"Animals for Sale!" ~ The Children all CheerOver the course of the last few months, our outdoor classroom has transformed into an animal pet store...
"Want these animals for free?" - CalebUpdating the Calendar for December
Switching out the numbers on the calendar...
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Will Celebrate's His School Birthday!Happy Birthday, Will! Celebrating with Will's FamilyWill and his family shared some quality time with us this morning, and it was lovely to have them all with us! They showed us a beautiful book of maps and William read a book to us that he has had since he was seven! We sang our many versions of the "happy birthday," Will did his candle walk, and the committee presented his surprise box. Inside the box were some pebbles or "a collection of rocks" as described by Will to be one of his many interests. The list filling a full sheet of paper was also inside the box and on it, at the end, is Will's statement: "Stop right there! So you don't have to put anything else on the table." And thank you for the cupcakes! Going Around the Candle and Presenting the Surprise BoxThe Committee Sets Will's Table
Will's Table
 Sharing the TableWhat does it make you think of? "Construction." -WillWhat do you think of your table Will? "Good," says Will. Did your committee take your words and create what you wanted? "Yeah," replies Will. "Or even better?" remarks Hugh. Lily, Hugh, James, Tommy, Abby, and Elena delighted in creating this special Will themed table for Will.
Cards for Will
While we prepare for our upcoming conferences we want to give you a sneak peak into our day today... Post Snack Drawing Session...
 The birthday committee delivers to Lily the mini chest that holds the special table setting item and surprise.
All the family gathers together to share the occasion! Jess shares photos of Lily with Lily's help. Lily shares a book about a unicorn of which each page features a different texture on a unicorn feature. Lily took charge as she walked around the circle to give each friend a chance to see the page and feel the texture it featured. Wes read the book Uni the Unicorn read with the assistance of Maren. Ford just chilled and MarieLou who taught and sang with Lily's accompaniment, "Happy Birthday" in her home language of Tagalog. Setting and Sharing the Table!Every plate had an eye mask and an animal and Lily was so delighted about her table. What a joy!
"What do you want your birthday to be about?" - Cate
Lily's birthday committee gathered this morning to prepare her special Birthday snack table. "What's your favorite color?" asked Will and "What kind of table cloth do you want?" Lily answered her friends questions, green is her favorite color, she likes gems, her favorite animal is a cheetah and she said she wants "the same tablecloth as Dagny's [birthday table]" Tommy, Cate, Maisie, Will, and Abby took notes on what Lily said and we headed over to the Tucker Room closet to gather materials...
 Meanwhile at the message center...The children worked on creating special birthday cards for Lily 
Later when back inside in the cozy meadow and no longer doing warm up aerobics and oxymoronically playing freeze tag to keep ourselves warm against the wind... "She told me that when she went to the zoo she saw a gorilla vomit, and it ate it's vomit." -Lily This wasn't the first remark about vomit after Caleb made his choice for the morning meeting face: a "vomit face." Following singing our day into motion, the children were quick to delve into more vomit stories and had the absurd notion of St. Johns (the school) vomiting! "If the school was full of vomit, we'd have to get boats to go over the vomit," said Hugh "Yeah and then we'd call it vomit school with boats," said Lily. "We would call it St. Vomit Boat...!" said Tommy. "No the boats didn't vomit, the boats float on top of the vomit," said Hugh. "Yeah that's why we're calling it that," said Tommy. "The vomit school!" exclaimed Lily. At the end of our day, and the beat goes on... While we aren't exactly beatniks, we did bring some beat into the Tucker Room today with percussive instrumentation, in preparation for hosting sing along. We began with addressing volume level and using the instruments in chorus rather than in discord, and some non-verbal, hand communications were established. We signified three things: stop the sound, increase the sound, and decrease the sound. Then we discussed what is a beat and worked on keeping just that - a beat. What is a beat? "Instead of a song... It's kind of the song, but it's different, it sounds different." -Tegan
It is almost December and a new year, be on the lookout for the December Newsletter.
Working with Wire
An array of open-ended and complex materials to aid and support our exploration
Gallery of our Wire-Work        to be continued...Abby shares her Nickel
Maisie: Why did you choose to bring this in? Abby: because it's special and my mommy and daddy Wanted me to bring it in Caleb: metal actually can break Abby: but this kind of metal it can break Caleb: All kinds of metal can melt actually Abby: Elena try and break it. Elena now give it to James [children pass it around]. Elena, What is your idea? Elena: It’s breakable on hard wood Abby: yeah, it is breakable on hard wood Elena: Like the coffee table Abby: yeah try to break it Lily James: I bent it Cate: um, Abby, giants aren’t even real so I dont think a giant can break it because giants don't even exist James/Caleb: that's right Cate Cate: You can draw a giant Lily: And you can make a giant out of clay James: or make it out of paper! Caleb: or paint it! James: or make it out of plastic!
