Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Today was Grace's first day and KW!  She was thrilled to open her place card and even more happy to learn that her mom made it for her.   Louise took the place card, along with the others, and set the table .
After lunch, Louise, Grace, and Lou Lou chose the sewing option.  All three remembered the techniques from their Brown Room days and got right to work.  All three also  chose to work on pink fabric.  While she was admiring the embroidery floss, Louise commented, "All these colors are beautiful."

Other children chose to transform a curious garden.  We have been reading and re-reading the book The Curious Garden, at the children's repeated request.  Before KW began, Jessica and Jill set up a provocation with plain wood blocks and small bricks in the middle room.  Children were invited to come in and transform the area, much like the boy in the book does.   Lily, Tegan, and Hugh worked diligently to create a more interesting and beautiful space.  Here's some of the conversation as they worked:
    Hugh - And now it's becoming colorful.
    Lily - Not so boring.
    Hugh - Green (grabbing green materials).  Blue pond.
    Lily - This could be the way for the cars.  This is the road.
    Hugh - We can make a parking lot.
    Tegan - We can make a parking lot and a street.
    Lily - What if we use some of these animals for the pond?
    Hugh - Yeah! That's great.
    Tegan - Guys, this looks like a home! For the turtle.
    Lily - There can be a zoo.
    Tegan - I'm making green.
    Hugh - A train?  That's a great idea.
    Tegan - Okay, this could be a green train.
    Lily - We're going to use these letters and we're going to use the crane to lift stuff up.
   Tegan - I'm trying to make a train, to make it even longer.  We can have the train going this way and another stop going that way, so the train can go both ways.

The three children engaged in a great deal of problem solving and collaboration as they made the space come to life.  We left some of our curious garden in place for the Early Birds to explore tomorrow. We will continue to work on this big idea so that any interested  children will have a chance to create their own curious garden.