Party Planners: Our Search Continues

Another Lead from Ms. Brooks

On Wednesday, September 27, we read another note from Ms. Brooks. In this note she wrote:

Dear Party Group,
I cannot put the oven back in the C.E. house because it doesn’t belong to me. I think the house that President Joe Rice lives in has an oven. Maybe he can help you to bake a cake.
From Ms. Brooks

This is the conversation that took place after reading Ms. Brooks’ letter:
TR: “That’s a nice letter.”
BW: “Let’s go over to Mr. Rice’s house.”
RB: “We can ring the bell.”
TR: “We can knock on the door.”
BW: “We can ask Mr. Rice, 'Do you have an oven?'”
EC: “We can make a note.”
KO: “Let’s give it to him. Let’s put it in his mailbox.”
TR: “We need to ask Mr. Rice if we can come in.”
Ms. Leigh: “What do you think we should write in our note?”
TR: “Dear Mr. Rice.”
BW: “Please can we borrow your oven to make a cake.”
RB: “Can we bake a cake in your oven, because we’re having a party for Ms. Leigh?”
BW: “We don’t know which cake to make.”
RB: “We can make a rainbow cake with rainbow frosting.”
KO: “I brought in something for the cake. It’s rainbow frosting.”
TR: “We can use that.”
Ms. Leigh: “After we write our note, where can we take it?”
KO: “In his mailbox.”
Ms. Leigh: “Do you know where his mailbox is?”
TR: “It’s by his house. I saw it this morning when I came to school.”
KO: “Yah, I know where his house is.”
TR: “I have an idea. Let’s put it in his mailbox and run away so he gets a surprise.”
EC: “That’s a good idea.”
BW: “Yah, Let’s run and hide so he gets surprised.”
KO: “That’s a good plan.”
RB: “Don’t let him see, it’s going to be a surprise.

The group celebrated the “good idea” by hugging TR. At our next meeting, we plan to write our letter to Mr. Rice.

Note to the President

On Thursday, October 5, the Party Planners met again to write their note to President Rice and his wife. After reading back the conversation from the last meeting, the group decided to write the letter using RB’s words. Ms. Leigh got out the chart paper and, with the help of the children, wrote out the words for them to copy. Ms. Leigh emphasized the initial and final sounds for most of the words for the group to recognize. The Party Planners then copied the words onto their own paper. After most of the girls were done writing their note, they drew a picture of the oven. They placed their notes in an envelope and addressed it to Mr. and Mrs. Rice. The use of an envelope was brought up because of the children’s recent class experience with invitations and the post office. At our next meeting, we plan to deliver our note to President Rice’s home mailbox.

Delivering our Note

On Tuesday, October 10, the Party Planners delivered their note to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rice. After noticing that our big envelope would not fit in Mr. Rice’s home mailbox, the group decided to leave it on the ground in front of his door. We look forward to a response.

Inside Scoop

Party Planners: Children Helping Children

As we observed the children writing their letters to President and Mrs. Rice, we could see the gift of helping being passed around. Though BW knew all of her letters, she was still a little unsure about writing the letter "K." As she expressed her difficulty in writing this one letter, the other children in the group generously offered their help. TR explained how to write the letter by drawing it in the air. KO wrote the letter on her own paper, explaining each stroke. EC and RB looked on and encouraged her with their words. With all of this help, BW wrote the letter with some success. Through these types of interactions, the children are moving forward through their zone of proximal development, or ZPD, and expanding their knowledge and abilities. An influential theorist named Lev Vygotsky describes ZPD as the space between the level of a task a child can do alone and the level he or she can now achieve with the scaffolding of a more capable and nurturing partner. These social interactions are necessary for children and adults to reach a higher level of development and continue to grow.

At our first letter-writing meeting, BW wrote a few words and then decided to stop. She watched the other children in the group finish their letters with careful observation. At the next two letter-writing meetings, BW not only finished writing the entire letter, but also was the first to finish. Each time she finished her letter she held it up smiling and saying "I wrote the whole thing." This is another clear example of children helping children.

Posted on October 10, 2006 2:50 PM | Permalink