Toad's Muddy Prints

3/7/2023

“It’s easy to find Toad if you look for
muddy feetprints.” - Wilder, 4.11 years

Even before our conversation with Tucker a while back, the Brown Room children had suggested that we might need to search for "Toad's muddy prints".

What does a Toad print look like? How will we know it belongs to Toad? Where/How will we find them?

"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

"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

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

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.