October 19, 2017

10/19/2017

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.

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.