From a Bridge to a Rainbow Zebra!

We were inspired by our next door neighbors to make a bridge using poles and tape!  We went to work cutting, tugging, and wrapping! ;0)

Finally, we made a "bridge"!  We loved to hide under it, just like the troll in the Three Billy Goats Gruff book!  The children would take turns going under the bridge, and recite parts from the book.  "Trip, trap, trip, trap!  Who's that trampin' over my bridge?"

As the days went by and we continued to add tape to our bridge, it started not to look like a bridge anymore!  Mateo and Kyle said it looked like a horse.  "Maybe we should make it a horse!", said Trevor.

Mateo said, "We should make it into a zebra!"

So the children worked on it and at one point they only requested black tape.  They thought the zebra should be black with white stripes.

It was a totally black zebra, when we got a toy zebra from the class next door and Bishop said, "hey guys!  It is white see!  It is white with black lines on it!"

So, then we spent the next two days covering the entire zebra white, to put black stripes on it. 

Kylie grabbed the pink tape, and all of a sudden it turned into a "RAINBOW ZEBRA"!  The children were all excited about the thought of a rainbow zebra!  We cannot wait to see the rest of the details they will put on the zebra, and the stories that will come from their imaginations of what a rainbow zebra can do!

And of course no rainbow zebra would be complete without a rainbow tail!

The rainbow zebra has had so much work to it, that it was having trouble standing up on its own.  We called our "wood working expert", Hendrix's dad to come help us!  He has been talking to the children about our plans for building our real bridge in the back, so here was an opportunity to introduce the chilren to some new tools........

He brought in a saw and some other electrical tools.  The children watched, asked questions, and engaged in conversations with him about the steps he was taking to build the platform for the rainbow zebra.

They worked together to saw 4 pieces of wood that measured 6 inches each.  (our children are the measuring experts after all ;0)  )

"Hey!  It is starting to look like a table!", said Mateo. 

Kaelynn said, "This is so much fun!"

We placed each 6 inch pole into each of the rainbow zebra's legs, and......................

Tah Dah!  Our Rainbow Zebra is standing strong on its own! 

Thank you Mr. Preston for all of your help and all of the fun our children had with you!

We are so proud of the creativity that has evolved from this project.  We believe in the importance of creativity, allowing the children to experiment and test their hypothesis, and allowing them to direct their learning. 

Please take a few minutes of your time to click on the following link to listen to Sir Ken Robinson speak on the importance of creativity

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html