Our little tree sat at the front of the room for weeks. Unadorned, it waited patiently for me to drag out a bin of Christmas decorations. Green and red ornaments, and a long strand of silver garland awaited the children one afternoon. They quickly got to work, and cooperated with each while debating how to take takes, and how to 'balance' the tree. We stood back to take it in. Beautiful.
"We need a star."
The children found yellow construction paper and tackled that problem. We jogged our memories and recalled the morning when we practiced drawing stars on the white boards - way back when we were still learning to put the lids on the markers. The next task was to figure out HOW to attach a paper star to the tree. We had three stars, and three different ways were utilized. There were deliberations over how to display the stars. This too was solved - some are staggered, and some are visible from different angles.
But still more children wanted to decorate. Hmmm. Who could say no to more promising collaboration? A bin of lacing beads was lugged over. Several got to work sorting colours, while others sorted by shape, and others still created simple patterns. The tree is quite decorated now, and we have found the right balance so that it no longer falls over. This was a challange, and now nobody dares even sneeze near it!
Beautiful garland of AB patterns initiated
by the children
And while some were sharing stories about their pet cats and Christmas trees (pure entertainment!), some children were keen to record the procedure we went through to create such a beautiful and festive sight. The steps were transcibed onto the large mobile white board.
We used "sequence" words: first, then, next, finally.
The children are hoping you will get a glimpse of the tree at the concert.
Thank you for dropping by the atelier.
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