Happy Birthday Bailee!

​Happy Third Birthday to Bailee! Today we celebrated her with delicious cake pops, funny books and of course a birthday gift by her birthday committee! For Bailee's gift, we worked on a mixed media mobile that incorporated Bailee's favorite color red! 

Day One

On the first day, we set out a mobile provocation that included wire, beading and all kinds of red materials for hanging and dangling. Seon, Ellie and Louisa all immediately gravitated to the beautiful beads, and began stringing them together on wire. Halfway through the provocation, Ellie noticed that the hoop we were using as the base of the mobile was "not red, not red, Elena". The other two children reflected her concern that Bailee's favorite color wasn't represented in the mobile, and we decided to paint it red. 

Ellie, Seon and Louisa all worked collaboratively to mix and achieve a red color to use on the hoop. 

Ellie: Good painting, Seon 
Louisa: Ah! the red, it's getting there (off the paper)
Ellie: I'm painting inside the hoop. Ah there's paint on my arm!

Day 2

Once our hoop had been painting, it was time to begin stringing more materials to hang, creating the mobile. Ford was particularly excited about the red pipe cleaners, and he spent time in the beginning curling them around the top of the wire as "decoration". 

Ellie chose, instead, to continue beading wire, and ended up creating a very long string of red and yellow beads which she eventually afixed to the center of the mobile. 

Ford: I'm putting this one right here. It's kind of hard. I need help. 
Ellie: This is beautiful. Bailee's color is red. This is red!
Ford: Can I use the cutting (wire cutters)?
Ellie: Oh, wire cutting, I want wire cutting. 
Ford: What's this? (red fabric). It's not working (as he tried to string the fabric on the wire). 

Day 3

Seeing Ford and Ellie's interest in stringing larger materials on the wire, I (Elena) decided to offer beautifully painted pieces of paper in addition to materials to hang on the mobile. We asked the children to mix some colors of red for Bailee, and we ended up with four distinct shades ranging from a pale pink to a deep, brick red. The children then worked on painting and collaging the strips as additions to the gift. 

Ellie: I'm going to do this blue! 
Seon: What kind of color is this? ... Orange!
Ford: Mine is like purple. 
Ellie: Imma use red for Bailee. 
​

Day 4

On the fourth day, children collaged the painted strips and added it to the mobile. Ford was particularly focused on hanging his strips, and spent a lot of time pulling the string through the wire until he felt it was at the appropriate length to be tied. 

Bailee and her sister Emory on the day of the celebration with the gift!