The Blue Room class made their own shakers when they returned to the classroom.  We talked about what could be used inside the different shakers to create different sounds, and filled ours with dried lentils.

Penelope’s dad, Max, talked about his job of owning a coffee shop.  The children could smell ground coffee and touch coffee beans.  We learned that coffee beans are the seeds of red coffee cherries.  Most coffee cherries contain two beans, or seeds.  Max had the children help him put stickers on their own cups with lids to take home.  At Good Friend Coffee, the customer is always treated as a friend!

Mason’s dad, Jared, creates and designs characters and costumes for his clients.  The children saw many of their favorite superhero characters, such as the hulk and batman, redesigned for the movies with some amazing and fantastic costumes.  He invents new characters as well, and these may be good guys or bad guys (both equally beloved by our class).  These characters can be turned into 3-D models, and he showed the children one of them.  Jared has loved drawing since he was a child, and so do many of our young students!

Otis’ dad, Shane, is a songwriter and composer, whose songs have been featured in many movies and television shows.  He showed us some of these finished pieces on his laptop, and he invited the children to collaborate with him on creating a song of their own.  He included them in a songwriting process which began by choosing the mood of the song.  Next he set a dynamic rhythm,  and asked the children to help contribute rhyming words to the lyrics.  Together they wrote a new song!

Della’s mom, Willie, is a Nurse-Midwife who’s job is to deliver babies and make sure that mommies and babies are well cared for, before and after birth.  We saw a miniature model of a baby floating in its special place in a mama’s body, and this was the perfect way for young children to visualize what is going on in there.  We learned about using a stethoscope to listen to a baby’s heart and lungs after it comes into the world.  We also learned how to swaddle a baby to make him/her feel snug and secure.  Afterwards, we practiced on our own babies, and each child received a tiny toy baby to take home.