September 29th, 2021

Watercolor at the Light Table 

While we have previously worked with watercolor in the studio and outside, today we decided to elevate our watercolor exploration with the addition of light. With everything arranged on the light table, children enjoyed watching the watercolor fall across the illuminated paper. As the exploration continued, two children noticed that they were able to control the light using the switches on the side. For some time, both Emma and Seon delighted in the experience of turning the light on and off, and watching it change the composition of the paint on the page. ​

Isabelle: I like this one. (Pointing the yellow watercolor).
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Seon: Made dots with orange then made green watercolors. When pointing to the green, she exclaimed “green!” and then dragged her brush through the dots to make horizontal lines.

Emma: Emma paint! Blue! I making a rainbow. Swishy swashy! Wishy washy! Then Emma added orange. Turning orange! Oops I drip! (Making a dot and then spreading it over the paper. What happen the light? (When the light table got turned off). I turn it on!

Isabelle: Um, this one (choosing yellow). Um, this one. I want this one (Choosing blue). 

Louisa: I paint. Blue. (Louisa added green to her blue painting).

Ellie: Clean up this paint. (after spilling some watercolor paints.)

Choosing Symbols 

As referenced on yesterday's blog, Brown Room children are beginning to choose their symbols. After their first encounters with the symbols, we offered the children a curated selection of the symbols the children used the most for their second exploration. Children then chose their symbol and had the opportunity to place it in our symbol box for easy accessibility. While not every child has chosen a symbol yet, we just wanted to highlight some of the discerning processes  we observed today. 

Louisa and Emma were two of the children who did choose symbols today. Louisa chose a dinosaur and Emma a bumblebee. During their second exploration with the symbols, both children expressed a reverence about the process, choosing only one symbol at a time to carefully ink and stamp. Emma offered Louisa the fly to try when, but Louisa politely refused in favor of "dinosaur again".  After trying several other symbols, Louisa declared the dinosaur was her favorite because "I like dinosaurs".  While Louisa chose first, she stayed until Emma was finished with  her selection, often offering Emma an additional stamp pad or another symbol to try. Emma eventually decided on the bumblebee as opposed to the fly citing "Emma loves bumblebees because it's outside". ​

Ellie and Seon shared the table during their second explorations. In the image to the left, Seon suggested the mail symbol to Ellie by inking it and stamping it on Ellie's page. Ellie politely refused the suggestion saying "No, thank you!", but she did later ask to try Seon's shell symbol.  Seon stamped the balloon symbol several times both on her hand and on her paper, and later added the balloon, the shell, and the mail symbols to her drawer in the symbol box. Ellie did the same with a bear claw symbol, and both girls expressed interest in choosing their favorite and final symbol another day. 

Both Cal and Isabelle were particularly excited for another chance at exploring the symbols. Cal had explored with some the day before, but hadn't quite settled on any one symbol.  Cal pointed to the grasshopper symbol and remarked "this is the one Mommy likes". He stamped the grasshopper, bear claw and clock several times, but ultimately decided he wanted to wait "to tomorrow" to decide. 

Isabelle expressed excitement when her sister Reed, passed in the hallway and paused to talk with Isabelle about her symbol. Afterwards Isabelle went to the mailbox to see Reed's symbol, and when Isabelle couldn't immediately find it she asked "where's Reed Sterchi?"

As children select their symbols, they are also adding them to cubby bag tags, the mailboxes, portfolio drawers and more as a method of self identifying. Once each child  has selected, we will post a complete list on the blog if for everyone to see!