Sun Bear Auction Day

Today saw us Auction of our two very special framed paintings, we began the bidding at $5 and the children went wild: Asher:"50 hundred dollars" They have a great desire to win and after yesterday's practice are well versed in what a high bid consists of.... Conan volunteered his mums money after careful consideration of the proces: "My mum says $10" he even raised the bid to $15.



We had some tough 'adult' competition today and the famous 'Spin Painting' was sold to Sheridan.. for $24... Next we started the bidding for our combined brush stroke painting... We even had a silent phone bidder... how mysterious. The phone bidder April won the 'brush painting' for $20...



Next was the raffle we took turns at drawing a ticket out of the basket and announcing the winner. Several children won prizes however there was not a prize for everyone... this raised some conflicting emotions in some and we found ourselves facing a common dilemma raised within group relations - fair vs unfair... a valuable lesson that we will revisit when emotions are not running so high.

                        

Face painting saved the day...phew, thank you to Nyassa for her mammoth effort in painting each child's face with love and care! We had a preschool full of dinosaurs, princesses, flowers, tigers, birdies and scary skeletons.

Roarrr say's Connan! 

What a great day we had and all for a great cause... we have raised over $220 for the Sun Bears. Thank you to everyone for your support.

Auction Time

Today we attempted our very first auction, we needed to practice for Thursday's big event 'The Sun Bear Auction Fundraiser'... Matilda and I set up the stage complete with bidding paddles, auction items, chairs, tables, auction hammers and value cards...

Summer was our Auctioneer,  she had a 'microphone' and introduced each item to be auctioned. Summer enjoyed making grand gestures and changing the tone of her voice to add an air of excitement... "Let the bidding begin" she exclaimed with a sweep of her arm across the audience. The context of the Auction room supported Summer in her role and engaged the other children in learning about Auctions. 

We as educators aim to provide children with real life experiences reflective of their communities both locally and globally. The Auction gave children a chance to experience an aspect of the 'adult world'. This context also supported children's mathematical understanding in a meaningful way. They explored the value of an item and this values relationship to money. The bidders had to engage with each other to make bids of higher value to ensure they won the item.

Winning the item was very exciting for the bidder and Auctioneer as we can see in the image above, Tegan is very animated. Tegan enjoyed the role of Auctioneer and especially like coordinating the items to be auctioned and passing them on to their rightful bidders. Tegan seemed to feel a sense of confidence when she announced: "to the gentleman down the front" "congratulations" This formal use of language is not expressed often and imparts on a child a great sense of mastery.

It is because we create these fun and meaningful experiences that children develop positive dispositions to learning. They see learning as fun and want to lead their own learning. The Auction experience taught children about the global community, about mathematics and formal language in a context that was fun and will later be easily drawn on when they have to apply such knowledge in another context. When we co-construct knowledge in a situation that produces strong positive emotions we are more likely to retain this knowledge.

Flower Fairy Pictures

The table was set with pretty things, flowers, ribbon, jewels and other trinkets. This was inviting and drew Charlotte and Senita over to the table where today fairies will be made... Helen suggested we go and collect some flowers to add to our fairies so we set of with our tools and found some lovely Dahlia's... Flowers seem to draw out an admiration from us all and Charlotte expressed this straight away, "oh this one is beeaauuuttiful..."



Senita was an expert scavenger and knew her way around the garden, she knew where to hold the stem to cut the flower and displayed a sense of confidence that could only come from experience in gardening... something I know she gets from gardening at home...



Here we are getting ready to draw our fairies, I guided the children on how to draw a round shape for the head, a long shape for the body, two small circles for the eye's and eye lashes of course. This demonstration gave the artists a starting point without limiting their creativity. Each fairy looks unique and has special features symbolic to the child and how they draw.



The Fairies evolved into dainty flower fairies with the addition of colour from shading with pencils, gluing: pettles, buttons, ribbon, pollen and even a few stems... The children took time and care in creating their fairies and enjoyed the whole process from start to finish. By combining drawing, colouring, and collage we are creating a multi-layered experience that reveals to children the vast array of possibilities available for expressing ideas and making meaning.

                             

Milly's Flower Fairy: Milly was very particular about her drawing and took 5 turns to get the head and the body the right shape. She carefully glued individual pettles on for the skirt and layed the hair with different colours.

                              

Charlotte's flower fairy: Charlotte added eye lashes, blush and fingers to her fairy. She took time to layer the dress with pettles and even added some pollen.

   

Senita's Flower fairy: Senita drew a very delicate fairy and took time to add colour and features, she created a line for the ground with a ribbon.