A Virtual Gallery: TransformationsFall is a season of transitions. The weather becomes cooler and leaves change color and fall from the trees. Children also transform themselves as they dress up fro Halloween. The CW children have been exploring the idea of transformation with materials and experiences. Drawing our Halloween Costumes!For about two weeks, children have been drawing themselves in costume. Representational drawing is challenging and children sometimes hesitate to try it. Providing a photo of their faces, gave children a starting pointing made the process seem less daunting. Drawing the costumes gave children as sense of freedom. They were not as concerned about getting things "right." For example, Ava told us that her with costume "doesn't have any pink in it." She knew that she could draw it any way she wanted. Children also included important details that gave clues to the costume. For example, horns are essential for unicorns and a vampire has long, pointy teeth. Classroom Experiences
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Our Week!Halloween is in the air and we are looking forward to pajama day tomorrow! Will our interest in building haunted houses continue past Halloween? We'll see what happens! Drawing and Printing will be featured in the atelier this week. Of course, there will be plenty of opportunities for small world
and message making! Drawing" When talking of drawing, we need to replace the idea of doing something the "right" or "wrong" way with the concept of experimentation. This is the lesson that children teach us- there is no right or wrong way to draw. Drawing is essential." Peter Jenny (Drawing techniques) A couple of weeks ago, Ford wanted to learn how to draw an hedgehog, so Brigitte invited him to join her in the atelier to look at hedgehog pictures and talk about how to draw them. Everyone was welcome to come in the atelier to draw as well. Ellie was so excited when we told her she could use any materials from the shelve to draw with. Right away she told us she wanted to make a book for baby Jake using all the markers. Ellie wanted baby Jake to know that we have a lot of markers at St John's for him to use when he is going to be in the Brown Room. Ellie has been diligently coloring a page of her book every CW days using different markers. More CW Children joined us in the atelier to draw and make books. I want to make a book too! Zari - I made a caterpillar. Brigitte - What are you drawing now? Zari - (looking at her drawing) When I woke up in the morning- I see all that! Isabelle - I drew my lunch box and I drew locks houses you can go from one to another. Pierce - I made a drawing about the night sky with the black marker, and I made stars and the sun. This is a robot, and here a pumpkin, the blue and red is Southwest Airline, this part are toad prints. Ford - I made a blue hedgehog, I call him Bluey, I made a pink one, his name cupcake because he looks like a cupcake, I made the baby red, his name is little red, the mom is brown, and there is a green one, I call him greeney. I am going to make a rainbow hedgehog, Mr. Rainbow. Tomorrow I will draw another hedgehog. Ford also drew " Big Old Furry" Cal - I am drawing a teddy bear, his name is Teddy, he has jet packs. I also drew a teddy on the grass, I have to draw a soccer ball ! Here Teddy is playing soccer. Rawls - I am drawing a teddy bear, his name is Comy. Seon - I drew a dragon. Now, I am going to make a book about CW called " What do we do in CW?" Adeline - I am using all the markers. Bailee - I am testing colors. I can write my last name, G-U-G-I-N-O, how do starts the N ? Ellie - I love the smell of sharpies, they smell like apple juice. Bailee - I drew a spider web. Brigitte - Do you want to draw spiders on your spider web? Bailee - I don't know how. Brigitte - Lets think about spiders. Spiders have a little head and a tummy and 8 legs right? Bailee - I can draw a head and a tummy and 8 legs, look I did it, how many did I draw Brigitte? Brigitte - Lets count together, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-8-10, you drew 10 spiders Bailee! Bailee - I want to draw more. how many now? Brigitte - 16 ! Zari - You know Brigitte, each one of this (Colored lines) I made it with a different marker. Lillian - I love purple. I am making a drawing for my mommy. CollagesHappy Birthday Cece!We made birthday messages for our beloved Cece whose birthday was today! Table SettersThis week our table setters were Ford and Fay, Seon and Rawls, Zari and jack, Lillian and Whit. Outdoor ClassroomThis and That...Story Time The CW children have been enjoying LOTS of Halloween books this month. Have a Fabulous and Beautiful Weekend!
