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| Working as a team |
This week the children from Water Group transformed our drama area into a grocery store (an idea extended from the children when we were building Safeway in our Water Town). After setting up our store, we played a song game:
(
tune: London Bridge)
Oh, we are going to the grocery store, the grocery store, the grocery store.
We are going to the grocery store
to buy some groceries.
The children took turns being the cashier and shopper during the game.
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| Paying for the groceries |
In addition, the children talked about how people have to work together in order to run the grocery store. They noticed how it is really convenient for shoppers to buy things because they don't have to go from store to store to get what they want. I shared with the children that not every culture has grocery stores, some have open markets where vendors gather together in a space to sell their products. I shared my experience as a child in Taiwan. Our family would shop at open markets and we would go so often that we made connections with the vendors at the market. Like my family, many people feel comfortable and at ease when going from stand to stand. At vegetable stands, the vendors would always throw in free green onions, garlics, or other kinds of spices. At meat stands, they would always give us free stock bones. Then Serena shared her experience, "One time they let me taste different kinds of meat at Stong's and we know the person working there, his name is James".
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What shall I buy? |
To help the children have a better image of the open markets I showed the children video clips of open markets in Asia. The children immediately noticed the different stands and how people chatted with the vendors.
In connection, the children will be going on a field trip to China Town to get a sense of an asian market and the China Town community.
On our chinatown fieldtrip, some children noticed that there were people sleeping on the bench. Owen asked, "Why are they sleeping there? They should sleep on their beds." This prompted our conversation on how the community could help those in need. We brainstormed some ideas and the children came up with providing necessitites for them (warm clothes for cold weather, shoes for walking, food when they get hungry, and toys for children). Then the group organize a food, clothing and toy drive and it was a success with the support of the Creative Minds community! After, the children stayed committed to the events by carrying all the donations in their backpacks and walked to a donation bin to drop off them off. 
When we arrived in Chinatown, we walked down Pender Street then Keefer Street. The children visited all kinds of stores, fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, dried food, and a bakery shop. The children noticed that all the people that worked there were Chinese. During our visit to the meat shop, the children and the butchers had such a great time talking (some in Mandarin) that the butchers gave some chinese sausage for the children to taste. "It's delicious!" said Jack.
After our stroll around the market, the children had lunch at Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Park. As we entered the park, the children felt the difference in the environment and asked, "Are we still in Canada?" Some noticed the different decorations around the park and Serena said, "The decorations look Chinese." This comment sparked a conversation about our past decorations unit and the different ways cultures decorate their community.
When I told the children of how Creative Minds joined the Southlands community, Leighton asked, "Well, who put the school there?" This sparked our discussion of how a community is built. Owen suggested, "Maybe someone put a school here because there wasn't one." To help the children get an idea of how a community is formed, the Water group started to build a community of their own called "Water Town".
To help the children understand the roles and responsibilities within a group and community, Water group came up with jobs for group time. The children will be paid after each group time with stickers for doing their jobs and when a child is not following a message, he/she gets a ticket. When someone receives a ticket he/she has to use the stickers earned to pay for the ticket. The children are very excited with this idea and they came up a list of jobs and their description. As we carried out our group time, Becky noticed that more jobs need to be added, for example, a No Touching Monitor (a person who can remind others to keep their hands to themselves).
