February 14, 2018

Happy Valentines Day!

The Rainey Room friends gathered this morning in the outdoor classroom and excitedly shared their special, handmade Valentines Day cards with one another. 

When we came back up to the classroom, we were greeted by Marley who had an extra special Valentines surprise for the children. She stamped a little heart on each child's hand, a symbol for the love that is shared between all of us here at St. John's! 

Even our friendly frog Ribbit got a stamp from Marley!

A Special Valentines Snack...

A special 'Thank You' to Cate (and Michelle!) who brought in special Valentines Day plates and napkins to decorate our snack table for the holiday. Cate and Lily were just so thrilled to set the table and Tommy was excited to finally bring Ribbit over to join the class and eat his own snack! 

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Holiday Wreaths Continued...
James' Stick Wreath  

As some of you may have heard, we have been working on creating a wreath based on James' design. James had thought up and designed a wreath that is made entirely of painted sticks. And so we began the process last week by collecting sticks out in the outdoor classroom. 

Painting the Sticks...

Assembling the wreath...

​Now it was time to figure out how to assemble the wreath. We met during our morning meeting to discuss the next steps and go over James' design to make sure were staying true to his vision. Jen suggested we used wire to attach the sticks to the hoop and so the children worked meticulously to wrap two sticks together in a bundle using wire. After all the bundles of sticks were wrapped we tried to wrap attach the sticks to the hoop using the same wire wrapping method. 

​We then tried attaching the sticks to the hoop using the same wire but the technique proved a little difficult and the sticks didn't point in the right direction...

A second attempt at assembling the wreath...

We then met back up with James and asked him if we could use chicken wire as the base and he agreed because his design showed a colored in (orange) section that he said could be the chicken wire. Great design compromise and solution!

​We met back up again today to complete the wreath by attaching the sticks to the chicken wire by using the same original wrapping wire but this time the sticks laid flat. 

To be Continued...

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A Valentine Mystery Reader 

Abby was just over-the-moon thrilled to have her father, Nick join us this morning for a special Mystery Reader Valentines surprise. What a special way to celebrate the day! Nick even brought in delicious red and pink heart cookies to share with the children after he finished reading.