May 11th, 2022

Treasures for Rainey Room

For those who came to classroom stories, you saw the story of meeting with our dinosaur experts and digging for dinosaur bones and eggs in the sand. When we reflected on what the children enjoyed most about meeting our dino experts (Hugh and Wilder from Rainey Room) there was clearly excitement for the process of digging up bones.  While making thank you notes for the Rainey Room Ellie recounted about digging in the sandbox and finding bones. We added some more books about dinosaur/ prehistoric fossils to the classroom, and the excitement really took off. Ramsey and Seon particularly enjoyed the fossil book (featured in the middle) and paged through it several times together. After one instance of looking through it, Seon walked over to her portfolio drawer, pulled out on of her plaster collages and declared "fossil!"

Supported by our excitement about digging for treasures and our capacity for recognizing material techniques as an avenue for language and expression, we embarked on our most recent expedition: building and burying objects for Rainey Room. Using a variety of materials and colorful foil, the children had a chance to create their own special treasures for Rainey Room. Today's blog highlights some of the creation process and burying the products in the sand today!

(Above) Seon explores her plaster as a type of fossil (Right) the treasures before wrapping 

On May 2,  we invited children into the atelier to wrap materials for Rainey Room. Children made choices about objects, foil size and careful creasing while working on their treasures. 

Brown Room writes the letter and buries the treasures! 

With the treasures done, it was time to prepare to bury them for Rainey Room! Our preparation included counting up all of our treasures (33 in total!) and writing a letter to Rainey Room so they knew what to look for. Louisa was particularly excited about the letter and offered all kinds of suggestions for how to unearth the treasures and where to store them when they were done.

Ellie, Louisa and Fay count the treasures. 

Elena: How could Rainey Room find the treasures in the sand?
Louisa:  They can move sand and move sand. 
Elena: How could they move the sand? Are there any materials they might need?
Louisa: No they don't need, they move the sand with their hands. 
Fay: A shovel?
Louisa: Maybe they can get a shovel and dig, dig, dig. Maybe they can dig with their shoes?

Elena: What should they do when they see a treasure?
Louisa: Um they should pick it up. 
Elena: What happens when they pick up the treasure?
Louisa: Um they play?
Fay: unwrap them!
Louisa: Yeah!
Ellie: You play with it!
Louisa: Oh I got an idea, you can keep them outside. 
Elena: Where would you keep them outside?
Louisa: You can keep them on the sidewalk!
Elena: Is there a sidewalk on the outdoor classroom?
Louisa: No
Elena: Is there somewhere at the outdoor classroom we could keep them?
Louisa: Oooh! On the slide! 

Once our letter was written, it was time to add our symbols and some decorative materials to make our message really pop! Fay and Louisa worked hard to ensure that everyone's symbol was represented and Win joined us in the studio after to add her favorite materials to the letter. 

Fay: I'm doing Ramsey now. See the crab?
Louisa: What's next? Oh, I want the whale! 
Fay: This one is Ragnar's. It's a sand dollar. I want to do more of my symbol. Lot's of umbrellas. 

When we went outside after snack, everyone had a chance to bury a couple of treasures. Cal was particularly excited to dig the holes and offered to help friends "really hide the treasures". 

Rainey Room discovers the treasures! 

After we left for the day, Rainey Room had a chance to read our letter and dig up the treasures. They were thrilled at each new discovery, and by the end of the day there were only six treasures left to find! Check out the images and videos below of Rainey Room's discoveries below!