After our trip to see the Transformer sculptures, KW has been inspired to create guardians of our own to protect what we value most at St. Johns.  How can we determine what is valuable at our school?  What would children identify as important enough to guard?  Would the things they value reflect the school's values?  In order to better understand how the children envision these guardians, we discussed what valuables the guardians would be protecting.

   Jack - The day we talked about the transformers, you said we could use tools like hammers - Jack
   Jill - That's right, but before we build, we have to think about what we want to build. If we have guards for the school, they would guard things that are valuable. What do you think are valuable things here at St. Johns? 
   Lochie - Like, if bad guys come and steal our portfolios.
   Jill - That's a great idea.  Maybe we could put it on top of the portfolio drawers.
​    Lochie - No, it stands in front of the portfolio drawers.  And if we need to put something in, we move the guard. 
     Jill - Are there other things in our school that a guardian should protect?
    Sylvie - Like the constellations. (Sylvie is referring to the fabulous constellations made by the Tucker Room.)
     Lochie - Because making that was hard work.  Maybe someone could stand and guard everything.
     Jill - Would it be boring for a person to stand and guard things?
     Lochie - It won't be boring when they fight (a robber). 
    Reed - We could build our own guards and we can choose which ones would be a guard (for specific valuables). 
      Nora - (Gesturing to indicate all the drawings and work around the room) All the pictures (on the walls are valuable). 
      Jack - Are we going to choose a person to guard or build a guardian or make a fence or just ideas? - Jack
     Lochie - Remember the bad guys like shiny things.  We have shiny things in our collage area, so we should have a guard for them.
    Nora - Then it's going to be a sculpture. Then it's going to be metal. They used a lot of steel (for the transformers.
       Jack - Like silver stuff or clay sculptures. Robbers would steal them so we need a guard.
        Nora - And for little jewels (in the collage area or message center).
       Marley - The guard (for shiny things) could have jewelry on it. 
        Sylvie - The plates (are valuable)! If people take them, you can't eat.  (This is similar to jade's idea that there should be a snack guardian.)

Lochie - It's a robot.  It's a guardian for the portfolios.  It's made out of metals and gears.  It's strong and it has lasers, too. 

Maxon - This guardian protects everything in the school.   He shoots lasers.  He protects things from monsters, goblins, and bad guys.  

Marley - This is the guardian for shiny stuff.  He's made of gold and he has diamonds.  

Here's two more guardians from Lochie.  The both guard the constellation work in the Tucker Room.  The one on the left hangs from the ceiling.  The one on the rights stands under the constellations.  

Violet - This is the guardian for the shiny stuff.  He's got diamonds inside of him. 

During our team meeting with Molly and Jen yesterday, we decided to pursue what specific kinds of guardians the school should have.  What is valuable at St. John's?  What should our guardians protect? Even before the teachers brought up the topic of guardians, Cape exclaimed, "I know about guardians."
Here's how the conversation proceeded from there:
    Cape - I know about guardians.  They actually have guns to protect.   They use black to build walls so people can't go through.  They can protect gold and stuff.  They can protect kings and queens or whatever.
     Finlay - The guardians have metal gadgets.  Or the really best guns.  Guardians can do something really cool.  They can be ancient crocodiles.  They also have special pets.  
     Wilder - Guardians can transform in movies. They also have special things to protect a castle or something special, like treasure from the pirates.  Anything shiny or cool, the guardians can protect it.  
     Jill - Last week, you suggested that guardians could protect the school.  We want to know a little bit more.  Wilder mentioned that guardians protect "something special."  What is special and valuable at our school?  What should the guardians protect at our school or in the Rainey Room.  
      Bea - Clay.  Clay that has been in the kiln and painted.
   Frannie - We don't want someone to get a something shiny or a shiny necklace from someone.  
    Lily - Well, humans (as something that could be protected at our school).
      Jill - Which humans should be protected by the guardians.
      Lily - Well, everybody.
      Remy - Pillows (should be protected).  
      Cate - Diamonds.
      Brigitte - Do we have diamonds to protect at school?
      Cate - We have little gems at school.  
     Cape - Every part of the school should be protected.  We have little legos.   And other special things to protect.
      Cate - A shield could be something that a guard uses to protect things.   We could put the guardians at the door.
       Jill - Are there other special things or special places that should be protected?  
       Jade - Our special messages should be protected.  
      Lily - I have a question.  People don't know about the valuable stuff at school.  (Raising the possibility that maybe no one would come in and take our valuable stuff.) 

  

Cape - It's a king and queen guardian.  The green part is the super power:  FIRE FORCE,  There's fire poking out to protect the kind and queen.  (The guardian proceeds to talk in crocodile language) "I'm guarding things."
He is built out of metals, he has a bunch of screws.  My guardian's voice is growling.  The guardians use golden metals to see where they're going.

Jade - It's a message center guardian.  He's a boy because he looks like a boy.  He's made out of metals.  He's going to be next to the mailboxes.  His name is "Gold."

Bea - It's a girl guardian.  Girls like I'm a girl.  Her name is "The Protector."  She is the guardian of children's work, like paintings and things.  

Cate - It's a fairy guardian.  She protects flowers.  she is made out of flowers and leaves.  Gardening flowers -- not eating flowers.  She speaks English.  she lives in a fairy garden.  

Remy - My guardian scares away the bad people who take all of your hair.  He's made out of wood and metals.  His teeth are concrete.  

