While Melanie and Elyse are sick at home this week, the Rainey Room has been supported by Cece, Molly, Brigitte, Jen, and Jill, but most of all by your children, who are showing us the ropes. They know the flow of the day, and are excellent caretakers of their environment. Below are just a few of the experiences we have had together this week. VERY big clay cats, standing up. Continuing an experience from last week, Gracie and Will used a cardboard armature to add a hollow body to their cat's legs. Adeline, who--a few days earlier-- found a good strategy, offered helpful suggestions. We will share more about this project in the future. Solutions to a problem of perspective: Adeline drew a portrait of her 3 dimensional cat, so that in case it breaks during the drying and firing process, she can make it again. Observing the side view of her sculpture, she said "It's hard. The paper is white on the back and this (the sculpture), you can flip over easily and this (the drawing) you might get two papers-in clay you might not." In essence, Adeline was explaining that the 3D sculpture had two sides--a back and a front-- and in order to draw the "other side" of the cat, she needed to draw on the backside of the paper! Front (left) and back (right) GAMES: Board Games, and Games with Shapes, Colors and Patterns Portraits of Friends Also a continuation of an experience from last week, children have been drawing and painting portraits of their friends Backwards day
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**Note to add that photographing while working with clay can be difficult, and we strive to document each child to the best of our abilities in the moment. We are brainstorming other approaches to documenting clay that do not require our messy hands to be on our phones or missing out on the opportunity to support the children. with a hands on approach.** Gracie, 4.2 years
Will, 4.4 years
Win, 4.6 years
Henri, 4.5 years
Adaline, 4.3 years Adaline was initially unsure about this process, but along the way she discovered that there are tools (and friends/grownups) that can support you as you work. She asked to use the lucite frame to trace her symbol, and she found so much more joy in the process. In the end, she was so proud of her work -- her face radiated it.
Zoe, 3.11 years
Zoe confidently suggested that she could make a new symbol with "more swirls". Above is Zoe's second version, and you can see that she has used longer coils to create the outline and shaped 5 swirls, one for each "v" of her star. She said, "I put them here to make it stronger." Georgia, 4.2 years
Caroline, 3.8 years
Will and Caroline Christopher, 3.11 years
Some of our symbols have been fired, while others are drying in the classroom. We invite you to take a look the next time you are in the room! They really are amazing pieces, and next we intend to explore the shapes and lines of our symbols with wire and paper sculptures. **The goal was to post this blog today (Friday) after the final three children (Pierce, George, and Lillian) had an opportunity to work on their clay symbol. Due to our snow day, this work will be postponed until Monday/Tuesday of next week and their work/symbols will be highlighted in one of next week's blogs!** A Snowy Day
Playing "face time" in the outdoor classroom during backwards day on Tuesday. Is it a ball body? Who is holding the ball? Is it a ball head? Drawing "Warm Wendell" all dressed up for winterIn preparation for today's sing along we had been practicing our five songs: Acorn song, Jingle Bells, My Name is Joe, Bingo, and our newest song Warm Wendell (Windell). We have also been doing more drawing and thought we could combine the two by drawing Warm Wendell all dressed up and ready for the cold of winter. "I like to wear my hat, my scarf, my coat, my gloves, my pants, my boots to keep me nice and warm in the winter when it's cold outside." What should we call these drawings? Silly self portraits?"Call them closed eyes portraits." -WillWe had an idea to invite imagination into morning meeting. Elyse or Melanie could draw lines and the children could imagine what the lines were becoming or what they could be. Somehow (the laughter and joy fades the detail of transition) Elyse's lines became her self portrait. The catch though - Elyse was not looking at the paper on the clipboard and Georgia insisted she add the challenge of closing her eyes. Elyse narrated what she was drawing as she went and the final product (see gray documentation board in the classroom and below) brought oodles of laughter. How silly Elyse looked! So, voila! We had a new drawing game. Melanie took her turn and Lucille drew. Now a few children have taken a turn too! With this we created a "magic list" so the children can keep track of turns. The challenge is to not look at the paper while drawing or keep your eyes closed, which isn't so easy to do. The best part is that we love the game, it's so joyful! We can hardly wait to to continue with it next week when we return on Tuesday!
