Thursday and Friday, October 3 and 4, 2019

10/6/2019

End-of-Week Highlights

While we missed a blog for Thursday, we want to take the time to reflect and share what stood out over the last couple of days in KW.

Ink Explorations Continued

When we introduce the ink to the children we wondered if they would connect the shades of ink to shadows. Much to our surprise this did not seem to be on the children's minds as they explored the new medium. Here's some of what the children said which gives insight to their processes:

Leigh: "Too much water." (She adds more ink.) "So light."
Grace: "It's liquidy."
Leigh (refers to the dock at the lake over the summer): "I'm making it by swirling. I'm jumping off the dock. It's because the bubbles."
Leigh: "I noticed it is getting smaller and smaller." (The bubbles toward the edge.)
Grace decides to put ink on the sponge and press it onto the transparency paper.
Grace: "I'm making little teeny tiny bubbles."
Leigh: "Look how black this is."

The children notice how the saturation of ink changes as water is added to the ink. There is also the observance of bubbles in their ink exploration and the children observe the size and spacing of the bubbles.

Lane and Sally arrive at the light table for a turn. They also notice the change in saturation of the various mixes of water and ink. Additionally, they note their discovery of print, using the sponges as a tool to make ink prints on the transparency. They use the bubbles to add texture to their print and the narrative that emerges from the exploration.

Lane: "I painted the sponge and then I pressed it down really hard and then it showed up a fairy and a butterfly."
Sally: (using ink already diluted with water) "When I paint it, it's not very dark." She started again with straight ink, then added some water. "When I add a tiny bit of water it's kind of light."
Sally: (pressing the sponge to make a print as Lane had) "It's a tortoise."
Sally: "When I just do a drop" (not diluted) "it goes dark, darker, darker."
Lane: "I want it to be spread out. I want to add bubbles on it too. I'm going to paint carefully around it (the sponge). It's a space. The tiny bubbles are supposed to go to this space."
Sally (pressing the sponge): "I'm doing his spots."

Moving Light and Shadow

Building off of our exploration with shadows of our construction work, we wanted to again provoke the children's thinking about shadows in relation to light source. This time we did not project an image but used only a moveable spotlight, allowing the children to control the light source and discover the impact it has on the shadows. Before opening the experience, we had discussed the various options at meeting including building with blocks and moving light around it. Sally shared her knowledge on the matter (which may be referring to her experiencing dancing in front of the shadow screen last week). Sally said, "When you move a little bit in, (possibly toward the shadow screen) you look little and when you move out (away from the shadow screen) you look big, like a grown up, like a giant."

Here's a slideshow with captions sharing the children's process experimenting with the moving light:

Experiences in Drawing Movement and Shadow

We continued to offer drawing opportunities from earlier in the week. Here are a few highlights from these experiences:

Shadow Predictions

Maren, Grace M., and Evelyn draw their predictions of where a shadow would be and Lane depicts a colorful shadow:

Body Movement Sequence

Sally revisited the idea of drawing a body movement in sequence, showing three steps of a person flipping while hanging on the bar:

Shadow Ballet

On Friday, Lane and Lou Lou drafted some possible ideas for our shadow ballet. We prompted the children to think about where in the ballet the poses would be located: beginning, middle, and end. Separately, both Lane and Lou Lou carried their knowledge (possibly carried over from the body movement sequences) about the steps a pose would take. This was seen when the children sat down to draw a pose such as a leap or twirl, they both realized the pose needed to start in standing position and instinctively moved the body figures into standing position.

Table Setting as Personalized Collage

Each day different children have the opportunity of preparing for our meal together by setting and decorating the table. Recently a theme has emerged of decorating each individual's place at the table in addition to creating a lovely centerpiece. On Friday this was the case when Lou Lou and Sam set the table together. They combined ideas: Lou Lou's idea of placing a napkin at each seat and decorating around it and Sam's idea of including animals. Sam also included personalization for each person such as when he said, "Lou Lou, I gave you all the plant-eaters," after carefully placing three plant-eating dinosaurs at her place at the table. Lou Lou worked with gems in an intentional design and Sam added three dinosaurs around each person's place. He also placed a rhino near his and Lou Lou's spots at the table. It was evident the children took into consideration such concepts as design, space, color, imagery, and shape.