GOOD STUFF!

We want to share with you how continually inspired we are by your children's creativity, joy, exploration, and relationships with each other - our values at St. John's!  Their work on the Giant Instrument is at the heart of our philosophy.  Throughout the process of designing and building, children have been generating new, original ideas and theories, listening to each other's words, remembering each other's ideas and problem solving if they believe something may not work.  Just read the conversation below from Morning Meeting today.

Melanie - Today our job is to make more of the model.  Yesterday Cassius and Lucy made a model of the Giant Instrument vehicle.
Cassius - That was a lot of hard work.
Melanie - There is a special something we were thinking of adding.  How is it gonna move?
Rose – The bike!
Carl - Can we have the wheels under the instrument and we make a rope on the holes and then we attach it on to the balance bike?
Jay – We need to guard the front and the back because so it doesn’t crash into any vehicle.
Cassius – Hey, Joci we need to make signs for everybody (in the neighborhood).  Because everybody needs to know or they will say, “Sorry, you can’t come in with your Giant Instrument.”

Lila - What if there is a button on it and you press it and the instrument will play?
Ellee – What if there’s a button that you press and a door opens on the instrument and then they could go inside and get snacks and water?
Cassius - Or like doors that are handicapped.
Rose – Or like you don’t exactly press it but you shake your hand and then it opens.
Mac – I went to the doctor where there’s a button on the side and you press it and the door opens and closes automatically.
Jay - Or a slide door that you press and then if you go forward it opens and back it closes.
Bruno – We said if we get tired maybe we could use a car.
Hadley – Maybe we could switch and someone else could pull the instrument for a few minutes and then someone else.  So we can let another friend pull it.
Cassius – This is a new level.   We need to think about this now . . . What if it overflows everywhere?  The instrument will overflow.
Joci - But Jay said something yesterday about that.  What was your idea, Jay?
Jay - Hooks.
Cassius - You have to have a strong enough of a pulley to pull them up.
Carl - Who’s gonna pull the bikes if nobody is on it?
Bruno – A truck or the video games.
Melanie - Can’t we ride the bikes?
Hadley – Everyone . . .
Prater - Not the teachers.  What are you talking about?
Hadley – Oh yeah, everyone except for the teachers because I mean like there’s not gonna be enough room for the teachers because it’s way too little for the teachers.

---

Cassius - We need to write a book for everybody and then they can make it.
Melanie - On the computer, Joci and I have been making a storybook about the instruments.  We want you guys to know, we want parents to know, and we want everyone to know about the instruments.  But there’s a problem – we only have pictures and we need the story.  So what we need from you guys is to write the words. 
Joci - You need to be the authors.  You have really good memories so you can remember what happened.
Hadley - When we leave the school, you guys will still be here teaching so you can tell the other people about it . . .
Cassius – They’ll know how to build one.

We also need the children's reflections via drawings.  Bruno and Carl drew the baby rattle instrument that will go on the Giant Instrument today.

Drawing by Carl and Bruno

---

Adding to our paper model of the Giant Instrument Vehicle...
Our idea is that the bike will be pulled by a tricycle.  So one of our goals in the studio today was to make a model of the tricycle itself, pulling the little vehicle by a string.  In addition, we made progress on the walls of the vehicle itself.  Alex, Prater, Jay and Mac all had a part in the tricycle, which is still a work-in-progress. At once point while Alex was working he said, "That did not turn out well.  Okay, maybe I’ll change it later.  Maybe I’ll just make two models and see what turns out better."  It takes resilience and a can-do attitude to make something like this!

Mac and Jay's conversation while working together...

Mac: All you have to do is cut it.  I’m going to cut one and then give it to you.  I’ll put this wheel on.
Jay:  It gets connected by two [bars].
Mac:  It’s this size.
Jay:  Let’s see… (compares two sizes of straws)  Looks good.  We need to cut it so they’re the same size.  (Cuts both straws at once)  These are the same size.
Mac:  But we have to put them on the back (flips over wheels).
​
Melanie:  What about the bar that holds up the seat?
Jay:  Two!  These… Hot glue the seat.
Mac:  That’s the seat.  Where’s the handles?
Melanie:  We’ll also need pedals, and bars that attach to the pedals.
Mac:  I’ll cut them. ….. I got one!  Is this the same size?