During our last trip to the canal, children began throwing rocks again.  This lead us to reconsider the idea of wishing rocks.  Last week, the following conversation took place:
    Ellee - With out wishing rocks in our school, we can't make wishes.
    Cassius - You have to put them in the water... the river or the ocean.
     Ellee - Because that's how wishes come true.
     Jill - So, if you had a wishing rock, and just left it along the canal, the wish won't come true?
     Cassius - That's what the book said.  It has to have a line and it has to go in the water. 
     Rose - If it doesn't have a line on, your wish doesn't come true.
    Cassius - You can't draw a line on it, or your wish won't come true.
     Jill - Could you put a symbol or a clue about your wish on the rock?
     Ellee - But if anyone see our wish, it won't come true.
     Jill - So it has to be secret?
      Ellee - Yeah.   
      Lila - If you make a wish and you tell someone, it won't come true.
     Cassius - I always know people wishes, so watch out.   
With all this in mind, the children used slip to paint on wishing rocks today.  Some children just drew a line... or several lines.  Jay added his name.  Some children painted the whole rock.  Most children kept their wishes to themselves, but some children talked about their wishes.   We  also explored the potential of slip today by using it to paint on paper.   

Here are some of the things the children talked about as they worked on the rocks.
    Hadley - I wish I could be a mermaid.
    Max - I wish I could always be at home.  I wish I could have mama forever.
    Hadley - I with that my (clay) duck, JuJu (?) could come to life.
    Max - I wish for clean water for the duck.
    Ellee - I just thought of something.  It was to have a duckling as a pet.
    Hadley - I want to do a bunch of lines (on the rock).
    Prater - I'm going to paint all over and then I'm going to do a line.
    Ellee - The more lines you do, the more wishes you get.
    Willa - I'm going to do a million lines.
Tomorrow, we will walk to the canal to put these new wishing rocks to use!

The Construction area of the room was also busy today.  Children had  the opportunity to play with the ducks they created from found materials.  As might be expected, some dramatic scenarios developed.  Here's a sample:
    Lila - This is my sister.  Oh my goodness,  mom, you're so big.  Oh, hi friend!
    Mac - This is the mom.
    Lila - It's too small.  Hi, friend, want to come in the river?   All of the animals are surrounding me.  This is the baby thing.
    Mac - All of these are babies, and that's the mom and that's the dad.  A bird's flying in that's her friend.
    Lila - This is the big kids' river.  Oh, hi, duck friend.  Why's your beak in the water?
    Mac - 'Cause that's how I swim.  I'm drinking, heading back to my nest.
    Lila - Sis, I found a shell.  This is actually for chick, a shell duck.  
    Mac - Mine is chicken.
    Cassius - Alexa said chicks know how to fly.
    Carl - Chicken bok bok.
    Jay - Chicken doodle.
    Lila - Hadley said her duck is gonna be named "Lila."
    Ellee - Mine is "Prater."
    Mac - This duck is a baby.  He's in the baby ocean because he's a baby.
    Lila - The sting ray is nice.
    Mac - My baby is flying away because  there's a bad sting ray.
    Prater - This is the lake.
     Lila - Get away, clam!
               ........ and so it goes.  Tune in tomorrow for more entertaining stories!

Last week, some children created designs of ideas they had for a potential water table in the children's bathroom (more to come on this idea in the near future!) Some of their designs included colored water. This afternoon, we offered a provocation featuring this idea of colored water. Pyrex pans, light tables and different jars of colored water were displayed on the low table in the construction area. Using eye droppers, children experimented with watercolors in pyrex pans on top of the light tables. 
Max: Look what I made, look at my collection.
Willa: I made pink. (Adds green) I made greenish-pink.
Max: A drop of blue.
Willa: Do you want to make it purple?
Max: Let's make it green! We're magic spellers!
Mac: It's a bad potion.
Carl: I need a smidge of water - perfect.
Mac: My potion is almost done. Whoever needs some of my potion can have it. 
Willa: I will take some. OH! When I put my hands in, they turn brown! 

Hand sewing was also on offer this afternoon. Feathers, duck-like fabric and string were included in the sewing materials in case the children wanted to expand their collection of duck creations to include some sewing-related pieces as well. In the beginning, Ellee thought she might use the blue fabric and other colored fabric scraps to create a sewn home for her ducky, but, halfway through she decided that her creation resembled a planet more closely instead. Children enjoyed layering various pieces of fabric on top of each other, as well as incorporating feathers and different threads into their pieces. 

Beware!  There is a plot to poison the KW teachers!  Recently children have been preparing the most beautiful baked goods in the outdoor classroom.  Once they have been served, the children laughingly inform us that they were poison.  Luckily, Vivienne was able to use "un-dying powers" on us today, so we are safe for now.    Today children also welcomed Tommy, who was paying a trial visit to KW,  He and his friends liked  working on watercolors and mandalas.... duck mandalas, no less.

There was also time to work on ducks from found materials today.   On the whole, today's ducks were a little more fanciful, incorporating feathers, gems, and shells.   As a nod to the children's interest in "Lion King," one of today's ducks was named Simba.

