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We want to thank everyone for two weeks of incredible portfolio conferences! What a wonderful way to round out our year together in the Brown Room. Today we want to share some photos from our week! We went on a neighborhood walk On Tuesday we explored the neighborhood around St. John's and made some exciting discoveries... Images captured by the children Mystery Reader Thank you for reading to us, Diana!
Hugh's birthday committee and celebration Hugh had three specific wishes for his birthday: collages of Blue Bear (his lovie), a fire truck and a race car. The birthday committee (Cate, Lily and Bea) worked hard on creating a collection of collages which were then combined in a large book. That was such a fun day! - Hugh Photography is taking pictures. - Jade As we are wrapping up our year in the Brown Room we start to prepare for our Summer Research, which will focus on photography. The Summer Research is a way for us to connect our time in Brown Room and starting Rainey Room after the break. As a preparation, the children design their own "photo book" by choosing the color for their book and taking their cover own photo. For that many children "dressed up" their lovies for a photo shoot or arranged their favorite materials. You will receive more detailed information about our Summer Research soon! These are the children's cover photos - chosen, arranged and taken by them:
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Thank you to everyone who joined us for portfolio conferences this week! We have really enjoyed being present with you and your children while they reflect on their work and share with you. We're looking forward to next weeks meetings with the rest of our families. Here are some photos of what we were up to in the Brown Room this week...Mystery ReadersThank you for reading to us, Megan! Thank you for reading to us, Paige! Construction Jade and Cate build a Princess Castle. Homes for Forest Animals, by Jade.
"Marbling"
Marbling with shaving cream & watercolors to create marbled prints.
Introduction to Photography / Using CamerasOur first class neighborhood walk!We brought the digital camera's on our walk to take photos of our findings. Images captured by the childrenHave a GREAT weekend!Happy Portfolio Conference Week!Since we will be part of the children's Portfolio Conferences in the afternoons, there won't be typical blog posts this week and next week. But on Fridays we will share a little recap of our week. Thank you for your understanding! We look forward to welcome you and your child to school soon! But we don't want to leave you without anything today, so we thought we would share a few jokes the children told each other in the bathroom while washing hands today. Bea: Question: Have you take the leaves to the movies? Response: You haaaaave! Lily: Knock Knock Who's there? Cows go. Cows go who? No! Cows go Mooo! Hugh: Question: What starts with D and ends with M and has a bazillion letters in it? Answer: The Post Office! Have a fun-filled week!
Reflecting on yesterday's Classroom Stories Night Since the children showed a great interest in experiencing Classroom Stories Night themselves as well, we decided to keep the set-up in Blake Hall just as is was last night. This morning, when the children entered school, they were first hesitant and a little confused - what was our dragon doing here in Blake Hall? What the heck is it doing down here? (spotting the dragon costume in Blake Hall) - Wilder Maybe you (Ines) and Sam carried it down? - Bea Maybe you guys brought it down for the parents to see! - Wilder Their initial hesitancy quickly turned into curiosity and they began exploring the dragon costume and other displayed work up close. In addition to exploring last night's set-up and their presented work, the children also had the pleasure of watching the videos we recorded last night. They absolutely LOVED hearing about last night and spotting their mommy or daddy under the dragon head and wearing the costume. THANK YOU for your interest and participation! The children felt a strong sense of pride and joy seeing you interacting with their costume.
That was very cool! - Lucas  This dragon costume (our costume) looks just like that dragon costume (pointing to the book). - Wilder We are so happy that we were finally able to share our dragon with all of you! It has been an amazing three months! Now, that other classrooms have spotted the costume as well, we have already received requests for more information about it. Maybe we will plan a school parade for the future? We will keep you updated!  How to marble a cake ...
preparing the cake batter Creating the marble pattern In order to create a marble pattern we first had to alternate and layer the two kinds of cake batter. Then we used a knife as a tool to "swirl" the batters together.    
Preheating the oven Now that the cake was ready to get baked we consulted the back of the cake mix box for more information. We learned that the oven temperature has to get set to 350 degrees. Once the oven reaches the temperature the cake has to bake for about 20 minutes. Let's not forget to set a timer!!
