Friday, December 6, 2019

12/8/2019

Decisions & Persistence

Work continued on our collaborative light project. As children made decisions about what materials and items to use, they took note of specific aspects of those materials. Here's some of what was said as they made selection and attached items to the light's frame:

Lou Lou: "I don't want these because you can't see the light."
Jessica: "You mean it doesn't reflect?"
Lou Lou: "Yes."
Jack (holding up a sifter): "Look, it's reflecting! Inside!" (Jack turns the handle showing the moving reflective light inside.)
Sam: "I want to get some wire and put beads on it."
Lane: "Me too."
Sam and Lane talk about "copying" one another's ideas. They begin looking through and selecting materials to bead with.
Sam: "It's boingy! I want to put beads on it."
Lane: (Picking up some leftover wire) "This could be the right amount. If this is the right amount, I can put the beads on here."
Lane (discovering a shiny gold thread): "This thread is shiny. Maybe too shiny."
Jessica reminded the children of the challenge to make the light as reflective as possible. Lane decided to stick with the shiny thread.
Lane (after completing her beaded thread and tying it on the frame): "Now I want to make another one, but out of wire."
Jack (sitting down to make a pattern with beads): "Are you going to do a same pattern? A three and three pattern like three gold and three silver."

Lou Lou decided she wanted to sew something for the light. She tried a few different approaches using first copper foil paper and then tin foil. She ran into challenges with the fragile foils, such as the thread pulling larger holes than she intended through the material. She adjusted her approach, pulling the thread through very gently.

Sam ran into a different problem attempting to attach a metal handle to the frame: "It's too heavy."
Jessica encouraged Sam to continue and think about what could work instead. Sam tried a few approaches, ultimately deciding to start with the handle away from the frame, wrap the wire around it several times and then wrap the wire round the frame. He also hung the handle over the frame so it is supported by both the frame and wire.

As the days pass we are seeing the children work slowly and methodically. They are persistent, yet flexible in their thinking, realizing not every idea works. At one point today, Jack's beaded work fell apart just as he was finishing. He observed matter-of-factly, "I failed." This prompted a small discussion about the importance of failures and mistakes and how we learn from failed attempts. Jack persisted and was quite proud of the completed work.

Close-ups of completed work children attached to the light's frame:

Creating Gini's Gift

We began a new project today that will become a gift for Gini this holiday season. Children used oversized pushpins to poke designs through tin we'll later wrap around candles.. Jack noticed his hand would get tired doing this precise work so he took some breaks. Later he tried a new strategy, "It's better when I go faster." The children used a light to check out their designs. How joyful to see the light shine through the holes in the tin! Jack observed, "It's cool. It looks like a 'W'."