Afterward, some children chose to continue making messages for the homeless in hopes to reach enough for a second round to be delivered on another day. Messages were also made for family members, teachers with recent birthdays, and friends. Lane made a message for Jack because he has been out sick. Children showed their developing empathy and care for others through these thoughtful and heart-warming messages. Representing Workshop IdeasIn reviewing recent drawings of children's workshop ideas we realized we have some workshops children have yet to represent visually. We also knew Gigi, having started KW just yesterday, hadn't had an opportunity to show her ideas. So drawing workshop ideas was a choice for today. Maren drew a sewing machine to illustrate our Sewing Workshop (she also worked on her hand sewing!), Gigi drew a Light Workshop, and Evelyn began with the idea of a Building Workshop. Completed Drawings(Hover for descriptions of the children's illustrations.)
At the end of the day, the children asked Lisa and Rachael if it would be OK to leave the building up for Tucker children to see the next day. The teachers said yes which thrilled all of the proud and hardworking builders! Grace D. said she would even bring some of her Rainey friends to see what they had made. We can't wait to find out the response of the other children tomorrow!! Other Moments TogetherOur time in the outdoor classroom this afternoon could not have been timed better with the weather. We enjoyed a break in the sun and from the wind while we lived up the moments together. Enjoy these photos of joyful times making an "ice cream sandwich" out of friends on the slide, a "rice krispie treat store," partner swinging, and other fun. Not pictured: Sally, Sam, and Austin who were such speedy runners nearly the entire time outside in chasing games full of laughter!
0 Comments
Welcome Gigi!
Gigi started KW today! She opened her place card and got right to work. Jossie gave her the lowdown on table setting and together the girls created a beautiful table composition.  On to Montrose Park! This gorgeous day was perfect for our planned trip to Montrose Park. After lunch, we headed to the bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus, we saw Louise's mom out for a walk with her dog! We enjoyed the quick bus trip, and headed to the park. Children spent time noticing elements of nature large and small. We collected some natural materials in bags to be used for a possible nature workshop. Leigh carefully began a fairy house, and then with equal care, gathered the materials so it could be reconstructed at school. Louise, Gigi, Grace, and Grace all took photos, capturing things they want to remember for future work with materials. While walking and exploring, Grace D. said, " We can get a beautiful view. If we go higher, we can see heaven and Santa!" Before pick-up, children spent time drawing some of the aspects of their surroundings that they found interesting and beautiful. PhotographyOur budding photographers took over 50 pictures, more than were taken boy the teachers! Here's just a few examples. We will revisit them in the coming weeks.
Workshop Brainstorming, ContinuedAt meeting, we continued to think about possible workshop possibilities. Once again, great ideas were generated: Louise - We could do a fashion show workshop. Like we could put decorations on the building and we could get some dolls and put some designs on them. Lou Lou - I want to do that fashion one. Joslin - We could do like a worky workshop... a workshop that you work inside...like build something with those materials, with nails and saws and stuff. Sam - A bandaid workshop. A doctor workshop for when people get sick. Grace M. - We could take care of people. Lou Lou - My idea was to make a funny one... a sewing workshop. During previous discussions, children had mentioned the possibility of making headbands. Today Grace M. helpfully offered, "I made a head band before.... I can show you! I might need to make a map of directions." However, Evelyn was able to start thinking about and working on head bands without Grace's instructions.
Evelyn worked almost independently through this process. She was able to take her idea and see it through to completion. As we work with materials, children learn their properties. Since the head band was made of paper, it soon ripped. Evelyn said, "It should have been wire." What a great idea! She worked with wire to make another headband. Although this was all she had time for today, Evelyn has plans to continue working with wire to make jewelry.
