Building a trap and playing the "family / monster" game

Establishing the characters for the "family / monster" game and drawing them: kitty, doggy, mom, baby, monster

"I'm a cake!" -Reed ... Reed bakes in the oven, later Audrey also becomes a cake and Reed and Lucia add the icing!

Nora and Giacomo' continuing search for evidence of rats, and "they are this big ..."

Making pop-ups, drawing BIG at the easel, weaving at the light table, and pop-up shadow play

Here are our projections for the week and a few photos from today's work!  

​There will be more to come on Thursday and Friday of this week in terms of blogs!  

Jack has been asking about Valentine's Day alllll week! He even asked if he could mark it on our calendar! The other children caught on, and they asked if we could make Valentine's messages. So, the studio table and message center table came together today for one big Valentine's fest! 

It has been a busy and fun filled week in Tucker.  Brigitte brought in some osage oranges, which we found out can be boiled down to glue!  The children also figured out that they could squish them to make glue.  Maxon and Nora also did an observational watercolor of the osage orange.  Marley did a beautiful flower painting at the easel earlier this week as well. We also experimented with drawing on graph paper which offers a variety of possibilities and challenges. 

There were a few surprises awaiting the children today! 

Before the winter break, and especially in these few days after, we have been paying extra close attention to the work happening in the black and white areas. As teachers (plus a lot of observation from Jen this week), we have been questioning whether or not we needed to make adjustments to the space, materials, challenges being offered, additional provocation materials added to the space, etc. With all of our own observations and questions in mind, we decided to bring it to the children at morning meeting on Wednesday. We were wondering how they were feeling about the space and materials.  Did they think there was anything that should be changed or adjusted. 

I started by telling them a few of mine and Jen's observations: 
1. Sometimes it feels like there isn't much room for you all to move around. 
2. We've noticed that it can be difficult to get some of the materials to balance for building. 
3. We've noticed that a lot of the structures are only made out of these [bed risers]. 

"I feel that it is big." - Nora, 5.3 years
"No, it's not big enough." - Lochie and Reed simultaneousy 
"It's a little bit big, but a little bit small." - Lochie, 5.2 years
"It's too small." - Jack and CC 
"It looks small..."- Lucia, 4.7 years
"But it's not." - Maxon, 4.10 years 
"It's not the same because the white area is bigger, and the black area is small." - Elle, 5.0 years 
"We need to spread it out." - Jack, 5.7 years

In order to achieve a larger space in the white area, we had to move the nugget and cozy corner.  So, we switched it with the blue table. We will continue to observe and analyze the movement and flow of our classroom and collaborate with the children to work out any kinks we may find. 

Another surprise for today was the "completion" of the all-school birthday calendar! A big thank you to Jen, Ines, and Elena for their hard work to make this happen! I promise to get you more dialogue around this from our visit, but it will be tomorrow or next week!  We also added St. John's to our classroom birthday calendar! 

Based on the children's work with wire, beads, and paper beads, we initially invited them to make clay beads that they could use for jewelry making. These children love clay, and there was so much meaningful work that happened beyond creating some beautiful clay beads. 

On Thursday, Brigitte once again invited children to the studio for clay, but this time it was our white clay. They were very busy making baguettes and other bread creations. 

"Baguette, I"m making a baguette. I"m cutting my baguette." - Reed
"We need more baguette. I'm making some baguette. Can we put all of our baguettes together. Who's going to bake my baguette?" - CC 
"I'm making an oven." - Audrey 
"I'm making an apple crisp." - Nora 
"When I'm done making my baguette, I'm making a baguette cake." - Reed, 4.9 years
"I'm making a baguette cake with a birthday candle." - Audrey, 4.9 years 
"I made a baguette cake." - Giacomo, 5.1 years
"During bread week on the Great baking show, they made a square break out of circles. That's what I'm doing." - Lochie, 5.2 years 

"I want to make a design on my clay." - Marley, 4.11 years 
Marley's idea led to quite a bit of print making on small clay slabs and other sculptures.  Their work was thoughtful, intentional, and you can see the contamination of ideas (specifically with the baguettes). 

