Sunday, November 21, 2010

FIAR Co-op for Clown of God

This co-op was actually a couple of days prior to our Family Event - but here you go for details.  This is our Beyond co-op taking a break from Homer Price so that we could instead focus on a Five in a Row title - Clown of God.  I loved having this time to get our group ready for the event.  As always- it was a ton of fun!  It was a goreous day and we all loved learning and being outside!

We started talking some about the Renaissance period and music.  Check out the beautiful display.



The children were then able to make their own musical instruments from a wide variety of objects - from boxes to metal pieces, from pipe cleaners to rubber bands, from washers to beads and more!



They all loved doing this!



Just the freedom to explore and express themselves was a delight to each of them.



I loved seeing their creations.



A bountiful and delicious snack.



The next part of our morning was spent on drama - and the many facets of it!  From inflection to how you move your body, to use of props and color and more!  Again - what fun!  The children were challenged to work in groups with the colors to see how creative they could be in their display of color.





Next, some of the scenes from the book were embellished.  Or a "missing scene" might have been added.  The children learned how the tone of voice and actions could change the meaning altogether.  For example, when Senora Baptista gives Giovanni soup, does she do it with kindness filling his bowl to the top.  Or does she do it grudgingly and quickly?  Really interesting to ponder.

Each child was given a costume or prop and told to act out a bit of the story to see if by actions the others could guess his or her intent.







I'm not sure what they were supposed to be doing with the colored balls - but they had a great time throwing them at each other.



Like Giovanni in the story, the children had time to experiment with putting on a clown's face.





Some were a little less traditional.



And some a little more traditional.  Didn't she do a great job applying all of this herself?



And then some just do their own thing.  LOL



All in all, it was a wonderfully fun day.  As always, I'm incredibly thankful to be a part of this co-op!  Thanks Lynn and Julie for an awesome day of fun and learning!



Blessings

Leslie