More Shiny Sewing!Children sewed at the machine today. Grace M., Austin, and Joslin all carefully worked through the steps to guide fabric through the machine. Working at the same experience influenced the choices children made. They all worked with red shiny fabric and some coppery, shiny ribbon. Austin also layered materials and experiences by sewing on an easel painting. Our Guests in Blake Hall
Each year, the church hosts homeless individuals, providing them with a warm place to sleep, and dinner and breakfast. Although they leave the building during the day, children notice the cots that are set up in Blake Hall. Today children worked on messages to help these visitors feel welcome in our shared space. After counting the number of beds to determine how many messages we would need, children got right to work. Grace D. carefully wrote "Have a good night." Lou Lou and Joslin made messages asking, "What's your name?" After all, as Jossie pointed out, "Their name is not just "Homeless." Today's Drawing ChallengeThis month, Jessica and Jill are working on a presentation for visiting educators. (The presentation will be on January 28th, all parents are welcome to attend.) At one point in the presentation, we will be introducing the KW teaching team. While we could include a photo, we thought it would be more fun to have children draw our portraits. We were impressed with the enthusiasm children demonstrated for this task! Some children chose to include themselves in the portrait. Grace M. gave us tutus, and Sam included a lot of details including teeth and earrings. Enjoy! Field Trip and Sharing Exciting NewsIt’s been a while since we’ve taken a field trip in KW. So we thought we’d take advantage of the more mild temperatures, get outside, and explore our community. Today we ventured down to the canal. Some highlights include: -Discovering four ducks on the canal (we hadn't seen them in recent visits) -Feeding the ducks -Maren was excited to go as far down the canal as her sister Lily had previously -Climbing the brick columns -Having an ice cream treat at the end of lunch leftover from Jack's birthday celebration Enjoy these photos from our adventure!A little news from yesterday you may have heard about...
Workshopping WorkshopsWe continued to explore the topic of workshops through conversation and drawing. Q: "What is a workshop?" Lane: "A workshop is where you work." Sally: "A workshop is where you do work and shopping. Work and shop, work and shop." Q: What kind of workshop would you like to do? Maren: "Any workshop like my sister did" (last year). Jack:" I like to build. I like to build with anything." Lane: "A making workshop where you make stuff." Sally: "A color workshop..." Grace D.: "We might mix colors." Austin: "Sports." Grace D.: "Sewing workshop where you sew clothes, shorts, pants..." Lane: "And headbands?" Evelyn: "I haven't done building before." Austin: "Yeah, building!" Some workshop ideas communicated through drawing: |
LANE'S OBSERVATIONS OF SEWING THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHSLane spent much of her time before and after her turn to sew documenting the experience. |  |
(Click on the images below to see the full frame.)
More photos from the children's process today...
...and by hand.
Also today...building, puzzles, and our favorite: being together:
Putting the "Workshop" into KW
During meeting, we talked about the idea of workshops. So far this year, we have focused on the body and movement, light, and shadow. As we carefully explore these ideas, processes, and material, it becomes like a workshop on those topics. We wondered if children were familiar with this concept, and what other possible workshops would be of interest to them. Here's the conversation:
What is a workshop?
Grace M. - I know. It means like you work and you try to learn things.
Lou Lou - Workshop means you can make some plans, things that you want to do, and see if you can do it.
What workshops would you be interested in for KW?
Grace M. - A dancing workshop.
Sam - I would like a toy workshop. Like make toys and take them home.
Louise - A ballet workshop. Where you wear tutus.
Leigh - A building workshop.
Grace M. - A block workshop. Or a drawing workshop. I have so many ideas.
Lou Lou - A unicorn workshop.
Leigh - Make unicorn costumes?
Lou Lou - Make unicorns out of ...... sewing?
Grace D. - (Remembering something she had mentioned at her home visit) Rocks and trees.
We will continue thinking about ideas for possible workshops in the next few days. After lunch, everyone took a turn to represent possible workshop ideas through drawing. Some children stuck with drawing for the rest of the day!
What is a workshop?
Grace M. - I know. It means like you work and you try to learn things.
Lou Lou - Workshop means you can make some plans, things that you want to do, and see if you can do it.
What workshops would you be interested in for KW?
Grace M. - A dancing workshop.