Exploring Light and Shadow
Throughout the afternoon, several children came to this creepy collaboration. Children brought in the Halloween items and spooky projections. Whit - The skulls chomped the white knight into the trap. Ellie - There was all scary stuff and I love scary stuff. Everything else...
Our WeekThere has been a lot of enthusiasm for drawing, both in the outdoor classroom and in the atelier. We will continue these experiences with a focus on lunch: drawing our lunch boxes, our centerpieces, and our group at lunch. We're guessing that there will be more spooky building as we continue to build with light and shadow. We can't wait to get started!
It's such a beautiful day in the neighborhood...Halloween Neighborhood WalksThe CW children are very very excited about Halloween! They have been building haunted houses, set up Halloween tables, and talking about their Halloween costumes! In the spirit of their bubbly excitement we decided to take walks around the neighborhood to check out Halloween decorations, and we saw some pretty creepy ones! (but not scary.) The CW children thought they were on a treasure hunt to spy as many Halloween decorations as possible, some decorations were very obvious and some were very small and hidden. What a fun adventure! Thank you Cece for walking with us. The ghost has a button, so you can turn it on and off- Ford. Our Thursday Walk with Cece.We stop at Volta park to play before walking back to St John's. Our Friday Walk.We had such a small group on Friday that we decided to go see the Barbie Haunted House. It was so much fun. We saw lots of Halloween decorations on the way there. We made a quick stop at Volta on our way back. Table SettersOur table setters this week were Adaline, Eliza, Isabelle, Ford, Ava, Gracie, and Will. Have a wonderful weekend!
"My impression is that this group is very alive." |
Today at the haunted house.... Seon - This is the deepest, darkest lair for the monster. Ellie - My spooky skeleton went to bed. Ford - My bat is diving. Isabelle - I was on the other side of the screen and the haunted house looked great! Seon - A dragon can go right here. Isabelle - This is where one dragon lives. Seon - Maybe the dragons can protect the haunted house. |
Last week, we proposed that children could make something for the school that highlighted this counting expertise. The clay school birthday timeline that funs along the stairs to the greeting hallway was incomplete. We needed to find a way to represent the school's 26th birthday. Could children find 26 items and create the number 26? Jill - Do you know what a 26 looks like? Ford - Yeah. A two and a six. Ten plus ten plus six equals 26. Ford begins by lining up acorns in front of a hedgehog. Jill - Great! Do you want to count to 26? Together, Ford and Whit begin to line up and count 26 acorns. Ford - This (making the shape of 26) will be hard. Can you help, Whit? Whit - Yes. The boys easily make the two. Ford - The six will be the hard part. They form the two digits and count the acorns to make sure they have the correct number. Whit - Good! That was fun because we worked together. |
Seon and Bailee begin working on different sides of a long piece of paper. Seon - I got eight. Pumpkin, acorn, pumpkin, acorn, pumpkin, acorn, pumpkin, acorn. Bailee - (Lining up pumpkins on her side). I have eight. Seon - Just like me! Next, they begin to work with blocks. Bailee - Lets make the longest one together. Seon - Yeah! |
Ford and Whit counted rows of pumpkins. They each made a row of nine pumpkins, and then counted the total. Ford - So, nine plus nine equals eighteen. They enthusiastically add all the pumpkins they can find and keep counting, reaching a grand total of 31 pumpkins. They move on to counting acorns along the same black stip where they had the pumpkins and line up a total of 42 acorns. Ford - The acorns were smaller, so they had more room. |
| Today, several children collaborated on another haunted structure. We brought in the shadow screen and built with the lights our to add to the spookiness. Seon - (Adding some guard pieces). This house is very protected. Whit - Remember, I said the house doesn't have to be perfect. It can be falling apart. Rawls - Maybe cracked windows, like abandoned houses. Cal - Inside, it kind of needs to be broken. That's what makes it haunted. |
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