We heard that Tucker Room was getting ready for a festive Friday right before break.  Why not make our last day of KW before break equally fun? Children decorated holiday gingerbread people... and enjoyed eating them!  Here's some of their thoughts while decorating the cookies:
   C.C.  - It's like gingerbread making.  The frosting helps things stick.
   Giacomo - I'm adding more eyeballs.
   C.C. - You think I'm doing two colors and that's it?
   Jack - I made a heart.  I added red to my Nutella.  That will make it taste more good.
   Janie - I love Nutell.  It's the best thing I've had in my life.
   Sylvie - Anything will stick to frosting or Nutella.  That goes first.  Can we eat these?  When?
   Jordan - Later today.
   Sylvie - Are you serious?  Isn't mine so great.  I'm sorry to eat it up in one second.
   Elle -I wish I could lick icing off everything.
   Sylvie - Did you know what's so crazy?  I put on Nutella AND M & Ms!

One of our favorite outdoor games is called "Mr. Fox." The children split themselves into two groups, foxes and bunnies. As they designate roles for the round, they practiced entering play, communicating with their peers and negotiation. The bunnies go to one end of the outdoor classroom and designate it as their "safe zone" or "bunny hole." The remaining 1-2 children are the foxes who move to the other side of the outdoor classroom.

The bunnies ask "what time is it Mr. Fox. The foxes then give a time in hours such as "It's four o clock." The bunnies practice one to one correspondence and listening my taking as many steps as the number of hours. If the foxes say "midnight" or "dinner time," the bunnies must run back to their 'bunny hole' before the foxes tag them. If a bunny is tagged, they become a fox. KW has decided that the last bunny gets to be the first fox in the new round.

On Monday, Jordan and Jill spent time with Amelia over zoom.   Based on our interest in group games, Amelia shared a presentation on Ring-Around-the Rosy.  Children were interested in creating a book of games, and therefore needed to explain and draw this game.  The project included many learning opportunities and problems to solve.  Of course the children persisted and developed incredible representations of the game.The presentation inspired us to think about our work and how some everyday experiences can be revisited to extend children's understanding, problem solving, persistence, and collaboration....just to name a few.  ​

   Lochie - There's one person who can't move their arms (the person offering directions or clues) and one who can't see.  And the one who can see tries to lead the one who can't see to the medicine.   If I say, "Go to the left," you go to the left and if I say, "Go backwards two steps," you backwards two steps.

We wondered if children could articulate the techniques and processes involved in other recent work.  We brought back origami, and asked children to share what they knew about the techniques and processes.  Yesterday Janie, Audrey, and Elle worked on origami flowers. 
   Audrey- My grandma makes origami
   Janie - Here, let me show you. (Janie demonstrates the initial folds for the flower.) It looks like a doggy (a similar fold we did last week.)
Janie shows friends the origami garden in middle room.
   Janie: We made these!
   Audrey -  I love them

Today children revisited their work with origami.
   Maxon - First we can make an easy one, then a hard one.
Jack completes the first fold on his own.
    Jack - I first fold it like this (making triangles) then I fold this (in half) and then I make wings.
    Maxon - Oh, I can do it.
    Jack - I make airplanes sometimes at home.  This is the only one I know.  
Giacomo joins the group and he and Jack coach Maxon through the process.
    Giacomo - You fold the corners to the center line.
    Jack - (Assisting Maxon) That's not the center line.  
    Maxon - I can't do it.
    Giacomo - I can help you.
The group also thought of ways that they could help the Rainey Room children with their origami.
    Jack - (We could show them) one of these because I know it better.
    Maxon - A video or teach them how to fold.  they would be with us.
   Giacomo - We can make a video and we can show them how.    

Children have been enthusiastically making messages with holiday-inspired materials.  We noticed that while Rainey Room preferred to make messages for their families, many Tucker children made extra-special messages for their friends.  Here's a sample of the supportive conversations that we heard while children worked.
   C.C. - I'm going to use glittery (paper).  Jack, are you going to use glittery?
   Jack - (Squeezing the glue bottle) Oh!  This glue is hard (to squeeze).
   C.C. - Jack, you might want to stand up to squeeze the glue.
   Jack - My muscles are stronger when I'm sitting down. 
   Elle - I'm going to make one for my Nonna and Papa.  They are coming today.
   C.C. - I need a long strip of sparkles.  Can I have a scissors?  I need to measure and cut it.
   Reed - (Beginning her second message) Now I'm going to make one for Leigh-Leigh.  What would Leigh-Leigh like?  I know she likes purple.  (She starts drawing with purple on her red message paper.). Wait!  This isn't purple!
    Elle - Well, it is purple, but you're drawing on red, so it turns darker.
    C.C. - Here, I can give you a purple (She tests the purple marker on white paper.) This is a little better.
    Audrey - This is for my family.  mommy, daddy, and T.T.  I know how to spell mom and dad.

The KW program is making a holiday gift for Gini.  This week we learned that her favorite color is purple and that she likes all animals, especially dragonflies.  Although we are not exactly sure how we will use them yet, we started with some dragonfly drawings. 

We put our finishing touches on our individual mosaics.  Next we will tackle the collaborative mosaics that will be on display in the school's bathrooms.  
   Jordan - This is what we are using today
   Elle - I know this! This is the grout
   Sylvie - It's like cement.
   Jordan - Right! But today is special. Today we are going to add paint so you can make your grout any color you want. 
   Elle - Can mine be pink?
Elle, Janie and Sylvie mix acrylic paint with their grout
   Sylvie: I'm happy with my color.
The children are given the choice of using their hands or tools to put the grout onto their bases.
   Janie - It's so sticky. How do we get it on?
   Elle - I'm going to use my hands
   Sylvie - Me too.
   Janie - No, I want to use a spoon.

Holiday lights are everywhere!  This week, we added artificial candle lights to our table setting and building experiences.  As they built, children talked about campfires, fire pits, and cozy enclosures. 

The best part of cooking or baking is sharing it with others. Today, Rainey Room and Tucker Room got the enjoy the persimmon bread that KW baked yesterday. For a lot of us, it was the first time we had tried persimmon bread. It can take a couple tries to warm up to a new food but for many of us, it was a lovely surprise treat.

This was a surprise for Tucker room. The friends in Tucker Room were just as excited to eat it as they were to figure out what it was made of.  Can you guess what goes into the persimmon bread recipe?

One thing KW loves to do is cook. Today, we had the opportunity to make persimmon breads thanks to the wonderful Jill. Measuring, counting, fine motor, following directions, cause and effects. These are all important skills we worked on as we cooked. Plus, the end result is so satisfying. 

That was what Janie said when she saw all of the origami on display in the middle room.  It's an impressive collection and it also represents true hands-on learning.  As children use their fine motor skills to fold and crease the paper into animals, shapes and structures, they are using spatial reasoning, using their ability to follow directions in a sequence, as well as building understanding of part-whole relationships (fractions) and geometry (shapes and angles).  Did we mention it's also a lot of fun?

Children have been working with the pegboards in both Tucker Room and KW.  There have been interesting discoveries along the way.  This week, we noticed a lot of patterns in their work.  Patterns are often described as the language of mathematics.  The KW crew is adept at pattern recognition, pattern creation, pattern description, pattern extension, and pattern reproduction.  Here's some examples:

Top Left - Bea.
Top Right - Lily.
Bottom Left - Jade.
​Bottom Right - Lucas