Observing and Working in Extended Day

Observing and Working in Extended Day

     Sometimes, we spend our time sitting quietly and noticing our environment; at other times we are as busy as ever!  

     On Monday, a tree-cutter came to our neighborhood.  This was very exciting and very noisy! We sat on our wooden fence and watched as the crane went up, the tree-cutter turned on his buzz-saw, and an orange claw came down to grab a tree limb.  This went on for a few hours.  We took turns watching the action, then taking a playing break, followed by some more watching. 

The line-up:  Yonah, Liav, Orli , Alex, Hendrix, Leo, Sam

     Section by section, the tree came down.  After a while, we were getting hungry.  It was a beautiful day and we would have our snack outside.  But what about the worker, so high up in the tree, what would happen if he were hungry.  What would he do?

Sylvia and Avraham Chaim--practically glued-in place as they watch the scene unfold. 

     Would he come down to grab a snack, or did he have a granola bar in his pocket, or could be get a snack "delivered" to him high up in the tree?  What if he couldn't come down to grab a bite?
     Here are some of our responses:
Avraham Chaim:  Shoot a snack to him!  On a bow and arrow!
Sylvia:  Make a thick long string, tied around the tree (and send the food up.)
Orli:  Or use a big chunky rock, to pull him up.

Leo and Hudson, with the crane in the background.

     Then we began to have some fun with our ideas:
Hudson:  He could go down, and up for some chocolate--it will drop on his face!
Lily:  He might find a goose up there to eat!
Leo:  Or a duck!
Sylvia: Or a reindeer!  (laughs)  Deer have three stomachs, I heard it on Wow in the World.  He'll have to use a big flashlight.  Special cranes have lights all around.
Avraham Chaim:  He'll have to come back tomorrow.

      The weather was not so mild later in the week, in fact it was cold and drizzly.  It was a good opportunity to spend some time indoors, no tree-watching for us.  What would we do?  Some of us worked on an art activity and some of us got involved with a major construction project.

      The children worked quickly and within a few minutes there was an elaborate track spread across the floor.
       We asked the children to tell us about their construction:
Sam:  It's something for cars to ride on.
Hudson:  It's broken!
Amiel:  It's a train track, no a car track!
Sam:  It's a track, cars can go on it.
Hendrix:  I made a bridge!  (Morah reminds him to be careful with it.)  I am careful!
Dovid, holding a truck:  It's not a car, it's an ice cream truck!

Amiel, Hendrix and Alex go to work.

Liav, Hudson, Dovid and Sam add cars to the tracks.

The Extended Day children make a plan, negotiate some changes, adapt their plans and then continue with their construction.

     So, we are always busy learning and growing.  At times, we sit and watch our environment.  We were so lucky to observe the tree cutter this week!  At other times, we are the ones who swing into action.  We make our plan, change and adapt to our friends' suggestions and then continue with our project.  We had a lot of fun with our track--we may continue with this next week!

Shabbat Shalom!

The Extended Day Morahs with the busy Extended Day construction workers/yeledim