"...It's going to be a really good mystery." -Georgia ,From the inception, we new that Toad going missing had an element of mystery along with a kind of detective, search and rescue potential. This was specifically highlighted when Gracie suggested we use "sply glasses" to find him. As time went on, we let the relevance of Toad remain primarily in the minds of the children while we focused on more congruous projects such as print making, to maintain relevance without direct focus or emphasis on the "Toad is Missing" narrative. Our continuing brainstorming, reviewing, synthesizing, and analyzing of the Toad project recently provided obvious and accessible entry points for revisiting "Toad is Missing" through the conceptual lenses of mystery and hidden, etc. With this in mind, we look forward to seeing as many of you as we can on Friday, April 7th at our morning print making event (8:15-9:00am) and a brief and current update on the "Toad is Missing" case. DOCUMENTATION "Toad is invisible." -Cully
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"How was your trip to Italy?" - Cully
We encourage you to attend the PTC meeting on April 4th at 8:15 am. Children are welcome to attend with you! We will be sharing additional photos and reflections from the entire staff! "I want to make an arrangement." - Eliza, 3.4 yearsAs you know, the Brown Room birthday gifts this year have been beautiful collages for each child. The art of collage requires thought about arrangement, composition, layering, patterns, color, negative/positive space, balance (in a few senses of the word), and more. Our birthday collages invite a more permanent arrangement (i.e. we are gluing down the arrangements to make a collaged gift). The children have begun to identify other types of collages that we can make. For example, Will recently proclaimed that her wire sculpture (these are all on display in the classroom) a "wire collage". The light table has been very active these past few weeks. Recently, we have shifted the materials that are near the light table to encourage arrangements/collages/small building on the light table. This type of "collage" invites flexibility with the materials. Since we are not using adhesives, the materials are easily moved around and the children can edit their work. The light table enhances the idea of the positive and negative space as it provides a different kind of contrast than just a solid colored background (e.g. white or black piece of paper/cardboard). The children have also been observing the way translucent materials change the color or intensity of the light: "Now it's pink!" "This [layered portion in photo below] is darker." Arranging UPCollaborationAdeline and Gracie worked together, with assistance and encouragement from others, to create a 3D arrangement that filled in one of the large frame mats. "We're adding layers." - Adaline, 3.5 years "We made one more layer." - Gracie, 3.4 years How may do you have? "Five!" - Gracie "This one has one more. Six!" - Adaline **Look at that addition!**
"Look! It's balancing!" - Will, 3.5 yearsThere are beautiful arrangements happening in Brown Room and more collaging to come! We'd love to hear about any arrangements/collages the children are creating at home! Happy Spring Break!We hope that you all have a wonderful spring break! After break we'll share some of the children's work with clay and drawing! They are doing amazing things! Reminders: 1. We'll see you all at parent-teacher conferences on March 15th and 16th. 2. Our parent/child printmaking experience will be on April 7th at 8:15 am. 3. The staff will be traveling to Reggio Emilia, Italy for a study tour with teachers/pedagogistas/atelieristas from the school of Reggio Emilia. Yes - we are going to school on our break! ("You will go to school? Like me?" - Cully) We look forward to sharing some reflections with you on April 4th at 8:15 am as part of our PTC meeting. 4. The Monday after Spring Break, March 27th, will be our first Monday Backwards Day. From now until the end of the school year, Backwards day will be on Mondays! 5. There will be no parent morning meetings the week after spring break. Beginning the week of April 3rd, parent morning meetings will be on Mondays (outside) and Fridays.
"There's an apple on a tree, and one more idea. I need one wire and put something on it, I need two more apples on it. ... I'm not finished with it." -Gracie (to be continued tomorrow) "I need to add more apples to mine." -Henri “It’s easy to find Toad if you look for |
Throughout this process, the children discovered that certain drawing tools worked well with water colors, while others disappeared or blended into the watercolor. This presented a wonderful opportunity to do some intentional experimentation with drawing tools and watercolors. The platform was set with: Markers, crayons, colored pencils, felt tip pens, pencils, sharpies, oil pastels, pastels, and chalk. |
"Look what happened to the chalk. It disappeared." - Will, 3.5 years
"It's [chalk] going away!" - Zoe, 3.1 years
"It's going green!"-Caroline | |
It's a new month and the color green is returning to the trees. Not to mention, St. John's birthday month color is represented by green on our birthday calendar, and of course there is the holiday of lucky green on the way. Our paint palette of pinks, reds, and purples was almost finished, and we had already gone through our blue period with focus given to St. John's blue door so it was time to refresh our paints with a new color palette. And this is where the color green comes into play. Also, with more talk around Toad and green paints available, who knows... perhaps Toad will return, if only in a painting. |
"Blue and yellow make green." -Eliza
Our musically inclined group of children influenced a choice to bring songs into the experience of painting. The music and the cheerful color palette added fresh and different energy, focus, and interest to the language of painting. | |
"I heard sounds. | What kind of sounds? | "Song sounds." | "It was songs." -Lillian |
"We're making paintings for making music." -Cully
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"I need more colors. I need red." -Henri
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"Can you save my painting for me?" -George
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