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All School Chapel & Photo DayToday the Brown Room children participated in their first All School Chapel gathering. Each classroom has the responsibility of leading portions of the Chapel Program. The Brown Room children enthusiastically held “candles” while singing “This Little Light of Mine” during today's Chapel gathering. This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine Let it shine Once our Chapel Program was complete, we headed to the Outdoor Classroom for Photo Day. Each child sat for individual photos, as well as a class portrait. Back in the Brown RoomWhile children took turns visiting the Outdoor Classroom for photos in small groups, we were busy back in the Brown Room exploring a variety of materials. Collaging in the StudioChildren were enthusiastic to experiment with collage in the studio.
While looking in the symbol box for her lightbulb stamp, Isabelle noticed “It’s not in here!” After a short hunt, Isabelle discovered her symbol in another drawer. Cal: For my mama. Fay: I want the one with the squares (describing the paper that she wanted to use for her message). I’m all done. For mommy. I want the white one now. I wanna do another one. That one is 2 for me. Another one for mommy. I’m done. Emma and Louisa both found their symbols and stamped their messages before putting them in their portfolio drawers. New Materials in the Brown Room!Based on children's interest, new materials are being introduced in the Brown Room regularly. With a number of new siblings at home, the children have expressed interest in taking care of babies. Another big interest in Brown Room is vehicles. With that in mind, trains, train tracks and construction vehicles have been added to the construction area and baby dolls and related care items have been added for dramatic play.
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Exploring CollageWhat is a collage? When you put those [materials] and put them like that [smacking his hand on the paper] - Ford Today we officially introduced collage in the studio. While some children experimented with the technique through their work in the birthday committee, today every child had a chance to select from a variety of wood and metallic materials and glue them to the supporting surface. Children expressed interest in different aspects of collage, with some gravitating towards the gluing and others meticulously organizing materials on the page. As is often true in the studio, the children worked in small groups to create their designs.
Mimi: What is this one of? K, I’m gonna put it in this one. Charlton: We have an elephant, do we have a lion? Oh, its a tiger! A tiger unicorn? Cal (peeking in to see what Mimi and Charlton and working on) What I’m gonna do with all those (materials)? Cal: Look! I made my ABCs (referencing all the scrabble tiles on his collage) Ragnar: How come you have an R, thats for my name. That’s for Ragnar Ramsey: I want to do another one (pulls a scrabble letter) Elsewhere in the classroom and the atelier, children enjoyed preparing Rawls' birthday gift and building with trains and vehicles. SingalongToday, the children of the Brown Room led their first St. John’s Singalong. The songs chosen by the children were:
Later in the day, Charlton and Ford invented and sang a new version of Fire Truck, called Dump Truck. Here's how it goes: Hurry, hurry dump the dirt. Hurry, hurry dump the dirt. Hurry, hurry dump the dirt. Ding, ding, ding. Clay in the Outdoor ClassroomEarlier in the week, we explored clay in the atelier. Today, clay made its debut in the outdoor classroom for our Backwards Day! Ragnar, Louisa and Rawls were the first children to explore the clay. As Ragnar pounded the clay, he narrated, “Good, it’s so flat. I’m done. Hard and flat.” Rawls dug into the clay block then looked at his hands, “Look at my hands. Still so dirty.” When we work with clay, we often use a bucket of water to wash our hands. The clay collects at the bottom of the bucket when we do. Ford was the first to try this method, “It off now. It gone!” Ellie dug into the clay block and scratched it with her fingernails. She described how it felt, “Gooey. My hands. Gooey!” Emma pulled tiny pieces from the larger block. When Ragnar left the area to explore elsewhere, she observed, “He all done.” Emma continued to work with the clay. Ford, who had left the clay area to explore another part of the outdoor classroom, came looking for her. “Where’s Emma?” he asked. Emma was busy and said, “Emma washing hands