February 08th, 2022

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.

Ramsey: Mama, can you do a square?
Ellie: Me cutting paper!
Emma: I got paper!
Ramsey: Mama, why is there a big circle around the triangle?
Ramsey: I’m going to use yellow. 
Ford: I have painting! I’m painting for Cal. 
Ramsey: Mama, where’s the little green paper? Using stickers? That’s a good idea!
Emma: I have stickers!

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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. 

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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). 

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The Celebration 

After we finished preparing the gift, we wrapped it and enjoyed a beautiful birthday celebration with Cal and his parents. His Mom and Dad brought two funny books, gummy worm cupcakes and Pirate’s Booty popcorn with them for a special snack! Cal took his three turns around the candle and we all shared our birthday song. What a treat to celebrate Cal’s birthday on our first day back together!