Here's a little Friday Fun!  We experimented with stop motion as we worked on the ducks.  Enjoy the movie and have a wonderful weekend!

Lucy, Prater, Vivienne and Lila made hummus this afternoon to contribute to the potluck dinner tonight. This hummus had chickpeas, tahini, lemon, garlic, olive oil, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper. It's packed with flavor and some extra TLC!

Other friends played family in the construction area in a structure that Tucker Room friends had requested to leave up from the morning. Lila was the mom, Vivienne and Rose were sisters, and Jay and Cassius were brothers. Jay and Cassius expanded the original house to include a kitchen. Lila and Rose created a television adorned with various jewels to add to the family's house. 

Have a great weekend for those we won't see in KW tomorrow! 

Children also thought about water today.  Based on Max's interest in sewer construction, children drew their ideas for a water exploration area.  Their plans included pipes, sand, colored water, squirt bottles, bubbles, toys, water wheels, and a squishy heart-shaped bubble maker.  Other areas of the room were  busy as well.  Once again, children enjoyed spending time in the small construction area which featured pretty ponies with magical powers and sleepovers.  We spent less time outside today, but there was still time for several children to board a pirate ship while others worked on small gem-like creations.   
We're looking forward to tomorrow when we prepare a tasty snack for the Parent Potluck!

60 degrees in January? We'll take it! In the outdoor classroom, Carl, Jay, Cassius and Mac created a very cool structure that attached to the pirate ship. The structure was used as a small store where they sold small bags or large hunks of steak! Other friends worked with mosaic materials to create patterns and designs on pieces of wood. 

Although a little hesitant at first, Carl, Cassius, Jay and Mac began by combing through materials. Carl and Cassius created ducks that were 3D, working with different wooden shapes to form the body, neck and head. 
Cassius: Hey, this one (circular block) looks a little like a head. 
​Mac and Jay created versions of the duck that lay flat. ​ 
The boys had to stretch their imaginations and think a little more abstractly for this challenge. We think they were pretty impressed with their results! 

As always, message center and small building were popular areas this afternoon as well. Cassius created a patterned tower using Jenga blocks and smaller wooden arch-shaped blocks. 

What a beautiful day!  It was a great day to take a walk and enjoy being outside.  Unfortunately our first plan of The Old Stone House and Ben and Jerry's fell through as neither of them are open.  Luckily, we had some good intel from our friends and went with Plan B: Georgetown University and hot chocolate at Saxby's.  Upon arriving at the Georgetown campus, we first went to the Koi Pond.  We were happy to see several Koi swimming happily.  From there, the group became interested in visiting several statues.  The children gave them family roles: dad, mom, grandpa, etc.   We did some climbing on the cannons before heading down the street to Saxby's.   Walking back to school, Vivienne said, "We should go on field trips every day!"  Enjoy these images and have a great weekend!
​

In the outdoor classroom today friends made a variety of poisonous cakes. After all of the cakes were assembled and displayed, Grace decided she would be the judge of the 'best poisonous cake contest'. After some deliberation, she decided that ALL of the cakes would win the competition - "they're all poisonous after all". 

We continued making messages for the homeless staying in Blake Hall after lunch. Children used materials to collage on heavier card stock and included messages like, "We hope you stay warm tonight" and "Have a good night sleep". After counting all of the beds, we delivered the messages making sure that each cot had at least one message on it. 

We had so many leftover pizza ingredients form last Friday's lunch that we decided to use them towards an afternoon snack today - Croissant Pizzas! Children seemed a little hesitant at first (croissants + pizza ?) but once the ingredients were brought out (lots of cheese in sight) they came around to the idea! Pretty delicious if we do say so ourselves! 

Looking forward to our trip to the Old Stone House tomorrow! 

Several areas of the room were buzzing with activity today. One corner of the room was a clay glazing factory as children  completed pieces new and old.  We're learning more about ducks, and some children worked to glaze their duck according to images that we studied.  Hadley challenged herself by adding feet to her duck before glazing it.  Children also built with small blocks, inventing stories as they went along.  Not surprisingly, the stories involve good guys and bad guys.  It was tremendous to see a large group of children cooperating in their indoor play, again for an extended period of time.  Messages, mandalas, stories, and snow play rounded out our afternoon. 

We started our day in the outdoor classroom today. While the boys rallied together to create a mouse trap in the sand area, the girls decided to create a mouse house to save the mice from being trapped.

Once inside, small building (using cool new blocks with cities printed on the side) and message center (for the homeless staying in Blake Hall) were on offer. Carl and Cassius created the Washington Monument using the new blocks. 

Also on offer were various materials like blocks in different shapes and sizes, old frames, stones, pieces of wood (and the hot glue gun!)  to construct center pieces for the table in Blake Hall where the food is served for the homeless. Cassius and Carl delivered their centerpieces to Blake Hall with a note that read - table centerpieces from Carl and Cassius.  Tomorrow friends requested that we have these materials out again in hopes that they can create a centerpiece for themselves to bring home!