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Thursday, November 29, 2018

11/29/2018

It was another two-girl Thursday as Lou Lou stayed home today. Lunch took a little longer than usual due to a wide-ranging conversation between the two good friends. As Tegan pointed out, "There's a bunch of talking in here." Maisie and Tegan were able to choose between sewing and a trip to the canal for the day's experience. After some healthy debate over our lunch, we went to the canal. Along the way, we walked passed the Georgetown Glo installation that is near Dean and DeLuca. Once at the canal, we found and fedd the ducks and did some wonderful duck drawings. A wonderful time was had by all, including the ducks! Enjoy these images!

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

11/28/2018

Continuing Sewing Explorations

This afternoon was full of continued explorations with sewing, layering and combining a variety of materials in collage-like creations. Using hand- and/or machine-sewing, the children worked with great focus to combine the various textures.

Other Fun

Today was Lou Lou's first Wednesday in KW, and with that, came the surprise of sharing a KW day with Sam. (Previously they did not overlap days.) Lou Lou was so pleased she invited Sam to help her with the table setting and the two spent much of the afternoon side-by-side in their chosen activities.

While the sewing was happening, children also spent some time working on building with Legos. Sam said they were "building a doll house." Louise began acting out family scenarios with Grace that seemed to extend from the Lego play.

We read another version of Stone Soup and finished the day "telling" about the sewing work that was done. Each child had a turn telling about the work they had done, which type of sewing they did, materials they used, and about their process. Here's some bits of what they children had to say:

LOUISE - "This is my bag and it can pop and you can hold it and swing it around and it's a cloud. You can have whatever color, pink or black. You can swing it. I made it with hand-sewing and I did it all by myself."

TEGAN (about Louise's work) - "She made it look like a heart."

LOU LOU - "You can't pull it off because it will break. I did back sewing. I did a special button and it made it do it backwards. I did that to that to that. I missed a part."

SAM - "I sewed this part and then this button and this net on it. I put a spooky net on it. You want to see how I can make it do different things?"

TEGAN - (Speaking about the number of materials she used.) "I counted 12."

GRACE - "I picked this (corrugated cardboard). Teachers and children can try it. This part (bead) is standing up. I picked these (beads.)

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

11/27/2018

Explorations in Sewing

A big part of our day was taking sewing in new and interesting directions. Along with fabric, children had the opportunity to use plastic gels, rubber bands, cloth loops, bubble wrap,, cardboard, netting, and various papers were available. While we didn't come close to using all these materials, some children made new discoveries with the materials and the machines. Different types of stitches such as zig-zag were also part of the experience. Lou Lou and Louise stuck with fabric, but often compared their work and collaborated with sewing. At one point, the girls took turns going under the table to run the foot pedal, while the other would feed fabric through the machine. Some of the reflections about the sewing process:
Grace - A thread is like a line. The machine was moving so fast. It was not easy (sewing through paper by hand). Grace used both machine and hand sewing in her work
Lily - I used the sewing machine. These are big lines. (Lily adjusted the size of the stitches she used.)
Lou Lou - The lines I did with the sewing machine. I turned it around. (Lou Lou and Louise both were able to turn a corner with the sewing machine)
The new materials and processes were engaging for children, whether they worked together or individually. We will offer more sewing explorations in the coming weeks.

Our large group featured five Tucker Room friends today. We placed the bridge that was created as aThanksgiving feat centerpiece along with construction materials on the large table. Hugh, Tommy, Maisie,, Tegan, and Lily spent much of their afternoon creating a city around the bridge. This was another example of the small worlds children have created throughout the year such as the Curious Garden and the Main Street City book. As they worked, the children negotiated, took turns, solved problems and collaborated. Here's a few of the things that took place in their city today:
   Hugh - (Adding blocks) That a building because buildings are on the side of the road. (Adding animals) The animals should be in the wild. (Hugh then arranged the animals into their "families," al the elephants together, etc.)
After some more building....
   Tommy - (Looking at the roads and rows of building they've added) We made a "P."
   Hugh - Yeah, we made a "P" in our city. The letter P.
   The city is subject to a series of natural disaster, storms, wildfires, and an earthquake.....
Maisie - It's an island that has a lot of storms.
   Hugh - It's a massive storm and the animals are injured.
   Tommy - Yeah, so many are injured.
   Tegan - It's a very intense city.

It was so wonderful to be back together again! We had a great time just hanging out in the outdoor classroom as well. We can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Friday, November 16, 2018

11/16/2018

This afternoon Lily, Sam, Hugh, and Tommy continued working on centerpieces for the Thanksgiving Feast that KW and Early Bird children have been creating together. We can't wait for you to see them at the Feast next week!! Have a wonderful weekend and we'll see you back on the blog after Thanksgiving Break!

