Take a look at all holiday messages that we have made for people that are important to our school.  Theresa, Aletha, Victor, and Lucilla will be thrilled to check their mailboxes next week.
Last week, we read the book "The Night Tree."  It's a story about a family that decorates a tree in the forest with things that animals can eat.  Today, as snowflakes drifted down, children made strings of cranberries and popcorn to leave on trees for the birds and squirrels.  Next week, we will check to see if the treats are still there,

We had a small group for our last day of KW before Winter Break.  We spent the rest of the afternoon, doing some of our favorite things:  reading "The Nutcracker" and other holiday books, playing guessing games, stringing beads, creating watercolors, and... of course, mandalas.  While working, Prater said, "Every child is an artist, you know."  Indeed.

Our small KW group kept quite busy this afternoon, despite missing a few of our friends! We continued exploring wire and small construction materials, as well as mixed-media painting, the bamboo tablet and a special (pretty healthy) cooking project!

We've loved playing with some of the new features on the bamboo tablet. We've found that you can change the shape of the brush into things like butterflies, music notes, Christmas trees and bubbles!
Rose: Woah, it's pretty cool, right?
Lila: Red is my favorite color. 
Rose: And white is kind of famous. White is like invented, they invented it years and years ago. 
Cassius, Willa and Vivienne shared some time together in today's mini studio. 

Vivienne: The sun is exploding (in her watercolor and marker creation).
Cassius taught Willa how to achieve a pink shade when using watercolor paints - See Willa, you just go lightly like this (with the red).

Lila, Lucy and Rose used beads, wire and small construction materials as inspiration for work with sculpture. 

And at last but certainly not least, was our special cooking project - toasted quinoa chocolate bark! Using quinoa that had been toasted beforehand, children melted dark chocolate, mixed it together with the quinoa, and spread it evenly on a baking sheet. After it solidified in the freezer for a few minutes, we broke into bite-sized pieces. Our taste-testers were quite pleased with the result! Willa thought that it smelled like the chocolate in her advent calendar. Here's to a heart-healthy and protein-based treat! 

After lunch, we took another look at the Montrose Park water with the digital microscope.  We found some dirty stuff  that was sort of turtle shaped.  Children also kept the holiday message making marathon going.  

Once again, children loved bringing the "workshop" to Kids' Workshop!   Children hammered nails, cut and twisted wire, and added beads and buttons.  Prater thought her finished product looked like a horse.  We will carry wood-working experiences into the new year!  While their classmates worked with wood and wire, Cassius and Carl invented new games at the magnetic chalkboard.

After some sewer and drain pipe building in the outdoor classroom, we moved inside for lunch and to explore some of the offerings in the Tucker Room. 
Some friends began in the construction area. Children worked with hammers, nails, small pieces of wood, wire, pliers and beads to create sculptures.  Max created a sculpture to bring home as a table-setting for Hannukah. Friends were inspired by the colors of his beads and also the shapes he twisted his wire into. 

We also had our Montrose Park water sample on offer to investigate under the digital microscope. Jay and Rose looked at the sample together. Jay: Look Rose, there are lots of animals in there. They drew their interpretations. 

Watercolor painting was on offer in the mini-studio as well as holiday card-making in the message center. 

Our fun Friday started off with a yummy lunch at &pizza.  Following our meal, we had the best bus karma ever.  Right as we walked outside, our bus arrived to take us up to R Street.  Once at Montrose, we walked down to the river and collected our fourth water sample.  We walked up the hill and had a chance to play at the playground before pick-up.  It was a little chilly, but everyone made the best of it and had a great time.  Enjoy these images, have fun in the snow, and have a great weekend!

Small building materials like marble slabs, small pieces of wood, tiles and sea animals were on offer again today at the small stuff table. Stories of sea animals, ice bergs and families emerged.
Lila: There's ice seals and water seals.
Ellee: If the shark kills the alligator, if it's dead, it's back alive.
Lila: (baby seal voice) I got bitten by the alligator. 
(Rose and Prater build a house)
Lila: I want to have a sleepover here.
Rose: There are seals here, do you like seals?
Lila: Yes, I like seals. Let's go see our friends.
Prater: Pretend you don't know where your friends are. 
Vivienne: (with sting ray) I'm going to sting you!
Ellee has animals floating on ice bergs. 
Lila: Can I be in your family?
Ellee: Sure. 
Willa: The ginormous sting ray is gone.
Vivienne: I'll come back to the island. 
(Crocodile approaches)
Vivienne: No, do not come near my kids. We'll move to a new island. 

We also discovered some very cool features on the bamboo tablet. Friends enjoyed experimenting with new brush strokes and also seeing the effects of color mixing on the computer. They were very diplomatic as they came across some differences in color preferences - 
Grace: I want it to be blue.
Rose: Well I want it to be purple.
Grace: Do you know what my Mom said? You can agree to disagree. So you like purple and I like blue so we agree to disagree. If we both liked blue we would agree to agree. You see? And we leave it there and don't care. 
And also very complimentary of eachother's work - 
Rose: That looks like lava (to Grace). 
Prater: Wow, that's a beautiful yellow, Grace. 

The work continued after lunch.  Small, table top materials were available in one area of the room.  This structure was a home for sea animals.  Often as children build on a smaller scale, a story emerges.  Today was no exception.
   Lila - It's a family story.
   Vivienne - There's a crocodile and the crocodile is going to eat all the baby kids.  He's hungry for baby kids.
   Mac - (With the crocodile)  I'm eating.
   Ellee - Don't even think about it.  This is our house.
   Mac - (Putting the crocodile under a basket.)  He's in a cage.
   Vivienne - What happened to the crocodile?
   Ellee - The fish police put him in a cage.
​

In the Construction area, white fabrics and materials were available as a provocation to create a wintery scene.  Not surprisingly, children thought about the North Pole.
    Cassius - Want to build Santa's Workshop?   Jay, Can I help you with yours?
    Jay - Sure, you can help me whenever you want.
    Cassius - We can add more things.
    Jay - These are two big buildings because I watched the North Pole and it had that.
    Carl - That's where Santa works with the elves.  (Building a chair)  The boss chair.  
    Cassius - I knew there was a boss chair.
    Jay - Because Santa is a boss.
​

Of course, our day wouldn't be complete without working on some holiday messages.... and mandalas!

We continued water testing today, but this time paying attention to the change in pH in each sample. pH (we've learned) is a measure of acidity in the water. We tested things like coffee, vinegar and orange juice to compare acidity levels in our water with. 
Jill: What do you think the color change means?
Max: The dark colors were the bad ones.
Jay: Because they're magic. 
Cassius: (w/ waterfront water) It's 6.0. That matches the closest. 
(Ducks prefer water with a pH of 6.0 to 6.8 and can tolerate a pH range of 4-8) - looks like our waterfront ducks are in good shape! 

We also continued work with our "clay tracings". Children rolled coils and traced the shapes they saw from our easel/light table drawings created last week.

Friends also worked on holiday messages for Gini, Victor, Lucilla, Theresa and Aletha.

It's hard to believe that it's December with this wonderful weather!  We walked to Volta Park, taking time to notice interesting leaves and decorations.  Just as we arrived at Volta, we saw Elena!  Her mom told us that the playground was closed because they were leaf blowing.  This didn't slow down the KW crew!  We went to the field side of the park to play.  As we walked there, we saw Tegan and Carl.  We ran around,  threw leaves, and played freeze tag until it was time to head back to the school.  Enjoy the slide show and have a great weekend!