The Little Red Hen

Working with Wendy, the children have identified one of the functions of friendship is to help and be helped. We continued with that thought. We had a conversation of the different ways we have helped our friends. I asked "do you need to help when a friend asks?" All of the children said yes but not sure of why they thought that. .

"I have helped a friend."

Dramatizing The Little Red Hen

We read two versions of the Little Red Hen: The Little Red Hen retold by Lyn Calder and Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges . In both stories, Hen's friends do not help her when asked. It is the ending of the stories that differ. In the original version, Hen does not share her bread when finished and in the other version, the pizza is shared. All of the children thought the Little Red Hen should share her bread with her friends. Some of the children were not sure why they thought this and the rest replied "because they are friends." I asked, "if they are friends shouldn't they help Hen?" My response was puzzled looks. We will continue to explore this in further group times.

"I want cheese, no sauce."

To celebrate our friendship in the Fire Group, we made pizza together. Unlike the Little Red Hen, I had plenty of offers to help with the preparation. Each child made a small pizza and we had a pizza party with the daycare. It was delicious!!!

The finished pizza

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Similarities and Differences Between Friends

We are nearing the end of this unit of inquiry. Next week is already our summative week. Our focus this week was likes/dislikes: do we have to like the same things as our friends? I asked this question to the children. All of the children said yes except Rocco. Rocco said "friends don't have to do the same things." "Do we have to like the same things as our friends?" Using the book, Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley (the story of two great friends), we listed the traits of each character.. The children found out that Pearl and Charlie were complete opposites yet were the best of friends. I asked the question again. Esme and Simone changed their response. Simone replied that "that friends don't have to do the same things but sometimes we do." We wrapped up by making "Wanted: Friends" posters. Some of the qualities listed on the posters were: Rocco: caring Simone: someone who is nice Alfie: play with me Bela: someone wi...

Storm Drains: How we impact water.

The car wash The clean creek Today we explored where water goes when it enters a storm drain and the impact we have on what flows into these drains. The children experimented with different types of utensils at the water table. The children were able to see how water passes freely through the different openings and how other items can also pass through. We used these utensils to recreate how storm drains work. We created a creek and watched what happened to the creek when different types of pollutants pass through the storm drain. We also simulated washing cars. The children noted that the soap goes down the drain with the water. "Oh no, are fish will be sick!" commented Sofia. Simone thought we could give the fish medicine to get better. This started a conversation on how difficult it would be to give medicine to all of the fish in all of the creeks!! The children noticed how dirty the water was and that living things would not survive in our p...

Helping Hands

Through different stories, we have been discussing the qualities of a friend. The one quality that the children unanimously agreed upon is that friends help one another. In the story, The Little Red Hen, the Hen did all of the work by herself. The children thought that the Dog, Cat and Goose were not good friends because every time the Hen asked for help, they refused. Before we reached the end of the story, I asked the children if Hen should share her bread. There were mixed responses however, the majority of the children thought Hen should share. Louis' first response was to not share but he quickly changed his mind and said "sharing is caring!" This coming week, the children have asked to make bread and share it with the entire class. "I hug my friend when he is sad." "I blow up a balloon for my friend, Amalia, when she pops her." "I help my friends when they fall." "I help carry stuff for my friends." ...

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