The Wee World ~ It's A Whole New World!

Today, we began our "Wee World" adventure!

When I read Teacher Tom's first post about his Little World, I was quite intrigued. His whole approach to preschool education is intriguing to me (alas, that is another post), but the Little World spoke to me. I spent hours upon hours as a child engrossed in the imaginary play of Barbie and other dolls. Kids these days still play with dolls and action figures, but not nearly as much as previous generations, probably due to the plethora of technology at their disposal. Tom's Little World seems to bring kids back that world of imagination. While completely captivated by the idea, I initially felt it was not something I would be able to implement in our current environment. The idea slowly went from being something that I would like to implement someday, to something I had to do NOW.

As we began talking about leprechauns, the kids expressed an interest in catching them. When I asked what they would do with them if they caught them, surprisingly, they really didn't have an interest in the pot of gold, but more in finding new playmates. I realized this was the perfect way to introduce my own mini version of a Little World.  I approached one of my parents, Mrs. G. and asked if she would help. After reading Teacher Tom's blog posts she was very enthusiastic. I decided to start the Wee World as a small group activity, worked into our small group rotation.

Mrs. G. came today to facilitate the groundbreaking, as our first small group began building the foundations for our "Wee World". Today was an interesting dynamic because this particular group was all boys. We'll see how things progress and change when the girls get in the mix. Since Mrs. G. worked so closely with them, she's going to send me some notes on how things went and some of the discussions that occurred.

Recently, while shopping at Michael's for a few seasonal supplies I found these cute birdhouses for only a dollar so I bought a few. As one of our small group activities last week, the children painted them.

These are going to be some of the structures for the Wee World.

I am so impressed with the trees they made! They put chunks of moss on top of sticks to make trees for the leprechauns. We've read several stories where leprechauns seem to hide in trees occasionally, so this must be an important part of their world.

The kids asked for twine to tie the sticks together. (I'm not sure what these structures are, yet, but they sure enjoyed making them!)

After tying the sticks together, they decided they would hang twine from the stairs so the leprechauns could go from their world to ours!

After getting the layout all set, the children set out to find materials on the playground. Some of them came up with a bowl and a bead that looks like a life saver candy. This was instantly turned into a "pool with a floatie"!

When I got the birdhouses for the kids to paint, I bought one I planned to paint for our bathroom. I finally decided I would paint it colorfully and let that be my contribution to the Wee World. I thought the kids would think the rainbow colors would be attractive to the leprechauns. I hope they like it! 

I am so glad we decided to try this. It will definitely be an interesting experiment. This is our garden patch, so we may have to move it if it catches on. Lucky me, I think we've already found the perfect spot!