The Little Prince Experience

Once again, the Seattle Children's Theater didn't disappoint and did a fabulous job with costumes (as seen in the above picture!), characters, props, and staying true to the book.

First of all, we read the classic book. 

Mrs. Towne, moi, even read the first page in French. 

What do you see? A hat?

Or a boa constrictor digesting an elephant?

Or a boa constrictor digesting a giraffe, a red dolphin, a dragon, a mermaid family, a boa constrictor 😊, a piranha in a bowl, a whale, a horse, and a tyrannosaurus rex?!

The Little Prince's planet, Asteroid B612

What does your planet look like?

Such a variety of imaginations and interests.

My planet has an ice cream castle and the planet is a watermelon. There are ice cream trees and ice cream everywhere. There are snowmen that are made out of snow with buttons and eyes that are mint and a candy nose instead of a carrot. And ice cream flowers. And my friend, since she wanted to be on the planet with me. 

Everyday there has to be a tornado somewhere on the planet. I control the tornadoes. When it rains, it's sugar rain which makes a giant flood of sugar. And the sun is a giant red dwarf star; it's really hot. It has a moon that has the same type of trees that are on the planet. And the trees, for some reason, are blue and they make air. It has two volcanoes that are super small and an asteroid orbiting around it. It has a galaxy very near it. It has pine trees and a single flower. 

I built a house on this planet. When I dug a little bit, I saw some monsters build a trap door. Then I saw a lake and I put a bridge on it. It has only one road and I go fishing out of my car. On the other side, I saw the trap door so I jumped over it and I never went on that road again. My planet also has an underworld. It has monsters such as black skeletons, green zombies, black zombies, and an underworld king and his three headed dog. Under the underworld is really hot water and metal separates it. And the reason why it's hot is because there is lava underneath that. If you set grenades in the lava, kabam, the planet explodes.

We went to see the play in Seattle!

Practicing play etiquette: no feet on the chairs, no rocking in the chairs, quiet voices.

We had front row seats!

Anticipation....

Click here for a sneak preview from Q-13 Fox, a local news station.

"There is nothing like live theater...being in a room with people, listening to stories, 

is part of our human--it's our birthright."
~Courney Sale, the Artistic Director of the Seattle Children's Theater

When we got back to school, we were eager to do some research on

boa constrictors

baobab trees

asteroids

the Sahara Desert

Look what I found!

We are learning how to cut and paste pictures into our individual folders on the school server.

Then we are finding three interesting facts on the internet, typing them into a text box,
and creating a PowerPoint slide show. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to experience The Little Prince. Here are a few of our own words:

Thank you for the play, The Little Prince. 

My favorite was the pilot. I liked the play.

Thank you for doing The Little Prince. 

My favorite part was when the Little Prince was on the stage. 

He said, "Draw me a sheep."

I loved the play.

My favorite part was the flower.

I  loved the costumes.

That was the best field trip ever.

Thank you, Seattle Children's Theater 

and thank you, Seabury School, 

for providing such rich opportunities for our students.

AHA! The Fibonacci Sequence!

Much like the discoverer of the Fibonacci Sequence, the Navigators and the Dragons came together and became observers. We went on a QUEST to discover what was similar about all the different items from nature that had been placed around the room. 

We took notes and drew pictures of seashells and starfish.

There were pictures of galaxies.

There were lots of different flowers...

...and pineapples, pine cones. and cauliflower.

We really had to compare and think.

How are they the same?

What is the "common denominator"?

We noticed spikes, colors, and patterns.

We noticed that the pineapple and the pine cone look very similar.

And then we noticed SPIRALS! 

AHA! Most of them have spirals!

We read this book, Blockhead, the Life of Fibonacci, and noticed that he, too, noticed the spiral pattern in nature, along with a sequence of numbers.

We looked at the sequence and saw the pattern.

Another AHA moment!

The kids then get to choose what they'd like to work on.

Writing the number sequence as far as they can:

Drawing the spiral:

Taking it even farther on graph paper: 

Counting the spirals on a sunflower. The answer? a Fibonacci number!

This was inquiry based instruction at its finest--the students asked the questions, did the observations, and discovered for themselves what Leonardo Fibonacci discovered about 850 years ago.

He could have been a Seabury Student!

We're Swimmers!

The students at Seabury School have a yearly opportunity to take swimming lessons during the school day as part of our PE curriculum. How awesome is that!? And how convenient and beautiful is our local community athletic center, 

the Center at Norpoint.

Thank you, Norpoint, for partnering with us on this fun, educational, healthy, important endeavor, learning how to swim! 

Inventions: Reverse Engineering

One way to discover how something works is to take it apart. 

So we got out our screwdrivers and began the task of disassembling a variety of wind-up toys. 

First of all, we took a close look at the outside of the toy.

"It moves its arms and legs. This is what the winder looks like."

We wondered what the inside looked like and how it worked.

Then we slowly started to open up the toys, drawing each part as it came apart. 

We found a white box inside and had to pry it open.

This is what we found inside!

Comments heard during this activity:

• "I told you that this was one big yellow piece."
• "I was not expecting that there would be so much room and just a little thing inside."
• "I have a tool box at my Grandma's house."
• "I'm not a master with a screw driver but I know Lefty Loosey."
• "It comes with wheels."
• "Those are gears!"
• "Mine has 5 gears!"
• "Can we put them back together?"
• "What? There is something inside that we have to open?"
• "Maybe there's something inside that and something inside that and...."
• "There's sheet metal inside!"
• "It's like a spring." 
• "It's wound up with the winder. Look!"
• "Can you straighten it?"
• "Let's try this."
• I didn't know this is how a wind-up toy works!"
• "Man, this is so incredible."
• "This is the best day ever."

So many lessons learned. Here are a few:

• Prediction
• Observation
• Small motor skills
• Drawing and labeling one's findings
• Collaboration
• Analytical/critical thinking skills
• How a wind-up toy works
• Inspiration for making our own inventions?