The Pajama ProjectYou might have already heard about our new all-school collaborative project, the Pajama Project! We will all work together with Cape's mom, LouLou, on creating St. John's pajamas.
To be able to gather more information, ask our questions and get a better understanding of the process we invited LouLou to the Brown Room (via Zoom). Today she showed us her work space, the watercolor pallets she uses to create her paintings and how a painting ends up on a pajama. After she completes a water color painting she uses a machine called a scanner to transfer in onto her computer. Once her painting is on the computer she can move individual parts of the painting around, adjust, resize and duplicate them. Then her finished design can get turned into pajamas.
Like using a printer. I have a printer. It prints drawings. - Hugh LouLou, how does the fabric turn into pajamas? - Wilder After the design got printed on the fabric, we learned that patterns are being used to cut the fabric. Those pieces of fabric are then being sewn together in a specific way in order to turn them into pajamas we can wear. Sewing was a great keyword, since we will start our introduction to sewing in the Brown Room next week! The process of creating pajamas from start to finish requires quite a few steps but we are excited to dive deeper into these individual processes and learn more about them as the project continues. Thank you LouLou for sharing your work with us! continuing our work on designing a dragon costume... |
Hugh worked on a large scale painting for a dragon costume idea. He started by painting the costume itself (a curvy body, sticks for people to hold the costume up underneath the body, a tail on the left side and a head on the right side) but then asked himself the question "But how are we gonna hold it? When we cut it out it's gonna drip?" (wondering if his painted design will work as the actual costume) |
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Yesterday Jade, together with her parents, Paige and Tim, shared their Saturday family tradition with us. In the morning they come downstairs, read books and drink some milk together. Then Jade's dad get delicious chocolate croissants from Boulangerie Christophe (which is right around the corner from St. John's) for breakfast and they watch two cartoons together - Pinkalicious & Peterrific and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Afterwards they go on a family walk. But where are they walking to? Everyone in the Brown Room got a map so we could find out where they go - Dumbarton Oaks Park! Down Lover's Lane we followed the yellow path to the Old Stone Cobbhouse and across a bridge. One of Jade's favorite things to do on their walk is to collect rocks. "All of them. Big ones." - Jade And then she hides them in the 'moss bridge'. "Now we know how to get there!" - Finlay |
Since we learned about Chinese New Year from Michael and his mom Diana, the children have shown a continuous interest in the dragon and lion costumes. Discussions about how the costumes move, how many people can fit underneath or in and questions about the costumes come up daily. The man is wearing pink pants like the lion. He match the lions. - Wilder These guys are dressed up. They're holding the dragon and they're dressed up, too. - Bea |
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The ingredients you need are eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla extract, anise seeds, butter and baking powder. Traditionally all the ingredients are mixed together by hand, which is called "amano" ("by hand") in Italian. Cate used different tools, such as bowls, measuring cups and spoons, a whisk, a baking tray and parchment paper, and a rolling pin. |
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Another tradition is receiving red envelopes! Envelopes are given to children and single adults by "elders" or married couples. There is usually money inside of the envelopes! Cape asked Ms. Diana, "Who are the elders?" She told us, "elders are the older people or grown ups like grandma and grandpas. They are more mature and wiser!" |
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| Do you know the story of Peter Rabbit? Finlay's family - his mom Camille, sister Maisie, grandma Peg and grandpa AJ from Arizona - shared a fantastical family tradition with us! |
When Maisie and Finlay visit their grandparents they love to play "Peter Rabbit". Together with Peter (grandma Peg) they love to build rabbit holes out of pillows and blankets and steal carrots from Mr. McGregor (grandpa AJ) who is trying to scare them away from his precious garden. They shared photos and stories about their pretend play over zoom with us. But Peter Rabbit even came and visited us in the Brown Room! He also brought carrots for us... Did he steal them from Mr. McGregor's garden? |
The children also considered how the entrance to their rabbit hole should look like. In the end they decided on using a bench surrounded by pillows, which you had to crawl under in order to get in and out of the rabbit hole. (Electric) candles were used to illuminate the hole, which is fairly dark because it is under ground. We pulled the shades down and turned off the lights in the classroom to enhance this experience. |
The upcoming holiday ties in perfectly with our focus in the classroom on friendship - Valentine's Day! What a wonderful occasion to celebrate friendship and love. How can we celebrate Valentine's Day? Making cards! - Finlay I'm gonna celebrate Molly. I'm gonna make something for her. Cause she's nice. Just making something for Molly and Lily. - Bea I already made some valentines cards. - Lily You need to put hearts on them. - Daniel |
If you noticed that your child changed clothes today (especially pants or socks) that's because we were outside until 10:30am enjoying our extra outside time for Backwards Day, and the outdoor classroom was a bit messy! Will we see more snow this winter? Hugh told us that we can expect more winter in our future ... The groundhog saw it's shadow so that means more winter. 16 more days. - Hugh | |
Frances persisted and took on the climbing challenge today as well. | |
Wilder painted that! And Hugh. I like the painting. I really want all of my friends to do it with me. - Wilder Remember we painted pinecones? I was looking at the paintings. Remember when I painted my pinecone orange? - Daniel It kinda remind me when we did that. When we all painted on it and we painted pinecones. - Lily |