"Clay Play" & "Claying": Making Clay Snack BowlsThe idea for every child to make a reusable clay dish for snack was proposed last year, but it seems like this is the year to make them manifest. This week each child will participate in working with clay in two ways: They will be playing and exploring the material and language of clay using their hands, a variety of tools, and by making impressions into the clay, and they will be applying their knowledge and practice by creating their individualized snack bowl. Committee Work for Zarina's Book-The Final PhaseA Great Way to Start the Day
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Celebrating James!Today, James was joined by his mom, dad, and still nearly brand new baby sister, Bea. It was wonderful to share in the joy of photographs showcasing some of James' memorable moments and in the joy of the book so thoughtfully created for him.  We celebrate you, James!  James is in an airplane cockpit - a real cockpit!  If you know James, it will not come as a surprise that his book was a construction tale. The work of his story book took the committee from the middle room (where they used the computer and internet to search for images) and into the outdoor classroom to further dig into the creation of the book. Together, they created mini-mock construction scenes to illustrate the pages of "A House for James."  Here James' dad, Mike, reads one of James' longstanding favorite books about construction vehicles. Case in point about knowing James: He loves construction vehicles! He is also very knowledgeable on the topic of construction vehicles. Any questions about the differences and types, just ask James!  A happy day, with a blueberry on top!Into the Neighborhood: Field Trip #4Where we go; where the children take us.
  SHOPSWhat catches the eye?Trash! - Helping take care of the neighborhood. At some point along our walk, a KitKat wrapper was in our path. It was pointed out, picked up, and put into our "into the neighborhood" bag. After this, the children continued spotting pieces of trash, picking them up, and putting them into our, now, trash bag (bottom left). We took a moment to look at our collected trash before throwing it away into a trash can . Our First Chapel This morning was our very first Chapel! We joined together in the church’s sanctuary with the Brown and Tucker Room children along with Marley and the Church's rector, Ginny. It is the Rainey Room’s job to ring the bell at the start of chapel and Caleb and Hugh enjoyed the first turn, ringing the bell one at a time to symbolise the start of our time together and the moment of silence. Alex and Bruno from the Tucker Room then lit the two candles, we sang some songs together, and Ginny read a special autumn book to the children. We will have Chapel together once a month and we always invite you all to come and join us for this special time! (does anyone know how to fix this video so it's not upside down? Allison needs tech help!)
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Happy Friday & Hope to See You at the Bookfair!
 Hold the phone: "Hello?" Elena was calling Vivienne on the phone. Vivienne was on the other side of the room. Let's not even talk about the expense for this "long distance" call. Later, Vivienne later was calling into the brown room. Maisie was waiting for her to come back to the couch where the phone had been left off the hook. How will we get through to Maisie, if there is an emergency?!  |  "I want to try," the children exclaim. Interested and eager to use the black-tipped stick, we chose to signify each others turn by moving the stick to the person next to us (our closest neighbor) in a clockwise direction. Meanwhile some sticks were needed by Dagny for her "chicken soup."  Tommy and Hugh were helpers and then Hugh said, "That's the sky in there." Tommy agreed. |  We went outside a little earlier today. This made for a great opportunity to have Lily and Elena draw their cubby basket portraits for their cubby baskets. Both of them were patient enough to try again and give it practice before deciding they were done.  |
Another Mindful Moment ...
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A Walk in the Neighborhood
 | This morning James, Cate, and Caleb went on a walk through the neighborhood to Dean & Deluca to source some inspiration for the Rainey Room shop. It is always a pleasure to take a small group of children on a walk because it reminds us of the little things that can capture a child’s attention, make them smile, and wonder and marvel at the world around them. |  "Look no hands!!" - cate |
We began our walk by heading south on Potomac Street and we stopped a few times for the children to take notes of their observations:
“I see trees, I see plants, I see pumpkins, I see flowers. I think they are beautiful!” - Cate
“I see a stop sign!” - James
“I see a house with Blue shutters and a door!” - Caleb
“I see a bicycle!” - Caleb
“I see a bike rack in the street!”- James
Of particular interest were any and all plants and flowers, the pumpkins and gourds decorating the stoops as well as the different color buildings, shutters, and store fronts. James remembered the carved pumpkin at his house and drew an image of its differently shaped eyes to show us as we continued our walk.
“I see trees, I see plants, I see pumpkins, I see flowers. I think they are beautiful!” - Cate
“I see a stop sign!” - James
“I see a house with Blue shutters and a door!” - Caleb
“I see a bicycle!” - Caleb
“I see a bike rack in the street!”- James
Of particular interest were any and all plants and flowers, the pumpkins and gourds decorating the stoops as well as the different color buildings, shutters, and store fronts. James remembered the carved pumpkin at his house and drew an image of its differently shaped eyes to show us as we continued our walk.
| Along the way we noticed a brick that had gotten lodged out of the sidewalk. We thought about how dangerous it could be for people walking by and how the neighborly thing to do would be to stop and fix it. So the children worked together to place the brick neatly back in its place. The children also took note of the plumbing features in the sidewalk, which serves as no surprise since the children have been building sewers in the outdoor classroom since the beginning of the school year. “I know what it is! It’s a man hole!” said Caleb. “It’s a baby hole,” he continued, “babies go through them into the sewer.” It was a very interesting observation, as they noticed the different sizes of the sewer valves and holes. | |
 | The children enjoyed the friendly neighborhood folks we passed on the street as people said hello to us and we excitedly waved and said hello back. We met a man outside a shop who was putting up a sidewalk sign outside the store’s entrance and we wondered if perhaps our classroom store needs a name and sidewalk sign.  |
We finally made our way to the intersection at M street and James reminded us that we need to wait for the “walking man” sign before we crossed the street. With our Rainey Room shop in mind, we entered Dean & Deluca and took note of things that could inspire our shop. The children were particularly interested in all the varieties of candy and suggested that maybe our shop should be a candy shop. “Let’s call it the Candy Shop!” suggested Cate. We met a really friendly man named Steven who worked behind the cheese counter and he asked us about our work and told us that our being in the store made his morning. He gave each child a cookie and invited us to come back to the store anytime!
