Tuesday, January 21, 2020

"We get to know people when we send them cards."              Lou Lou

Louise points to a message she made last week

The enthusiasm for preparing messages for our Blake Hall guests continued.  Children prepared messages and then went to deliver them.   We were surprised and happy to see that some of the people had saved their message and left them near their beds as a decoration.  When Louise saw a message that she made last week, she said, "I think they loved it."

Planning Ahead... Future Workshop Possibilities

Children have generated many unique workshop possibilities.  We asked them to represent their ideas with drawing and buildings today.   Children have mentioned making headbands and there was a lot of interest in drawing these ideas today.   According to their drawings, some headbands will be decorated with butterflies, flowers or unicorn horns.   As Sam drew his head band possibility, he said, "This is for my baby sister.... it's going to be the tiniest headband ever."   Austin picked up on the idea of making a headband for his baby sister saying, "Her head is like this big."  He held his hands together in a circle to demonstrate.

Last week, Louise proposed the idea of a workshop for design, sayin that she would like..."a fashion show workshop.  get dolls and put designs on them.."   Today she worked on building a representation of that idea with a few of her friends.

It's been very clear that children are interested in using wood and tools. Today children did some initial prep work by sanding some slightly rough wood.   Children spent a good portion of their day on this important task. 

And of course.... Sewing 

Children continued their ongoing work with the sewing machine today.  As they gain experience, we have been impressed with how children remember the process and carefully implement the necessary steps.   Rainey Room has also been sewing a lot lately, providing time for children to reinforce their skills.  We also love how this mixed-age group continues to learn from each other.  
    Evelyn - Why are going slow?
    Joslin - Because I don't want to cut myself.
    Evelyn - Why are you putting your hand on it?
    Joslin - So I can direct it.
As they sew, children are also picking up information on how the machine works.  Today Evelyn noticed that there were two threads, one from the needle and one from the bobbin.  Another discovery was the reverse button.  After asking, "What does this do?," Joslin experimented with switching direction in order to stitch the edges of the foil paper she was attaching to her fabric.