Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Shelly's House

The day came when the children were able to begin building the house for Shelly! Our building expert, Gary, came to help us implement our plan with the building tools. Here's some of what was said as the children thought about the process and figured out the first steps in building Shelly's house:

Through cognition, problem-solving and fine motor coordination the children attached pieces of wood to form three walls of the correct measurement. Our plan for tomorrow: assemble the walls to make the house! 

Art Journaling Emotions, Interests, and Aspirations

While Louise, Sam, Lou Lou, Abby, and James were working on Shelly's house, Elena, Caleb, and Tegan created in their art journals. Before beginning our work we remembered yesterday's art journal prompts related to our favorite color and emotions. We wondered about new prompts, but it appeared yesterday's thoughts may still be coming out through the children's art. The topic of what brings us happiness weaved through our discussion as the children worked:

Elena: "Going on the slide makes me happy."
Tegan: "My family makes me happy. Mommy makes me happy, Saoirse makes me happy, Daddy makes me happy, and Audrey makes me happy."
Caleb: "Doing the monkey bars makes me happy."

The children continued painting, gluing, and collaging in their journals while talking about what makes them happy and what they like. At times this seemed conversational or contemplative and other times discussion about their interest connected to the materials selected by the children. 
​
Caleb shared an aspiration:  "I want to be a scientist. I want to make electricity that won't hurt the earth...and make extinct animals live."
Elena showed her pages to the group: "I put that (space stamp) there because I love outer-space. I wish I had a saucer."
Tegan, showing her pages: "I don't want a title; it just says 'Tegan.'" 
Tegan: "I put a feather coming out go the flowers...because of a bird...it's (the flowers) are a feather blankie."
​Tegan (describing a page with paint scraped on): "I put colors and then more colors..."
Caleb: "I'm working on taking stuff out (of my pocket) and adding it in (my journal.)"

We've been noticing so much intention in the children's journal work as they think about prompts and we're looking forward to the children developing their own prompts or journal challenges. Tomorrow we'll take a different approach with this concept and play an art journal game! ​

As it was such a beautiful day we'll leave you with these photos of the children enjoying the outdoor classroom: