The Chair Project
A Search for Baby Bear's Chair
The chair project came about at a time when the children and teachers knew that three special chairs were coming to Odyssey but had no idea what they looked like. Building on their excitement about these chairs, the story 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and 'Baby Bear's Chairs' were shared with the children.
Searching for Goldilocks' Chair
In exploring with the plot and key ideas of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the children were motivated to make a chair for Goldilocks so that she would have her own chair when visiting the three bears. Thus the Chair Project emerged, commencing with a search for a chair for Goldilocks. The children explored with the idea of how Goldilocks' chair should looked like. The class had a good discussion where rich ideas were generated by the children. These included ideas about how Goldilocks' chair should not be too hard or too soft and should be strong so that it would not be broken easily. Each child had his or her own way of 'testing' the different chairs which they saw around the school. Some children experimented by touching, hitting, sitting and jumping on the chairs. After some fruitful investigations, the children finally managed to identify a suitable chair for Goldilocks.
Decorating Goldilocks' chair
The next stage of the project was to decorate Goldilocks' chair. Again, each child had different ideas of how he or she would like to decorate the chair chosen for Goldilocks. A variety of materials like cloth, tissue paper, pipe cleaners and ice-cream sticks were made available for the children to choose from to decorate Goldilocks' chair.
Making Baby Bear's Chair
"How about Baby Bear's chair?' This question had been an unsolved problem. The children decided that they would also want to make a chair for Baby Bear as his chair was broken. The children were encouraged to sketch the designs of their Baby Bear's chair on paper, which served as the blueprint for constructing Baby Bear chair.
The Best Chair for Baby Bear
By this time the three special chairs had arrived, and the children were so surprised and excited to see the three armchairs that a lot of further discussion and ideas were generated amongst the children. Immediately, the blue armchair which was the smallest, was chosen to be the chair for Baby Bear. The children felt that Baby Bear would prefer the blue armchair better than the ones they have made earlier. They concluded that the blue chair would be the best chair for Baby Bear.
Decorating Baby Bear's Chair
The children then sat on the blue armchair and decided that it needed enhancement to make it softer and more comfortable for Baby Bear. They discussed and decided to use two pieces of yellow cloth decorated with different coloured tissue papers on it. The two pieces of cloth would then be draped over the Baby Bear's chair.
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