Friday, April 8, 2022

4/8/2022

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The Shiny Guardian Takes Shape

As we engage in long-term work, we very often find that children come up with solutions and ideas that the adults;ts have not considered. This creative problem solving was on display yesterday as the children worked to attach the jointed arms to the body of the Shiny Things Guardian.
Lochie: If we could hole bunch (the metal body) and hole punch the arm, we could wrap wire and tighten it. C.C.: (After testing ideas) we could put the wire through the front (joint).
C.C. and Lochie test different ways until they decide on stringing wire through the front.
C.C.: Ok now we have to twist it together. (Lochie and CC twist the wire to make a single braid which they wrap through the hole in the shoulder of the arm)
Lochie: Now we need to hole punch it. This part is the shoulder.
Marley joins.
   Jordan: Marley, we’ve created these amazing arms for the shiny guardian but they don’t match the guardian body
   Marley: They aren’t very shiny.
Jordan: You’re right. What can we do to make them shiny?
Marley looks through the materials and finds silver paper.
   Marley: This is the shiniest. Let’s use this.
Marley wraps the arm in paper and ands glue.
 Marley: What about those spots. (she continues to work).
Jack joins.
  Jordan: We have arms for the guardian but I think we need legs. Do you have any ideas?
   Jack: We can tape them on. Jordan: Hmmmm. I worry that the tape won’t be secure.
Jack: does it even need legs?
  Marley: Maybe it moves around on its hands. (She hunches over and demonstrates walking on hands around the room.)
 Jack: What about a jet pack? You could glue these tubes together and cut part out
C.C.: I made jets for his hands
Jack: Electricity makes things fly
Jordan: He uses jets to fly around. That’s such a cool idea. We don’t have time today but can we come back to that later.
CC, Jack, Lochie: Yea!

So today was all about the jet packs.....

What is a jetpack and why does the shiny guardian need one?
   Maxon: The shiny guardian can use the jet pack to fly around.
   Lochie: Because it has no legs.
   Nora: Something that has jets in the back and poofs you up into the air.
   Lochie: Then you can fly in the air. You can fly over the ocean. You can fly anywhere because it doesn’t have batteries.
Maxon notices that different types of jetpacks are displayed.
   Maxon: Those jet packs (he points to the aquatic ones) are different. Those let you go underwater and shoot water to make you fly.
 Lochie: But the other kind you can fly into the air. Anywhere.
We use the pictures of jet packs as a reference for initial designs
Maxon: I’m going to try to make the underwater one. I like the top (aerial) one. You can go anywhere

Reed

Lochie

Maxon

Nora

Describing their work:
   Lochie: You hold onto the jetpack with straps. Longer wings makes you fly higher.
   Maxon: He’s flying over a mountain. But it (the jetpack) doesn’t work. Then he goes into the water and it does work.
  Nora: Jets are on the outside. These are glasses because she’s close to the sun.
Reed: The girl is very far from land. The lines are handles.

Materials and Processes for the Constellation Guardian

Since making the original drawings, children have not had much time to work on the Constellation Guardian. On Thursday, they began to consider materials. The group had previously established that the materials should be similar to those they used to make the constellations. They collected a large amount of beads, old jewelry, and shiny stuff. They were also drawn to the white egg carton pieces.
Audrey - These could be the arms and legs.
Sylvie - Yep. And they can be the ears. They're a little pokey.

Yesterday, children sewed the shiny treasures on to the body. However, it was sometimes difficult to find a needle that would work with certain pieces. Today, children tried the "no-touch wire" techniques they used when forming the constellations.

This and that.....

We also enjoyed the sunshine during out outdoor classroom time, playing games, adding a slide area to the rat hospital structure in the Tucker Room, painting with watercolors, building and pretending at the light table, and making messages for the new children that will attend St. John's next year.