January 14th, 2022

Happy Birthday Karen! 

Even though her birthday happened over break, we celebrated Karen’s birthday today complete with a chips and guac special snack! In anticipation of the celebration, we formed a birthday committee and created a handmade gift that reflected her favorite color ( purple)  and her favorite friends (Brown Room!)

Day 1- Discussing the gift 

Elena: We have Karen’s birthday coming up and we’re going to make a gift for Karen
Ford: What are we making?
Charlton: a gift!
Elena: I was thinking we could film a video for Karen’s birthday? Maybe tell her how much we love her?
Ford: But what are we making?
Elena: A video, you could film it (demonstrates how)
Ford: No, painting. We have to do painting. 
Elena: Ok, we can do a painting, what kind of painting?
Ford: Just a painting. We can go right now and get the paints and go do it. 
Elena: Charlton, what do you think about working on a painting for Karen?
Charlton: yeah!

​

Day 2 - Painting the Frames

​The next day, Fay and Emma worked on a purple and blue watercolor for Karen. 

Emma: What happens if you mix the colors? It’s like red, Elena. 
Fay: I want to try to this purple
Emma: Mixing colors, mixing colors. 
Fay: This is like very purple. See the blue? Like blue purple
Emma: Emma is mixing all the colors together. Drip, drip. Like rain!

Day 3- Collaging the Frame 
​
Once the watercolor had been completed, we cut and backed the pieces to create two frames. 
Inside the frames we included our Brown Room class pictures for Karen! After looking at the watercolors, Fay suggested that “do a collage” because we have previously worked on collages as birthday gifts. On Thursday, Ford, Ellie, Seon and Charlton had a chance to collage the frames using a variety of purple materials. 

Ford: Maybe I’ll use this (purple button)
Charlton: Are these (ribbons) sticky? How do they stick?
Ford: Just glue, look! (demonstrates how to paint on the tacky glue. This for Karen, Happy birthday Karen!
Charlton: (starts singing) Happy birthday to Karen, Happy birthday to Karen…. 
Ellie: Karen wants presents and a birthday cake. I need more glue spots. Karen’s birthday surprise, hurry!!
Seon: Purple, it’s purple. This is beautiful. 

We presented Karen with her gifts today, and she told us she would take them home to share with her husband and her puppy dog Cam. Happy Birthday Karen!
​

During our backward day we explored clay and wire at the outdoor studio and built collaboratively in the sandbox. We will post the clay/ wire photos as part of a larger wire blog next week. Have a wonderful three-day weekend, and we look forward to seeing Brown Room back on Tuesday!