Commitment

From the story "The Quiltmaker's gift", the children discovered that sometimes gifts come with responsibilities. The King gave the boy a marble. He could play with it, paint with it, etc. but when he decides that he doesn't want it anymore, he can store it somewhere or give it to someone else. In the same story, the King gives away a bowl of fish. Living things require care and commitment. The children connected that situation with the fish that we recently received. As a group, they all decided to take responsibility and care for the fish. We read "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister and the children found out that fish live in water and that they need friends. While we were looking at our fish bowl, we realized that the water is very dirty - it needs CARE! All the children in the wind group agreed to commit as a group and take care of the fish. Emilie: "I am sure the fish will appreciate that"; Simon "They will show their appreciation by letting us admire them and feed them". Together we gathered all the things needed to change the water and yes, it required lots of patience, attention and work, but we all enjoyed the process. 
The children will make sure that the fish are fed 3 times a day, that the water is clean and to let everyone know that they need to take care and be gentle around the bowl. 

The Water will be changed every week and we hope that our fish will enjoy and appreciate the generous act the children are showing. 

Generosity and feelings.

Today we talked about the King's feelings and the way that things influence our life. Together, we retold the story "The Quiltmaker's Gift" and on a chart, we glued the feelings that the King expressed throughout the story. The children realized that for a very long time, the King was very unhappy, angry and lonely. A few times, he showed a more caring side; Trystan "He started to worry that the Quiltmaker will get hurt". However, it didn't last for too long. As soon as he saw that the Quiltmaker was happy, the king was unkind again. 
Simon "It took a very long time for the King to smile". 
In the end, the children showed understanding when the King tried to change and to give things away. Emilie "It started with a marble....". 
In the end, the King's feelings changed, and he went from being greedy and unhappy, to being joyful and kind. “His smile shows that he is very excited and very happy”, Trystan said. 

The children thought about the King's experience and they decided to share some of their things with other people. Please help them choose something that they don't use/need anymore and at the end of the unit, we will share those things with other people in need of clothes, toys, food, etc. 

Thank you! 

Making a quilt!

After painting and drawing different scenarios of times when we gave something away or received a gift, the children wanted to explore sewing. "We need a needle, string and scissors", Emilie said. 
The children showed empathy towards the Quiltmaker. Practicing sewing made them realize the hard work required to make a quilt. Trystan said that, "Sewing involves a lot of patience and care". Sarah said that, "Sewing requires a lot of practice". 

After sewing some parts of the quilt, the children showed an understanding of the importance of appreciating each other’s talents. It takes lots of practice, patience and determination to make something. It also takes a lot of love and generosity to give it away to other people. 

Who We Are....

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Are we generous beings?
 What is generosity? 
 * Sharing with our friends and family.
* Being kind and helping each other. 
* Giving things that we don't need/use anymore .
* Receiving presents. 
* Saying Please and Thank you to show our Appreciation towards other people.

The children in the Wind group received a blank cut out person. Their job was to decorate it in order to share some characteristics about themselves. Sarah and Emilie reminded everyone to be thoughtful when using different colours and materials to decorate themselves, because as they remembered from the colour unit, colour and materials can be used to describe something. The children shared and discussed various aspects that they liked. We talked about different ways of showing generosity and discussed their understanding of what generosity is. 

Emilie and Sofia told us that they love to give hugs and kisses to their parents, which also makes their parents happy. Byron said that it made him happy to share his stuffy with his brother, because he could see that his brother really liked it.
From this conversation, we read the story "The Quiltmaker's Gift" by Jeff Brumbeau. The story is about a Quiltmaker that sews quilts for the poor people. After she finishes a quilt, she walks up and down the street, looking for people that are homeless. The children identified that taking care of other people and giving gifts that will help other people be comfortable and cozy is an act of generosity. In the same story, there is a very greedy king that likes to receive things and doesn't like to give anything away (Trystan: "The King is not kind. He is not generous") He makes various attempts to acquire a quilt, but the Quiltmaker gives quilts only to the poor and needy so she suggested to the King that if he desires a quilt, he should give away possessions that no longer make him happy. The King thought and thought, and finally he decided to give something away; it was a marble. The boy that received the marble was so happy; and so the King started giving more things away because he realized it makes him happy to make others feel joy. The story ends with the quiltmaker giving the King a quilt and for the first time, he was very happy.  
Sarah "Giving things away can make people change and be very happy" 
Trystan "I love marbles, I would be very happy to receive a marble too" 
The children each received a marble and some paint. Some of them decided to paint with it, others to play. We are all working on making a quilt. We will paint and write stories that show different ways through which we are generous.