Our clay symbol work has continued, but we are discovering that the clay may not be the best material for this work because they keep cracking. So far, we have only one symbol that has made it in and out of the kiln without cracking. The children's investment and hard work have been incredible to watch though. Next week, we will be introducing another way to think about our symbols for a "symbol curtain". Our hope is that these new materials set us up for more longterm success with creating the symbols and turning them into our very own symbol curtain.
As with many of our other clay symbols, Pierce's first version cracked in the drying process. He responded by saying, "That's okay. I can make "Vs" again." Each time, he counted the points of his star, shaped the Vs, and connected them by scoring and slipping. **Unfortunately, his second version has also cracked, but it did make it to the kiln. Like with George, we will share this with him and invite him to help us problem solve.** Remembering the Outdoor ClassroomDuring our most recent backwards day, we started a conversation about the upcoming changes to the outdoor classroom. As you will all know, the school is fundraising for updated equipment and design space for the outdoor classroom. The children were very curious about what would change, where it would go, and what would come next. We gathered for an outdoor morning meeting to discuss this: “Is the big boat going to go away too?” - Adaline, 4.4 years “I thought she meant that boat.” - Will [referring to boat/steps] “I was.” - Adaline “Is the sandbox going to be gone too?” - Georgia, 4.2 years I can tell you that the sandbox is not going to go away. - Elyse “Yeah because it’s stuck to the ground.” - Gracie, 4.3 years “The mulch is going to stay.” - Adaline What else do you want to stay? - Elyse “I want the ship to stay.” - George It’s not going to stay. - Elyse “I want the mushroom table to stay.” - Georgia “If the boat’s not going to stay how are Henri and George can’t play banjos anymore? I also want to say that construction area and baby bed stay.” - Gracie “What if we don’t have the climber, what will we do?” - Georgia “We can just get it back.” - Christopher, 3.11 years Do you all know who put the swing there? - Elyse “My daddy!” - Georgia “How will he get up there [to take down]?” - Georgia “Maybe he will just climb up the next ladder to get it down” - Gracie Gracie, what vehicle did we see last night? The construction vehicle… - Susan “Cherry picker.” - Eliza, 4.3 years Do you guys know what a cherry picker is? - Elyse “It’s a truck with a bucket that fixes lights and cuts down trees.” - Will, 4.5 years “And it sort of picks up people.” - Gracie Can you get a cherry picker into the outdoor classroom? - Elyse “No. It’s too big.” - Gracie You can’t drive it through the fence over there? - Elyse “No, it’s too small.” - Gracie How are they going to get the cobb house out of here? Who’s going to pick it up? “My dad.” - Georgia “Or a forklift truck.” - Georgia “A flatbed carrier.” - Henri “Maybe a forklift will pick it up and put it onto a flatbed.” - Will “Maybe he’ll dig down with a truck to get it out.” - Adaline “Maybe they’ll break it.” - Christopher “Maybe they will bring the top of it and then crush it down to a flat pancake.” - Gracie What do we want to remember about the outdoor classroom? What do we want to remember about the outdoor classroom? “The cobb house.” - A few “The slide.” - Eliza “The climbing wall.” - Zoe, 4.0 years “The slide.” - Win, 4.7 years How can we remember the cob house? “Take pictures of it.” - Gracie “Draw it.” - Zoe "I can hold the picture in my mind." - Gracie
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While Melanie and Elyse are sick at home this week, the Rainey Room has been supported by Cece, Molly, Brigitte, Jen, and Jill, but most of all by your children, who are showing us the ropes. They know the flow of the day, and are excellent caretakers of their environment. Below are just a few of the experiences we have had together this week. VERY big clay cats, standing up. Continuing an experience from last week, Gracie and Will used a cardboard armature to add a hollow body to their cat's legs. Adeline, who--a few days earlier-- found a good strategy, offered helpful suggestions. We will share more about this project in the future. Solutions to a problem of perspective: Adeline drew a portrait of her 3 dimensional cat, so that in case it breaks during the drying and firing process, she can make it again. Observing the side view of her sculpture, she said "It's hard. The paper is white on the back and this (the sculpture), you can flip over easily and this (the drawing) you might get two papers-in clay you might not." In essence, Adeline was explaining that the 3D sculpture had two sides--a back and a front-- and in order to draw the "other side" of the cat, she needed to draw on the backside of the paper! Front (left) and back (right) GAMES: Board Games, and Games with Shapes, Colors and Patterns Portraits of Friends Also a continuation of an experience from last week, children have been drawing and painting portraits of their friends Backwards day
**Note to add that photographing while working with clay can be difficult, and we strive to document each child to the best of our abilities in the moment. We are brainstorming other approaches to documenting clay that do not require our messy hands to be on our phones or missing out on the opportunity to support the children. with a hands on approach.** Gracie, 4.2 years
Will, 4.4 years
Win, 4.6 years
Henri, 4.5 years
Adaline, 4.3 years Adaline was initially unsure about this process, but along the way she discovered that there are tools (and friends/grownups) that can support you as you work. She asked to use the lucite frame to trace her symbol, and she found so much more joy in the process. In the end, she was so proud of her work -- her face radiated it.
