Hi, Folks,
Who’s afraid of the...?
Before I share all of the wonderful activities your little piglets have been involved in this week, I need to share one very special song. By request, we listen to this every day, many, many, many times. I sing it in my car, in the shower, in my dreams. Sometimes I find myself humming it even when another song is on the radio. I have made up my own lyrics, both a radio friendly version and an expletive filled Gangsta Rap version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShE27Hst_NM
Now onto all things big, bad and wolfish...
The set design team worked hard this week to add props to our “pig” production. Thanks to Gabriel’s grandparents, Susan and Art, their collection of wardrobe moving boxes, some super creative kids, three very, very messy painting afternoons (sorry about your sons’ blue hair, Katie and Dana...) we now have some prime piggy real estate.
Behold:
A straw house, a brick house and a stick house!Here are some shots of the work in progress:
In addition to pig shelters, the kids discovered a couple of other uses for the boxes:
A library
Shhh......
A grocery store
The Predator Grocery store has set up a “box” shop, which has led to some great math learning. Some questions we’ve investigated this week:
-Does a cake from Publix cost $4.00 or $40.00?
- If you price bananas at $10.00 each, will people buy them?
-What if I only have $30.00 in my wallet, but I want to buy $40.00 worth of groceries?
-What can we use coupons for?
-Why does the cashier need to count money before the store opens?
-What is the best way to count the money in the cash register?
-What are checks are used for.
Here’s a happy customer with a wallet full of money and a shopping list:
Baby Dolphins, Cobras, Kittens, Pigs
These were some of our class pet suggestions. Thankfully, we were all able to agree on beetles and some new fish. While we’re still working on our crafts to sell to our school chums and teachers, the students were introduced to another source of income--the paycheck.
We showed them a check and how it looks when its filled out. I pretended to pay Erin for a bike. She gave me the bike, I gave her the check. So what does she do with the check? She puts it in her bank account. It is added to her money. Once it is in her account, it is subtracted from my account.
This led to the question, “Who puts money in your bank account, Ms. Amanda?”
To which I, of course, replied, “My Sugar Daddy.”
Just kidding, I didn’t really say that. (Plus, he usually pays me in jewelry and furs.)
Actually, The Hirsch Academy puts money in my bank account.
I’m sure that they were shocked to learn that Ms. Erin and I actually get money to come to school every day. But, wait, who is putting money in the Hirsch Academy’s bank account?
Raise your wallet if you know the answer to that one.
So, back to the class pets. To start saving for our creatures, we have opened a savings account with The Predator Bank and all profits made from the sales of our crafts (and other future money making ideas) will be put in the account. This week we also passed out paychecks to each child who finished all of his or her contract work--which was everyone. Yep, for all of their hard work they each earned $5.00! After endorsing the checks, they made their first deposits into the account. Hooray! The account now contains $25.00!
We have also decided to give a portion of our earnings to charity...more details to come...
While on the subject of money, here’s Aidan H. graphing how much each adult at Hirsch is “worth” (even though we already know the answer: priceless).
If you are curious as to how we calculated this, and why, in Gabriel’s words, “Ms. Christina is kicking money tushy!!”, you’ll need to ask Gabriel, Aidan H. or Max.
I will leave you now with an ode to coins, written by Mr. Aidan Reilly:
A nickel has very smooth sides
but if you look at a quarter
the opposite is the guide.
A nickel’s sides are smooth
a quarter’s sides are lumpy.
A dime is smaller than a quarter
but, hey, it’s worth ten cents!
So that’s how you know a nickel,
a dime
and a quarter.
A penny may look bigger than a dime,
but it is one cent.
So, that’s how you know your coins from now on!
Have a great weekend!
Amanda and Erin
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