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Children’s School at Carnegie Mellon December 2011

Storytelling Unit

December was a busy time of the year for the Green Room Friends. Our theme of Story telling: Folk Tales, and Fairy Tales took front and center stage on the Green Room’s block building stage and theater, along with our center activities which supported the theme stories with props and costumes. We encourage you to continue these fun

stories by reading to your child at home, while perhaps discussing some of the morals highlighted in the stories. Most fairy tales begin with the line “Once upon a

time,” or “A long time ago,” while ending with “and they all lived happily ever after.” With all stories we emphasize who the authors and illustrators are. The children and the teachers had a great time reading variations of the same stories, comparing and contrasting similarities and differences while discussing their impressions. The classic stories were transformed into an interdisciplinary learning experience of games, math, science, puzzles, language and fine arts. The dramatic play center complete with costumes, and props was transformed into Cinderella’s castle, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the houses fromThe Three Pigs, The Big Bad Wolf, and the bridge from The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Math skills were practiced by transforming our block center into a shoe store where the class learned shoe sizes by counting and

using the cash registers for transacting sales. We decorated cardboard boxes to replicate the houses for the Three Little Pigs; the first with straw, the second with sticks, and the third with paint for bricks when building scenery to help show the images for the story. Other key elements the children learned were that every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This fact was shown by telling stories, taking a xeroxed copy of the book’s illustrations apart, and retelling the story by putting the illustrations in order. What happens first, next, and last? Exercises were also practiced with a variety of sequencing story cards that were used to strengthen this concept.

Other stories the children enjoyed included: Olivia, and The Hungry Caterpilliar in English and Korean. Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo Returns, Peter And The Wolf, Rumpelstiltskin, Pumpkin Soup,The Mitten, and The Sock.

Green Room News Storytelling

Folk Tales and Fairy Tales

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Story Telling/Folk Tales/ Fairy Tales!At the Children’s School, our school year is broken into theme-related units. During each unit, the teachers change the classroom materials and plan activities and Circle time story tellings that relate to the unit. Here are some of our featured activities that made the Story Telling / Folk Tales / Fairy Tale unit so special.

Enacting stories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Science Center!

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Letter Journal

The Playground, Yoga and Gym

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The letters we practiced this month were Z (zipping zippers), S (super socks), and V(velvet vests). The friends thought of many words with the letter sounds, and they drew a variety of pictures for their journals that help identify the letter sound.

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Special Fridays and Birthday Celebrations

Visit From Alan IrvineAlan Irvine, a professional story teller from the Children’s Museum, orally told our friends stories with out photos. The stories recited were : Pecos Bill, Goin On A Bear Hunt, and The Pirates and The Shoemaker. The children had fun participating chanting their parts of the interactive stories.

Goodbye to Ms. Ross

The Green Room friends recently said good bye to Ms. Allison Ross, our student teacher with Mrs. Bird since September. We made fruit smoothies as a special goodbye treat!

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Birthdays in the Green RoomThis month in the Green Room we celebrated the following friends’ birthdays: Isaac, Kouta, Anna, Abigail, Sasha, Noah, Yu and Mack.