Thursday, March 12, 2020

Giving Feedback Part 2

After such a successful time yesterday of sharing headband work in progress and hearing feedback from the group, we offered the opportunity to Sally and Maren who weren't here yesterday. 

Maren began by showing her unicorn horn to the group.
Grace M: "I like the colors on your unicorn horn."
Ellie: "I like the tape that you used."
Maren: "It's not tape. The rest is stripes and glue."
Jessica: "What are the stripes made out of?"
Maren: "Ribbon" and "paint."
Grace D: "Some of it ripped." 
Maren: "It isn't ripped, it's just that way. That's not broken, that's how the ribbon got behind it."
Grace D: "The pink part (ribbon) is sticking up."
Leigh: "You could snip it with scissors."
Maren: "I want to keep it like that."

Sally: (Holds up her sculpted wire) "Butterfly...and it's gonna have these shiny things (beads) and this thing (striped piece of jewelry) that looks like a unicorn's hair, like unicorn's hair that is blowing. I'm gonna put a thinner one. This is my starting."
​Grace M: "I like the things what you put on."
Austin: "I like that golden shiny thing."
Sally: "Thanks. It's supposed to make the finishing touch. I'm gonna put this right here."
Grace D: "Yours and Grace M's will be the same." 
Sally: "Not really because I looked in the book and there was a big picture of a butterfly..." (Sally explains how she and Grace M developed different shapes for their butterflies,)
Grace M: "I did not look in a book. I followed my drawing."
Jessica: "How many butterflies will there be?"
Sally: "Four. Actually, five."

Headbands, Sewing, and Building with Georgetown Houses

The following slideshow gives an overview (and some captions for closer insight) of the rest of our day. Children worked diligently on continuing their hand bands and finishing previous wood and clay sewing pieces. Children also built with a projected image of Georgetown houses which Grace David picked out for us! We hoped this construction challenge will help us  stay connected to the idea we're considering for a village of children's structures. 

Ideas to Consider Over Spring Break

As we shared in our email, we've brainstormed some possibilities for you and the children to try out over the break.  (Remember: there's no "homework" and this is all optional!) We hope these will help the children stay connected to some of the current work and ideas happening in KW. We also hope you can use them to take pause in this strange time away from our usual routines to wonder and be with one another in joy. 

• Experiment with simple but creative sewing: use card-stock and a hole-punch to create a design you can then sew with yarn or string. You can also sew into interesting items found in your recycling bin like curated cardboard. 
• Sew a book/journal together with a simple hand-bound stitch. (Note: in this video the steps are taken very precisely which you DO NOT need to do. Simple papers, folded in half, and eye-balling three holes to poke through the fold is all you need. You can also skip the final step of adding a fastener by simply tying off the string.)
• Fill the hand-bound book. Some ideas:
  • write and illustrate a story
  • capture memories from break
  • draw ideas for our built village or things seen out in nature
  • collage with found papers and materials like recycled packaging
  • add photos of findings from nature
  • explore with various art materials you have on hand: what new and interesting combinations of materials can you try?
• Get out in nature. One of the children's workshop ideas was "nature." Do you observe anything interesting or something you wonder about? Document these or ideas from nature you want to include in our building or book-making workshops.
• Build or construct with loose parts found at home. 
• Build a cardboard house or structure we can add to our village.
• Continue conversations through this and other experiences over break that include some of the recent concepts children have been discussing about what is possible, overcoming obstacles, "Keep trying. Never give up," and the positive side to mistakes.

We can't wait to hear about what you try or come up with! 

Have a happy and healthy Spring Break!!