What can happen when you introduce scissors with paper?
“I made a race car.” -Johann
“I made a race car and a ramp! I know! I can cut my car in half into this shape!” -Alex
“Can I fold? I need to fold my green pieces together.” -Charlie Menke
“I made a bird wing.” -Victoria
“This is a shark. A under sea shark. This is a whale. Now I’m cutting to be a Bulga Whale. A different whale. A nice whale. Now it’s a mountain.” -Jack
“It shines in the sun.” -Charlie Kelly (cuts slits into his piece and holds up to the sunlight)
“I’m making a puzzle piece.” -Zack
Meanwhile, in games…
We wondered what we might discover about games when we’ve explored creating our own.
A small group gathered to discuss together what they knew about games.
What do we need to make a game?
“You have to have plain pieces and a plain board.” -Alex
“For Candyland you need to have gingerbread and fake candy.” -Kyla
“We can play a game with a ball.” -Eva
“You need a spinner. You need to spin to the purple dice then throw the dice to a pink basketball.” -Zack
“A dice and a spinner tell you how much you need to go like 1, 2,3,4.” -Alex
“We can play games with a bubble.” -Eva
“Or for the Old Maid you have to mix the cards up and you have to make matches and more matches but don’t get stuck with the old maid.” -Kyla
“Cause then you lose.” -Alex
How do we learn to play games?
“You read the directions.” -Alex
“Somebody can teach us!” -Eva
Why do we play games?
“Because it’s fun!” -Eva
“Because we like to. I know another game. For hide and seek you need to hide and you need to pick places to hide.” -Kyla
“I have Old Maid at home and if you get stuck with old maid that’s not good cause you lose.” -Alex
What does it mean to lose?
“You don’t get lucky.” -Alex
How do you feel when you lose?
Zack makes a hrumpf sound and crosses his arms.
“Sad.” -Eva
“And angry!” -Alex
While games can be a wonderful way to explore turn taking and winning and losing, it’s this last point that can be tricky. How can playing games remain “fun” and leave us wanting to play more when we might lose and become “sad” or even “angry”?
“Which color do you want? -Kyla
“Green.” -Tessa
“Okay, pick green. So where you start you put your piece on the flower and then you need to turn this piece like this and if you do that way you need to go that way. And you try to hit one and then flip this and if you get this, you get counted. And if you getted to here you get out of the game.” -Kyla
“You’re not gonna play the game anymore?!” -Tessa
On another day, Kyla, Tessa, and Amelia are playing a different game…
“If you count to 9, you go in the trap…If you draw 1 again, you get to get out.” -Kyla
Charlie Menke takes note of their game.
“I don’t know what it’s called.” -Charlie
“It’s called Try To Get Not In The Trap.” -Kyla
“I think I’m gonna win!” -Tessa
“You get to roll again because you need to feel welcomed to be out of the trap…You win!” -Kyla
Thinking about Friends…
A small group met this week to begin thinking about what it means to be a friend. We also read aloud the story Will I Have A Friend? by Miriam Cohen and Lillian Hoban. In this story a small boy named Jim wonders with his Pa, “Will I have a friend at school?”
Did Jim find a friend?
“He found two friends! I know the first friend was Paul.”
-Victoria
“One was his Dad and one was his friend.” -Eva
“His Dad was his friend?!” -Tessa
On another morning Alex wonders if you can be your own friend.
“You can’t be your own friend!”
What makes someone a friend?
Can your Mom or Dad be a friend?