in bucket. I wash my hands. Teeny tiny. Teeny Tiny. I wash my hands. Water is brown!” Ellie continued to work with the clay, "Making, making." Rawls, who had departed the clay project for the sandpit returned and observed, “It’s kinda beautiful. It looks like chocolate.” Seon grabbed a fistful of clay and then added it to another piece. She continued to grab smaller pieces to add to the bigger chunk. As Karen poured the water from the bucket during cleanup, Rawls and Ellie made some observations as they pointed at the water going down the drain: Brown. - Rawls It’s brown water. -Ellie While we were cleaning up, Ragnar returned saying, “I would like to do more clay.” Ragnar joined Karen in putting the clay materials away so that we could get ready for snack. Summer MemoriesThis week, we also finished sharing our summer memories in small groups. Ramsey shared a shell, a bullet train toy, a painted bowl and an OFF mosquito wipe with Ragnar. Here's a snippet of their conversation: Elena: Ooh what else did you see on the beach? Ramsey: Mmm pinching crabs! Elena: Ragnar, did you hear that? Ramsey saw pinching crabs on the beach! Elena: Ramsey what did you choose for your symbol? Ramsey: A pinching crab! Elena: And when you saw the pinching crabs on the beach did you and Nora do anything with them? Ramsey: In a bucket! Mmmm then just mixed it. Elena: Ragnar, have you ever caught crabs on the beach? Maybe in Montauk? Ragnar: I have not. I have been to Montauk, but no crabs. I have seen crabs on the fish place. Elena: Fish place? Like the market where people go to buy fish to eat? Ragnar: Yes! A Look Ahead for Brown RoomHappy Birthday Ellie!
Day 1- Painting the GiftFord and Emma were the first members of the birthday committee to start working on Ellie’s gift. Each member of the birthday committee was intentionally chosen because of their interest in Ellie as a friend and their excitement about the birthday calendar. Karen and Elena had prepared a watercolor and wood provocation for Ellie’s birthday, using blue and green watercolor. Both Ford and Emma took on the task with reverence as they shared the green and blue watercolor, carefully covering each piece of the wood with paint. As they worked they shared the following thoughts: Emma: I’m wanna put blue Ford: There’s blue on the bottom Ford: Now let’s paint this side, I’m covering it! Emma: oooooh, it’s painting! I want the blue one… 1...2….4… (counting the strokes of the brush) Ford: Her (Ellie) gonna love it! We have to hide then it surprise! After painting and cleaning, Ford noticed that some of the pieces on the tray were still unpainted. “Can I paint that?” he asked and he diligently filled in the empty space. Day 2 - Decorating the Painted Wood
Day 3 - Arranging the Wood By the third day of the Birthday committee, we had 4 beautifully painted and decorated pieces of wood. Ramsey and Fay took the time to arrange the three smaller pieces on the larger piece of wood and filled in empty spaces with more decorations. Ramsey took particular care to pick out buttons he thought Ellie would like, and arrange them in ascending size order on the side of the gift. The GiftIntroducing ClayHere at St. John’s it is our mission to introduce the children to a variety of materials. Our intention behind this is twofold. First and foremost we want to offer the children as many mediums for exploration, creativity and communication as possible. The more outlets a child has to express themself, the more frequent and dynamic the communication becomes. Second, we often choose non traditional materials (clay, wire, wood etc) with the intention of drawing the children in for an interesting, more elongated exploration. Of course, before we can really begin to work with any material, we first have to be introduced. This week Brown Room has focused on introducing clay. Clay is a medium used quite frequently at St. Johns. Sometimes the intention is on crafting something in particular (vases, pots, cups etc.), but often the clay is presented as a blank canvas to be shaped by the child’s imagination. On Monday and Wednesday of this week, we presented clay to the children in large, unshaped quantities and observed how they worked, sculpted and shared the material. Monday, October 4 On Monday, we chose to present the clay in a large, unbroken block in the center of the table in the atelier. The clay was covered in a white cloth to keep it from drying out, and a group of four children accompanied Karen to the atelier and speculated about what the large lump on the table might be.
