Friday, October 18, 2019

Invitation to be Together

As we often say, being together for extended time is one of our favorite things about KW. The slower afternoons, smaller groups, mixed-age group, and quieter overall school space give many opportunities for moments of connection. One of these special times is during lunch. At times Molly and Jessica will join us for lunch and the children began thinking about who else they would like to  eat lunch with. This list has grown to include all of the teachers at school! So we've prompted the children to consider invitations for the people on their list of hopeful lunch guests and today the children began working on these invitations.

Previously the children had listed their primary teachers: Brooke, Melanie O, Lisa, and Rachael. They've also said they'd like Jen to visit again. When asked today if there is anyone else they'd like to invite they said:
Lou Lou: "I know, the other Melanie."
Leigh: "Melanie and Elyse!"
Lane: "Remember the other teacher, Allison?"
Lou Lou: "Maybe someone who works downstairs...at dismissal."
Leigh: "I was thinking of the girl who came as a mystery guest...Aletha."

Some  concepts we observed the children work with during this process included literacy concepts such as letter sounds and printing letters to form the guest's name and  elements of collage. Children also explored aspects of relationships as they selected whose invitation they would make, specific materials and colors for individuals, shared information of what they know about the person, etc. 

Completed Invitations

The children excitedly delivered the invitations:

Shadow Shades

Another opportunity provided for the children today was mixing and painting with paints inspired by the shadows we have been studying: shades of grey. Sam was the first to arrive to face the challenge of mixing the shades. He was presented with a jar of black paint, a jar of white paint, and four empty jars in between. The challenge was to mix the paints so that it would result in a range of tones from light to dark (white to black). 

Sam's approach was to put white paint in the two jars closest to the white with more paint in the one closest to white and less in the jar closer to the black, He then put black paint in the two jars closest to the black paint  with more black paint in the closest jar to black and less black in the jar closer to the white. He then added a very small amount of black into the middle white jar and a little more black into the next white jar closest to black. He repeated the concept on the black paints adding less white to the jar closest to the straight black paint and a little more white paint in the black paint closest to white. Sam showed his knowledge that there needed to be a range of more or less white/black to receive darker and lighter tones of grey. After mixing, Sam saw his approach resulted in some colors being similar in tone and some shades not as light or dark as he wished. So he continued mixing more white or black paint until achieving the desired shades.

​Lane and Leigh also joined part-way and helped mix the paints. Then Lane and Leigh set out painting with the newly mixed shades.