April 03rd, 2018

It was wonderful to see everyone again today.  The bagel breakfast was excellent—thanks to Katherine for organizing and to Alicia for bringing the balloons. During morning meeting, we shared some stories about spring break and just enjoyed being together.
 
In the studio Lisa worked with some children and drew pictures and they told more stories about their spring break adventures and the special time with their families.
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Grace: This is a road to Florida. This is mommy and this is my grandmother. And this is all the people in the car. This is a pool. And this is a hot beach. This is waves in the ocean. See?
 Kian: Ta-dah! It’s a big circle.
 Elle: This is the part of the Easer egg. It’s a funny crazy Easter egg.
 Jossie: This is my dog’s nose with buggies. This is my brother Lochie. 

In the classroom Toniann worked with a group of children working on math & engineering and story telling skills building with blocks, making shape compositions on the peg board, and exploring physics and story telling with airplanes and trains. Sam built an airport and a fueling station, a run way and a place for the airplanes to sleep with blocks. Austin worked beside Sam and concentrated quietly on his block structure adding shapes carefully.  Austin needed  medium size rectangles for his structure and there were none left. Sam found the smaller rectangles and showed them to Austin. Sam took the small rectangle off the shelf and placed it on top of a medium and we found out that 2 small ones make a medium sized rectangle. Austin then asked if Sam had a medium rectangle that he could use. Sam found one that he was happy to part with. 

Jack and Kian worked with airplanes for a while. Jack laid out the runway and chose to set the planes out at one end and then push them up and down the bumpy runway. He watched them move and bump along. Kian would stop, watch Jack push them and then continued to fly his airplanes through the air right above.

Jack: Its a long runway. It goes all the way there.
Kian: Fast! We are flying. (holding 3 airplanes and making airplane sounds)

Jack and Kian made careful decisions and would renegotiate the airplanes in use.

Then Austin and Sam worked together on shape designs with the peg board and rubber bands. They shared their stages with each other.

Sam: Look, Austin and Toniann. Look what happened with the rubber band. Look at what I made. I made two that are different but the same.
Toniann: Those are great shapes. One is bigger than the other. They are the same but different. What shape does it look like? (We counted the sides together and found 3.) Triangles have 3 sides.
Austin: I see it. Wow, that one is big. Can I try next Sam? I want to use a lot.
Look, Toniann. Look Sam. I made this. 

Austin got to work on his and showed the stages of his work to us.
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Toniann: What does the shape look like?
Austin: A house.
Sam: Look, we could live in there. Add another, Austin.
Austin: This one is next.
Sam: Its a long one.

Kian built with blocks and made a tall tower that Sam was interested in. Sam worked around the structure with his airplanes calling out, "It's up high! Oh no, it's losing fuel! And now it's falling!"

Jossie, Sam, Jack and Kian worked collaboratively with trains. Negotiating cargo cars & engines and built the layout together in a steady pace to establish a good framework to start.
Jossie: Choo choo, going going. Oh, no the bridge broke. It needs to be fixed!
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Then friends began preparing the studio for snack and with all the trains available...
Sam: Look at all of these trains! I put them all together.

​We had a special snack of cupcakes to celebrate being together after a long break. Thanks to the Geltzers for providing the delicious treats. After snack, we had music time and the children enjoyed dancing and singing songs together. Jossie requested everyone sing  Zip A Dee Doo Dah and Austin asked for Toniann to play our fast and slow song. We then went outside to the outdoor classroom with the balloons in tow.  It was a wonderful, joyful day in the Brown Room and we are off to a great week, thank you!