I smell the cake in the oven. - Lucas It smells goooood. - Frannie  Thanks to our fantastic bakers the cake turned out GREAT! We hope Vitor and Lucila will enjoy this delicious marble cake. We think it will look great on the plates as well. You know it almost my birthday?Me be 3 on my birthday! - LukeLuke brought up the topic of his birthday over two weeks ago! He has been patiently waiting for his school celebration ever since ...  Today, Luke shared croissants as his special celebration snack with everyone. Before snack, some children reflected on a typical Brown Room birthday celebration. What should Luke expect to happen today? We already made the present. So now we walk around. Walk around the table. - Jade And then we blow out the candle. - Remy Me do it! - Luke Yes, you do it! - Remy Luke opens the present. - Jade  (and) the birthday song! The Brown Room one. - Jade When Luke was 0 years old he liked to ... Sleep! When Luke was 1 year old he liked to ... Eat! When Luke was 2 years old he liked to ... Run! Luke is 3 years old and he likes to ... Open Presents! Mystery Readers After his celebration, Luke's mom, dad, and big sister Grace joined us in the outdoor classroom to be our special mystery readers. Grace read the story, Put Me in the Zoo.
Thank you, Grace! You did an awesome job.
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 | LUKE It's went in there. (when digging his fingers into the clay) Me making holes with is (using the sea shell as an impression tool). Me making a big dragon head. The holes are scales. |
  |  LILY How about a cake? It's a strawberry cake. But you gotta take off the tie (golden chain) cause you can't eat string. Hugh, suggesting: But the little beads are made out of chocolate. |
  |  FINLAY It's a toy. This toy isn't a kind that you play with it. You can't play with it, just me. You hang it on the wall and then you get it when you are sad or hurt. You will feel better. Oh, you need a nail. You have to stick the nail into it. You can put a nail right here (round opening in the back of the piece). No, I need two nails. (Lily: Three nails!) I put magic in it. If you break this toy, guess what will happen. It will break and the magic will fly out. |
They are my special guests! It's a surprise! It's TC and J !! - Remy, while walking downstairs to the front lawn with her friends, where we greeted our Mystery Readers
On Monday, we welcomed Remy's wonderful grandparents as our Mystery Readers! Thank you for joining us on this sunny day.
On Monday, we welcomed Remy's wonderful grandparents as our Mystery Readers! Thank you for joining us on this sunny day.
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A blue dinosaur for our friend, Luke
| Throughout the school year we have used the birthday child's favorite color as one of the starting points for our present creation. Unfortunately Luke wasn't with us on Monday to tell us about his favorite color in person. We speculated that his favorite color would be blue but wanted to check if our guess was right, so we sent him a short video with our question; is your favorite color blue? | Luke and his mom, Alicia, sent us their response, which confirmed our expectation: His favorite color is blue! |
Remy, Finlay and Daniel continued the birthday committee work by collaging a variety of blue materials to his T-Rex, which we started to create last week by tracing the projection of a T-Rex.
 Daniel's dinosaur toy, which served as a reference point throughout the project. | What does a T-rex need? Finlay: A tongue! Sam: What color for the tongue? Finlay: Red. Daniel: Look! It’s red (showing Finlay and Remy his own dinosaur toy for reference and pointing out the tongue) Remy: Can I cut? Here is the tongue! (cuts out a tongue using red paper) Daniel: My tongue is inside of my mouth (considering the placement of the tongue on the T-Rex) |
During the process the children moved through and focused on different parts of the dinosaur's body. The birthday committee thought of and discussed additions that would be needed for each body part (e.g. the feet need claws).
Sam: Look at this dinosaur (she references Daniel’s toy) I see some stripes on its back.
Remy: Can I make it? (the stripes - starts to cut blue plastic into strips)
Daniel: And you have to make dots on it. You need to put dots and spikes there. (pointing to the legs of Luke’s dragon cut out)
Finlay: We’re running out of materials!
Daniel: We have to put all of them on. (adding pom poms, which served as the “dots”)
Sam: Look at this dinosaur (she references Daniel’s toy) I see some stripes on its back.
Remy: Can I make it? (the stripes - starts to cut blue plastic into strips)
Daniel: And you have to make dots on it. You need to put dots and spikes there. (pointing to the legs of Luke’s dragon cut out)
Finlay: We’re running out of materials!
Daniel: We have to put all of them on. (adding pom poms, which served as the “dots”)
Another important part of the discussion focused on the questions what materials to use and how to use them in order to best represent our thoughts and ideas.
Sam summarized the work so far: There are two feet with lots of claws. There are bumpy dots on the legs. There is a mouth with a red tongue. There are bumps down it’s back. There are stripes on it’s body.
Finlay: and it has a tail! (added by Finlay)
Daniel: And there’s bumps here (referencing the “bumps” on his dinosaur toy's head). So you have to add all the dots you want. On the head. (children crumble tissue paper to create more “bumps” on the head, inspired by a technique Remy shared with the group)
Sam summarized the work so far: There are two feet with lots of claws. There are bumpy dots on the legs. There is a mouth with a red tongue. There are bumps down it’s back. There are stripes on it’s body.
