February 17th, 2022

In continuing to prepare for the school’s birthday celebration, we’ve been working with some large scale tracing of some of our favorite spaces in school. Using the projector and paper hung on plexiglass, children were able to recreate the lines and shapes of the atelier, the front door, the school steps and the chapel.  We presented this provocation on today and Tuesday, and have opted to include both days in today’s blog. It’s our hope to use some of these finished drawings in a mixed media gift for the school!

On Tuesday, we presented this provocation for the first time. Children had already had a chance at tracing on the light-table, but the scale of this provocation was the first of its kind. Fay and Ragnar chose this as their plan first and later Mimi, Win, and Ramsey also joined. We began with an image of the entire school followed by an image of the school's door and the front steps. 

Ragnar: Oh, its a line!
Fay: It’s the St. John’s school. You forgot here to over here. The handle of the door. 
Look at this, I’m tracing this (the brick path). That’s a window, I’m coloring it. Look at that. It’s an egg (reflecting on the shape of the door handle.
Fay: Look at that, at the top. I can’t reach it.  It’s too high. 
Mimi: Oh, its the door!
Fay: She traced the whole door
Ragnar: It looks cool.

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Ragnar looking at a picture of the stairs: You could draw the numbers too! I did the letters
Ramsey: Follow the line, I did it!
Ragnar: There’s the stairs.

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Mimi's drawing of the St. John's door. 

Today, we presented this provocation again. This time taking time to share Mimi’s drawing of the blue door alongside the image of the blue door. 

Elena: What do you notice about the picture on the screen?
Louisa: I see me and I see mommy. 
Ford: I see my mommy too!
Ford: Toweerrr!
Elena: What kind of tower?
Ford: The rapunzel tower.
Elena: Maybe it’s the bell tower?
Ford: No, the rapunzel tower
Louisa: Yeahh, the tower!

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Emma: It's like a Christmas tree! It looks like a tower!
Ford: I'm just watching, I just want to watch. 
Emma: I'm going faster and faster. Now it's done. Elena, please take it off. 
​Ford looking from the other side of the glass: I can see all your drawings, but not them coloring. 

Ramsey: I drew the windows, see on the door?