Sam - I would like a toy workshop. Like make toys and take them home.
Louise - A ballet workshop. Where you wear tutus.
Leigh - A building workshop.
Grace M. - A block workshop. Or a drawing workshop. I have so many ideas.
Lou Lou - A unicorn workshop.
Leigh - Make unicorn costumes?
Lou Lou - Make unicorns out of ...... sewing?
Grace D. - (Remembering something she had mentioned at her home visit) Rocks and trees.
We will continue thinking about ideas for possible workshops in the next few days. After lunch, everyone took a turn to represent possible workshop ideas through drawing. Some children stuck with drawing for the rest of the day!
 Giant ballet drawing by Louise. |  Tree and rock drawing by Grace D. |  Two-headed dragon toy drawing by Sam. |
 Ballet drawing by Grace M. |  Unicorn drawing by Leigh. |  Unicorn family drawing by Lou Lou. |
Shiny Sewing, Continued
Shiny sewing was popular yesterday, and today children took another approach: machine sewing. Leigh and Louise spent time reacquainting themselves with the machine and the process. Both picked up quickly on the steps required for successful sewing. They both used shiny fabric as abase. Leigh attached shiny papers to her fabric, while Louise added smaller pieces of shiny fabric. An important part of sewing is patience as you wait for a turn on the machine. Louise put her wait time to good use by documenting.... taking photos of Leigh. As Leigh finished (for today), she excitedly said, "Can I do this tomorrow?"
Reflecting on Reflections
At the beginning of our KW day, children noticed some interesting light reflections in the front hallway. "The lights are moving," they noticed. We wondered if they would still be there later, but they were gone by the end of the day. You can see the beautiful reflections found at the beginning of KW.
 |  |
Snowing and Sewing!
Happy New Year! It was great to have Kids' workshop back together again! Children expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for being with their friends and the experiences that were offered today, When we mentioned that sewing with shiny materials would be one choice, Austin and Sam started chanting "We love sewing, we love sewing." As always with sewing experiences, children demonstrated patience and problem solving as we tackled threading needles, misplaced knots, and materials that were incompatible with certain needles. The results were stunning.... and shiny. Many children mentioned that they would be returning to this work in the future.
| Before starting to sew, Joslin and Sally visited the materials that have been brought in by parents. They found a few shiny things that could be included in their sewing. Many thanks to parents who have brought in these cool materials. It's not too late! Feel free to add to our materials collection throughout the next week or two! |  |
The Light
During meeting, we took a look at our light project. Grace M. led the discussion by saying "Whoa! I like it!" Although some children would be happy to keep adding shiny materials, the group decided there were only a few remaining materials to add. While working, Louise lightly strummed the materials and noticed that they made music. The next steps will involve adding actual light bulbs and installing it in the greeting hallway. We hope to have it installed before the January All-School Potluck.
New Year, New Paints
 | Children took stock of the paint selection and took time to mix new colors and perk up existing colors. Then it was time to paint. Austin made an abstract design, Sally worked on a portrait of a pig, Joslin painted a cowboy, while Grace M. and Lou Lou worked on a partner painting. |
Enjoy the snow (?) and we'll see you for more fun tomorrow!
Reflecting: | During our meetings children occasionally initiate conversation about our ongoing investigative wonderings. This was the case today when Grace . said, "I have something to say." When the children do this it causes us to wonder about the ways children process concepts over time and how they have come to understand the culture of our meeting time together. They seem to reflect back to us that meeting is a time when we can think, wonder, and reflect; work through our thoughts to better understand a topic. Here's what was said today: Grace: "Light is a kind of thing that reflects your body." Lou Lou: "Light can reflect sometimes glass and when the moon goes down and the sun comes up it can reflect light." |
One of the choices after lunch was to add pieces previously prepared for the reflective light project. Most were items the children had added glitter to yesterday while a few others were things which had fallen off of the light. There was a lot of thought today about what will make these carefully created pieces stay on the light for "a very long time." -Louise Further explaining how long the items should stay on the light, Grace added, "after we aren't in Tucker anymore."
