On our last afternoon together, children enjoyed playing outside in the beautiful sunshine.  We worked on a "thank you" book for the Lantern Book Store and children painted at the easel.  Elena, no surprise, painted a picture of her family.  Enjoy these images and have a wonderful Spring Break!

There has been so much excitement about the wonderful visits we had to The Lantern bookshop and our book art since, we knew we had to take a moment and write a “Thank You” message. Before lunch we asked the children what ideas they had about materials and the format of our thank you message. The children had many ideas which related to the work they have been doing with books, ultimately deciding to make a small book that all of the children could add to in order to show our appreciation.

The children have spent many days preparing their altered books for a day like today. Using glue to strengthen the pages and adhere multiple pages together, the children had prepared their pages to withstand heavier media such as paint! So today we brought out the paints both for use in our altered books and on the easel. Children were able to use hairdryers as a tool to help speed up the process, allowing the children to do more in their books during one session. The hair dryers were very popular today as children used them to dry pages in their book so they could turn the page and continue working. Also available today were glue sticks, Elmer’s glue, collage materials, and fibers. 


Tommy, Lily, Hugh, James, Abby, and Cate all worked in their altered books. Will and Abby painted at the easel. Lily and James worked at mark-making in their books, Hugh painted in large blocks of color, and Tommy created his ink-blot-type paintings in his book along with experimenting with mixing colors. Abby and Cate worked for an extended period of time mixing colors, creating layers, and adding multimedia to their books. Many of the children noted the letters on the book pages showing through the paint. 


Cate said, “I want to make it lighter,” as she painted a layer of white glue over her work. She also added some foil she had saved in her book pocket beneath a layer of paint. She studied these areas of the page where she had “hidden” the foil as she dried it with the hairdryer. She also lightly rain her finger overtop as if feeling the difference in texture the foil and paint created. Abby started with white paint on her paper then slowly added one color at a time and mixed the colors slowly, describing the changes as she went. She dripped a few drops of color then mixed it in. Toward the end of her work she also used a small tear of paper, running it overtop of the paint, watching the way it caused a sort of swirl effect in the paint. Abby and Cate added felt fibers to their pages, then added more paint overtop.

Today every child showed interest in engaging with all of the opportunities presented. Even in our building workshop, where only two children could work at a time and the children had to wait for a turn, a large group of children were found engaging with the experience in one way or another. Though many children realized they would not get a turn building today, they remained observing, asking questions, and sharing ideas about the experience. And, once again, the children were intent on going straight to building structures with the hammers, nails, and pieces of wood despite obstacles like difficult wood to nail into. We made plans for future structures to be built and ideas about what types of materials we might want to achieve the children’s ideas. We’re looking forward to giving more children the opportunity to build next week and after the break.
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Literacy emerged as a common theme across all our work today including parts of out daily routine and the work children did back at school in preparation for their building workshop. 
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During table-setting, children have many opportunities for real-life uses of math and literacy skills such as counting how many people we have, making sure we have enough chairs, and figuring out which place-cards we need for the day. While Grace and James set the table for lunch today we realized we needed a place-card for Jessica Kuhn as she was joining us for lunch and the field trip. Grace offered to write it. She wrote the letters as Jessica M. read them out loud. She explained to James as she drew on the purple place-card, “This is for another Jessica. I’m writing wings for her.” When Jessica Kuhn came into the room Grace asked her, “Do you like the color purple?” Jessica said, “I do. How did you know?” Grace replied, “I know because I noted it.”

Another opportunity for children today was to draft plans for possible building structures. Previously several children had suggested making a type of home and today Lou Lou said we should make a home for Shelly, a rock children, especially from the Rainey room, are especially fond of caring for in the outside classroom. So we invited children to draw their ideas for building. James drew a house for his stuffy, Hedgie and several children drew homes for Shelly and signs for Shelly's house. Louise made a floorpan, drawing around Shelly, "Shelly fits inside!" Children showed their knowledge, interest, and growing confidence in literacy concepts while they worked. After drawing, children spent time building with wood and loose parts.

Today we started to think about what structures we would actually like to build.  Here's our thought so far:
   Hugh - The museum of the declaration of independence.  Actually, I'm thinking of a zoo.  I'll build a zoo.
   Cate - I'm thinking of an apartment.
   Dagny - I want to do the seal area of the zoo.
   Lily - A horse run.
   Will - A castle.
   Cate - I want to build a castle.

Children went on to draw their ideas.  Although actual construction will probably happen after Spring Break, we will be exploring tools later this week.  Children also spent time building with blocks in the classroom.  Perhaps not surprisingly, there was talk of building the FBI (again).

The children's interest in making altered books has taken off!  We have used books for most of the children, but not quite enough for everyone.  With this in mind, a small group walked with the two Jessicas to the Lantern used book store today.  The store had kindly set aside some books that we could use in our work at school.  While there, children explored the different areas of the store and sat in front of the sunny window to read.  Jessica Kuhn read a Fancy Nancy book, a Pigeon book, and "Pokey Little Puppy."  The group bought one book to bring back for Rainey Room:
    Grace - A book all about trees.  The leaves turn colors.  I gave it to my classroom because it's very special.
We also set aside some other books to purchase when we take another small group in the future.   A big thank you goes out to Jessica Kuhn for walking with us and reading to us!
    

Print-making was offered as another option today, specifically bubble wrap and dendritic printing for those who hadn't yet  the chance (or wanted to again!) try these forms of prints. The children gathered around with great anticipation to see each print come to life when the glass or paper was lifted.