Cobb 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!
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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!)
Make a Wish... |
On the day that we were ready to mix paints we shared a mini demo using a color non-desprict of the cob house to model the careful process of mixing paint to achieve a desired color in contrast to mixing paints more freely. During morning meeting we communicated that we were going to be like scientists, taking our time, slowing down, being methodical in keeping track of our steps, and being intentional with each color. What we didn't mention but also applied is that we were like mathematicians as we added color and worked with portions and ratio. |
"A little bit of red, a little yellow. A little bit more yellow. I like it like this. You see this orange? This is orange. This is way more orangey. Look, I made orange!" -Georgia You don't have to use the same color. If you want it to be dark orange, add some black, and if you want it to be light orange make it, put white. Or wait, why am I making purple?! I forgot! I knew what blue with red make, purple... That was funny." -Will "That's not orange. It looks like blue." -Georgia Because I added red and blue and that makes, usually purple, but this time it made blue. Weird.... I made it lighter with two two more drops of white." -Will |
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As many of you will know, the Outdoor Classroom is going to be changing, and we appreciate everything that you all are doing to make this happen. In the February 7th blog we shared the initial conversation we had with the children about how we might remember the outdoor classroom as it is before it changes. Today, we would like to share some insight into our work so far. These images are from our conversation with Amelia Gambetti, our consultant from Reggio Emilia. |
Based on the children's ideas, we have done a variety of drawings: Observational drawings of the outdoor classroom (large paper, facing different views); drawing individual pieces they care about (e.g. cobb house, etc.); drawing it “from memory” (e.g. Will's drawing on the left); and arial/ bird’s eye drawings from the Tucker Room studio windows . |
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Gracie, Win, Caroline, and Georgia were each trying to connect the ends of the tubing for their "shark tail", "ball", "flower", and "snowflake". Eliza and Zoe overheard that they needed help with connecting the ends. Eliza (heart) and Zoe (star) each conquered this challenge a few days before, and they jumped at the opportunity to help, and they were experts! “You bend the wire so that you can make the top of the circle.” - Eliza “I will show you how. You wrap it. You put it very close, okay? You twist it closer.” - Zoe |
Lillian and Georgia's symbols have something in common: "balls"(spheres) on the ends of their "long lines". When Lillian had completed her symbol, she came to share her techniques for creating wire spheres and attaching them to the tubing. “First I twisted them right here. First I twisted them into a ball. I twisted them to make them stay. I did it on the sides and then squished it and it turned into a little ball. I can show her how to make a ball.” - Lillian “How do we put this ball?” - Georgia “We wrap it around.” - Lililan | |
On Friday, Eliza challenged herself to make a "clay Eliza". Elyse challenged her to make it stand up. Adaline noticed that Eliza was having some difficulty getting it to stand up. She came over and began to share everything she had learned from making her clay cat that stands up when she worked with Jen and Melanie. Please enjoy the dialogue between them here in this video: | |
Our first snack time hangout and reader(s) was a hit! Thanks to Laura and Jackie for the wonderful books you chose and the time you shared with the children -- it was so wonderful to have them share some of the work with you and we discovered a new type of book (a chapter book -- there are no pictures!). |
St. John's Alumni! Hugh and Lily, who went through St. John's with Melanie a few years back spent time with us this week! They were kind enough to share some of their memories of the outdoor classroom -- things have definitely changed since they were here at St. John's! It's always great to have our alum with us and to share stories of this special place. | Grandparents! Henri's grandparents were with him this week, and Henri was excited to share some of his symbol work. Please remember that you are invited (and encouraged) to spend time looking at the documentation, holding board, portfolio drawers, etc. with your child. It is a great way to connect to the work in the classroom! |
"I want Jill to teach us black socks!" - Adaline "I want the crocodile song!" - Gracie If you have not met Jill, she is one of our fabulous CW teachers! Jill has so many songs in her repertoire, and the children who attend CW are always singing them! So, it was the perfect opportunity to invite Jill in to teach us a few songs! If you were able to attend sing-along this week, you will have heard them! Thanks Jill! |
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