As we continue our journey to "remember the outdoor classroom", we invited the children to think about their idea to create a model of the rope swing. Many of the children suggested clay as a material for creating the tree. There was a lot of enthusiasm around this project, and when the group (George, Eliza, and Will) came together to determine how to create the trunk, we had to do some brainstorming and problem solving: 1. What techniques do we know for creating something tall out of clay? 2. How do we make it tall enough to hold a model rope swing? 3. How do we work together to make one tree, not three? 4. How will people know it's a tree? After some experimentation and debate, the children decided to use armature to create a hollow trunk for the tree. **Unfortunately, there are no photos of this process because everyone involved had their hands in clay.** The next day, a new group of children volunteered to make the branches! Again, we discussed possible techniques, and they all agreed that rolling coils/pinching coils would make branches. Many, many times we referenced the lines of the branches that we can see from the Rainey Room window -- branches are NOT just straight lines: "It's curvy." - Win "It's zig zag." - Pierce The tree as greenwear (dried clay that is not yet fired). The tree as bisque -- fired once without glaze. What's the tree without a rope swing?Over the past two weeks, Melanie has been working with children to explore braiding and rope twisting techniques. They also worked on tying knots because the bottom of our rope swing is a HUGE knot. Today, we added our rope swing to the tree.
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Creating CobbAfter making Cobb houses out of red clay, firing them in the kiln, and adding roofs to them, it was time to move on to making a model of the Cobb house using actual Cobb material. This model will live on at St. Johns. But first, we had to make some Cobb. What is Cobb we wondered and researched, and how does it hold its structure if it is not fired in the kiln? We found out that we needed three basic materials. Clay, straw, & sand. "We had clay and straw and sand. We started with a tarp placed on the ground next to the existing Cobb house. We took wet, but not too wet, red clay and placed it on the tarp. Next, sand was added. Not too much at once though because we could add more but we could not take away. We did not want the clay to get too dry with the sand. If the clay got too dry it would begin to loose its elasticity for molding. Many hands make light work, and the sand was gradually merged into the sand. Now for the straw, the additional adhesive and structural material. We continued to mix the materials together--pushing and smooshing with our hand and body strength. We added some more sand and more straw as we worked to get the mixture to a pliable consistency that we thought was just right. "We're going to put our feet in it?!" -Georgia Oh, we also used our feet! Our Cobb is mixed and feet and hands are washed away of the clay that was covering them! The Cobb awaits for day 2 of our project or Cobb House Model part 2: Using the Cobb to Construct the Cobb House Also...An unexpected change in the outdoor classroom. A mourning dove is nesting in the shed. Respectfully and empathetically, we are keeping out of the shed and being quiet when nearby, but first a glimpse at the bird.
Finishing what we started! Some children worked together at the message center table using cut outs of the children's illustrations, reduced in size, to arrange the drawings to create the visual part of our letter to our alumni siblings. This letter asks the alumni to provide their memories and stories of the outdoor classroom in support of our outdoor classroom memorial project. (A copy of this will be sent home on Monday in the children's cubby bags.) We look forward to reading your stories. Our Letter: Dear Alum...It's My Mommy! Megan Paleologos as Mystery ReaderWe loved having you join RR and spend time reading to us!
"It's spring in here!" - Rainey RoomSpring inspired weavings Spring Inspired Sewings Spring Observational Drawings At the easel "A house with a flower." - Gracie, 4.5 years [on the right] Pierce's painting of the Bricks and concrete of New York City "The whole world, and the police car, and the police hugging the man, and the road and cars, and the sunset. Those are trees with fruit on it -- oranges." - Gracie and Georgia Happy Birthday LillianCobb houses, climbers, rope swings, and a lot of moments and memories we have had with them. Yet, it's not just us - the current Rainey Room children - it is also our sisters and brothers who have shared and loved the space before or simultaneously with us. With our interest in remembering and memorializing the outdoor classroom we have taken on composing a letter for our siblings who also attended St. John's to ask for their memories and stories connected to the outdoor classroom and specifically the structures that are changing. Supporting the work for our letter, we sat down together to choose which feature of the outdoor classroom we wanted to draw to include as part of our final letter. More to come!
We look forward to continuing our work on Monday to collaboratively compose our message and arrange our illustrations for a finalized letter to be shared with our alums! Planning, problem solving, editing, and hot glueingJust before break we began adding roofs to our cobb house models. This process has involved quite a bit of experimentation, problem solving, and editing. The children chose materials, measured them against the size of their individual houses, and changed the size of the materials by cutting, tearing, or breaking them. They also created a plan for their roof by laying out the materials and removing them, before they hot glued them down -- this also meant that they might change their plan and materials before glueing down their roof. "We used the base and then the top of the base. We used wood and cardboard. I used those things, but I also used clay [to make the house]. I glued hot glue." - Pierce, 4.6 years "I was figuring out to put the line here and these two here." - Lillian, 3.11 years Hot Glue! Our cobb houses so far... The message center"There's not enough space [at message center]!" - Gracie, 4.4 years What happens if we turn the table? Do we all fit? Paper/Wire Sculptures of the Outdoor ClassroomThe slack line Construction and otherMystery ReadersThank you to all of our wonderful mystery readers! It is so great to have you all join us in the classroom for some fun books and time together!
A Morning Meeting for Sharing Models Thank you so much to all of the parents who joined us at morning meeting today! It was so wonderful to have you all and to see the wonderful models you shared. We discovered a few things: 1. Models can be made before or after the "real" thing is created (e.g. Adaline's drawing/cardboard and foam model came before the real building, but Lillian's 3D printed White House model came after the real building). 2. Models can help you decide to change things. 3. Models are made out of a lot of different materials: Plastic, metal, cardboard, foam, glue, and more. We would love to hear any thoughts your child may share about this fantastic morning meeting of conversation and research. "My daddy put the rope swing there." - Georgia, 4.3 years
At a recent staff meeting, we shared some thoughts on drawing with the children -- confronting challenges, making mistakes, keeping it fun, and more. One of the suggestions was to play "Pictionary". As you will remember, the children loved our other drawing game, so we were hopeful that they would love this new game. We decided to start "Pictionary" by having all of them drawing together, each drawing their own version of one idea that we gave them. We were sure to give a "clue" that they all had in common and could, in theory, see in their mind! We have done the whole group twice, and each time it was joyful and so much fun! **You can take a close look at the drawings in the classroom -- they are hanging on our "Holding Board" just above the sign in! ** Clue #1 - Toad Clue #2 - Molly Clue #3 - Cappuccino (Elyse's Cat) Clue #4 - Jen
Clue #5: Bicycle (Melanie's Symbol!)
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