Fickle fishing

I was not able to attend Lily's Gymboree class today due to an Open House at my school, but I asked Carl what they did today, and here is how it was summed up for me:

The theme was Camping and Fishing. The teacher put little stuffed toy fish on a mat (the lake), and the children were supposed to stand on the climbing structure (the bridge) and use the sticks and ribbon (fishing poles) to get the fish out of the water. Lily decided to cut-to-the-chase and dive into the lake and gather all the fish. She then very proudly brought the fish to the teacher while the other children stood, as instructed, on the structure with their poles and nothing to fish. The teacher thanked Lily when she brought them to her and threw them back into the lake, and once again Lily went into the lake and gathered them all. The little fisherpeople never had a chance.

The next activity involved building a fire. They used the same sticks (without the ribbon) as firewood. Lily recognized that these were the same sticks used for the fishing poles so she went around and disassembled all the fishing poles in order to throw the sticks into the pile for the fire. (Just to sum up, the children now have no fish and no poles.)

For the last activity, the children were able to cook their catch of the day on the fire. For this, Lily decided to go all out and stage her first animal rights protest and rescued the fish from their fiery fate. All in a morning's play.