October 26th, 2020

On Monday...

...we made nature collages

​Daniel:
- I'm making a house with all glue. It's all around.
- I'm making a leave ball.
- Look at my glue finger.

​Lily:
​- I want it to stand up (about a silver flower).     Why is it not standing up?
- Can I cut this? (using scissors to cut a stick)
- It's squirling. (when she squeezed out a thin stream of glue that curled on the base)

Bea:
- Look at my collage!
- I need scissors. This piece is over. (pointing to a piece that is hanging over the edge of the base)

Finlay:
​- It's doing jumping jacks. (while opening and closing a scissor)
-Does this look like a collage? (Ines: Yes) But it has only 1,2,3,4,5 (counting items on his collage). (Ines: How many does it need to have to be a collage?) Six!
After he added three more pieces:
Look! I made a collage!

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... we took a tour of St. John's

During  morning meeting we discussed the schedule for Chapel on Wednesday morning. We will sing the song "This little light of mine" and practiced it together. On the program paper we noticed "a symbol". Maybe the school's symbol? Molly told us that it is called "The Imagination Brain" and that it can be found around the school. 
Have you seen it around school before?
Cate, Jade, and Hugh set out to explore the school and to find the symbol. 

Together they explored the church, went up the bell tower (above Molly's office), discovered the atrium, used the elevator, met other classrooms and found the big "Imagination Brain". What an adventure! 

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On Tuesday ...

... the birthday committee worked on Lily's present

Lily knew immediately which color she would choose for her birthday celebration:
"Of course, my favorite color is red!"
​
In order to represent current interests in the classroom we used natural materials to paint Lily's red birthday message. Cate, Remy, and Daniel could choose from different types of flowers such as roses, calla lilies, guernsey lilies, and tall sanicles. Remy described her experience as "Messy. Drippy. It is different". Daniel also said "The paint is dropping." after dipping a big rose into paint. Cate noticed that some flowers are more delicate than others, and that their stems can break more easily. While painting we practiced applying different amounts of pressure to the paper.

The final masterpiece 
(for today...)

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... lovies got a new house

​"Maybe I can make a house for Cooncoon and Cookie." - Finlay  

​And so it began...
​

Finlay:
​"I can get blocks. But there's a small crack. (noticing spaces between the blocks)
Oh, that's a great idea. (while using small bricks to fill the cracks) I made it! A Cooncoon house!
It needs a roof and wings on it. A flying house! It needs one more thing... A roof!
(the roof  he's constructing keeps falling down)
Okay, this is getting ridiculous!
(adding pillows and trees) Them gonna get hungry. They eat trees.
(finding rubber tubing on the shelf and bringing it to his construction) Pipes! For water going down.
They got a perfect house! 
Now they need a bathroom. They can go to the roof for the bathroom."
Hugh: This can be the toilet (adding a cylinder can)

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... we searched through the school directory

The school's directory can be found right above our message center. In there the children can find every child or staff member at St. John's, their name, photo and symbol. The children show a great curiosity about other classrooms and teachers and this is another way we're trying support their interests. Besides fostering connections it also promotes face and name recognition and early literacy. 

Daniel: That's Maxon. I go to Maxon's house sometimes. When it's Fridays.

Lily: That's Grace's teacher. (pointing to Rachel) Why is there no Jessica on this page? 

After asking and learning about Victor, the wonderful person that constructs, repairs and brings some of the teachers ideas to life here at St. John's, Daniel has a question about another employee as St. John's, Jackson, our business manager.
Daniel: What's that boy? Does he fix everything?