"I want to make an arrangement." - Eliza, 3.4 yearsAs you know, the Brown Room birthday gifts this year have been beautiful collages for each child. The art of collage requires thought about arrangement, composition, layering, patterns, color, negative/positive space, balance (in a few senses of the word), and more. Our birthday collages invite a more permanent arrangement (i.e. we are gluing down the arrangements to make a collaged gift). The children have begun to identify other types of collages that we can make. For example, Will recently proclaimed that her wire sculpture (these are all on display in the classroom) a "wire collage". The light table has been very active these past few weeks. Recently, we have shifted the materials that are near the light table to encourage arrangements/collages/small building on the light table. This type of "collage" invites flexibility with the materials. Since we are not using adhesives, the materials are easily moved around and the children can edit their work. The light table enhances the idea of the positive and negative space as it provides a different kind of contrast than just a solid colored background (e.g. white or black piece of paper/cardboard). The children have also been observing the way translucent materials change the color or intensity of the light: "Now it's pink!" "This [layered portion in photo below] is darker."
Arranging UP
Collaboration Adeline and Gracie worked together, with assistance and encouragement from others, to create a 3D arrangement that filled in one of the large frame mats. "We're adding layers." - Adaline, 3.5 years "We made one more layer." - Gracie, 3.4 years How may do you have? "Five!" - Gracie "This one has one more. Six!" - Adaline **Look at that addition!**
"Look! It's balancing!" - Will, 3.5 years
There are beautiful arrangements happening in Brown Room and more collaging to come! We'd love to hear about any arrangements/collages the children are creating at home! Happy Spring Break!We hope that you all have a wonderful spring break! After break we'll share some of the children's work with clay and drawing! They are doing amazing things! Reminders: 1. We'll see you all at parent-teacher conferences on March 15th and 16th. 2. Our parent/child printmaking experience will be on April 7th at 8:15 am. 3. The staff will be traveling to Reggio Emilia, Italy for a study tour with teachers/pedagogistas/atelieristas from the school of Reggio Emilia. Yes - we are going to school on our break! ("You will go to school? Like me?" - Cully) We look forward to sharing some reflections with you on April 4th at 8:15 am as part of our PTC meeting. 4. The Monday after Spring Break, March 27th, will be our first Monday Backwards Day. From now until the end of the school year, Backwards day will be on Mondays! 5. There will be no parent morning meetings the week after spring break. Beginning the week of April 3rd, parent morning meetings will be on Mondays (outside) and Fridays.
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 "There's an apple on a tree, and one more idea. I need one wire and put something on it, I need two more apples on it. ... I'm not finished with it." -Gracie (to be continued tomorrow) "I need to add more apples to mine." -Henri “It’s easy to find Toad if you look for |
 | "This is a Toad hand!" - Lou Lou [describing Cully in this photo] What does Toad's hand look like? "Pointy." - Lou Lou "They are soft." - George "These are what his feet look like." - Will [holding up his hand and putting his fingers together] |
"We could make our own foot prints." - Lou Lou, 3.5 years
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"Toad's prints don't look like ours." - Brown Room
During morning meeting, we reflected on the muddy prints that were made the week before. The children agreed that Toad's prints might look different from ours. After morning meeting, and the next day, we had some small groups to think about what Toad's muddy prints might look like.
 “Yeah! It’s got mud on it. We put some mud on our shoes and then do it with our shoes” - Caroline, 2.10 years “Those are our prints.” - George, 3.5 years |  Are those Toad's prints? “Ours.” - Cully, 3.5 years |
“We should draw Toad’s prints.” - George, 3.5 years
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Lou Lou, how did you know that is Toad’s print?
“Because he has five footprints to know it’s his. He has to know it’s his green footprints” - Lou Lou [holding fingers together and showing them to me]
“Toad is special for us, right?” - Caroline
“We should get so much mud. Hey! I know. Listen, we should make our own footprints like Toad’s and we should say, ‘Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit’. That’s pretty silly.” - Lou Lou
Toad’s prints….
“Look like hands.” - Gracie
“Because he has five footprints to know it’s his. He has to know it’s his green footprints” - Lou Lou [holding fingers together and showing them to me]
“Toad is special for us, right?” - Caroline
“We should get so much mud. Hey! I know. Listen, we should make our own footprints like Toad’s and we should say, ‘Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit’. That’s pretty silly.” - Lou Lou
Toad’s prints….
