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Children and families also sent in messages and gifts. Thanks to all who made Elyse's celebration special!More Mosaics!We've been working for a long time on mosaics and the end is in sight! As the Tucker children filled the remaining sections with grout, we noted how adept and independent children have become with this experience. For example, Giacomo coached Jill on how thick to mix the grout. As children worked to fill in space with grout, Giacomo also repeated his advice, "Use the spoon for bigger spaces, and the knife for smaller spaces." As children continued their work, C.C. and Lochie took on the task of cleaning the grout off of the tile pieces. The results are stunning and we hope to have them hanging for all to appreciate next week!
Last week in the morning program, Tucker children made clay creations. This afternoon, children finished glazing them and they will be fired first thing Monday morning! We can't wait to see these treasures come out of the kiln. Drawing PortraitsAs we have noted before, representational drawing is difficult. This week, both groups drew portraits of teachers. Since the beginning of the year, we have noticed children including more details and sense of proportion in their drawings. As we review the children's work, we had the following observations and questions.
Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!
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This Week's GameWe have begun introducing our group games to Brigitte. This week, we started with an old favorite, "Clean Your Room." Children work to get the "mess" (balls and bean bags) out of their room and over to the other side.
Today we also played "Museum Guard" and "People to People."Working with WatercolorsChildren and teachers always enjoy working with watercolors! On Tuesday, we used watercolor paper that was divided into geometric shapes with tape. Children carefully worked to fill in the spaces. Some children chose a different color for each shape, while others put similar colors together. Lily said, "This would be easy to do the whole thing ourselves. Just put tape on and get a brush and paint." Today, children started to remove the tape pieces, leaving white stripes where the tape had been. As they peeled the tape, they noted the negative space that was created. Bea - It leaves a space. A white space. Finlay - It looks like a prison cell. (Apparently the stripes look like bars on a cell.) Wilder - (Looking at his piece without the tape) It's cool. It's beautiful. A Nice Day for a Neighborhood Walk"This was the funnest day ever." CateWhat a great day! We had a small group and the temperatures were mild, so we went for a long walk. We had originally planned to go as far as the canal, but ended up going all the way to the river. Before we left, children talked about what we might encounter: Cape - I think we will see sea turtles there. Lucas - Maybe dinosaurs! Wilder - Or dragons. Maybe a witch. Finlay - Or pirates. Well, the answer proved to be none of the above. However, we did see and feed a lot of birds. We attracted quite a variety as we had brought along Chex cereal to feed them. Wilder - This (the cereal) makes good bait. Lucas - We saw pigeons. Wilder - And ducks and seagulls. I was wishing we would see an eagle because eagles are big and beautiful. Some children documented their experience with drawing. All children agreed that feeding the birds and running in the labyrinth were the best parts of this lovely afternoon. This and that...Here's some of the other experiences that filled yesterday afternoon. Children took care of babies, while remembering that Jordan is also taking care of his son. The light table featured rainbow papers and gems, inspiring children to create designs and mazes. Message Center is always popular and yesterday was no exception. Children made messages for friends and family alike! A Quick Look at Our Week We hope you had a wonderful long weekend!
We will work with a variety of materials in Kids' Workshop this week. The grouting, weaving, glazing, and watercolors are just the beginning! Tomorrow is the warmest day this week, so we plan to head to the Canal! Be sure to bundle up with mittens, gloves, and hats. We will also help to celebrate Elyse's birthday, which is scheduled to take place tomorrow! A Birthday Committee for Elyse!
The work continued today as children transformed their watercolors into something special for the birthday gift. We won't give too much away, but part of the process involved making accordion folds. This was new and somewhat challenging for children. They persisted until the were able to master this technique. As Nora explained, "I folded it back and forth, back and forth." We also wondered whether the school was older than Elyse, or if it was the other way around. Maxon - The school's older. Several others agreed with this. Jill - Do you remember how old the school is? Do remember the last number of the clay number line? George - 24! Brigitte - What will come next? Lochie - 25! Brigitte - So who is older? Lochie, George, Giacomo, and Maxon - The school! C.C. - Well, how old is Elyse right now? Reed - I don't know. I have no idea. Mosaic WorkChildren filled in the final clay tiles for our mosaic. It was almost like a puzzle, because children had to find which pieces would work in various spaces. This process became more difficult as we went along... the spaces got smaller. Through trial and order, Reed and Maxon developed the strategy of checking to see if the piece fit first, before gluing it down. Next week, we will be ready to add the grout! A little bit of everything else...
