Friday, September 22, 2017

Taking Notice of What is Around Us

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"Those flowers are beautiful! ... I wish I could jump in there."     ~Zarina ​

Everyday the children take notice of what we the adults do not always see or at times take for granted. At other times, the children also take things for granted, and it requires the guidance of the adult in helping them return their attention to the active world around them. All the while keeping our imaginations near to us. 

Making Circles: 
During yesterday's afternoon community discussion, the topic of circles were a spark for conversation among the children. So today we followed their lead by setting up a provocation of circles and circular things, including the suggestion to find circles throughout the room. Maisie explored circles through the lens of measurement, using the pink measuring tape that shared company with us in the Brown Room. And later with the light projector as she moved around circle shaped transparent objects on the screen to finally create a flower design. Dagny and Vivienne worked with circles as a drawing base and moved into creating more from their circles in any way their imaginations fancied. Vivienne turned her circle into a head and drew a girl. Then she adorned the girl with a beautiful dress made with fancy tape. Dagny created a girl's face from her first circle and then gave the girl a pizza with a second circle. Will worked with Caroline to track circles. This "circle tracking" took him all around the room in exploration. The two of them began with a tally system to record how many circles they found in the classroom. Will quickly abandoned this and replaced the tally with his own logical recording system of drawing a circle for every circle found. And he found them everywhere!  

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Hello Brown Room! An Impromptu Visit