Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Will It Work?

At St. John's the work of children focuses on the process rather than the finished project.  Although children draw and plan for their creations, they often encounter questions and problems along the way.  For our headband work, here are some of our questions:  
     Will it even work?
     How will we translate our design into work with materials?
     How will we make the base?  
     How can we attach the design.... and will it flop over?

Children's previous experience with materials and understanding of their potentials often helps to solve these problems.   Likewise, knowledge that children have gained in other experiences can be brought to their current endeavors.  For example, today Austin demonstrated how to twist wire using the drill.  He had learned this technique in Tucker Room while working on a rocket ship.

Some challenges we encountered today...

Ellie posed her own question, "How do I cut this ribbon, because it's thick?"  She worked through this challenge and glued materials, carefully following the colors and designs in her drawing.

Grace overcame the frustration that she experienced when her wire butterfly shape didn't look the way  she had envisioned it.   She used her drawing as a guide to get her work back on track.  

Sam said, "I have an idea, I'm gonna make these spirals." He worked with Sculpy by rolling it into a spiral shape after rolling it long.  He also decided to include wire spiral for part of his design.

Louise said, "When I was wrapping the ribbon, it was a little frustrating, but I got it."  She also added some beads and butterflies to her headband.

Grace attached her heart to her twisted wire band and did her best to secure it.  She said, "I just didn't want it to be floppy.  We solved the mystery.

Lou Lou thought a band around the base of her headband might work.  She first tried using ribbon.  "The ribbon was floppy, and a little too big. Maybe a wire like Grace's would work," she said.

Everything else.....

Other experiences were offered for children along with headbands.  Austin was excited about a drawing he began in the Tucker Room, so he continued to work on it during KW.  He also joined other children building an undersea world with a cool video projection in the Middle Room.  Children also made messages for their school friends or special family members.