This week, the children of the Brown Room arrived to find a palette of pinks, reds and purples in the studio, message center and dramatic play. The children made some observations about the changes in the environment. Charlton: Hey guys! We have a new table! Karen: What was the old one like? Charlton: It was blue! Karen: Do you think that our restaurant could’ve been changed for a holiday that’s coming up? Cal: Valentine’s Day! A 2-Step Process for Designing and Creating MailbagsWith the holiday approaching, children began to design their very own mailbags for collecting Valentine's Day messages from their friends. The children first chose from a selection of tempera paints in pinks, purples and reds to decorate their bags. In the coming days, children will have a variety of materials from which to choose as they put the finishing touches on their mailbags by collaging. Cal: I mixing them up. This is purple. I’m making dots, too (as he observed Charlton making dots with his red paint). I’m done. I put so many and I mixed them up. I’m going to put them on the drying rack for my mommy and daddy. Rawls: I’m making a house for mommy (as he painted his bag red and then layered pink and purple on top). And this is new red. I add more colors. Charlton: I’m make a Tyrannosaurus Rex (making dots with red paint). Ramsey: Because I love purple, because it’s pretty. Karen: I notice that you’re adding red now, Ramsey. Ramsey: I love it (referring to the color red). It’s the bestest color ‘cause it’s shiny. Win: I making a rainbow. I want big color! Louisa: Ellie (her sister) likes purple and pink. I like pink, purple and red. I like all the colors. Emma: I’m done (as she finished making dots spread over her bag with the purple paint). Pink! (choosing pink and then adding pink dots) I’m making a rainbow. A big one. I want something else (another color). I want this one. I’m painting with one color at a time. I’m using red now. Isabelle began to paint on her bag and then stopped: I need to wash my hands. She returned and declared: I come back and finished! Bailee mixed dark purple and red: That's blue! Then she mixed all the colors and declared: That is brown! Ellie: Red is a funny picture (as she covered most of her bag with red paint before adding some purple). Welcoming Win! At morning meeting, we welcomed Win to the Brown Room for her first day. Children shared with Win about their favorite things to do at school.
Cal: Cooking and drawing. Emma: Wire in the studio. Isabelle: Restaurant (dramatic play). Ellie: Cutting (at the message center). Win jumped right into the Brown Room routine on Day 1 and spent time in the studio painting and learning how the drying rack worked, cooking in dramatic play with Emma and cutting at the message center.
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Happy Birthday, Cal!Today was a very special day for the Brown Room! Not only did we finally get to reunite in person at school, we also celebrated Cal’s birthday! Because we were on zoom last week, everyone had a chance to participate in Cal’s birthday committee. Wednesday, February 2 On Wednesday, we asked Cal our birthday interview questions to prepare for creating his gift. He told us his favorite colors were blue and yellow, his favorite food is goldfish crackers and he likes to play with rocks, his toy backhoe and bulldozer. He also shared with us that his favorite animal is an elephant, about which Ellie expressed her excitement and showed us her elephant lovies on Zoom. After we learning more about Cal, we began working on some birthday messages to share with him. Some children chose to cut or paint parts of their messages while others chose to draw on beautiful paper.
Some of Cal’s favorite vehicles are fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars, so several children took the opportunity to share their rescue vehicles from home with Cal. Ford: Look at this Karen: Oh, look at that a ladder truck! Ragnar: That’s not a ladder truck, that’s a fire truck! It has a ladder because it has to rescue people! Cal: That’s like my firetruck! See the ladder right here? (on his drawing) Ellie shows a yellow truck on screen Cal: What’s that kind of yellow truck? I don’t have one of those yellow trucks at my house. Maybe I’m gonna get that for my birthday. Thursday, February 3 On Thursday, children continued the chance to share materials they thought Cal would like, however this time the materials were his favorite colors, blue and yellow. Ford share his yellow and blue transformer cars, Emma had a bowl of blue and yellow balls and Bailee shared a blue and yellow school bus with a trunk that even opened and closed! Fay even brought in some blue and yellow felt to add to Cal’s sewing gift. Tuesday, February 8 Now that we were finally back in person, it was time to construct Cal’s gift. We chose to work on sewing for Cal because its a technique we’d been working with right before we switched to virtual. While most everyone had a chance to share in Cal’s birthday committee on zoom, Fay and Ragnar spent this morning putting the final piece together. Using an embroidery hoop, needles and blue and yellow materials, Fay and Ragnar worked collaboratively to construct a beautiful piece for Cal. Ragnar combing through the beads: I really like this one, look at this one! Fay: Look, the needle came through Ragnar: This one is really cool, I’ll pick this one. I’ll try to get two of them, One, two, three… Ragnar: How can we do it (put the beads on the needle)? I definitely want this one. I have one last one. I’ll get one of these gorgeous ones. Fay: Can we add this? (yellow transparent paper) Fay: I’m going to put it here. Right here. I want the yellow (thread). Ragnar: Which needle should I get? Yellow! I want to put some materials on. Fay: I want this to go, I want it to go on top here. On top the soft part. Ragnar: Look at this one (bead). It has green and red. This one is definitely good. Fay: Imma put this on. I’ll put another one, maybe this one (button). It’s not working. Maybe this one (a bead). Ragnar: This one is not going in here. Wait, a triangle one (piece of felt).