| | On our way back to school we met another friendly person in the neighborhood named Pierro while he was out walking his two dogs. The children asked Pierro if they could pet the dogs and he gave Cate and Caleb the leashes to walk the dogs by themselves as he was walking in the same direction. We walked the dogs for a few blocks and parted ways. |
| It was a fabulous trip and we are looking forward to continuing these small group adventures into the neighborhood which different children each week! |  |
Meanwhile back in the classroom...
Building their Neighborhood:
Hugh: Don't forget about the garden door (to Max)
Maisie: I have a medium size house.
Zarina: I have a big house.
Vivienne (to Elena): Let's hammer.
Hugh: This is two houses. This is me and Zarina's house - we share a house.
Elena: I'm going to invite you to my birthday.
Vivienne: Okay.
Elena: This is our house, our house Vivienne.
Tommy: This is actually a parking lot and then I'm going to build my house.
Max: I want to make it spooky...
Max, Vivienne, Tommy and Hugh go to the studio to collect spooky fabrics to decorate their houses. They add spooky signs made in the message center.
Hugh: Don't forget about the garden door (to Max)
Maisie: I have a medium size house.
Zarina: I have a big house.
Vivienne (to Elena): Let's hammer.
Hugh: This is two houses. This is me and Zarina's house - we share a house.
Elena: I'm going to invite you to my birthday.
Vivienne: Okay.
Elena: This is our house, our house Vivienne.
Tommy: This is actually a parking lot and then I'm going to build my house.
Max: I want to make it spooky...
Max, Vivienne, Tommy and Hugh go to the studio to collect spooky fabrics to decorate their houses. They add spooky signs made in the message center.
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The children share their work at second meeting:
Abby, Lily, and Will continued their work for Zarina's Birthday story...
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Backwards Day Extended
,There's more room to move in the outdoor classroom, and the weather was delightful for entertaining play outside. Whether gleefully jumping from hay bale to hay bale or running from one side of the space to the next, the children played in pairs or in larger groups sharing the space and engaging in the environment around them.
Come take a boat ride! "I need to get a paddle first." - Caleb
Each child sat in the boat for a "secret ride" to share their thoughts on a very important topic--mommy and daddy!
For Bea and Finlay
At the picnic tables, Allison sat with Maisie and James and some other children who chose to share in their company. Together they worked to complete the wonderful mobiles that James and Maisie, along with many other Rainey Room children, created as gifts for Maisie's baby brother, Finlay and James' baby sister, Bea. At dismissal, both James and Maisie gave the mobiles and a card they made to their mom. All heart!
"It's for hunting..." - Tommy" "We're hunting for tigers." -Cate
Various pretend play has occurred behind the bushes near the cobb house and the rock climbing wall. Sometimes it has been bears or beavers, sometimes monsters, but today it was tigers. Tommy and Cate took the pretend play to the building area behind the cobb house. Together they arranged logs, bricks, and blocks in a complex and elaborate arrangement. And then it was time to go inside to the classroom. The work was so full of effort and intention that it was decided to leave it as it was, with the hope of returning to it the following day so that the tiger play could continue.
"Do you want to have snack outside?" "YES!"
Apple and Wheat Thin sandwiches:
"I give it a thumbs up!" says Maisie
Vivienne shows her agreement and puts her thumbs up. Lily, Hugh, and Zarina agree with a nod.
"This class is thumbs up!" says Max
Once again, Vivienne agrees, putting her thumbs in the air. The other children agree too, and everyone chew on their apples and Wheat Thins.
"I give it a thumbs up!" says Maisie
Vivienne shows her agreement and puts her thumbs up. Lily, Hugh, and Zarina agree with a nod.
"This class is thumbs up!" says Max
Once again, Vivienne agrees, putting her thumbs in the air. The other children agree too, and everyone chew on their apples and Wheat Thins.
How to Take Care of Everybody's Classroom
The Rainey Room friends have been working on creating a job chart for the classroom in order to delineate roles and responsibilities. The children met in a committee yesterday to begin drawing images for the various jobs on the chart.
We wondered if the rest of the children in the class would be able "read" the images they created. So the children presented their images at the morning meeting and asked their friends what they could see in the picture. Some children were able to tell which job the illustration described and other images were more of a challenge to read.
So we returned to the studio to continue working on our drawings. in certain cases more details were added and in other cases the child returned to the drawing board and began a new illustration to more accurately portray their intent. The final images were then presented during our snack time and the children agreed that the images were easy to read now.
We are looking forward to hanging up our job chart and to start taking ownership over our environment!
We wondered if the rest of the children in the class would be able "read" the images they created. So the children presented their images at the morning meeting and asked their friends what they could see in the picture. Some children were able to tell which job the illustration described and other images were more of a challenge to read.
So we returned to the studio to continue working on our drawings. in certain cases more details were added and in other cases the child returned to the drawing board and began a new illustration to more accurately portray their intent. The final images were then presented during our snack time and the children agreed that the images were easy to read now.
We are looking forward to hanging up our job chart and to start taking ownership over our environment!