Today, our Tucker children learned Jordan's news and had the following responses: Reed - So, where's Jordan? Audrey - He's with his baby. Nora - I wonder what the little boy's name is? Jill - (At the time of this conversation, we did not have the name yet). Do you have any suggestions? Reed - It's a boy. I don't have nay boy names. Max? Or Sam? I was going to say Isabelle, but that's a girls name. Marley - Alex. Wait, did Jordan have a baby? Jill - Yes! He had a baby boy yesterday! Marley - Did he have a baby in his tummy? Jill - No, but his wife did? Reed - Yeah, we saw he had a (wedding) ring. Audrey - My daddy thinks I was a baby in his tummy, but I was really a baby in my mommy's tummy. Lochie - When Betsy was new, she would cry if we tried to hold her. Nora - I'll tell you what they mostly do. Eat, sleep, poop, and cry. Reed - Well, they're not trained at first. Nora - My baby smiles a lot. A little later, some children looked at a photo of the new baby. Giacomo - He looks like I looked when I was a baby. Welcome to our World, Tristan Vincent Price-Smith!
Welcome Remy!
Kids' Workshop is thrilled to announce that Remy joined KW yesterday! She got right to work with table setting, drawing, games and grouting! We are so happy to have her with us on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons!
Grout Galore!We are continuing to work on the mosaics that will be featured in the school bathrooms...and the end is sight! Although many children had not worked with grout before this experience, they have learned a lot about the process and the properties of the materials involved. Here's some of the things that we heard as children worked. Jade - It's like cement. It goes between (the tiles) and then it hardens. It's getting grayer, and dark gray. It smells like cement. Remy, do you like what we put on it (referring to the materials used)? Remy - I like it. Jade - We put gems and clay tiles on. Remy - (As she spread grout) I'm streaming it. That means flattening it out. Jade - I like how you're doing it. Just make sure you don't put it on the red (tape that is covering the holes that will be used to attach it to the bathroom wall). Cape - Are the colors going to show through? (Cape is referring to the fact that as the grout is applied, it often covers up some of the materials used.) Jordan explains that after all the grout is applied, we take time to clean the grout off the tiles. Today, we worked on the last piece of our mosaic. Finlay observed that the grout looked like concrete and Lily thought it looked like chocolate. The children worked with tools and even their fingers to put the grout in place. The School's BirthdayAcross the school, children are thinking about the school's birthday! While we have not officially landed on the perfect gift for the school, the Rainey Room crew knows a lot about portraits as birthday gifts. Some children worked to represent the school with drawing and watercolors. Making a representational drawing can be tricky! You might remember that last week, Cape set out to draw the sign in front of the school, but wasn't pleased with the result. Undaunted, he returned to the task today. He worked on a first draft, and continued on to a second draft. "I was really thinking about the details," he said.
Cape included many details. To the left of his sign is a dark shape that represents the ramp. To the right, he used green to indicate where the Christmas tree used to be. for his second draft, Cape made the sign larger, so that he could include more detailed ginkgo leaves and the green border of the sign. It's hard to see, but he also included letters along the bottom of the sign. He was working on this diligently, right up until clean-up time! Here's a few other finished pieces.
A little bit of everything else....Mosaics, the school's birthday, and Jordan's son were definitely the big ideas. Children worked collaboratively on floor puzzles, sent messages to friends and family members, explored color and and design with markers and watercolors, and had fun with group games. Enjoy these images! A Quick Look at our Week!This week, we will focus on mosaic work and the school's birthday. Rainey Room is ready to use the grout and Tucker room is not far behind. We will also have group games, message making, puzzles, and drawing and painting experiences to round out our week.  Friday, Snow Day!Although we didn't have school on Friday, we hope you enjoy these snowy pictures from Thursday! Today's blog will offer a quick summary of this week's work on the the school's birthday celebration. Many of our investigations start with a conversation. Here's the conversations from the two KW groups.
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January 2022
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