Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Welcome Back!

It was great to have our Tuesday crew back today.  As you can see, they got right to work building.  The group was given a choice of three "Construction Challenges:"  build something taller than a teacher, build something that children could fit inside, or build something with multiple rooms for various animal friends.  The group agreed on, "The kid fit inside challenge."   Here's some of the things they talked about as they built:
   Will - Hollow blocks are for the base, right?
   Hugh - (With smaller hollow blocks)  These could be the windows.
   Caleb - (With cyllinder blocks)  We need these to make a chimney.
​   Lily - (Indicating a hollow block)  This is the oven.
It's evident that the group accomplished their mission!   After building, they found they could easily fit the six or seven people who had worked on the building inside it.  Builders then invited the whole class to try to fit inside... and it worked!
   Other building experiences took place outside where Hugh, Tommy, Will, and Caleb worked on a house.  Not just any house, their structure featured a coffee pot and a television.  Before the indoor building group got started, Dagny made a floor plan for her seal house that she hopes to build in the future.

"I want to work in my book every day."  Lou Lou

Children were also enthusiastic about getting back to their art journals today.  Like having a construction challenge, children worked with an art journal prompt.  Today they were encouraged to create a page about their favorite color or expressed how they were feeling.   As children used materials, they talked with each other and shared their ideas.   Here are some of the ideas the children expressed:
    Tommy - Mr. Sun makes me happy which is why I am making a sun in my book.  I made it lots of times.
   Cate - I like fluffy things and I like the sun so I decided to add feathers and the sun.  Purple is my favorite color.   (Tommy admired Cate's sun, and later asked her to make a sun in his book as well.)
    Jessica - How do you feel when you're painting?
    Sam - Happy.
   Cate - What are you doing?
    Sam - Painting beautiful stuff.  
    Elena - I painted my favorite color.  My favorite color is all the colors in the rainbow.  
    Sam - This page is going to be about glue and all the stuff you glue on it.

Looking ahead.....

Tomorrow we will get back to building with tools.  Our first task is to build a house for Shelly, the fake rock that is dear to the Rainey Children.  Before we start building tomorrow, we needed to know just what size boards we would need.  Lou Lou, Grace, and Louise came in to the middle room this morning to help us figure that out.  Enjoy the videos and tune in tomorrow!