December 09th, 2021

A Gift for Victor and Lucilla

Here at St. John’s we have a tradition of creating gifts to the St. Johns staff to thank them for their work and support during the year. Each classroom works on a gift for a different member of the staff, and this year Brown Room is creating a gift for Victor and Lucilla, our school custodians. In our initial conversations about what kind of gift we should create, there was a lot of discussion about birthdays as children reflected on making gifts during birthday committees. ​

Elena: Elena: This is a conversation about making a gift for Victor and Lucilla who keep our school so nice and clean. We’ve had committees where we’ve made gifts before. Do you remember that?
Ford: For Birthdays!
Elena: For birthdays, that’s right. What’s another time you might give someone a gift?
Ford: Like cake!
Ragnar: A jeep!
Elena: Those are good gifts. When could someone get a gift that wasn’t for their birthday?
Ragnar: My one birthday?
Bailee: CC has a birthday
Ford: I have a birthday! I have a lot of birthdays.

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Elena: What’s something we could make for Victor and Lucilla?
Ragnar: A jeep!
Ford: We could make a car? A chocolate cake!
Elena: Oh a cake is a good idea, what's another sweet dessert?
Ford: Chocolate cookies!
Ragnar: With marshmallows!
Ford: and hot chocolate!
Bailee: Rainbow cookies!
Elena: If we were giving someone cookies, how could we carry them?
Ford: With a napkin! Or you can put cookies in milk!
Bailee: A napkin, a plate.

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Eventually we settled on making a bowl or a plate out of clay to put our baked goods on. After talking with Rainey Room, we realized they had made a plate last year, so this year we decided on making a bowl. In order to make the bowl, we rolled out slabs, draped them over existing bowls and stamped our symbols on them so Victor and Lucilla know who made them. ​

​Louisa: It’s (The Clay)  sooo cold!! 
Louisa noticing air bubbles in clay: oooh little dots! Little dots!
Ellie: Me want try. Me want cut.

Charlton adding the symbols: Where's the whale? Ta da!
Charlton: You need big muscles! (for rolling out clay)
Ragnar: Where’s my sand dollar? I want to put my sand dollar!

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Tomorrow we will glaze and fire the bowls so they're ready to be filled with delicious cookies next week!