Zoe, 3.11 years
Zoe confidently suggested that she could make a new symbol with "more swirls". Above is Zoe's second version, and you can see that she has used longer coils to create the outline and shaped 5 swirls, one for each "v" of her star. She said, "I put them here to make it stronger." Georgia, 4.2 years
Caroline, 3.8 years
Will and Caroline Christopher, 3.11 years
Some of our symbols have been fired, while others are drying in the classroom. We invite you to take a look the next time you are in the room! They really are amazing pieces, and next we intend to explore the shapes and lines of our symbols with wire and paper sculptures. **The goal was to post this blog today (Friday) after the final three children (Pierce, George, and Lillian) had an opportunity to work on their clay symbol. Due to our snow day, this work will be postponed until Monday/Tuesday of next week and their work/symbols will be highlighted in one of next week's blogs!** A Snowy Day
Playing "face time" in the outdoor classroom during backwards day on Tuesday. Is it a ball body? Who is holding the ball? Is it a ball head? Drawing "Warm Wendell" all dressed up for winterIn preparation for today's sing along we had been practicing our five songs: Acorn song, Jingle Bells, My Name is Joe, Bingo, and our newest song Warm Wendell (Windell). We have also been doing more drawing and thought we could combine the two by drawing Warm Wendell all dressed up and ready for the cold of winter. "I like to wear my hat, my scarf, my coat, my gloves, my pants, my boots to keep me nice and warm in the winter when it's cold outside." What should we call these drawings? Silly self portraits?"Call them closed eyes portraits." -WillWe had an idea to invite imagination into morning meeting. Elyse or Melanie could draw lines and the children could imagine what the lines were becoming or what they could be. Somehow (the laughter and joy fades the detail of transition) Elyse's lines became her self portrait. The catch though - Elyse was not looking at the paper on the clipboard and Georgia insisted she add the challenge of closing her eyes. Elyse narrated what she was drawing as she went and the final product (see gray documentation board in the classroom and below) brought oodles of laughter. How silly Elyse looked! So, voila! We had a new drawing game. Melanie took her turn and Lucille drew. Now a few children have taken a turn too! With this we created a "magic list" so the children can keep track of turns. The challenge is to not look at the paper while drawing or keep your eyes closed, which isn't so easy to do. The best part is that we love the game, it's so joyful! We can hardly wait to to continue with it next week when we return on Tuesday!
"The symbol curtain" at The Renwick
Drawing our symbols"We could draw our symbol, cut it out, and connect it with string." - Gracie, 4.2 years Earlier this week, we brought back pieces of our Renwick reflection conversations to the children. Before Winter Break, the children had suggested that we could make our own symbol curtain. Originally, they suggested: "Ink." - Henri "Cardboard and paint." - Gracie "Drawing." - Lillian "Marker." - Christopher In a later conversation, George suggested clay, and we do intend to explore other possibilities as we create our very own symbol curtain. As we often do, we started the process by drawing. The children were incredibly enthusiastic about the idea of our own symbol curtain and drawing their symbols. We have not intentionally drawn our symbols since early Brown Room, so we were excited to see the growth. It was also a great opportunity for the children to think about drafts, iterations, versions, and even "mistakes". The children's drawings George, 4.4 years 1st Draft 2nd Draft Henri, 4.5 years 1st Draft 2nd Draft Georgia, 4.1 years 1st Version Gracie, 4.2 years Gracie drew 6-7 versions of her symbol. Each time, she focused on the duplicitous lines on the left side of her symbol. **This same approach translated to her clay work the next day.** Win, 4.6 years 1st version 2nd/3rd versions 4th version 5th version Will, 4.3 years Lillian, 3.8 years Lillian was persistent and focused on the number of lines she has in her symbol. As you move left to right, you can see the development of her lines and the shape of her symbol. The final drawing represents four versions of her symbol. There were a few tools on the table for drawing - our classic black drawing pens, thick black markers, black gelato sticks, and black oil pastels. We also had tracing paper available as a tool to support the children, though only a few decided to use it -- Caroline, Adaline, Zoe, and Will. Caroline, 3.7 years On the left, Caroline traced her symbol and filled in the negative space with the black marker. In her drawing on the right, you can see that Caroline focused on the creating the negative space in her symbol by drawing circles to represent it. Then, she used lines to connect the circles (negative space). Zoe, 3.11 years Adaline, 4.3 years "These lines are tricky. They go so many ways." - Adaline Pierce, 4.4 years The star is a very tricky shape, and Pierce was feeling that as he began working on his freehand drawing. Tracing it boosted his confidence, and afterward the conversation turned to the shapes he could draw to achieve the star. He really connected with "V" shapes in the star and talked about his beloved sister, Violet. A sneak peek at the clay work!