Back in September, as we began to discuss and revisit the idea of birthday committees and celebrations, the idea of St. John's having a birthday was brought up. The children had some initial thoughts, and we took a trip out to the clay number line to figure out just how old St. John's is. 

"Every year somebody has to have a birthday." - Jack, 5.3 years
"Birthdays are only for growing, but buildings don't grow." - Giacomo, 4.9 years 
"If you want a building to grow, then you'd have to build it." - Jack
"You don't really grow because when you get to old, you start to shrink." - Jack 
"You start getting lower again." - Lochie, 4.11 years 

Going to the number line answered a few questions for us: 
How many numbers are there? 
"24. There's 24." - CC, 4.11 year
So, how old is the school?
"24." - Maxon, 
"That's not what I thinked. I thought it was more old than that." - Lochie
So, how old is it going to be? 
"25." - George, 

As we approach the school's birthday, all classes are beginning to explore the school's birthday: what does it mean?; how old will it be?; how will we celebrate?; what gift(s) will we give?; etc. 

After reflecting on our previous conversations from September, we decided to start the conversation by revisiting the age of the school. 

During morning meeting, a conversation was started about the school's birthday and age: 
“Because it’s been here for lots and lots of years.” - Lochie, 5.2 years
Do you know how many years it’s been here? 
“Nope.” - Lochie
Twenty-five years. 
“So it must be uh, 25.” - Lochie
How should we celebrate St. John’s birthday? 
“I think we should make something for it. Like, make something for it like a present.” - Lochie, 5.2 years
“Like something yummy. Like a cake.” - Jack, 5.7 years
“Schools don’t eat cake.” - Lochie 
Schools don’t eat cake, but could the people in the school eat cake? 
“Yeah, I think.” - Lochie

“Well, if St. John’s is not alive, why does she have a birthday?” - Elle, 5.0 years 
“Well, we already asked that, and because St. John’s has a birthday, is because it has been here for hundreds of years. Because it’s so old. Because it was built, and then it stayed there for that day, and this day, and then another day, and then another day, and then another day, and then another day, and then another day.” - Lochie, 5.2 years
How can St. John’s have a birthday if it’s not alive? Does anyone else have an idea? 
“I kind of think the same thing as Lochie. It has been here for millions of years, but they put numbers up so that we don’t have to celebrate anything. They put numbers on the stairs; have you seen that? Why the numbers are there is so that we don’t have to celebrate the school’s birthday because it’s not living. Like I was saying, we just put numbers on the wall, clay numbers, so that everyone doesn’t have to celebrate St. John’s birthday because St. John’s is not a person.” - Jack, 5.7 years
Well, that brings me to another question. Can you celebrate birthdays for something that is not a person? 
“Yes. Like animals. My dog has birthdays.” - Elle, 5.0 years

If we were going to celebrate St. John’s birthday, how would we do that? 
“I don’t know.” - Jack, 5.7 years
Any ideas? 
“I don’t know, maybe giving it a present.” - Lochie, 5.2 years 
“Like a toy.” - Janie, 4.11 years
“He does not play with toys.” - Elle, 5.0 years
“It’s a her.” - Lochie 

Do you guys want to give St. John’s a gift? - Molly 
“We can give it clothes.” - Elle
“It would have to be giant.” - Lochie 
How big would they have to be? 
“Like bigger than the school because it would have to fit onto the school, but we can’t do it that big.” - Lochie 

Giacomo talking about St. John’s birthday with Elyse: 
“You know how normal kids have birthdays with cakes or other sweets? Will the school have them too?” - Giacomo, 5.1 years
Well, we get to plan the celebration. Tucker, Brown, Rainey, and KW. So, do you think we should have something sweet? - Elyse 
“Yes.” - Giacomo
Where are we going to get it from? 
“I could buy one from Whole Foods, and I could bring it here, and that could be the treat.” - Giacomo, 5.1 years
What kind of sweet would you buy? 
"There’s cakes, cupcakes, mini cupcakes, and a lot of other stuff.  I can tell my mom if we can do that.” - Giacomo, 5.1 years
Well, we have to make a plan all together. So, we can take your ideas and share it with Tucker, Rainey, Brown Room, Molly and Audrey, and maybe we can all decide together.