“Look like hands.” - Gracie
 Lou Lou's three designs for Toad's prints. |  Crayon, watercolor |  Watercolor |  Sharpie, watercolor |
 | Lillian's design for Toad's muddy prints |
"It's an experiment!" - Zoe, 3.1 years
 Throughout this process, the children discovered that certain drawing tools worked well with water colors, while others disappeared or blended into the watercolor. This presented a wonderful opportunity to do some intentional experimentation with drawing tools and watercolors. The platform was set with: Markers, crayons, colored pencils, felt tip pens, pencils, sharpies, oil pastels, pastels, and chalk. |  |
"Look what happened to the chalk. It disappeared." - Will, 3.5 years
"It's [chalk] going away!" - Zoe, 3.1 years
 Zoe, 3.1 years Crayon and Watercolors  Eliza, 3.4 years Oil Pastel, Sharpie, Watercolor |  Win, 3.7 years Colored Pencils, Oil Pastels, and Watercolors  Caroline, 2.10 years Marker and Watercolors |  Gracie, 3.4 years Sharpie, Chalk, Oil Pastel, Watercolors  Gracie, 3.4 years Sharpie, Oil Pastel, Watercolors |
"It's going green!"-Caroline | |
| It's a new month and the color green is returning to the trees. Not to mention, St. John's birthday month color is represented by green on our birthday calendar, and of course there is the holiday of lucky green on the way. Our paint palette of pinks, reds, and purples was almost finished, and we had already gone through our blue period with focus given to St. John's blue door so it was time to refresh our paints with a new color palette. And this is where the color green comes into play. Also, with more talk around Toad and green paints available, who knows... perhaps Toad will return, if only in a painting. |  |
"Blue and yellow make green." -Eliza
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| Our musically inclined group of children influenced a choice to bring songs into the experience of painting. The music and the cheerful color palette added fresh and different energy, focus, and interest to the language of painting. | |
"I heard sounds. | What kind of sounds? | "Song sounds." | "It was songs." -Lillian |
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"We're making paintings for making music." -Cully
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"I need more colors. I need red." -Henri
  |  "I made these tiny dots.  |
| Painting gradually becomes print making!  |  |
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"Can you save my painting for me?" -George
On Monday, we celebrated the 26th birthday of our beloved school! It was a wonderful day, and we are grateful to everyone who came to celebrate with us!
As you may recall from our blog, this has been quite the process for the Brown Room, and the entire school! The time has finally come to share more about how we "made a face for St. John's".
As you may recall from our blog, this has been quite the process for the Brown Room, and the entire school! The time has finally come to share more about how we "made a face for St. John's".
A mouth for St. John's
  | “How will St. John’s walk around the candle? How will it blow out the candle?” - WIll, 3.2 years “We should get a candle.” - Eliza, 3.0 years “I’ll draw the mouth.” - Cully, 3.2 years “I will draw the biiiiig smiley mouth.” - Eliza, 3.0 years “I will draw a big mouth.” - Gracie, 3.0 years For St. John’s? - Elyse “You [Elyse] will draw the ears.” - Cully, 3.2 years “A nose.” - Cully [about what Melanie could draw] “Then you get closer and blow it out.” - Adaline Can St. John’s do that? “No. No. St. John’s can’t walk because it don’t have feet. I have feet. I can walk.” - Cully, 3.2 years |
All school collaboration
The Brown Room's conversations were shared with the children in Tucker Room and Rainey Room (and also during KW). While conversations happened in each classroom about how we might give St. John's a mouth, and the children were drawing self-portraits as a starting point, Joci began taking small, mixed age groups into the atelier to brainstorm and draw together.
The next step was to use the overhead projector and Plexiglas easel for large scale tracing. This was new to Brown Room, so Tucker Room children were invited in to support them with this new technique. Below, Eliza and Cully are tracing a smaller drawing of George's that has been projected.