Finlay: and it has a tail! (added by Finlay)
Daniel: And there’s bumps here (referencing the “bumps” on his dinosaur toy's head). So you have to add all the dots you want. On the head. (children crumble tissue paper to create more “bumps” on the head, inspired by a technique Remy shared with the group)
 |  Cate's heart in-between stripes (blue tissue and cellophane paper) and scales (tiles) |
Inviting a guest to the committee....
Finlay: What about a heart?
Sam: Well who can draw a heart?
Cate: I can!
Cate then joined the birthday committee and drew a heart after Finlay's suggestion to place it "in the belly".
Finlay: What about a heart?
Sam: Well who can draw a heart?
Cate: I can!
Cate then joined the birthday committee and drew a heart after Finlay's suggestion to place it "in the belly".
Luke's birthday present from the Brown Room; A Blue T-Rex
I think it's very pretty! - Lily
I think it's cute! - Remy
I think he gonna love it. Everyone loves our presents. - Finlay
Everyone tried very hard to keep this amazing present a surprise for Luke. We can't wait to celebrate his third birthday together in the Brown Room, tomorrow!
The Pajama Project Update!
I think it looks like the thing we're doing with Cape's mom. - Lily
Sam: What were we doing with Cape's mom?
Making pajamas. - Lily
Sam: What were we doing with Cape's mom?
Making pajamas. - Lily
 | I see all the things that all the rooms made. Rainbow, toad, and ours! All the classrooms made. ... rainbow, toad, and stairs. - Lily And the sun! - Hugh |
Sam: Once the design gets made into pajamas, families can order them and we can wear them.
Every pajama day! - Bea
... but one day they're gonna be washing. That'd be crazy if we wore dirty pajamas! - Lily
Every pajama day! - Bea
... but one day they're gonna be washing. That'd be crazy if we wore dirty pajamas! - Lily
This is the best. The best day. It's happening right now!
- Daniel
In the Brown Room, we truly love our backwards Friday's. Recently, lots of "baking" has taken place during our outside times, but especially on backwards day because we have so much time to invest in our work outside! To begin backwards day today, children discovered a provocation with new materials in the sandbox and the baking began immediately.
In addition to baking ...
Frances and Daniel spent lots of time painting together using their favorite technique.
And a "problem" was discovered, but a solution was found!
| * Wilder and Hugh began filling a hole in the sandbox that Cape had previously been working on creating * Wait, guys! I don't want you to bury the hole. - Cape Why? - Wilder Because I liked it. - Cape But people will fall in it. - Wilder How about you make the hole smaller? - Lily How about we build a bridge over it. -Cape |  |
 | The pipes are so nobody falls and hits the brick (buried in the hole). And it's like a little bridge so cars can drive over. The white pipes look like pipes, but they're car tunnels and bridges and cranes can lift the pipes so that I can check on what's down under. I'm the fixer man for the hole. - Cape |
Thank you for all of the love and appreciation during this years teacher week.
Here's to a happy weekend!
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Birthday Committee for our friend Luke
Similar to Frannie, Luke also has a specific present for his birthday in mind. And it aligns with the ideas his friends expressed. To our question "What does Luke like?" they all had the same answer: DINOSAURS, and the T-Rex is his favorite! They just know him so well...
Today, Michael, Finlay and Frances started the birthday present process by tracing a large scale projected image of a T-Rex on paper.
It's a T-Rex dinosaur! He gonna love it! - Michael
Everybody needs a heart. I'm drawing a heart. - Finlay
(drawing in the center of the dinosaur's chest)
We will continue our birthday committee work next week.
Similar to Frannie, Luke also has a specific present for his birthday in mind. And it aligns with the ideas his friends expressed. To our question "What does Luke like?" they all had the same answer: DINOSAURS, and the T-Rex is his favorite! They just know him so well...
Today, Michael, Finlay and Frances started the birthday present process by tracing a large scale projected image of a T-Rex on paper.
It's a T-Rex dinosaur! He gonna love it! - Michael
Everybody needs a heart. I'm drawing a heart. - Finlay
(drawing in the center of the dinosaur's chest)
We will continue our birthday committee work next week.
Messages for the incoming Brown Room children
We have created incredibly thoughtful and beautiful messages over the past weeks and we can not wait for them to be delivered to the new Brown Room children next week! We truly hope they will have a wonderful time filled with exploration, wonder, friendship and fun in our beloved Brown Room starting in September.
With love, your future Rainey Room children!
