Weaving in our Virtual Classroom days

Brown Room on Zoom
- an exciting new adventure we embarked on together -
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On Tuesday we had our very first Brown Room virtual classroom meeting!

We used clay or play dough for a project at home.
Many of us also brought and used interesting tools, such as scissors, cookie cutters, knives, or stampers.

In the end we read the story
​"If you give a moose a muffin" by Laura Numeroff.

Scroll through the slideshow below for a few more impressions from our very first Zoom meeting together:

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Wednesday was all about weaving!

We used paper strips and pipe cleaners to weave them into our (spider) loom. Another way we used to manipulate our paper strips was twisting them (around our finger, a marker or a stick). This technique creates a bouncy curl and requires a great amount of fine motor precision.

While the children continued to work on their projects we read the book "Blue & Bertie" by Kristyna Litten, a story about friendship and inclusion (more about this book at the end of this blog post).

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"How about we do that one more day when we get one of those days."
(Bea, about our virtual day)

...and other reflections about our virtual days from the children during our Morning Meeting today:
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"I saw Frannie on the computer.
I actually saw you (Ines) and Sam on the iPad.
All my friends were on. Even I saw Finlay."
​(Daniel)

"I saw Lily with her mom." (Bea)
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​Michael and Cape brought their loom projects to school today and were excited to show them to their friends this morning.

If you saved your child's work, it would be great if you could bring it to school in the upcoming days. That way we can share and discuss every child's work from our virtual days. 

Cape's loom

Michael's loom

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Our exploration of weaving continued today
​with a few new materials that could be woven into a loom.

Finlay weaving "the fins of the whales into the net"

Finlay showing us how the fins are attached to the whale (him, in this scenario, being the whale).

​This is a ship. Up hear (pointing to a place right above his loom).
And there is a net and whales (pointing to his loom). This is the fins (the wooden strips). In the net.
They're trying to get their fins out but they can not. (Finlay)

Finlay repeating the weaving pattern "over, under, over, under" to himself while adding items to his loom.
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​A giraffe puzzle piece made a few of our friends remember the book "Blue & Bertie", which we read during our virtual time on Wednesday.
​Upon request we read the book again at snack time. It is a beautifully illustrated book about extending help to those in need, being open to something (or someone) new, sharing your culture or perspective of the world, and inclusion.

​The book ends with the sentence "And Blue and Bertie remained the very best of friends." 

​Do you have a best friend?
What makes your best friend so very special?

Bea: Jade! Cause one time my mommy took me to her house.
And she has a little thing you can go inside of.
It has a kitchen (describing a play house that Jade has in her backyard).

Frannie: Daniel. He likes to play family with me.
He's gonna be the daddy and I'm gonna be the mommy.

Finlay: Momma! Her love me.

​Cape: My best friend is my daddy. Giving me love.
 
Wilder: Mimi. She gives me kisses all the time.
Matty (his uncle) is dada's best friend. Matty sent me stickers. They're dogs.
​Cape: And Bridget is Wilder's friend (Bridget is Wilder's dog).

Hugh: My best friend is Elle (his sister). Cause she play with me a lot.
And we play Harry Potter together.

Daniel: I have three (best friends). Michael, Frannie and Hugh (pointing at them around the snack table)
​Just Bea and Hugh and Frannie and Michael. I don't need any more.

Cape: Cully (his brother) is my best friend.

Michael: Jack (his brother). He play with me.


After this beautiful conversation we could identify two key components of best friends:
we like to play with them and they give us love and attention 


Friendships and connections have been one of our main focuses in the Brown Room this year and we are looking forward to deepen these relationships and to investigate the concept of friendship more in the future. 

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