PARENT PARTICIPATION featuring John Coombe! Highlighting the end of last year, in today's blog, also brings focus into our new year or second semester of Rainey Room. This said, Happy New Year everyone! We hope the winter break was meaningful in as many ways possible. We are approaching parent participation broadly - think the 100 languages. Meaning there are many ways to show up and share time with the children during their day at school. If you have interest in participating, email us, and we'll take the conversation from there to collaborate with you. Or sign up for an experience that we've already arranged and prepared. Our hope is for it to be a fun and welcoming experience spending some time in the mix of our "Rainey Room family" dynamic! Be on the lookout for a new parent participation / morning meeting schedule / sign up email. Not a painter by profession, John has been giving time and attention to learning the techniques of painting for several years now and was enthusiastic to bring this past time passion into the classroom to share with the children. Knowing that John was interested in sharing his love of painting with the children, we chatted about how we could connect painting to the current shadow work because he had already been spending time painting Monet's "Haystacks" at home. The children were able to learn more about shadows through what John verbally shared and physically demonstrated through painting with a rotational small group of children. Thank you for your knowledge and participation, John, the children loved it! Connecting with your child through their RR environmentHolding Board? What's that? Documentation around the room invites opportunities to engage with your child and connect with them through the classroom environment. The "Holding Board" (below) primarily showcases collections of drawing that the children have created in response to a whole group experiences along with a few other features. (This board does change.) During our morning arrival time we welcome you to look through the clipped work with your child or separately. The Holding Board is above the sign in sheet (thank you all for keeping on top of signing in each morning). The portfolio drawers are also another option for connecting and engaging with your child when here - open them up and have a look! Environmental changes, including new or different materials and rearranging the space and documentation, are other ways through which you can spend time in the morning with your child, or when in the classroom, to read the room and learn about the work and processes. Walk the classroom with your child (and friends): ask them what is happening, what are they learning, what is the documentation about (ask them to read the documentation), what is new, different, or exciting. This is a great way for them recall and articulate what they know and for them to discover, question, and wonder. Documentation left to right: Movement of Sun and Time; An Exploration and Discovery of Light; Book Fair 2023 New materials for small building and construction (in place of light table) and some rearrangement of materials New Projections and similar documentation (subject to change) - revisiting is helpful for bringing out new knowledge.
Rainey Room research trip to The Renwick Gallery We're outside where the door was." - Christopher, 3.10 years (during reflection)
"That's my symbol!" - Gracie, 4.1 years "It's the rainbow room!" - Rainey Room "We were talking." - Adaline, 4.2 years Other Instillations "I can show my whole family! I would show my family the rainbow room." - Georgia, 4.0 years "I saw glittering lights on the steps. I love them." - Lillian, 3.8 years "These are the sparkly lights I drew on top. The criss cross is the steps." - Caroline "Do you remember our shadows were colorful?" - George Reflections on our trip While we reflected through drawing and conversation upon our return to school, we spent the rest of the week revisiting through photos projected onto the shadows screen, conversation with Jen, and through recreating our own "rainbow room" with the fabrics and clips. Drawing to reflect
Reflection through dramatic play "I liked the rainbow room when it changes colors. I saw different colors when it was changing. My dress was kind of changing into a different color." - Lillian We encourage you to revisit the Renwick Gallery with your child over the break, or any time really! It is free entry, and there are so many amazing things to see - it is truly inspirational. The children did see many of the pieces of art, but they had so many thoughts and questions, and we certainly did not see it all!
For additional information about exhibits and visiting hours, etc. please see their website below. https://americanart.si.edu/visit/renwick If you do visit again, please let us know. We would love to hear from you all about the experience and see photographs as well! We've Turned Four!December has been quite the bustle! We've been excitedly talking about the upcoming holiday with decorations, trees and lights, the enthusiasm for shadows (and yesterday's trip to the Renwick), parent participation and support, a luminary walk tonight, and three non-December birthday celebreationss! But... Our Rainey Room school birthday celebrations are typically separate from our actual birthdays. We're now six kits in, with seven more to create and give, in celebration, next year. Yay! Happy Birthday, Eliza!
Enjoy making people you love and more, Eliza! Happy Birthday, Gracie!Enjoy making your ghost costume, Gracie! Celebrating Eliza and Gracie
Enjoy making rainbows rings, Georgia! Merry celebrations to everyone!
"Shadows don't have faces." - Will As part of this cognitive conflict, we invited the children to find their shadows outside, photograph each other with their shadows, and then draw based on the photograph. We anticipated that this would draw attention to the features of their bodies vs. shadows and the angle of the shadow in relation to the body. We also used this opportunity to introduce graphite - our knowledge of this tool is that it is a great way to fill in larger spaces, offers a color that matches the shadow, and does not smudge as much as pastels. Gracie, 4.1 years George, 4.3 years
Georgia, 4.0 years Caroline, 3.6 years Lillian, 3.7 years
Building Interesting Shadows"We need to keep materials to build interesting shadows." - George, 4.3 years ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you for your support in the classroom!Thank you Laura and Ashley for cutting some fantastic shapes for our ECES Light and Shadow workshop. They are also being used by the Tucker Room! Megan and Jackie joined us for clay in the atelier this week. It was so wonderful for the children to share their expertise with you both! We hope you can join us again.
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April 2024
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