The Map Quest Continues

 

What's happening in the morning???

The Little Giants continue to be fascinated with maps and the teachers are enjoying walking down this path of discovery with them.   Mrs. Nemcek brought in a book about a gingerbread man called The Gingerbread Man Lost in the School, and in the book the students make a gingerbread man and while they are out of the classroom, the gingerbread man wakes up and wonders out into the school to find the kids. The kids go on a search to find the gingerbread man following clues that he left.
After reading this book, the kids decided they wanted to make a gingerbread man from studio materials. The next day the children arrived to find the gingerbread man gone and a note that said "I woke up and no one was here, so I went out to look for you." The children then took turns using a school map and clues to find the gingerbread man. He was finally found taking a nap in the back room:)



Emmett and Hana using their maps
and clues to find our lost gingerbread man.

Tommy, Kate, Heike & Ava finding our lost gingerbread man!




Sophia with the gingerbread man, measuring to
 see how tall he is using unifix cubes

The story about the gingerbread man getting lost in the school started an extension activity to compare and contrast other gingerbread inspired books, such as The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Pirates, etc. The children also decided to build a gingerbread village, first by mapping out the roads, at lake, a park and mountains, then they each decorated gingerbread houses made of graham crackers, icing and candy. They are now have a 3-D gingerbread village and are using cars, animals and other materials in the classroom to pretend play.

Kate, Emmett, Tommy, Ava and Niko decorating their gingerbread houses and buildings.

 



Our 3-D Gingerbread Village!

Brooke and Niko using cars and animals to pretend play with our gingerbread village.



 

 Other map activities....


Mrs. Pallarino read a book called Harold and the Purple Crayon which inspired this group map.

Ava creates an "earth" inspired map.

 Mrs. Pallarino and Mrs. Nemcek give the children maps of the first floor of the HS and took the children on a discovery walk.  Using the map, we looked for room numbers, letters and words and discovered new and exciting places, like, the auditorium, the chickens, and the sports trophies.

Niko, Ava, Kate & Emmett using their maps.

Niko, Tommy & Ava, "we found a room number!"

Kate, Emmett, Ava & Niko finding words.

Ava circling a symbol for "stairs" on her map.

 

What's happening in the afternoon?

The map interest and exploration continues in the afternoon with Mrs. Carlson and Mrs. Fieldman.

Kate creates her own maps to different real and magical places.
 

She then combines them to proudly make her own atlas!

Ava takes on the challenge of looking for maps in the newspaper.
She and her friends find 21 maps!

 Afternoon "Excellent Adventures"

 

 In lieu of going outside on very cold or messy days, the afternoon kids often go exploring the HS on what we call an "excellent adventure".  It's always a journey of discovery and fun.  We've ventured the hallways and discovered all sorts of things, including...

• Lots and lots of exit signs
• Display cases with trophies and art and other interesting things
• An office with a green "x" on the floor (but we were disappointed to find out it didn't mean there was treasure there)
• A swimming pool!
• Turtles on the walls in the science wing
• A huge auditorium that has neat lights and a pit where the orchestra plays (we saw some staging for the HS musical)



One day we came upon a the daughter of a friend of Mrs. Carlson's doing a photo shoot
and we got to watch and then get our picture taken too!

 Charity Drive

Every year all of the students in the high school choose and raise money for a charity in need. This year it is for Children's Oncology Services The Little Giants are joining in the fund raising effort by selling valentines that they've made before and after school. To promote our efforts, the children were invited to make a commercial with Mr. V., the Film/Media teacher. They sang a cute Valentine's Day song then did a pitch for our valentine's sale. It was adorable and we''ll see what we can do to post it ASAP.



Getting ready to shoot the commercial



Mr. V. gives instruction

 

 

Selling valentines before school

 

 

For more info. about Charity Drive see: http://hphs.dist113.org/Documents/2013CharityDriveLetter.pdf 



 And, of course, we continue to play...



Tommy builds a house and shares it with friends, Graham and Daniel.

Later the boys add a bucket on top and practice bouncing ping pong balls into it.



Heike plays with duplo blocks.

Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.

Abraham Maslow
American psychologist
1908–1970

 

Tommy and Brooke practice cutting.

  

The children put loose objects together to create their own climber.

Our Baby Shower for Mrs. Pallarino 

 

The Little Giants are giving Mrs. Pallarino a baby shower on Wed., Feb. 27th from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m.  We will have a special treat, play a couple of games and give Mrs. Pallarino a special gift we've prepared especially for her.  Any parents who would like to join us are welcome.

 

Valentine's Day Activities!

 

Heart shaped pancake and strawberry breakfast!

Emmett, Kate and Brooke loved the strawberry milk!

Passing out Valentine's to our friends!

 

 



 

SAVE THE DATE!

2013 Annual Benefit

 

Friday, April 26th
at the Deer Path Inn, Lake Forest

Please save the date for HP Community's Annual Benefit.  It's a lovely evening with dinner, entertainment, raffle drawings and a live auction all in the company of our fellow Community friends, family and staff.  This year we will also be honoring our wonderful director, Jean Wallace-Baker, as she retires after 31 years of faithful service to our school. Invitations will be in the mail shortly.

 

Also, each family is being asked to PLEASE help the benefit be a great success by making a tax-deductible donation of goods and/or services to be included in our raffle packages or by purchasing ad space in our program book.  If you can't personally make a contribution, we kindly ask that you ask places you patronize, friends, family, co-workers, etc. if they would give a gift card or certificate or buy ad space to benefit our school. Perhaps a restaurant your family frequents will offer a gift certificate or a friend who works for the travel industry might be able to donate something that would complement our travel raffle package.  Mrs. Carlson's dad owns a time share and he is donating a week's stay in 2 bedroom/2bath condo in Orlando!  You never know unless you ask!  If we got just one item from each family, big or small, our raffle packages would be more enticing and the more raffle tickets we'd sell. Be creative!  Think out of the box! Community needs you!

 

In recent years, funding for educational programs has dramatically diminished, challenging us to secure revenue from alternative sources.  We rely heavily on the greater community, including individuals and businesses, to sustain our programs and retain staff.   The money we make will go directly to helping our school continue to do all the wonderful things it does to support and care for children and families at both the main site and the Little Giants site.

If you haven't already received one at school, donation letters and tax receipt forms are available at school by the sign-in sheets. The deadline for donations is Feb. 15.

 

THANK YOU!   THANK YOU!!!   THANK YOU!!!!!     THANK YOU!!    THANK YOU!!