLE

In a study of geometry and community, the children created their own town, “Smashville.”

What kinds of places are important in a community?
What kinds of shapes and structures do we need to build our town?

First, Core 1 ventured to Santa Monica’s Main Street to make careful observations of the buildings in our community.



The children drew plans of their ideas: police stations, ice cream shops, hospital, light house, office building, apartments, farms, grocery stores, car wash, factories, airport, and more.

Then they began building, using boxes, cones, cylinders, and whatever recycled materials they could find.






After taking time to “fancy-up” their creations, they placed their buildings around their own “Main Street” and named the town SMASHVILLE.

They added grass, trees, buses, and lights.
At the end, friends and family came to visit SMASHVILLE.

FAIRY GROUP

How do the children envision and develop characters?

The idea of the fairy group came from a small group of children who were drawing fairies and creating songs in “fairy language,” which they would practice singing at recess.

We decided to explore the idea of fairies through dress-up and discovered that through this medium, children were able to freely try-on new ideas and create connections and complexities through their play and dialogue.



Themes began to develop among the fairies: treasure fairies, flower fairies, princess fairies, and rainbow fairies. Others decided to become animals who were friends with the fairies. Sydney bridged the two groups by becoming a fairy who took care of the animals. Their descriptions were initially brief:

Lilly: “I am the queen fairy.”
Thea: “I’m a tiger.”
Sadie: “I’m a treasure fairy.”

As the children became more decided about their costumes, they sat down to draw their plans. They began to include plot elements as they talked more about their characters.


Nalani: “I’m a fairy that controls the water. Without me, no water would be there for the pirates.”
Sadie: “Treasure fairies know where all the treasures are, but they are guards because treasures can kill people.”
Thea: “I’m friends with the fairies. I’m going to fight the pirates.”



We came together as a group to share our character ideas. As we look carefully at everyone's ideas, the plot begins to unfold.... While each child is able to develop his/her own character, the story line is something we will create as a group.

How will the story line be influenced by the characters we have begun to know?

How will the children revise their characters as the scenes come to life?

Our 1st "BIG" Writing Workshop Celebration

The Bigs have published their first books, from the Writing Workshop: Launching the Writing Workshop Unit of Study. Some of the Minilessons these writers learned during this unit were:

•Writers sit in, and stick to, a “Just Right” reading spot.
•Writers use their strong writing muscles to write for long periods of time.
•Writers write about their life and what they care about.
•Writers add more pages when they have more story to tell.
•Writers use tools such as: paper, pencils, erasers, tape, staples, date stamps, “spacemen,” or fingers, to help make spaces, “strips” to add more writing, alphabet charts, word walls, other resources, etc. They also know how to take care of their tools.
•Writers s-t-r-e-t-c-h out their words, like bubble gum to get all the sounds down on paper.
•Writers have writing partners to support them as writers.
•Writers “fix up” their work, so that others can read it.
•Writers get ideas from other writers.
•Writers write a piece over time, revising as they go.
•Writers write to share their ideas with others.
•Writers publish their work, and celebrate their accomplishments.

To CELEBRATE, the Bigs and Partners toasted to the writers (with sparkling apple juice) and then the writers shared their pieces, that they worked so hard on. Our next Unit of Study? Personal Narrative: Small Moments.

Counting Collections

What kinds of strategies can children use to help them count?

All of the children began counting a variety of collections.

S pointed one-by-one as she arranged the stones in a line to help her keep track.
Candis: “How many stones do you have?”
S: “It’s 43, no 44.”
Candis: “How can you be certain?”
S counts the collection again, from one end of the line to the other.
S: “It’s 44. I know it’s 44.”

L., J., and E. used number lines to keep track of their collections.

S. and R. used 100s boards to help them count a larger collection.

M. began drawing a picture of his collection.

S. made 6 lines of 10 pennies and 1 line of 6.
S: “Look! It’s 66 pennies!”

As the children count higher numbers, which strategies will they continue to use?

Guided Discovery & Exploration

Core 1 is becoming more familiar with the routines and materials in the classroom so we can be independent and creative thinkers. We have also been focusing on our community so we can support one another in our endeavors and everyday living. Enjoy taking a look into our classroom, and reading some of the ideas we have come up with this week.

BUILDING Our Core 1 Community
"Veeeruuuum. Beep! Beep!"

COUNTING Collections
"10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60...61, 62, 63. 63!"
"We made stacks of 10 and then counted by 10's"
"We have 266 in our collection."

CREATING Independence
"I've been an artist forever."
"It's a sunset over the ocean."
"I'm making this for my mom."
"I used symmetry!"

EXPLORING New ideas
"We're toasting marshmallows, and making s'mores!"
"I'm 63 cubes tall!"
"We need support to build our bridge."
"This is the longest wall we've ever done."
"I'm building by 2's"
"We are going to build a tower of 100."