With love, your future Rainey Room children!
 | To Win I like making a message for my mommy and daddy at the message center. You use paper and cardboard and stickers and markers and crayons and scissors. From Hugh |
| To Seon I like to color with markers. I build here (in the construction area). I made these (sequins on the message) because those are so sparkly! I put a lot of those on and I drawed a little bit (on the message). From Daniel |  |
 | To Bailee We have snack (in the Brown Room). There’s a light table. And there’s messages. Message Center, it’s a center where you make messages. Any kind of message. With paper and some materials. Any materials. From Finlay |
| To Cal I made it. I love go to school! I love the dinosaur. I love paint. Yes, yes, yes, yes. From Michael |  |
Cape is making a house for the animals! - Wilder
Wilder and Cape collaborated on major construction project today. Together they created a large and complex house structure for the small animals in the construction area. Complete with "a book for the animals." - Cape ("Goldilocks and the three bears" by James Marshall). We are absolutely amazed by the scale of the structure and the intricate levels and methods of construction.
Wilder and Cape collaborated on major construction project today. Together they created a large and complex house structure for the small animals in the construction area. Complete with "a book for the animals." - Cape ("Goldilocks and the three bears" by James Marshall). We are absolutely amazed by the scale of the structure and the intricate levels and methods of construction.
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Thank you, Barret, for joining us as our Mystery Reader today! We have enjoyed welcoming parents to our outdoor spaces (and Blake Hall) immensely in the past few weeks.
Connecting with Saul
An Invitation
Today we received a very special invitation from our friend, Saul (and Elyse too)!
Jade was also involved in the invitation making process. She collaborated with Saul and Elyse during a virtual call last week and provided lots of insight and suggestions about how to write and send an invitation to us at school.
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We were able to write an email reply right away!
Looking forward to spending time with Saul and Elyse next week during snack time!
Adding a Scale
Aware of our dragon project, Saul recently made his own dragon scale to add to our costume!
Today, Remy volunteered to use the sewing machine to add Saul's scale onto one of the sections of the dragon body. Now, every Brown Room child has a scale sewn onto the dragon!
Bubbles
We wrapped up our day with some bubbles outside!
Can you catch a bubble without making it pop??
Can you catch a bubble without making it pop??
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Looking forward to seeing some of you tonight at the potluck!
| | What could be better than starting the week with a Mystery Reader? And Finlay's mom, Camille, came prepared for a wonderful story time - we read a total of THREE books together! Camille, thank you for being our fantastic Mystery Reader! |
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This week we continued creating welcome messages for the new incoming Brown Room children. Our messages will get delivered to the children next week and we hope it will get them excited for their time at St. John's and also ease their transition by sharing our experiences with them.
| To Rawls There’s blocks in construction. You can build something. From Jade |  |
 | To Fay Dragons breathe fire. (I want to tell her) about dinosaurs. Them roar and stomps! From Luke |
| To Emma I like making beds with the pillows (in our cozy area). You can nap. Actually, lay down. And read the fairy book. The studio sink rumbles. And I’m scared. I’m not scared anymore! It took a lot of hours…(to not feel scared anymore). From Cate |  |
| On Monday, Remy, Cate and Hugh explored the greeting hallway and light table provocation together with Jen. Fingers and a variety of loose parts were used to create images in sand. They also assisted Jen in sorting and organizing materials. Thank you for your help, friends! | |
  |  Hugh's sand drawing on the light table. |
Getting ready for Portfolio Conferences
In small group meetings we have started to prepare our portfolio drawers for the upcoming portfolio conferences. In these meetings the children reflect on their work and experiences, share memories and stories and organize their work by creating categories. We then "file" the work into a large binder, which every child will get to take home after their conference.
But what are portfolio conferences?
"It's like you're the teacher but the grown ups are right there. " - Finlay
At the conferences, the children will have the opportunity to share their work with you! We encourage the children to share their ideas and memories and present their work to you by creating a space for them to lead the conversation. For some children these situations might be intimidating at first but we encourage everyone to leave room for the children to speak about their work first.
The children are getting very excited to finally share their incredible work with you !
We can't wait!
In small group meetings we have started to prepare our portfolio drawers for the upcoming portfolio conferences. In these meetings the children reflect on their work and experiences, share memories and stories and organize their work by creating categories. We then "file" the work into a large binder, which every child will get to take home after their conference.
But what are portfolio conferences?
"It's like you're the teacher but the grown ups are right there. " - Finlay
At the conferences, the children will have the opportunity to share their work with you! We encourage the children to share their ideas and memories and present their work to you by creating a space for them to lead the conversation. For some children these situations might be intimidating at first but we encourage everyone to leave room for the children to speak about their work first.
The children are getting very excited to finally share their incredible work with you !
We can't wait!
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