A Morning Meeting for Sharing Models Thank you so much to all of the parents who joined us at morning meeting today! It was so wonderful to have you all and to see the wonderful models you shared. We discovered a few things: 1. Models can be made before or after the "real" thing is created (e.g. Adaline's drawing/cardboard and foam model came before the real building, but Lillian's 3D printed White House model came after the real building). 2. Models can help you decide to change things. 3. Models are made out of a lot of different materials: Plastic, metal, cardboard, foam, glue, and more. We would love to hear any thoughts your child may share about this fantastic morning meeting of conversation and research. "My daddy put the rope swing there." - Georgia, 4.3 years
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At a recent staff meeting, we shared some thoughts on drawing with the children -- confronting challenges, making mistakes, keeping it fun, and more. One of the suggestions was to play "Pictionary". As you will remember, the children loved our other drawing game, so we were hopeful that they would love this new game. We decided to start "Pictionary" by having all of them drawing together, each drawing their own version of one idea that we gave them. We were sure to give a "clue" that they all had in common and could, in theory, see in their mind! We have done the whole group twice, and each time it was joyful and so much fun! **You can take a close look at the drawings in the classroom -- they are hanging on our "Holding Board" just above the sign in! ** Clue #1 - Toad Clue #2 - Molly Clue #3 - Cappuccino (Elyse's Cat) Clue #4 - Jen
Clue #5: Bicycle (Melanie's Symbol!)
Make a Wish... |
On the day that we were ready to mix paints we shared a mini demo using a color non-desprict of the cob house to model the careful process of mixing paint to achieve a desired color in contrast to mixing paints more freely. During morning meeting we communicated that we were going to be like scientists, taking our time, slowing down, being methodical in keeping track of our steps, and being intentional with each color. What we didn't mention but also applied is that we were like mathematicians as we added color and worked with portions and ratio. |
"A little bit of red, a little yellow. A little bit more yellow. I like it like this. You see this orange? This is orange. This is way more orangey. Look, I made orange!" -Georgia You don't have to use the same color. If you want it to be dark orange, add some black, and if you want it to be light orange make it, put white. Or wait, why am I making purple?! I forgot! I knew what blue with red make, purple... That was funny." -Will "That's not orange. It looks like blue." -Georgia Because I added red and blue and that makes, usually purple, but this time it made blue. Weird.... I made it lighter with two two more drops of white." -Will |
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As many of you will know, the Outdoor Classroom is going to be changing, and we appreciate everything that you all are doing to make this happen. In the February 7th blog we shared the initial conversation we had with the children about how we might remember the outdoor classroom as it is before it changes. Today, we would like to share some insight into our work so far. These images are from our conversation with Amelia Gambetti, our consultant from Reggio Emilia. |
Based on the children's ideas, we have done a variety of drawings: Observational drawings of the outdoor classroom (large paper, facing different views); drawing individual pieces they care about (e.g. cobb house, etc.); drawing it “from memory” (e.g. Will's drawing on the left); and arial/ bird’s eye drawings from the Tucker Room studio windows . |
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Gracie, Win, Caroline, and Georgia were each trying to connect the ends of the tubing for their "shark tail", "ball", "flower", and "snowflake". Eliza and Zoe overheard that they needed help with connecting the ends. Eliza (heart) and Zoe (star) each conquered this challenge a few days before, and they jumped at the opportunity to help, and they were experts! “You bend the wire so that you can make the top of the circle.” - Eliza “I will show you how. You wrap it. You put it very close, okay? You twist it closer.” - Zoe |
Lillian and Georgia's symbols have something in common: "balls"(spheres) on the ends of their "long lines". When Lillian had completed her symbol, she came to share her techniques for creating wire spheres and attaching them to the tubing. “First I twisted them right here. First I twisted them into a ball. I twisted them to make them stay. I did it on the sides and then squished it and it turned into a little ball. I can show her how to make a ball.” - Lillian “How do we put this ball?” - Georgia “We wrap it around.” - Lililan | |
On Friday, Eliza challenged herself to make a "clay Eliza". Elyse challenged her to make it stand up. Adaline noticed that Eliza was having some difficulty getting it to stand up. She came over and began to share everything she had learned from making her clay cat that stands up when she worked with Jen and Melanie. Please enjoy the dialogue between them here in this video: | |
Our first snack time hangout and reader(s) was a hit! Thanks to Laura and Jackie for the wonderful books you chose and the time you shared with the children -- it was so wonderful to have them share some of the work with you and we discovered a new type of book (a chapter book -- there are no pictures!). |