Mimi: My hands is dirty. It’s a ghost. Andy did Clay at school. Ramsey: Cooking cookies. Cal: Pancakes. Charlton: Lotsa of pancakes! The children spent the majority of their time in the atelier ripping off large chunks of the clay and “making pancakes” by flattening the pieces. The children experimented with trying to move the whole block of clay, but finding it too unruly to move, they chose to move it around the table in pieces. Mimi spent time rolling hers into pieces and Cal flattened his out on an available clay board. Ramsey chose to make “big cookies, vanilla cookies” whereas Charlton spent most of his time just pulling big pieces from the central piece. Wednesday, October 6 Today we opted to present the clay in a slightly different format. Instead of the singular block in the center of the table, we presented four, smaller blocks on individual clay boards. While this facilitated more mobility with the clay, it prompted a little less collaboration than the large block did. Like the first group, today’s group speculated about what the material could be. Ellie: (who found the clay first announced) Playdough, playdough Elena: It’s like playdough Ellie: Like playdough? Why? Elena: It has the same texture as playdough, but here at school we actually use clay Fay: It’s clay (squishes the pieces in her hands) Look, look. It has holes Elena: What does it feel like? Ellie: Playdough, squishy! Elena: It is squishy like playdough Fay: You can put it off and stick it on Emma: Emma is making holes! Much like the first group, today’s group delighted in ripping smaller pieces off of the larger clay blocks and flattening them to make cookies or pancakes. However, because the blocks were smaller, the children were able to roll and drop them more easily which led to larger creations. Ellie: “Making a house” Fay: “It’s like a slider, an upside down slider. It’s like a train” Ellie: “Squish, squish, shapes, shapes” Fay: It’s a chocolate chip, I’m making presents. Emma: It’s a sailboat! The clay exploration concluded with Louisa, Emma, Fay and Ellie wedging the clay back together and adding water to ensure it’s soft enough for future use. In the classroomWhile some children explored in the atelier, the other children explored construction, dramatic play and the light-table in the classroom. Symbols!Today, Cal chose his symbol. As we and his family anticipated, his final decision was a grasshopper! “ Grasshopper, grasshopper, grasshopper, grasshopper,” he recited as he made his choice. Now that we have all chosen our symbols, the symbol box will be introduced in the Brown Room message center. Bailee and Win, who will join us soon, will choose symbols when they join Brown Room. Until then, here are everyone’s chosen symbols: Making Cubby TagsLast week, children started making tags for their cubby bags. Children used sponge stamps to print on their bag tags. Each child's cubby bag tag will also be marked with their symbol, encouraging independence during our transitions. Today, Mimi, Cal and Fay completed their printing projects. "Look at all these colors. There is purple. There is green. There is yellow." -Cal
Mimi used blue and green stamps on her cubby tag. "Green! I want pink. I have paint on the table. Is making a rainbow. Another. I want yellow! I all done!" -Fay Fay also experimented with folding her paper in half to see what would happen when she squished the paint together, creating a symmetrical pattern Rawls and Ramsey enjoyed printing last week. When they saw their classmates printing today, they both decided to try again today. "Yellow! Circle. Another Circle."- Rawls "Squishy. Squishy." -Ramsey Stamp PaintingHappy first day of October! Trying to take advantage of our backwards day and the beautiful weather, we spent our time outside print painting tags for our cubby bags. Using beautifully mixed paints and sponge stamps, each child created a unique tag for their bag that will help to identify the bag’s owner during arrival and dismissal transitions. Ford: I can put it (the stamp) in here? Later while helping another child, Ford recounted the process of print painting. "You take this then put it on here and dip it." Rawls to Isabelle: "Stamp, pick it up... stamp. Pick it up... " Check out our projections below to see what's in store for next week!
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