A look at our Week It's a very short week for KW, but it will be packed with materials and fun. We will be building, drawing, working with clay, sewing, and checking out the collage materials brought in by parents. Of course, there will still be plenty of time for small world and messages!
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Thank you to all the families who attended the Gallery Walk......and the Collage Prep PartyHave a wonderful weekend!A Short and Sweet Look at our Work!
 This Group cannot get enough of Small World. New materials were added this week to make it even more enticing. Ask your child about their work in this area. Self-Portraits, Weavings, and CollageJust a reminder that examples of this work will be on display during our Gallery Walk on Friday. Please stop by Blake Hall before heading upstairs for drop-off!A Look At Our Week! It's hard to believe, but this is the last full week of January. In KW, we will continue to work with clay, self-portaits, and wintery materials. We look forward to sharing these masterpieces with you on Friday during our Gallery Walk. AS you arrive on Friday morning, we hope you will be able to walk through Blake Hall with your child to see the work of the KW crew on display. Other Highlights This Week
 With our Thursday and Friday events and the classroom interim phone calls, the school is a busy place this week. For this reason, our Wednesday and Friday blogs will be short and sweet.... maybe just a photo with a caption. We're looking forward to having fun together throughout the week!
Dreaming of winter wonderlandSince we came back from winter break, we all have been wishing for snow. We have been reading books about snow, wonderful stories about having fun in the snow. The children remember how the snow sometimes gently floats, twirls and dances as it makes his decent to the ground. To interpret our visions of snowy landscapes, we created collages. Seon: I am making snow balls, before the glue dry out, you have to put materials on it. Frannie: I am making a snow collage because it's mostly white and blue. It's actually a snow village with reindeers that go to school. Finlay: I am making a snowy forest. Michael: I am making a snow forest too. Hugh: I am making a lake with ice chucks on the lake and snowflakes. Lily: It's a snow storm. Ellie: I'm making snow. Cape: I'm making a snowman. Jade: It's a snowstorm' Zari: I'm making snow, but I'm putting paper all over. Mimi: I'm making snow. Our Small World Ongoing StoriesOur Rainey Room friends enjoyed using the small world materials to created their own imaginary places to live. Ellie: I made a unicorn house, where the mama bear sits down at the table. Seon: My place has all kind of things that I want, this dinosaur lived a long time ago. These dinosaurs sitting at the table are eating popcorn and French fries. The turtle works on the computer, while the flamingoes are eating pizza. Mimi and Louisa also created a small world where elaborate stories were unfolding. The Portrait ProcessAs children continue to work on their portraits, they are making keen observations. On Thursday, children often included details like eyelashes and eyebrows. They also offered interpretations of other portraits, such as "scary" or "wild." These may sound negative, but were often reflections on a mouth full of teeth or the depiction of someone's eyes. We are looking forward to sharing the portraits and other completed work during next Friday's gallery walk.
Self- Portraits: |
  | The first two to draw were Seon and Ellie. We used permanent markers, so that the children could add watercolors later. Here's some of their thoughts as they worked. Seon - I'm going to draw my hair. (She starts by drawing hair close her head.). I'm going to draw my ponytails! Ellie - I want the pink for my face. I need black for my hair. (She carefully uses two colors to draw the bangs of her new haircut!) Seon - I like drawing my face! I'm going to draw my eyes. I'm going to draw my mouth. Does that look like a tongue? Ellie - I drew my eyes. I drew my mouth. (She colors in the mouth with a marker.) I need blue for my eyes. Seon - It looks just like me! |    |
| Notice how carefully Zari examines her features as she works on her portrait. |  |  |
Snowy Stories
Since returning from break, we have been offering wintery materials on the light table. We thought that children might develop stories here, much like they do in small world. We've noticed that children have been more interested in arranging the materials in interring compositions. However, on Tuesday, children did tell stories as they worked with materials.
Zari - This is the food for when the penguins get hungry. They are all snuggly together.
Seon - And these penguins are sleeping (laying down under small blankets).
Cal - It's raining water.
Mimi - This is a house for all the animals (photo on the right).
Zari - This is the food for when the penguins get hungry. They are all snuggly together.
Seon - And these penguins are sleeping (laying down under small blankets).
Cal - It's raining water.
Mimi - This is a house for all the animals (photo on the right).
What is happening in Small world?
| | Frannie and Jade built a small world for the princess sea otter, Hugh built a pit stop, Wilder created a turtle family, Finlay, Michael and Cate created a small world where the sting-ray and the otter reign. Wilder: The turtle family is part of the sting ray family. Finlay: There are guards for sting ray because he is a spy, he is in his private room, so private that if someone lift a finger at it they will get poison. Michael: I am the gardener (holding the small dinosaur.) Cate: The Unicorn is guarding the otter. Frannie: The Otter princess is getting room service. Jade: What is room service? Frannie: Room service is something like you are in bed and someone brings you food, that's room service. The Princess otter is getting room service by the flamingoes, they are massaging her feet. The otter's husband (the panda) just arrived, he is giving the princess otter lots of kisses. Hugh: (The pit stop small world.) For Christmas, you can watch the race for free, you don't need to buy tickets. That's their presents. Every year, they watch the race for free. Sometimes the guys at the pit stops are taking naps, because they are up all night. |
Clay for Small World
This week children returned to making clay furniture that can be used in small world. Lily worked on a couch and a television for the animals. Remy made a dog crate that the dog could sleep in, and Mimi worked on a table with no legs to hold a cake! The details will be posted on our hallway bulletin board.
The Great Outdoors!
We had a wonderful time outside on this beautiful day!
