Kids' Workshop embraced the spookiness of Halloween this afternoon. Max and Cassius created a table-setting complete with pumpkins, gourds, black beads, orange balloons, creepy sticks and branches, and black netting. 

After lunch, friends created spooky messages and then we embarked on an extra special halloween walk. We took the circulator bus to our usual Montrose Park stop, and then walked down 31st street. We saw some very spooky haunted lawns and decorations along the way. Enjoy the slideshow and your halloween evening!

Happy Friday!   Today the KW crew went on a field trip to Artechouse.  The Friday regulars were joined by Cassius and Mac for an afternoon of fun and exploration.  Many thanks to the parents who served as drivers and chaperones.  A picture is definitely worth a thousand words, so enjoy these images.  

This afternoon some friends worked on a cooking project for our parents tonight - a gourmet, cheesy artichoke dip! This recipe involved all of the cooking processes that we love - grating, chopping, snipping, stirring and a little taste-testing! (While chopping artichokes):
Cassius: You know why they call them artichokes? If you eat them, you choke! 

Other friends continued explorations using the digital microscope to investigate our canal water sample. 

We've been excited to find moving specimens that resemble worms in our water samples. Today friends drew interpretations of the images captured by the digital microscope.

We're very excited to see you all tonight - and equally excited for our special field trip to the Artechouse tomorrow afternoon! 

In the construction area, we projected the canal water onto the shadow screen.  This provided a backdrop for building.  Some children worked on a castle in the water, while Max built a bridge over the canal.  

Some friends added top glaze to their leaf prints in clay.

We decided to take a walk at the end of our day to check out some of the spooky decorations in the neighborhood. We decided the spookiest of them all was a tie between a little girl sitting (and creepily singing lullabies) on a swing and a hole covered with "danger: zombies" tape surrounding it - although Vivienne claimed that none of them could scare her!

As you can see, we were able to collect water from the canal.  To our surprise, some samples appeared cleaner than other samples.   We brought the water back to school with us, so we will be able to examine it more closely next week.   Once back at school, we ended our day with a District Doughnut taste test and some (more) Halloween stories.  Enjoy the slide show and we'll see you at the Book Fair!

Today in KW, we revisited an experience we shared at the Georgetown Canal a few weeks ago. While walking along the canal, children noticed the large amount of trash that was disposed of in the water. They made wishes that the ducks living in the dirty water would some day have clean water to live in. Yesterday we asked the children what "clean water" would look like:
Max: Clear.
Vivienne: Like a clean pool.
Lila: Clear.
Cassius: Blue.
Ellee: Green.
Hadley: No, it would be silver.
Willa: It would look like you can't see it at all.
Jay: It would look gray guys.
Ellee: Actually, the water would look black or brown, because the bottom  of the canal is brown.
Max: You can look at my water and see what ocean water looks like (blue from his water bottle).
Cassius: You can look at my water and see what clean water looks like too.
This afternoon, we projected images of the ducks from the canal onto large watercolor paper. Children traced these images and then, using various materials (collected by teachers based off of their conversation yesterday), created backgrounds of what they envisioned "clean water" to look like.

In preparation for the bake sale at the book fair, some children helped make a savory carrot, asiago and almond bread. 

We're looking forward to another trip to the canal tomorrow, this time aiming to gather a sample of the water to test its level of cleanliness (or dirtiness rather!) 

After lunch, a group of children started working on the construction challenge.  Today, it was all about bridges.  Photos of Key Bridge, the bridges over the canal, and a bridge from Montrose Park.  Carl and Jay recognized the bridges right away.  Children also talked about their knowledge of these bridges based on their own context.
    Carl - Hey, that bridge is so close to my dad's work!
    Jay - Look at these bridges!  Which should we build?
    Carl - Let's build this bridge first (bridge over the canal).
    Jay - And we can build Key Bridge second. 
    Carl - We need hollow blocks first.
    Mac -(With cardboard pieces)I'm going to work on the shore.
   Carl - We need more hollow blocks.  Once I went on that bridge and I had an ice cream.  If you cross the bridge, you go one block to my dad's office.
    Jay - I'm going to do the steps.
   Cassius - There's one bridge by my house and we have to cross it to go from here to my house.
   Jay - The Key Bridge goes from one side (of the river) to another.
   Ellee - And I go on Key Bridge when mom and I go to Michael's to get supplies.  

The classroom work also featured building on a smaller scale.  Last week, children created a model of the Bishops Garden with materials.  Today, they used the hot glue gun to make a more permanent replica of the garden.  Of course, Mandalas, puzzles and Halloween books rounded out our day.  

This afternoon in Kids' Workshop, we ventured out and about to Georgetown University. We know from previous trips that there's an interest in the cannons on campus, but we also wanted to explore the great climbing trees as well. After some play on the cannons (boys cannons vs. girls cannons as it turned out), we ventured over to the trees. A wonderful and spontaneous group play scenario developed between our friends. Vivienne and Max were the Mom and Dad, and Carl, Cassius, Mac and Jay were the ninjas who were trying to "take good things". Ellee came to the rescue in helping Vivienne and Max collect magical berries for a soup (a poisonous soup!) that would hopefully stop the ninjas from taking the good things. Various magical forces presented themselves like "XO" and Princess Celestia powers. Vivienne and Max made a house underneath the holly tree because it held the magical "persimmon berries" that could keep them safe from lurking ninjas. Enjoy the slideshow from our fun day together!

Here's some of the other things we heard as we walked down to the river:
    Vivienne - I hear those things that come at night.... crickets.
    Prater - I hear nuts and acorns.  I hear trees blowing.
    Grace - I heard rocks....they plopped in the water. 
    Vivienne - I can make a wish with this rock.
    Max - I have a leaf to make a wish with.
    Vivienne - This doesn't seem like a park.
    Jill - What does it need to seem like a park?
    Vivienne - A playground.    
      (Luckily, the playground was our next stop.)

Ellee showed us where Chipmunky lives and children gathered acorns for him.  When  we were down near the water, we saw (without getting to close!) a dead animal.  As we walked past to  head to the playground area, Grace said, "I"m sad about the dead thing.  It's sad for him.  Sad that he had to die."   We were impressed with the empathetic responses  to the natural world that children demonstrated today.  Enjoy the slide show and have a wonderful weekend!