The next step was to use the overhead projector and Plexiglas easel for large scale tracing. This was new to Brown Room, so Tucker Room children were invited in to support them with this new technique. Below, Eliza and Cully are tracing a smaller drawing of George's that has been projected.
| 'I made a big tooth. This is my teeth." - Eliza, 3.3 years Cully traced the shadow of his head as they worked.  |  "You don’t want to be right in front of it. You trace the line until it stops. Then you move to the next stool [to reach the paper]." - Remy, 5.4 years (Tucker Room) |
| At this point, Capers, Cully's brother joins him to draw. "Capers is drawing so many teeth." - Cully, 3.4 years "Because I have 100 teeth." - Capers, 5.4 years (Tucker Room) Do you need teeth to blow out a candle? - Joci "A little bit. The teeth have the air. There’s a crack a little bit and it let’s out air. It opens a little bit and lets the air out." - Capers, 5.4 years [Cape chooses red for the mouth.] "I’ll also use red for the tongue [to Cully]." - Capers, 5.4 years "Cape, I want to see your tongue (on the drawing). " - Cully, 3.4 years Actually that’s your tongue that you drew in Capers’ mouth that he drew. - Joci Zoe's brother, Lucas, also worked with Joci and the Brown Room to trace and add color to the mouth for St. John's. |  [top]: Cully and Capers [bottom]: Lucas  |
The finishing touches
 | Once the mouth had been drawn at a large scale and colors were decided, the children had to trace it one last time - onto the largest paper we have! Before it could be painted with acrylics, it had to be prepared with gesso, a primer. Win and Adaline took the lead on this! |
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George, Henri, and Lucas (Tucker Room/Zoe's brother) painted the mouth, teeth, and tongue.
Meanwhile, Rainey Room, Tucker Room, and KW were working on the two eyes for the school!
We're making a giant eye. The school is big so it has to be big. We can reflect it onto the school. - Remy, 5.4 years (Tucker Room)
We're making a giant eye. The school is big so it has to be big. We can reflect it onto the school. - Remy, 5.4 years (Tucker Room)
"I want a hat for the celebration." - Georgia, 3.3 years
 | Adaline came to school with a party hat on Monday, so all of our Brown Room friends were eager to have a hat of their own. So, we made a slight change to our Monday morning plans and made party hats for our big celebration that afternoon. |  |
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A face for St. John's
Walking around the candle as we counted to 26 to mark the 26th birthday of St. John's Preschool!
  |   Singing "Happy Birthday" |
The Tucker Room children had a theory that the blue door should be used to blow out the candle!
 | It worked! With a little extra help from Molly and the Tucker Room children! |
A little magic behind the scenes!
A huge thank you to Joci who worked with all of the small groups in the atelier to make this happen! And, to Elena, Molly, and Joci for hanging the face on the school!
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A more permanent home...
The St. John's face is hanging in the main staircase with our 25th birthday documentation! Please take some time to check it out with your child! We know they are all so excited to see it!
| Today was our first big field trip! The excitement has been high, but we did not tell the children that we would get to ring the bell! As part of our preparation for going to Georgetown Presbyterian, we gathered for a quick morning meeting to think about a few things: |  |
Some of the children knew what the church looked like and knew that there was not going to be a bell tower. There was a bit of debate though about whether or not there would be an actual bell. They also suggested that we might find a clock at the church, but we were unsure whether or not it would be connected to the bell.
Walking to the church/bell
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 We are pros when it comes to walking around Georgetown, and of course we had to stop and admire the ice cream cones at Thomas Sweets! When we arrived at the church, the children immediately noticed that there is not a bell tower. George suggested that the bell was, "in the triangular roof". |  |
Ringing the bell
A big thank you to Camille (Finlay's mom - Tucker Room) for inviting us to come to the church and for helping us ring the bell! It took a lot of strength and effort to pull the rope. But where is that bell?
 |  How many Brown Room children does it take to ring the bell? It was truly not an easy job to make this bell ring! |
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 We went outside to see if we could find the bell. It turns out, you really CANNOT see the bell from anywhere in the church or from the outside. |  |
Reflecting on our trip
Can you imagine what the bell might look like at Georgetown Presbyterian?
Do you think it looks like our bell in the bell tower?
Do you think it looks like our bell in the bell tower?