"The symbol curtain" at The Renwick
Drawing our symbols"We could draw our symbol, cut it out, and connect it with string." - Gracie, 4.2 years Earlier this week, we brought back pieces of our Renwick reflection conversations to the children. Before Winter Break, the children had suggested that we could make our own symbol curtain. Originally, they suggested: "Ink." - Henri "Cardboard and paint." - Gracie "Drawing." - Lillian "Marker." - Christopher In a later conversation, George suggested clay, and we do intend to explore other possibilities as we create our very own symbol curtain. As we often do, we started the process by drawing. The children were incredibly enthusiastic about the idea of our own symbol curtain and drawing their symbols. We have not intentionally drawn our symbols since early Brown Room, so we were excited to see the growth. It was also a great opportunity for the children to think about drafts, iterations, versions, and even "mistakes". The children's drawings George, 4.4 years 1st Draft 2nd Draft Henri, 4.5 years 1st Draft 2nd Draft Georgia, 4.1 years 1st Version Gracie, 4.2 years Gracie drew 6-7 versions of her symbol. Each time, she focused on the duplicitous lines on the left side of her symbol. **This same approach translated to her clay work the next day.** Win, 4.6 years 1st version 2nd/3rd versions 4th version 5th version Will, 4.3 years Lillian, 3.8 years Lillian was persistent and focused on the number of lines she has in her symbol. As you move left to right, you can see the development of her lines and the shape of her symbol. The final drawing represents four versions of her symbol. There were a few tools on the table for drawing - our classic black drawing pens, thick black markers, black gelato sticks, and black oil pastels. We also had tracing paper available as a tool to support the children, though only a few decided to use it -- Caroline, Adaline, Zoe, and Will. Caroline, 3.7 years On the left, Caroline traced her symbol and filled in the negative space with the black marker. In her drawing on the right, you can see that Caroline focused on the creating the negative space in her symbol by drawing circles to represent it. Then, she used lines to connect the circles (negative space). Zoe, 3.11 years Adaline, 4.3 years "These lines are tricky. They go so many ways." - Adaline Pierce, 4.4 years The star is a very tricky shape, and Pierce was feeling that as he began working on his freehand drawing. Tracing it boosted his confidence, and afterward the conversation turned to the shapes he could draw to achieve the star. He really connected with "V" shapes in the star and talked about his beloved sister, Violet. A sneak peek at the clay work!
PARENT PARTICIPATION featuring John Coombe! Highlighting the end of last year, in today's blog, also brings focus into our new year or second semester of Rainey Room. This said, Happy New Year everyone! We hope the winter break was meaningful in as many ways possible. We are approaching parent participation broadly - think the 100 languages. Meaning there are many ways to show up and share time with the children during their day at school. If you have interest in participating, email us, and we'll take the conversation from there to collaborate with you. Or sign up for an experience that we've already arranged and prepared. Our hope is for it to be a fun and welcoming experience spending some time in the mix of our "Rainey Room family" dynamic! Be on the lookout for a new parent participation / morning meeting schedule / sign up email. Not a painter by profession, John has been giving time and attention to learning the techniques of painting for several years now and was enthusiastic to bring this past time passion into the classroom to share with the children. Knowing that John was interested in sharing his love of painting with the children, we chatted about how we could connect painting to the current shadow work because he had already been spending time painting Monet's "Haystacks" at home. The children were able to learn more about shadows through what John verbally shared and physically demonstrated through painting with a rotational small group of children. Thank you for your knowledge and participation, John, the children loved it! Connecting with your child through their RR environmentHolding Board? What's that? Documentation around the room invites opportunities to engage with your child and connect with them through the classroom environment. The "Holding Board" (below) primarily showcases collections of drawing that the children have created in response to a whole group experiences along with a few other features. (This board does change.) During our morning arrival time we welcome you to look through the clipped work with your child or separately. The Holding Board is above the sign in sheet (thank you all for keeping on top of signing in each morning). The portfolio drawers are also another option for connecting and engaging with your child when here - open them up and have a look! Environmental changes, including new or different materials and rearranging the space and documentation, are other ways through which you can spend time in the morning with your child, or when in the classroom, to read the room and learn about the work and processes. Walk the classroom with your child (and friends): ask them what is happening, what are they learning, what is the documentation about (ask them to read the documentation), what is new, different, or exciting. This is a great way for them recall and articulate what they know and for them to discover, question, and wonder. Documentation left to right: Movement of Sun and Time; An Exploration and Discovery of Light; Book Fair 2023 New materials for small building and construction (in place of light table) and some rearrangement of materials New Projections and similar documentation (subject to change) - revisiting is helpful for bringing out new knowledge.
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April 2024
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