Kindergarteners Dream, Design the Milton Friendship Festival
January 2, 2020 by
Kindergarten re-imagined their Bayit Patuach (Open House) event by launching an interactive event for visiting families that the children dubbed the”Milton Friendship Festival.” In Kindergarten, the overarching theme for the year is community. The teachers decided a study of friendship would be a meaningful way to take a closer look at our community and would provide an authentic opportunity for research. The children became ‘friendship scientists,’ observing and documenting moments of friendship and joy between children in the South Campus community. This rich topic led to a semester’s work of multi-disciplinary work, including Design Thinking challenges to create new elements for the playground that would promote friendship in our community. The resulting projects included a playhouse, a mud kitchen, and a makeover for the soccer field with a new scoreboard, a list of rules, and team benches. The children also celebrated the joyful moments of friendship by creating multimedia sculptures that highlighted meaningful times in friendship: birthday celebrations, sleepovers, imaginary play, acts of kindness and eating yummy snacks together. Each of our three classes held a ceremonial grand opening of their new areas with the families: we had ribbon cuttings for the soccer area and the mud kitchen and we recited a blessing as a student-made mezuzah was hung in the doorway of the playhouse. The entire South Campus community of Pre-Kindergarteners through First Graders will be able to enjoy these new additions to the playground. Kol Hakavod to the Kindergarten Class of 2028 for their contributions to the school and for enhancing the experiences of friends now and in the years ahead!