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 "The top of the clapper, the rope [two vertical lines], and my hand pulling the bell." - Adaline, 3.4 years  "The clapper and the bell." - Will, 3.5 years |  [top to bottom] "The bell, the clapper, and the rope. I'm coloring it in." - Adaline, 3.4 years  "The bell." - Henri, 3.6 years First Draft |  "Me pulling it up [left side]. The rope [vertical lines on the right]." - Will, 3.5 years  "The top of the bell, the clapper, the rope, and the ghost ringing the bell." - Henri, 3.6 years Second draft |
 "This is all of it." - Lillian, 2.10 years |  "The hair of it. The people of it. It was me grabbing it. The dingy of it [sound]. The clapper." - Lillian, 2.10 years |  "The clapper inside of the bell [dots = clapper]." - Gracie, 3.3 years |
 "The clapper and a hand [6 horizontal lines]." - Gracie, 3.3 years |  Imagining what the bell would look like. George, 3.5 years |
| We've been interested in bells since the beginning when we first heard the bell in the bell tower sound and ring. Around that time, we brought in a varied collection of bells to explore. And we're back at it! Engaging with each bell, one at a time, to better understand the bell(s) and identify them. The best part is the enthusiasm, joy, and sustained interest that the children are contributing to the bell sounds and shapes! |  "There's a jingle bell in here. Look, look, look! There's a tiny jingle bell in there!" -Caroline |
Georgia rings one small red bell, and say, "Alright, let' start!"
"My bells are louder." -Cully
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"Do you like that sound, Will?" -Caroline |  |
"I hear it." -Georgia
 "We're bells!" -Gracie |  |
 It's the Bell Tower." -Cully |
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 "I call this 'upside down bell' " - Lou Lou  |  "I'm making instruments. |
"I've never jumped in muddy puddles before." -Lou Lou "No backwards day today?" ... "On second thought, we could do some puddle jumping." ... "Let's do it so long as we all have proper footwear." And so it was done! We had a backwards day morning spent jumping in "muddy puddles." |  |
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Happy 3rd Birthday, Christopher!
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 | More Brown Room Love Headed Your Way... |  |
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Enjoy the long weekend, everyone!
Happy Valentine's Day part I! We will continue the celebration tomorrow! The children collaged their bags and they are beautiful! We hope everyone had a great day and felt the love! Thanks to Emma, one of our Rainey Room teachers, for the fun glasses which made for fun portraits!
 Win |  Eliza |  Adaline |
 Zoe |  Caroline |  Cully |
 Georgia |  Will |  Christopher |  Gracie |
Clay Update
 |   | All of our first clay pieces were glazed with clear, glossy glaze. It is, however, pink before it is fired in the kiln! "It will get fired!" |
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Introducing Weaving - Spider looms
"Why isn't there a spider on it?" - Will, 3.4 years
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A few things to know:
1. Any images you want to save from the blog should be downloaded asap as they tend to change as the year goes on (if two images from two classrooms have the same name, it can often change the blog post). Additionally, our blog will be archived at the end of our Tucker Room year. It is nice to start saving them now if you would like to!
2. We have an upcoming field trip on Friday, February 24th. Please see your email for additional information .
3. St. John's Birthday celebration will be on February 27th starting just before noon on the front lawn. Additional information is in your email!
2. We have an upcoming field trip on Friday, February 24th. Please see your email for additional information .
3. St. John's Birthday celebration will be on February 27th starting just before noon on the front lawn. Additional information is in your email!
Wire Comes to Morning Meeting
Wire was briefly introduced in the fall, and it's back with more intention to explore further. We brought some wire to morning meeting with the intention to show and share it. However, every now and again the material influences the engagement level and morning meeting becomes a fluid beginning into the full experience. This was one of those times!
"It's like paper. ... And then you bend it like this and then through...
and then you make a sculpture wire!" -Eliza
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"Look what I made!" -Georgia
"It's a candy cane... a shark tail." -Gracie "A raindrop." -Win
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 Gracie draws (on) her wire piece. | "This is really hard to do." -Gracie  |  Gracie draws on a paper to represent her wire piece(s). |
 |   Will attempts to transform his wire into a heart shape. |
Thinking About St. John's Birthday Face
Birthdays are enthusiastically embraced by the children, and St. John's birthday has been no exception. In thinking about the upcoming birthday celebration for St. John's, we continue to invest thought and effort into self-portraits. Here, we projected an image of St. Johns onto the easel with the intention to give St. Johns a face. Offering children new approaches also presents new ways of seeing and doing. The provocation can also be a part of the process!
 Painting with a new color palette |  Henri paints a face on St. Johns |
 George paints a face on St. Johns |  Pierce paints a face on St Johns |
Happy Birthday, Elyse!
Thank you everyone for making Elyse's birthday celebration a special and momentous occasion.
Happy Friday and happy Valentines Day weekend!
Happy Friday and happy Valentines Day weekend!
  Illustrated playing cards |  Birthday collage |
 Walking around the candle three times! (As suggested by George) |  |
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