Thursday, November 15, 2018

11/15/2018

Lou Lou, Maisie, and Tegan spent the day collaborating on Thanksgiving centerpieces. Children had started using watercolors on circles earlier in the week. Today that work continued, and Lou Lou spent some time collaging on the same circles. Maisie and Tegan helped create bases for these floating circles. The rest of the afternoon was attaching the circles to the bases. You will be able to see these masterpieces next week at the feast!

Wednesday, November 14th.......continued!

11/15/2018

Caroline provided us with some awesome notes and photos. Here's a closer look at the day!
First we opened Rivers, Roads and Rails (a fun game that Caroline brought in with her)> Initially, the children were a bit confused by the game, but then things clicked and they found the puzzle element intriguing. We took a break and I let everyone know that there would be 4 table setters today. Such excitement! Grace and Louise even made me a place setting while Sam and Tegan wove beads onto some wooden comb-thing.
After lunch we played more Rivers, Roads and Rails. The children began working through the game challenges.
After the game we did water colors and drew our treasure hunt clues.

Tegan - swing / play structure
Grace - dragon
Louise - sandpit
Sam - sandpit

Friends sat on the bench and waited for other friends to hide their treasures.
Once everyone hid their treasures the children were SO excited to get started. The treasures were hidden behind things as well as under sand and mulch. Some were found quickly and others took some time. Tegan had to retrieve her own from underneath the play structure.
Then Sam created his own Rivers, Roads and Rails in the mulch and sand, and friends followed his paths.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

11/14/2018

Due to the many happenings this week coinciding with the conference, Amelia Gambetti's visit, and the Head of School School Search our blog will be on the light side this week. When we can we will share some photos. A big, "Thank you," to Caroline for filling in today!

Friday, November 9, 2018

11/11/2018

There will be no written blog today because the teachers are participating in the head of school search and are preparing for the NAEYC conference our school is hosting next week. We hope you enjoy these photos showing what Tommy and Hugh got up to and have a great weekend!

Thursday, November 8, 2018

11/8/2018

We took advantage of this beautiful day and walked to Tudor Place. Even before school started, Lou Lou told us about a trip she took to Tudor Place where she saw a white bunny. Although we didn't see the white bunny, we spent time talking with a guide in the garden. She told us that the white bunny's name is Agnes! We saw a butterfly, and the guide told us it was an Admiral Butterfly. She asked us to name the butterfly, and we decided to name it Admiral Audrey Murray. We remembered that we had seen deer at Montrose last week, and our guide said the deer come to Tudor Place as well. The girls decided that the deer should be named James. We also learned that a dell is a garden that is made to look like a wild forest. It was a fund and informative trip. Enjoy these images!

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

11/7/2018

Sewing workshops and testing a new medium: tempera paint sticks.

TEMPERA PAINT STICKS
With all of the big drawing children have been doing on large paper, we adults started wondering what media would best support this large mark-making. So today we tested tempera paint sticks to get a feel for them and see if they might be a good fit.

Grace made bold marks with the creamy paint sticks all around the border of her paper.

Louise said, "It's like lipstick," as she worked. When Louise was finished with her picture she said, "This is the street (gesturing to the trail of bold colors) and that's all of us (waving her hand over the line of shapes boxed in by lines) wearing silly faces and silly eyes." When asked if it was all of us, like in KW, Louise continued, "Yeah and these are things...our car and our jungle gym and our park." Louise described the line around KW, "That's our house. No, that's a airplane. We're flying to Bethany Beach and Disney World."

Sam drew for some time. He explained his drawing, "This is a volcano." While adding brown marks he said, "This is the mud!" Sam added black, "It exploded on the black and this (the gold and silver part) is the exploded part."

SEWING WORKSHOPS
We worked in two areas with sewing today: hand and machine sewing. All of the children worked at hand-sewing.

Grace explained sewing, "You poke in and out, in and out."

As Sam sewed, he said, "My shirt is fabric."

Tegan spent most of the workshop time hand sewing stitches around the flower-pattern on the fabric she chose making a grid- or quilt-like pattern.

Grace and Louise had their first go at sewing on the machines. They listened and paid close attention to the steps, learning how to lift and lower the foot, turn the knob to move the needle, place their fabric, and sew with the pedal. Louise tried first, then explained the steps to Grace. As Grace became for proficient with the steps Louise, excitedly declared, "You're getting the hang of it, Grace!"

P.S. In case you hadn't figured out whose message box would be full today it was Molly! We said, "Happy Birthday!"to her in messages and again at lunch today. Molly was so happy to find the surprises in her box.