A big thank you to everyone that was able to join us today virtually. We had a gathering packed with building, singing, stories and sharing. Construction at HomeContinuing our to share experiences through the zoom platform, today children had the chance to build with their friends virtually and with their families at home. While we were building, the Brown Room children shared about some of their items from home. Cal shared his Super Boy mask and his firefighter puddle boots, while Bailee shared her monkey with her friends. Emma enjoyed reading one of the books from her bookshelf. Cal: Hey mommy! Look again! Ford: That's a big tower. Cal: I build a bridge. Ellie describing her magna-tiles: It's red. Mimi: This, this, this, this a bridge. Charlton: It's a police shark ship. They catch bad guys they don't caught sharks. Stories and Songs about SoundsThroughout the morning, we had a chance to read a few storybooks and sing a few songs. Little Blue Truck and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom are old favorites in the Brown Room, while Mice Squeak, We Speak by Tomie dePaola was a new story to us. We also sang "The Swimming Song" as we signed off and said goodbye. Looking Ahead to Next WeekWe'll continue to be virtual on Monday, but look forward to seeing our friends back in the Brown Room on Tuesday, February 8th to continue our exploration of sound and prepare for our Valentine's Day Celebrations.
Preparing for Cal's Birthday and PaintingToday we had a chance to share some of the materials we collected for Cal's Birthday. Yesterday he shared with us that his favorite colors were blue and yellow, so this morning Ford, Bailee, Charlton, Ellie, Emma and Ramsey all spoke about what they had collected for Cal and why. Stay tuned for more about Cal's birthday committee on Tuesday's blog post! After sharing our collected materials, we enjoyed sharing some painting together. Almost everyone chose to use watercolors, with some children choosing to cover their whole canvas and others painting distinct designs. While on Zoom, we chatted about our painting process: Charlton: You gotta get it (the paint) wet. Ellie: It's black, I found black! Charlton: Red is my favorite color for Cal's birthday, but he doesn't like red. I'm painting a red great white and putting blue for the water. Ramsey: Momma, it's red and yellow! Ellie: Painting water on paper! Oh, blue! Ramsey: It's purple Ellie: Paint it again, mommy. Bailee: Red, umm purple! Charlton: Guys, I'm adding dinosaurs in the ocean. T-Rexes can stomp in the water. Ramsey's painting slowly revealed a truck his mom had draw in white crayon on his paper. When he finished his piece, he exclaimed "momma, a truck! It has two wheels!" We also enjoyed What's that Noise? by author Michelle Edwards. In the book, an older brother comforts his younger brother as the night sounds and shadows start to feel a little scary. However, once Alex starts to sing some of the sounds with his brother Ben, the sounds don't seem so scary! After reading we discussed the story: Ramsey: It's a monster book! Charlton: I like it. I like it because of the scary dragon! (shadows of the branches made a dragon shape on the floor of the brothers' room) Ford: I did not like it because I'm coloring. Tomorrow we will share some of our construction materials with each other over zoom for our second to last virtual day. Have a wonderful evening everyone!
On Wednesday, Brown Room enjoyed a virtual clay day! Children used materials from home and school to create all kinds of designs. Cal made a birthday cake in anticipation of his upcoming birthday celebration and Rawls' worked diligently on building a tree farm. When Charlton saw that Rawls had his trucks out with the clay, he went to find some of his own. On his return he announced "look, I have a monster truck too!" Ellie and Ragnar pulled a variety of materials for their creations with Ellie adding paint brushes and Ragnar adding timber from his fireplace to his design. While we worked, we sang some of our favorite songs, such as "Stirring Our Brew", "The Swimming Song" and "Baby Shark" because we listened and heard Emma singing as she worked with her clay. We also enjoyed Bunny's Noisy Book by author Margaret Wise Brown. We followed as bunny explored sounds made by bees, a rooster and even a red fox snapping branches underfoot! We discussed how bunny used his soundscape to explore and know when to get home safely. Charlton and Ford particularly enjoyed the red fox tiptoeing through the forest, and Ford said it was "like the song" Stirring our Brew which ends with a quiet tiptoe lyric.
Thank you again to all who have joined us this week! We can't wait to work on Cal's Birthday Committee tomorrow! Monday, January 31, 2022Thanks to everyone who was able to join the Brown Room on Zoom Monday. Also a big thanks for the parent, caregiver and sibling support that we saw during our Zoom Meetings! We started our week out singing our usual morning greeting song, "Willoughby Wallaby Woo." Charlton led the group right away by launching into song. Continuing our exploration of sound, during our gathering, we read two storybooks that focused on noises and sounds, Tap Tap, Boom Boom by Elizabeth Bluemule and an old favorite, Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells. Seeing or friends on Zoom for the first time was an interesting experience. Building on our studio experiences of drawing self-portraits, we took this unique opportunity to practice our drawing skills by drawing our friends on our Zoom screen. Throughout the morning, friends also had chances to share some of their special toys and materials from their homes. Ellie shared a painting that she had made for Karen and Elena. Cal shared his Fireman's Coat, while Ford shared his Bumblebee transformer toy and his Spiderman mask. Charlton shared his monster truck and a LEGO boat that he had built at home. We ended our day with a wonderful rendition of "The Ants Go Marching" before bidding are friends goodbye until Tuesday. In case you want to sing it at home, here are the lyrics.
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