Monday 20 October 2014

Friendship Everywhere #7 : The Tea Party

Tea time! 
Putting up the decorations
Preparing the food
Water Group children hosted a wonderful tea party last Thursday and everyone had a great time. We went through the checklist to make sure we had everything in place. Before the party began, we had a few rules for our guests to follow:

1) Be nice.
Serving the food
2) Do not ruin the decorations and food.
Making the cake
3) Don't break the teacups and plates.
4) Water group will pass the food.
5) Please do not grab.
6) Please share the food.

Water group children constantly made sure that everyone had enough to eat. They showed such commitment and enthusiasm that  I believe they will be experts at planning their future parties!






Tuesday 14 October 2014

Friendships Everywhere #6: Preparation for a Tea Party!

Inviting our friends
Making decorations
Last week, I read the story Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk and the children all felt sad when the other bugs ran away from Miss Spider. Olympia mentioned: "She wants them at her tea party, she's not going to catch them." Jayla continued: "Yeah, maybe they(the bugs) just need to know she's not going to eat them." I asked the children how do we meet new friends. Lucas said: "You can say 'Hi!'" Theo said: "You can play with them." I told the children that one way that adults meet new friends is at parties. The children were drawn to the sound of parties. Below is a caring and cute conversation with the phrase "throw a party":
Making paper hats

Olympia: We should have a tea party for our friends!
Mary: Sure! Let's throw a party for our friends at Creative Minds. 
Theo: (Looking quite concerned) Are we throwing the party or are we having a party? 
Mary: Can you explain more to me?
Theo: Are we going to throw the party at the children or ...
Mary: I see! Throwing a party means having a party. We are not going to throw things at people. 
Theo: (With relief) Oh! 

Making gifts for the guests
The Water group is doing preparation work for our tea party on Thursday. The children came up with so many great ideas for the party. We need to invite our guests, make decorations, make paper hats, make a cake, prepare teacups and pots, and gifts. What a organized and thoughtful group of children! 

Monday 6 October 2014

Friendships Everywhere #5: Friendship Pie


Decorating with fruits
Filling pies with custard
 I asked the children how they feel/think about friendship one day. All of them felt that it is very important to have friends. But how do we make friends?

Sharing pies with our friends! 
We read the book Enemy Pie by Derek Munson . Before reading the book, the children imagined that enemy pie would taste sour, disgusting, and yucky. They were all very happy and relieved when the pie turned out to be delicious! Jayla mentioned: "They (the boy and Jeremy) just need to play together for a bit so they can be friends." Everyone was glad that the boy and Jeremy became good friends because it was better to have friends than enemies!
Playing with a friend
The children also made their own friendship pie. Just like the boy and Jeremy, each child played with with someone who they don't normally play with. All of them kept an open-mind and found their special someone!