Lily - A guardian for humans.  It's a girl.  She scares away bad people.  Usually people are mostly inside (the school), so she can live inside.  She can be near the staircase to protect the whole school.

We had  brand new watercolor sets to work with in the studio yesterday.  When using watercolors, you can paint in any style from dreamy abstract designs to realistic representations.  Both were on display in the children's work.  Some children initially found the watercolors too watery, resulting in puddles on their paper.  Brigitte introduced the technique of dabbing the wet brush on a sponge to remove excess water before painting.  

During lunch, we talked about transformers and guards again.  there is definite interest in creating our own guards, so we will see how that develops next week.  Using blocks, they thought about making a transformer again.  there was some interest in reproducing the blue transformer.
     Jack - But Bumblebee is easier, because it has bigger pieces.  The little pieces are harder to put on the building.
    The construction crew evaluated their blocks and their working space, deciding what they would build.
      Jack - I'm doing criss-cross building.  Is anyone with me?
Eventually, two building teams were formed.  Sylvie and Giacomo worked together, as did C.C. and Jack.  
     Sylvie - It's a building for animals.  We're adding walls so the people can't see them.  
     Jack - We're making a house for cats.
   Sylvie - (Adding small lights). The lights are so the animals can still see.  it's so dark.
    C.C. - Because it's thunder storming outside. 

The trip to visit the transformer statues clearly wasn't a "one and done" experience.  As we revisited the children's responses to them, we were struck with the idea of "guardians" that was expressed by Wilder and Finlay.  We decided to follow up with a conversation,
    What do you know about guardians?
    Finlay - They're ancient.
    Brigitte - What does ancient mean?
    Finlay - Like really, really old.
    Cate - Like they're rusty.
    Wilder - They were big.  Bigger than you, Jill.
    Brigitte - What were they guarding.
    Finlay - The house.  I mean the humans. 
   Cape - They guarded the house in the old days. I went to the children's museum and I saw a guard there.
    Jill - Did you see guardians in a movie?
    Finlay - A lot of movies have guardians.  
    Lucas - I've watched "Frozen" hundreds of times.  
After some debate, the children agree that there are guardians in "Frozen."
  Cape -We need two green guardians with stop signs on their gloves.  I need them for my house.  
    

The ideas kept coming today.  We had more conversations and more collages.  Here's a sample of what the children said while working:
  Finlay - I'm going to make a dementor.  Guess what's really scary about dementors.  Their body is not connected to their head.  (He represents this in his collage.). Let's put some little gadgets in here.
    Jade - I'm making a guard.  He has a special job.  He guards the pumpkin patch to make sure no one takes the pumpkins.
  Finlay - (With a small spring). Did you take this spring from the transformers?
    Jill - No!  I didn't take it from the transformers.  
    Finlay - These look like real transformer things.  
    Jade - (Adding a lego piece) He's holding a sword.  
   Finlay - Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  We could build a guard for the school!  (Adding a piece of jewelry to his collage) I'm putting this gold here.  This guy is guarding the gold.
   Cape - (Coming to the collage table to add more to his collage). You know what my guard is guarding?  This special emerald.  Look!  I'm layering again.  (Layering of materials had been encouraged earlier.)
    Bea -(Starts collaging on a small piece of paper, but realizes that she would like to use bigger images.  She decides to connect a bigger piece of paper to her original work. ) The big stuff goes on the bigger paper and the small stuff goes on the smaller paper. It's a flower garden.  Or maybe I'll decide what it is when I'm done, like Lucas did.Maybe it will be a flower maze.  (She layers jewels on top of the cat's eyes.). Look!  The cat has sunglasses.  (Adding two metal pieces to the cat's head.). Now he's a police cat.  I'll put a watch next to him so he knows what time it is. 

About two weeks ago, Luke suggested that we could build a zoo.  Today was the day!  Building experiences often require collaboration and problem solving and that was true today as well.  The children initially built tall, but soon realized a more spread out system of spaces would work better as a zoo.   No problem!  The quickly worked to make the changes.
   Lucas - I'm making a machine for feeding.  If the animals are hungry, they can go in.
  Remy - Look how dark it is!  It's a great place for a sleepover!
Reflecting on their work later....
    Wilder - We made cages out of blocks.  
    Cate - The animals escaped!
    Jill - Then what happened?
   Luke - Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  We were the zookeepers.
    Lily - There were even dinosaurs.
    Bea - And there were bugs, but they needed more space and more bug friends... more bugs.

KW's neighborhood explorations continued this week with a visit to the Transformer statues near the Georgetown Campus.  As children checked out these metal masterpieces they made the following observations:
   Giacomo - I've never seen them before.
   Marley - There's a lot of metal pieces.
    Lochie - The stopped working.  
  Sylvie - (Indicating the yellow one). This one is called "Bumblebee."
  Jack - I've seen these before on the way to my dad's office. 
    George - They could go in my house.  They are SO big!
    

The children were eager to capture their transformer ideas with building materials today.  
   C.C. - We're building Bumblebee. 
   Giacomo - I'm not sure we can reach.  (We quickly found a stool!)
    C.C. - I'm not sure how we can do the arms.  
   Giacomo - I have an idea.  These can be the arms (boards).
   C.C. - And these can be the fingers (unit blocks).
   Giacomo - That's what I thought.
   Jack - How will we attache them?
   Reed - I know... maybe if we lift up some of those big blocks, we can stick them in there.  

The children worked well together, exchanging ideas and trying different strategies.  Eventually some tape was used to attach some of the smaller loose parts.