A Look at our Week
It's the middle of January! We are still going strong using a variety of materials with our winter color palette. There is also enthusiasm and new exciting accessories for small world. We will continue to create new pieces of furniture (and maybe some race cars) made from clay. We're introducing self-portraits this week as we look ahead to a all-school collaboration for the school's birthday. We had a fun and productive afternoon! We'll share more with you tomorrow.
Wintery Light Table
| Jade: We are building a house in the North Pole. There is a pond where we keep our fishes. The penguins like to eat fish food. Luke: We love ice (Penguin) "Hey friends do you want to come with me to a party?" Cape: I am building a solar panel to get electricity so I can watch TV. Luke: (Penguin) I love to play with my friend the orca, we play cards together. Cape: I am going to dive in the ocean to visit my friend the orca. Jade: I am a Penguin who gathers food and poison. The poison is for defeating other animals. |  |
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Wintery Weaving
| | Lucas: Yeah, we remember weaving. Over, under, over, under. The white ones (strings on the loom) you go under and the black ones, you go over. Seon: Look at this! It's beautiful. Lucas: It has to go under some things if it's going to stay on. Lily: Over, under, over, under. Frannie: (Coming to the table and looking at lily's work) OMG!! That's so beautiful! Finlay: I'm so good at weaving , I'm so fast I already made one. Cate: I can't talk, I have to concentrate. Jade: So I put it over, under, under, over. Cape: Over, under, not under, over, like rhyming! Luke: I know how to do it, I did it before. To Jade, "Do you remember doing it last year, it was so fun, we put it on the wall." Ford: I know how, you do under, over, under, over. Zari: I'm going to tell my daddy I can do it. |
This and That
Small world is still going strong, the children also made special birthday messages for Jen Azziariti. We introduce light bright, and some children worked with clay on Friday.
Clay Creations for Small World
Many children were eager to start the new year in small world. We have added miniature things to make the environments and story lines developed her more complex. Today, children began work on clay items that will eventually make their way to the small world materials. The teachers proposed that children make furniture for the creatures. Children brought their own ideas to the experience. Perhaps inspired by Hugh's interest in Formula One, Hugh, Cate, and Cape made race cars. Wilder made a tiny "paddock" for a tiny zebra.
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Math concepts were evident throughout the process. Children used various strategies to measure their item so it would work with the animal they selected. Children also worked with equivalence as the legs on the beds or the wheels on a race car needed to be the same length in order to support the clay creation.
Yesterday, the Tucker children were the first to volunteer to work with clay. Next week, Rainey children will take a turn with clay.
Yesterday, the Tucker children were the first to volunteer to work with clay. Next week, Rainey children will take a turn with clay.
  | Conversations: A Closer LookYesterday, Cate noticed that the hallway bulletin board was dedicated to Small World. We hope you have had a chance to look at it as well. Teachers take the completed conversations and review them together to identify the big ideas. We often talk about the collaborative nature of Small World. Therefore, we were struck by Luke's comment, "In small world, we don't have to listen to a friend. You can start with your own thing." This is true! Often when working on a big building, children have to agree to work on one thing. Small world often begins with several individual homes or environments. From there, the children often collaborate on a play scenario and share knowledge as they develop their story. In this way, small world encompasses both individual ideas and cooperation with friends. |
Wonderful, Wintery Work!
Wintery Watercolors
| Actually, this experience started with watercolors, but became a multi-media process as children collaged on top of the watercolor paintings. Remy - I'm making it really shiny. Finlay - It's like paint, collage, paint, collage. Wilder - Until you're done. Mimi - I'm trying to make it very shiny. Bailee - After I make this one, I'm going to make another one because I love painting so much. I'm making a sunset. Mimi - You glue the little pom poms, like snow is falling. Bailee - I'm getting good at this. I'm doing all the buttons (for the collage). Cate - I'm making a shimmery one. | |
| | Light Table Winter WonderlandThe children made tiny structures and developed stories with the materials on the light table. Most of the scenarios involved a snowman figure and some silvery fish. |
| Today we added a second light table with paper geometric shapes that can be used for building. Lucas carefully built a home for himself, Zoe, and his mom and dad. | |
Light Table Collages
  | "When we put them in the sky, they're going to look like snow." SeonAll week, children have made small collages by gluing materials to cut-out envelope windows. While Seon was confident that the collages would look like snow, there was also another opinion. Remy - These don't look like snow. Jill - Can you think of other materials that would look more like snow? Remy - If it snows one day, we can collect the snow and glue it on. The children quickly realize that the snow would melt. Lily - We could use cotton balls. Remy -What if we cut out little dots? Based on the children's suggestions, the materials offered changed each day. Children also put their spatial skills to good use as they began to arrange the individual collages on a large piece of plexiglass. It was almost like working on a puzzle! |
A Closer Look at Small World
Another focus of our week has been related to small world. Not only have the children been setting up their tiny environments and developing scenarios, We have also had interesting conversations about why children are so invested in this experience. Here's some of their big ideas!
 More conversations can be found on our hallway documentation board. This week, some creatures in small world celebrated Christmas while others moved on to Easter. Cate built a "secret lair" for the otter. Ellie set the table for dinner, and added a present. Cape had a doggie that served as Santa Clause and delivered presents to everyone in small world just before clean-up time. Luke noted that a turtle had a baby. Wilder and Hugh built two race tracks that were ready for the Grand Prix. It's clear that no matter the play scenario, children are always collaborating, problem solving, and working through relationships. | |
A Quick Look at Everything Else
- Message Center continues to be a sought after experience!
- We have enjoyed the beautiful weather in the outdoor classroom.
- There's been games and building with magnates. Surprisingly, we didn't work with puzzles this week!
- Molly had lunch with us on both Thursday and Friday!
Have a wonderful weekend!
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