October 13th, 2021

Shhhhhh...Don't Tell Ines

Early Tuesday, the Rainey Room birthday committee worked hard with Jen to come up with things Ines liked for her birthday gift.

Jen: It’s Ines’s birthday, in fact it already passed. But we can still make her a birthday portrait. 
Lily: She does likes yellow. I think that’s her favorite actually.
Jen: Are there other things about Ines that you know?
Lily: Well, on the birthday, they did ask everyone to bring in a flower for her, so maybe she likes flowers? Yeah because we gave her all flowers.
Finlay: Bracelets.
Jen: Oh, bracelets, what makes you think that? 
Lily: She basically-she never really wears them.
Finlay: But I gave one to her. 
Lily: I think she might like flowers because we gave her flowers, we all gave her flowers on her birthday.
Lucas: We usually make hands for Ines. Mom traces my hand. 
What kinds of things should we put it in ?
Lily: Yellow! 
Jen: Yes, we said yellow, we said flowers...what other things could we put in it? 
Finlay: How about we give her wine? 
Lily: I don’t really know--we basically only know what her favorite color is. 
Jen: So why do you think you don’t know a lot about Ines?
Lily: Well...we don’t really ask anything about her.
Jen: Isn’t that interesting. So maybe we could ask her some questions, we can make a list and go do that?
(no responses about what kinds of questions we could ask). 
Jen: Could we ask her what she likes to do?
Yes!
Finlay: What’s your favorite vehicle that can move?
(LIly, Finlay and Lucas ask Ines what she likes to do)
Ines: I like to garden, I grow a lot of plants. I like to work with clay, do potter, go outside on hikes. I take cuttings and I plant them, I have about 50 plants in my house.

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Creating a Gift for Ines

Cate and Capers use the overhead projector to create designs with flowers and then sketch their creations

Our first idea was to use the projector to create unique compositions with flower materials. We thought about what Ines said she likes and worked to create designs we thought she'd enjoy.

"She likes yellow" - Lily
"Careful, careful careful...See how carefully I sketch?" - Cape
"I need to add more flowers to this."  - Cate
"Well, she said she likes flowers, so we can put flowers, possibly for the background" - Jade

After the children traced their arrangements using the overhead projector, they painted over their work. Some friends came back to add pollen, details or new ideas to their work.

"I put pink pollen on!"

"What's that yellow thing?" - Cate
"It makes the flowers." - Capers
"Maybe that can be the sun." - Cate

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What if We Made a Garden With Our Flowers?  - Lily

Another children led project was drawing a garden as a background for the photoshoot with Ines. Children decided to each draw their own flowers to add together. Some children decided to use pictures of flowers for inspiration.

​Lily: What if we made a garden for Ines? We could put all our pictures together to make something new.
Cate: We could cut them out. I don't know if we can.

Our Garden

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Indoor Bowling: It's Right up Our Alley

Today we worked on our hand eye coordination and focus by playing indoor bowling with the cones and gopher balls. Children came up with different strategies to see how they could knock over the most pins.

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Jill: What strategies did you use for bowling?
Lily - Rolling (the ball).
Cape - I throwed the ball.

A Clay Experience

Jade - I’m making a flower for Ines.
​Cate - I’m making a flower for her, too!

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​Lily - (Rolling a coil of clay). Now that looks more like a flower.
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One thing the children knew about Ines was that she likes working with clay. We thought we would try to make clay flowers for her.  Since Rainey children have not worked with clay much this year, there was a great deal of enthusiasm for exploring the material.  

​Wilder - I’m making a boat.
Finlay - I’m making a bed.
Jade - I’m making a flower for Ines.
Cate - I’m making a flower for her, too!
Finlay - This is how you make a lego (with a block of clay).  (A bit later) I’m making a bracelet.
Jade - I was thinking about this (she demonstrates pinching and poking techniques with her fingers).
Finlay - I’m making a mountain.
Wilder - (Working with a clay knife) I’m trying to scrape off parts of the volcano.
Cape - Here’s the snake  that I made.  I cut it and I rolled it.  (He attaches his small snake to a ball of clay.). I’m making a turtle.  A big turtle.
Lily - (Rolling a coil of clay). Now that looks more like a flower.
Wilder - I made part of a jellyfish.  
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