 Hugh: Pennies are made out of steel not metal, Steel is metal that's made out of first still has to be poured fire makes steel so first fire then it's flattened out by a... I'm talking about steel and metal those are too kind of metal but steel is different than metal how they make it first still has to get poured into a bucket like a fire and then it comes out all flattened out in a big plant of cement Abby: You can say this after it's good for you to pause a little because then you can like say it after and then you can say it the other day Hugh: Yeah, im done Will: But like, metal is like you can't break Caleb: yes you can it can melt James: yes thats right, but you can also bend metal, right? Caleb: and break it. And by ripping it with your hand! No! Tin foil! James: Tinfoil you can rip! Caelb: it’s lighter than paper Cate: Tin foil is not metal Hugh: no, its so soft, i’ve seen tin foil Cate: I could just cut it with a knife Caelb: I could cut it with my fingers James: I could cut it with my teeth! Will: and it’s like a guitar string, it’s made out of that Abby: you share first and then you try to break that Tommy: I know who could break that, my dad once breaked a building made out of metal Cate: yeah, the window Tommy: The whole building was made out of metal James: no that's right, you can't break a building that's made out of metal Tommy: but you know that my dad could lift the table out of my house James: what was the table made out of Tommy: wood really really really really heavy wood 
Allison: It looks like Abby brought in a coin and it looks like Cate brought in a coin, has anybody noticed any differences between the two coins? Maisie: Cate’s is brown and Abby’s is... Lily: Abby’s is white Maisie: no, silver Caleb: And it’s bigger Allison: Abby’s is bigger and Cate’s is smaller? Cate: That’s because, Mine is a coin and abby’s isn’t a coin Hugh: Yes it is Cate: no it isn’t, I’ve seen this before and mine is the difference Tommy: Abby has a penny James: it has the white house on it Cate: see the differences, Tegan: can i see the differences? Cate: i’ve seen both of these before, I have them in my money purse Caleb: I have millions! Cate: They both look different right Abby, mine has a man and yours has something else. It has this and it has this and this one… James: turn it around the other way, let me show you what’s on it...on the other side...it’s the treasury building! Cate: Abby’s is a nickel! Mine is a coin! Allison: Do you know the name of the coin, Cate? Cate: yup, these are called coins... Caleb: No that’s a penny Cate: and that’s called a nickel! Caleb: No, a nickel is a coin and there’s also more like dollars and pennies Cate: No it isn’t Caleb James: whatever Caleb says I actually believe Caleb: Metal is money and pennies are the small kind like what Cate has Cate: Nickels and pennies are totally different. They are exactly the same, they are exactly different. Because Abby…. show your nickle, please, they both go on flat, but they both...come back and they both look exactly, exactly different.  "Do you know what the store was called?" asks WillMelanie: where you got it?
Will: where did your mom and dad get it? Abby: They got it from a different kind of store Will: But what was the name? Abby: It was called a store Elena: But what was the name? Caleb: of the store Cate: What we think you’re saying is it’s name is ‘store,’ the store’s name is ‘store’ Tegan: Where did your parents buy it? Abby: They got it at the store... it was a grocery store that has little big carts and little carts and it’s where my mom and dad get groceries, and there was this [nickle] on the ground and I found it and I don’t have other ones because they got lost. They are in my wallet but there’s some of them in my wallet but I can’t find my wallet so I can't find them… Cate: If you can’t find your wallet then you cant find them! Hi families! There will be no blog on these days because we are preparing for and hosting the NAEYC conference at our school on Tuesday and meeting with our mentor from Italy, Amelia Gambetti, for reflections and professional development on Wednesday afternoon. The teachers are also participating in the head of school search on Thursday and Friday afternoons.
We look forward to seeing you all at the Thanksgiving Feast!! It's Better Together..."Can I see?" -DagnyElena paused in her drawing, stood up, and proceeded to walk to the home shelf. She returned to her drawing with her photo album. Referencing her family portrait on the cover of the photo album she began illustrating each member of her family, as an addition to her drawing of Ribbit's house, a hotel, and a boat with a bridge above. Once each member of her family was drawn she entertained looking at her photo album with a more laissez faire approach, reflecting and commenting on the people in the photo. "That's my cousin," she said. At which point, Tegan drew nearer to Elena to view the "cousin" in the photo. Then Dagny took interest too, moving to where she could share company with her friends.  Participating in similar work as Dagny, Elena, and Tegan, regarding environments for the Ribbits, James and Will cooperative shared a paper and as they communicated thoughts and expressed ideas about their landscape drawing. The votes are not yet in!
Working on collages for under our school portraits
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