 Louise attempted to attach a metal piece to the frame with a thin wire, but it didn't hold. She returned to the wire. "This is a big one so it needs..." She cuts a thicker wire.  Grace observes the piece she had glued together yesterday and responds to the materials. |  Louise explains her decision: "This one is heavy so that's why I used a long wire." Louise wrapped the wire tightly around the frame.  "It's like a worker factory." - Grace |
Collaboration continued throughout the children's work as they offered their help to one another and combined ideas to solve problems. At one point, Grace found she needed a stronger wire. Jessica held up a thicker wire that had been twisted and leftover on the tray, mentioning it just needed to be straightened out. Maren, coming over, offered, "I can straighten it." She held onto each end of the wire and pulled her arms apart in an outward motion. She then handed the wire to Grace, "Here you go." Grace replied, "Thank you so much, Maren."
Giving
On our final day of KW before the new year...children wrapped up gifts to go home over break, created holiday messages to go with their gifts, and wrote other individual messages. One particularly special message was a card to go with Gini's gift of three candle votives.
Sewing
Recently a couple of our KW friends visited Early Birds and began a hand-sewing project. They asked to finish another day, so we thought it would be a good time to begin some sewing experiences in KW. Today the children worked at hand-sewing.
We look forward to more sewing and completing our Reflective Light Project after the break!
| Have the happiest of holidays and fabulous family time! We look forward to seeing you in the new year! | We wish you all a wonderful Winter Break!! |
Light: Making Connections
As Louise was walking to the Middle Room to work on the light project today, she recalled seeing a fancy light over the weekend. "At the ballet.. at the Nutcracker, there was a big light hanging down from the ceiling and there was a flower, and it was a light, and it was beautiful," she said. Perhaps this inspired her to work with glitter to create extra shiny items for our light, saying "I'm the glitter master." Children first looked in the greeting hallway for some new materials to include on the structure. Alexandra found silvery liner and said, "This is perfect, but first we need to cut it." Of course, there were more literal connections as children wrapped and twisted wire to connect a variety of materials to the structure.
 Collaborations: Grace asks, "Sam, will you please show me how to twist this wire?" |  Documentation: Louise and Grace take notes on their process. |
Being Together
Children are enjoying their time together during this last week of school. Throughout the classroom, children were enjoying companionship and collaboration. As they did on Friday, children used magnetic materials to create space ships and flying saucers with a space projection. This is a group that loves to play "family," so it came as no surprise that there was a family of flying saucers including children and teachers. They were also invested in making messages and preparing gifts for their families. Sally and Austin dedicated a lot of time to message making and worked on the layering of different materials. Of course, there's always time for a good book, especially a good holiday book!
"We made it even more amazing." Jack
Today, KW took inspiration from the recent work in Tucker Room. Tucker Room has been all about space and planets, including building and playing in front of projected space -scapes. Stars are connected to light and spaceships are often shiny, so we felt we could work with these projections as well. We added the new, clear magna-tiles and other metal and magnetic building materials, and the children went to town (or perhaps, to space). While building with Jack early in the afternoon Lou Lou commented, "We're adding to our masterpiece."
"Everything here is shiny." Lane
Once again, children spent time working on the light structure. Once again, they twisted wire like pros!
"This might be tricky, but I'm good at tricky things." Sam
Each of the four children in KW today elected to prepare and take home their gifts for their families today. Sam made the above comment while being extra-careful in wrapping a particular item.
Messages for Brigitte
We were happy to have Brigitte working with us today as Jessica moves into her new home. Lane and Lou Lou made festive messages for Brigitte, leading us all to think that Brigitte should have a mailbox. While writing messages together, Lou Lou noticed that she and Lane had done a lot of work together and said, "I like having you for a helper, Lane."
Have a great weekend!
About
Welcome to the Kids’ Workshop blog homepage!
Archives
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
RSS Feed