St. John's Alumni! Hugh and Lily, who went through St. John's with Melanie a few years back spent time with us this week! They were kind enough to share some of their memories of the outdoor classroom -- things have definitely changed since they were here at St. John's! It's always great to have our alum with us and to share stories of this special place. | Grandparents! Henri's grandparents were with him this week, and Henri was excited to share some of his symbol work. Please remember that you are invited (and encouraged) to spend time looking at the documentation, holding board, portfolio drawers, etc. with your child. It is a great way to connect to the work in the classroom! |
"I want Jill to teach us black socks!" - Adaline "I want the crocodile song!" - Gracie If you have not met Jill, she is one of our fabulous CW teachers! Jill has so many songs in her repertoire, and the children who attend CW are always singing them! So, it was the perfect opportunity to invite Jill in to teach us a few songs! If you were able to attend sing-along this week, you will have heard them! Thanks Jill! |
“Elyse! Look! It comes out.” - Pierce [observing that the wooden shapes slide out of the newspaper] Will, what do we do if the block comes out? Do we need it to come out first? - Elyse “No. You put it around it.” - Will What do you put around it? “Clay.” - Will Is this enough clay for Win or does she need more? - Elyse “If she’s using this one [small piece of armature] I think she would need more. That looks like it’s not that much [clay].” - Will “You need to roll it into a big slab so that it will fit around [the armature piece]. You need to make it a big slab, Henri and Pierce, so that it will fit around the armature.” - Will [Elyse and Henri are “stumped” - Henri’s clay isn’t going all the way around the armature] Ask Will. He may know. - Elyse [Henri approaches Will] “Will, how do you shape the clay?” - Henri “You could get a little bit more clay and put it like that.” - Will “Elyse, am I done yet?” - Pierce I don’t know. Ask Will, maybe he knows. - Elyse “Will, am I done?” - Pierce “Try it on your cone, but if it doesn’t fit, you probably need to roll it more.” - Will [Pierce picks up his rolling pin] How do you know if you need to roll it more? Ask Will. - Elyse [to Win] “I don’t know because I don’t think she choosed an armature.” - Will Have you chosen an armature? - Elyse [to Win] [Win begins to roll the clay around a piece of armature - cylinder] “To make it stay together, you probably need to score and slip it.” - Will “Where’s the score and slipping?” - Henri “I think it’s on the shelf.” - Will Will, what is Henri’s next step? - Elyse “I think that’s already an armature.” - Will But, is the block still in there? - Elyse “Yes.” - Henri How does he remove the block? - Elyse “Take it out of the part he didn’t cover.” - Will [Henri begins removing it] “You might unwrap it.” - Will How will you get the block out? - Elyse “I don’t know. By dumping?” - Henri Does you clay still stand up? - Elyse “Yeah.” - Henri “The first piece of armature that Henri made!” - Will “Will, is this enough [clay]?” - Pierce “You have to try it.” - Will “Will, does it need to reach the bottom?” - Pierce “Try rolling it around. Putting it around.” - Will How are you doing Pierce? - Elyse “It’s not the right size yet.” - Pierce Why not? - Elyse “Because it’s not going to go to the top.” - Pierce Let’s give it a try.” - Elyse |
| This work offered Pierce a chance to scaffold other children's work with wire just as Will had supported him the week before with clay. Pierce and Zoe both have stars as their symbol, and encountered similar difficulties. After Pierce problem solved how to twist the ends of his wire/tube together, he moved over to support Zoe with this same step in the process. “I kind of like did it. I tied it. Zoe, look how I tied it.” - Pierce Pierce moved closer to her, speaking directly to her with a calm, kind voice. Zoe watched him and started following his guidance. “Elyse, she doesn’t have any V’s. I only see these.” - Pierce [Zoe begins bending her wire again to reshape the points of the star] Zoe, let’s think about the length of yours. What did you do when yours was too long, Pierce? - Elyse “Cut it. And then the way I connect it is to tie it.” - Pierce How can you support her in twisting it together? - Elyse “Hmm…where’s my star. Let me get my star.” - Pierce “Zoe do you want to twist it how I did it?” - Pierce “Yes.” - Zoe [Pierce begins showing her, and Zoe is attentive to his words and actions] Pierce also offered to support Henri with his dragonfly. “Henri you need to twist it. Here, let me get my star. I tied it. You can tie it how I did. Henri, do you want to do that like I did?” - Pierce Pierce, you’re being such a supportive friend. - Elyse |
We have all had our turn with our "drawing game" of "closed eyes portraits." What a blast and a joyful delight it was overall despite some reservations and the inherent difficulty. When asked if it was hard, Christopher shared, "It was a little bit hard." And rightfully so, considering the drawing process of this game requires that the drawer does not look at pen, hand, or paper while drawing. Not to mention how holding the clipboard upright and subsequently holding the pen differently to approach the act of drawing is a mental and physical novelty and upside down way of drawing. While for some, the act of looking away or keeping eyes closed presents its own cognitive and bilateral coordination challenge. Knowing that the final result was not going to look anything like the person drawing it was perhaps the easiest aspect of the game. The collective, shared experience in just being together was worth the challenges. |
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