Friday, December 2, 2022

Sharing our Work with the Community

On Wednesday, Brigitte attended the DC Reggio Emilia Alliance (DCREA) meeting.  DCREA is a study group committed to supporting professional discourse through research and collaboration.  For this meeting, attendees were encouraged to bring an artifact, documentation, or a photo from their work that reflected their values.   Brigitte brought the documentation and the table runner pictured here.  
Attendees at the meeting walked around and looked at everyone's work.  they shared their comments or reflections through written messages.  Here's a sampling of the messages that were left near the KW work samples.

• Togetherness, conversations, sharing
• Community, materials, belonging
• The power of art as identity and connection
• Painting on a different texture other than paper is great
• Beautiful focus, valuing togetherness, it was unexpected to see a representation of the lunch table
• Sense of community, sharing, connection
• Diversity of materials -- such a wide variety, everyone has a choice
• This teacher values individuality and at the same time inclusion
• Students building strong 
• This teacher values individuality and at the same time inclusion
• I love that families were also included in the project. 

Educators looking at the KW artifacts.

We were thrilled that other educators could "read" our KW work so accurately.  Our KW community clearly values the pleasure and beauty we find when we eat together.  No wonder children often talk about lunch as their favorite part of the afternoon. 

Continuing our Table Runners

Now that Cal and Zari have joined our ranks, we needed to extend our table runner.  They were both excited to work with the machine today to create beautiful individual squares that will be added to one runner next week.  Ellie also was happy to take another turn at the machine!

Game Day!

Thursday was game and puzzle day in KW.  During our outside time, we played a lively "Mr. Fox."  After lunch, we offered four games, a puzzle, and holiday messages. 

The Dinosaur Egg Game
Luke brought in a game from home which consist of stealing the dinosaur's eggs from the nest without  getting snatch by the mommy dinosaur . Jade played the game earlier, so she was able to explain the rules to her Rainey Room friends in KW.
Jade: You have to lift the leaf, first you roll the die, if you roll out an "X", you miss your turn. If you roll a blue, you take the tweezer, lift the leaf and you get the blue egg.
Ford: I can't get it! I'm scared!
Luke: Don't be scared, I am holding him (the dinosaur) back. Good, now it's Seon's turn. Don't get bitten Seon.
Seon rolled out a yellow, so everyone cheered " Get the yellow, get the yellow, get the yellow, Yay!! she did it. 
Luke: Now it's Ellie's turn, do you want me to roll it for you Ellie?
Ellie: I can't do it, he's going to bite me.

Finlay also brought a game from home:  "Poop Bingo."
"We can just call it Bingo," Finlay diplomatically told us! Children enjoyed playing it until their cards were full.  We also played Memory and Zingo.  In addition, the children collaborated to complete a 100 - piece puzzle.

Tis the Season!

The holiday spirit is in the air!  Each December, classroom prepare gifts for the people that support our programs throughout the year.  This year, the KW crew is working on a gift for Kurt.  We'll be making him a clay dish that will be filled with some sort of sweet treats.  As we talked about the gift, we asked if the children knew Kurt.
   Ford - He's a worker.  In the window (the window near where we sit for dismissal).  In the office.
As we began to work with clay, several children were eager to get their hands on it!
   Bailee - My favorite thing is to touch it (the clay).
​We started working on a dish.... we'll keep you posted on our progress!

​Our messages have become festive as well.  Children enjoyed using the new papers and materials to make special messages for friends and family members.

​On Wednesday, it was still Halloween in Small World.  However, today there was a major development.  Small world started celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas!

Have a wonderful weekend!