Traces of Reggio in Small World

On Thursday, children used materials from Italy and inspired by Italy in small world.  The wood blocks with the door images were featured, as well as some little chick figures bought in Reggio.  Lily - I can't stand how cute this guy is!  (One of the chicks)

The doors figured prominently, as did the idea of combining worlds.  Tucker Room has seen a similar desire for combining and connecting in their work with houses.  It's clear that these children feel a sense of community with their peers.    Finlay - Me and Capers are going to combine.  Lily - We (Lily was building with Frannie) have the stoplight.   Frannie - We've go a t.v. screen.  Michael - We have a secret entrance.  Do you have a secret entrance, Lily?    Finlay - I like the doors because they look like secret passage ways.

Stories and Books Each week, the children are making steady progress on illustrating the stories that they have dictated.  Yesterday, we took a group of authors and illustrators to the middle room to work.   Children talked about their work as they completed several pages.      Cate - (Drawing several illustrations). My book is going to be black and white.  I might add color later.    Wilder - (Adding detail to his final illustration) It's normal to do a lot of work on the last page.    Hugh - Yeah, because the story has a big ending and you have to draw a lot of things.      Wilder -Can the cover say, "Illustrated by Wilder?" ​   Jill - Of course it will!

A Neighborhood Walk

Have a wonderful weekend!

Spring in Bloom

"Nobody sees a flower - really it is so small it takes time - to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time."                                                                              Georgia O'Keefe  On Wednesday,  children looked carefully at images and artists' depictions of cherry blossoms.  The results seem to indicate that the children were really looking, as they were able to capture these stunning images.    Cate - I don't need to look at the pictures, because I saw a real one when I went to the park.

Seon

Louisa

Mimi

Ellie

Zari

Remy

Lucas

Lily Wilder

Cate

A Different Way to Draw While on our Study Tour of Reggio Emilia, we saw a display featuring drawing done on bubble wrap.  This unique drawing surface produced new possibilities.  Children could focus on the dots or circles, on the space between the bubbles, or simply add color over the whole surface.  We saw these various approaches as children worked.    Louisa - (While tracing a path around the bubbles). I'm doing a maze.     Mimi - I'm doing a rainbow.     Remy - It would be more like paper if the bubbles were all popped.     Zari - I'm making a monster.  It's hard to do a smile on bubble wrap.     Ellie - I'm making a house and this (a blue area)is the pool.      Zari - This monster doesn't have any eyes.  That makes him scary.

Building with Italian Doors 

Tuesday's group used the doors on houses and castles.  The Tucker Room children collaborated on a castle that featured guards and an army.

Today children used the doors in small world to form a series of "gates" designed to keep the chicks (new animals brought back from Italy) from escaping.

Welcome Back!

Our Short Week!

​Children also built and played in small world.  We had fun outside, in spite of the cold weather!

We look forward to talking with many of you during the conference days.  Have a fantastic spring break!

Baking Banana Bread!

The Softest Sewing Sewing continued today, with each child focused on making pillows.       Bailee - I'm going to make a lot because I'm really good at sewing and I love sewing.   ​    Ford - I love sewing -- this is hard!  Because you have to keep going up and down.

Cal - It's a big, big, big, big big pillow for the turtle family.

Ford - Pikachu loves his pillow!

Buildings Big and Small

Materials and Messages

Have a wonderful weekend!

Counting, Graphing, Adding, Subtracting...

Last week's graph

This week's graph

As children worked with the unified cubes, they used a variety of math processes.  They counted dots and unifix cubes to ensure accuracy.  Sometimes, they were able to identify the number of circles with a glance, no counting necessary.  Cate and Hugh placed their unifix cubes in a grid with three rows of five to get the number fifteen.  Michael was able to easily "subtract" by snapping off unisex cubes to arrive at the correct number.

We hope to see you Friday morning as we share the process of the KW name change!

Small World Sewing  Children started sewing pillows and blankets for small world today.    Lily - We can sew a pillow?  For real?   (A little later...). Do you think sewing is kind of like weaving?  I want to make a blanket with a matching pillow.    Lucas - I'm making a pillow for my puppy.  I'm making it super fluffy.  My puppy is so fluffy, too!  He doesn't like to go on a walk.       Baillee - I want to make a pillow.  I need help.  It's so fluffy!

Children also continued working on paintings and weavings. 

​Small World Stories Children are continuing to dictate fun and interesting stories, most of which are related to small world.  This is a long term project, as the stories are illustrated by the children as well.   We're getting quite the collection!

A Quick Look at our Week

Working with Words and Numbers

From Thursday

From Friday: Finlay pointed out that it's hard to read this accurately because the circles are different sizes. Next week we will work on a bar graph format with unifix cubes.

KW Name Change Morning Coffee
Friday, March 10   8:45 a.m.
​Blake Hall

Fantastic Flooring! Our materials work this week involved  weaving (for rugs). Children have been enthusiastically using the rugs as they set up their small world scenarios.  Next week, we will sew blankets and pillows to make their environments   even cozier!

Small World Stories The children have continued telling and illustrating their stories from small world.  Luke started his book about "Little Beary" and Ellie's book will be about "Strawberry Unicorn."

​We had a slightly smaller group today.  All of the children worked ​on a collaborative, inter-connected small world.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Writing and Stories

From Stories to Books

Almost every experience in small world involves as story.  For example, here is one of the scenarios that emerged yesterday.    Finlay - We were trying to tell a story in small world.  The robber is running away with the diamonds.    Hugh - And he (the robber) was easy to catch because he was a tortoise!    Finlay - And they put him in jail.    Hugh - And this (rhino) is a bad guy and he was helping the robber, but he took fake diamonds!    Michael - And this stingray is protected from the bad guys and everything he doesn't like.

Cape and Saul have been the first to put their books together.  Their stories are inter-related as the two children often play together in small world.  Cape's uses characters in a lion family and Saul has an owl that is a famous chef.  The owl often cooks for the lion family and other visiting animals. We'll keep you posted as other books are published!

Rug Weaving

Wilder's weaving became a flying carpet for small world.

Outdoor Fun!

Preparing food for their restaurant...Surfside!