Celebrating Charlton's 4th Birthday

12/8/2022

The Birthday Committee

Each day we see evidence of the strong relationships that the children have been building in the Rainey Room. We see cooperative play as the children "work" in the restaurant they have imagined in Dramatic Play. We see collaboration as they build elaborate structures in the Construction Area. Recently, we have seen collaboration on tempera paintings at the easel as well. Children are making messages for their friends to show that they care. All of these interactions are spurred by the trust that they have in one another. While these instances of collaboration, cooperation, and caring are a daily occurrence, the additional work of participating on a birthday committee provides an even greater window into how deep these friendships have become.

The birthday committee also gives children a chance to think like an engineer and work through the engineering design process at an early age.

Thinking About a Challenge and Brainstorming Possible Solutions: It's Charlton's birthday. What are we going to create for his gift?
Imagining and Planning: How are we going to make the gift? What materials are we going to use?
Creating: Making the gift and solving problems during the creation process.

The Interview

The story of Charlton's birthday gift starts in the outdoor classroom with his love of dramatic play involving science fiction (Star Wars, Boba-Fett and The Mandalorian), and superheroes (Spiderman and the Black Panther). Thus it was fitting that we conducted the birthday committee's interview during Backwards Day. Karen asked, "What do you think we could make for a gift for Charlton for his birthday?"

Bailee: I know. A Stars Wars Cake.
Ford: I want to give him a skateboard because when he is at my house, he asks for a skateboard scooter.
Charlton: I lost my skateboard. I have a scooter and a Kylo Ren.
Ford: Charlton, what’s your favorite thing to do?
Charlton: Hmmmm. Can you make a Boba-fett costume?
Whit: I was wondering about that. If we could make you a costume.
Ford: I was going to say that, that we could make a Boba-fett.
Whit: We could have flat clay and the shape of it and then we could color it.
Ford: When it was my last birthday, you guys did an awesome job on my present.
Bailee: A skateboard.
Charlton: Black Panther colors. Just follow the colors. Follow black and gray for Black Panther and blue, silver and yellow.

Choosing Materials

The birthday committee set to work making Charlton a costume as he requested. They had to imagine how they would make the costume and plan what materials they would use. The children had to think creatively and critically, considering which materials would be appropriate for fashioning a wearable costume. Charlton also requested that the costume "follow the colors of Black Panther."

Mimi: I knew it was Charlton’s birthday because I saw this Batman (photo of the Black Panther).
Bailee: Maybe a Spiderman.
Mimi: We can’t eat cake at school birthdays. We have to eat cupcakes because they don’t have a knife (at school).
Bailee: No, we can sew so for Charlton.

Karen, Bailee and Mimi revisited the birthday interview in which the children discussed making a costume for Charlton and suggested different materials that could be used to make the costume.

Mimi: Charlton would get dirty with clay (to make his costume). No, because it gets hard and it would be so hot!
Bailee: Maybe we could make something soft.
Mimi: Maybe something soft, because he (Charlton) could wear it... Black and black and black.
Karen: Charlton also said “Black Panther colors. Just follow the colors. Follow black and gray for Black Panther and blue, silver and yellow.”
Bailee: Wire. Blue and yellow and silver wire. We can make them (the black panther costume) with wire. Wire is inside.

Bailee and Mimi searched the atelier for the wire that the birthday committee would need to make Charlton’s Black Panther Costume.

Mimi and Bailee asked to draw Black Panther before moving on to their next plans for the day. Mimi clearly depicted the that the Black Panther’s Claw Necklace in her drawing. We now had a plan to follow for the creation of Charlton's birthday gift.

Mimi: "Need to draw Black Panther."

Making the Gift and Problem Solving

The plan and materials for Charlton's gift.

Now that we had a plan, we began creating Charlton's gift. Creating the gift in the image of the Black Panther's Claw Necklace asked children to think critically and solve problems. As the children fashioned the claws, they tested their ideas while making the "inside" of the claws. Some of the children created two dimensional "triangles" from the wire pieces, while others created three dimensional "insides" as Bailee called them. Once the "insides" were made, the children began wrapping iridescent foils around them. The final touch was to add "the colors of Black Panther" by intricately wrapping, blue, yellow, black and silver wire around the foil .

Bailee: This is so hard. I wrap it around. Wrap the foil. Wow, this is kinda weird. It’s (the wire) is poking out here. It’s kinda rainbow-y.
Whit looked at his “claw.” That’s not a claw because it’s flat on top. It’s a triangle.
Bailee: Look at mine. I need more blue or black or silver wire.
Whit: Wire. I wrapped it.
Ford: How can we make the wire stay?
Bailee: Put more wire on top of it.
Whit: We could make a hole and put this (the string) through.
Mimi wrapped wire around the wooden triangle: Easy peasy, lemon squeezey.

Ford looked at the photograph of the Claw Necklace and counted the claws. Then he looked back at the "claws" the birthday committee had created and began to count them. Mimi joined him in counting and declared, "Eleven!" showing an understanding of counting and cardinality.

Mimi: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Eleven.

Ford pointed to the last "claw" that he and Mimi had touched as they counted and then made a decision based on his understanding of mathematical operations.

Ford: No. We have to get that one off the team because we already have ten.

The Final Design of the Claw Necklace

It was now time to finalize the design of the necklace. Bailee and Ford worked through a few different ideas for its design. As they worked through their ideas, they explored sorting objects by the attribute of size, sorting the "claws" into three distinct piles. Once sorted, they began to discuss the pattern they wanted to make, taking design and aesthetics into account.

Ford: Little, big, little, big, little, big…
Bailee: Big, big, big, big, big…
Ford: This one is the medium size. That is small one, then a medium one.
Bailee: This big one I did.
Ford: Big is before small. If this one is the biggest it should be in the middle.

Once they settled on the design, Ford and Bailee had to decide how to construct the necklace

Ford: We could use glue. We could use wire.
Bailee: Now it's time to tie it to the rope.
Ford: We need to break the teeth apart. We need a little wire.

Bailee pointed to one end of the rope and then the other end:
We need to connect it to the other side.
Ford showed Bailee how he connected a claw to the rope:
You wrap it (the wire) around the claw. See I’m doing it Bailee.

Celebrating Charlton with his Friends and Family

For Charlton's special birthday treat, the Rainey Room children enjoy pretzel thins, plantain chips and "brookies," a magical combination of chocolate chip cookies and brownies. After our snack, Addison and Eliza shared two of Charlton's favorite storybooks:
Circus Ship and We're Going on a Goon Hunt.

The Rainey Room Children sang our class birthday song to Charlton and then he walked around the birthday candle four times to signify his four turns around the sun before blowing the candle out. When the candle was extinguished the members of the birthday committee presented Charlton with his gift which they had painstakingly made themselves, a Black Panther Claw Necklace.

0 Comments

Rainey Room