Joy School: Unit 9: Imagination Summary

This is the last lesson of Unit 9. To start the lesson, we talked about whether stories can have different endings. I told the story of The Little Little Pigs and then we changed the ending. After some prompting, Hailey added that the wolf took the pigs back to his house and gave them muffins. As our alternative ending for Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks and baby bear became friends and played together.


Then we learned a new song called "Imagination" and read a little story about "Little Miss Different". We talked about how it is okay to be different and colored on the same piece of paper as the activity to be different. Hailey wanted to color with markers.

And I used watercolors.

After that we read "Is Your Mama a Llama?" by Deborah Guarino. It's a cute book that talks to a lot of animals and has a lot of rhyming words. Then I tried to have Hailey fill in the blank with rhyming word but she had a hard time with it.

Then we pretend to go to the Movie Theater by using pretend money for a ticket and a snack. Then I did a little show about Winnie-the-Pooh. Hailey wanted a turn performing so I got to "buy" a ticket from her and she danced for me. She's also singing very quickly. It was very cute.

We ended the lesson by reading "Harold and the Purple Crayon" by Crockett Johnson.

Joy School: Unit 9: Creative Art

We started with lesson with talking about pretend friends. This wasn't hard because Hailey pretends that Lambie is alive all the time. We read "Danny and the Dinosaur goes to Camp" by Syd Hoff. Then we read "Ella's New Coat" which is about an elephant that slowly buttons her coat up and when it's all buttoned the buttons pop off because it's too small. We our art activity involved used buttons, straws, and toothpicks.

I had a lot of fun making pictures.

Then we did more creativity movement.

Then we ended the lesson playing hide-and-seek with the red car. Hailey loves this games and actually hid the car in different places when it was her turn to hide it. However she also told me where it was before I had a chance to look for it.

Joy School: Unit 9: Creative Story Writing

We started the lesson by reading "Stone Soup." Then we were supposed to make stone soup but I didn't want to. It seemed like too much work for just Hailey and I.

After the story we learned a new song called Creativity. Then we did creative dancing which is what Hailey is doing in the picture below.
Then Hailey drew the illustrations for her story book. She wanted me to help but I only drew what she told me to. Then we wrote the words. She enjoyed making her story.

So here's our story.

A Day with Lambie. By: Hailey

This is Lambie. I love her.

We share drinks.

We like to color.

I love numbers.

Then a monster joined us for dinner and wore a bib.

After dinner we put on party hats.

The End.

Joy School: Unit 9: Creativity

This lesson focuses on creativity using art, our brains (problem solving), and body.

First to show what being creative is, we were supposed to have a "proud board". Instead of putting the art work on a poster board, I pulled out the folder that had Hailey crafts from past lessons. I used the word creative over and over. Hailey enjoyed looking at her art work.

Then we did a flannel board story about Creative Carl. Then we read "Little Cloud" by Eric Carle and "It looked like Split Milk" by Charles Shaw. Hailey likes these books a lot. These books are about using your imagination to see different images in the clouds.

So our follow up art activity was seeing different shapes in the lines.

Hailey and I kept talking about what we saw or mainly what I saw and she talked about it. I saw a slide and a ball in the top picture. And an orange elephant trunk and a blue snake wearing a red hat in the bottom picture.

Then I read a story about problem solving called "Fred, Fred Use your Head." We tried to think through different scenarios on how to creatively solve problems. I never really thought about solving problems as a creative act until I married Nathan. When I see something broken, I use want to replace it. Nathan on the other hand thinks to figure out how to fix it.

To end the lesson use used our bodies to make different shapes. Here's Hailey making an "X".

Joy School: Unit 9: Imagination

Hailey asked for Joy School last week and it took about 3 days to get ready since I'm short on hands and time with three kids. So finally I was ready today and even though Hannah was awake she was content as long as I held her.

We are on the second lesson of Unit 9: Joy of Imagination and Creativity. (I have a lot of blog entries to do the occurred in November.) We started the lesson with a little story that we needed to use our imaginations to complete. It was about what the three bears did on their walk while Goldilocks was ransacking their place. Hailey had a hard time coming up with things to fill the blanks. She wanted the right answer and didn't understand that she could mention anything. Though she did talk a little about what I used to fill the blanks.

Then we made a picture using the different shapes I cut out. The page closest to her are the bridges.
In the picture below, she is telling me about the other picture. First she was making a car, then it turned into a road. On top of the road she built a rocket, then turned it into a building that fell down.

After that, we pretended to go fishing. She enjoyed this activity a lot.

We ended the lesson with "Where the Wild Things Are." I skipped reading the "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and acting it out because we ran out of time. The most important thing was that we did do a lesson and that Hailey was able to have fun using her imagination.