After spending some time looking at the clay number line in the hallway, Giacomo, Maxon, and Lucia worked at the low table with our loose parts, block numbers, number stickers, etc. Giacomo quickly began the process of creating a number line using only the materials.  Maxon then added the stickers to indicate the number of materials in each grouping.  Lucia then pulled out the rulers to measure how long the new number line would be. 

Every year, we have work from the children underneath their official school photos which hang above the mailboxes in our "post office".  The work from each class is unique and a wonderful opportunity to work on something "mini". 

Top [L to R]: Jane, Giacomo, Nora
2nd row: CC, Maxon, Audrey 
3rd row: Violet, Jack, Elle 
4th row: George, Lucia, Marley

We've also had some incredibly tall structures happening in Tucker Room.  The children love the opportunity to use the ladder, which they do with incredible confidence, ease, and attention to safety.  These structure require a lot of focus on stability and carefully placing the pieces! We also had to rebuild them a few times, but there was a lot of joy in both watching them fall and building them back up. 

What a great way to come back to school! It was our backwards day, which meant that we were the lucky ones to have fresh snow in the outdoor classroom! We threw MANY snow balls, made snow cones and snow cakes, and just generally enjoyed being together.  I always think of snow as magical (as long as you aren't having to drive or in danger of course), and it was a magical way to start our day! 

Yesterday was mostly about being together. We enjoyed a longer morning meeting where we heard about everyone's holiday travels, gifts, and more.  Violet's family brought in a fantastic book that's related to our home research on shadows at night, which we've read it both days now; thank you for sharing this with us! In the classroom, we had wire, message making, and the low table had a large piece of paper for drawing together (in addition to our other staples).  Truly, we spent so much time just talking to each other and reconnecting that there aren't many photographs! In a way, it's beautiful because everyone was so engaged in the moment! 

As a community, we are starting to discuss the school's birthday! The Tucker children discussed this back in September as well, and the children are invested in this celebration! We will blog about this process as it happens! In our initial conversations they have brought up the age (perhaps 100 million years old), the concept of buildings being alive, what kind of sweets should be served, and more. 

One of our starting points is to explore the age of the school. Some children remembered that, according to our clay number line, the school is 24. Today, a small group went to the entry way to revisit this. Then, they began to create our own number line and explore the one-to-one correspondence of counting.  It was a beautifully collaborative conversation and work. 

There is so much more to come in terms of St. John's turning 25 (including some more dialogue soon)! We can't wait to share this journey with you! 

Also, please remember to send in any thoughts, drawings, paintings, photographs, etc. that your child has about shadows at night! 

It was a fabulous, festive Friday!  We had so many things to celebrate recently, and we capped our week off with a holiday chapel and birthday celebration for Melanie!  Thank you all for creating a magical day for us!  The festive wear, cards and treats for Melanie, and thoughtful gifts were a great way to end 2021!

Once again, we were able to meet all together on the alter for chapel!  It is so special to get back to this tradition!  Thanks to Violet and Jack for being our candle lighters! 

A few weeks ago, we were learning a new technique for curling/quilling paper.  As we were working, I mentioned that we could make paper beads using this technique.  During our conversation over the next two days, some of the children mentioned that we could put them on wire to make jewelry.  This then sparked the idea to make earrings.  When I asked the children if we knew anyone who liked earrings, they all remembered that Melanie does! So, we agreed that we should make paper bead earrings for Melanie's birthday! 

It wouldn't be a St. John's birthday without a celebration (books, a gift, candles, and a special treat).  Thanks to Carola for returning to read two books for us, and to Rory for the special treats! And of course, all of you who coordinated all of this with us! Happy Birthday Melanie!  We love you so much! 

This was supposed to go home in each child's cubby bag, but festive Friday slipped away from us!  There will also be an email for this.  We are excited to do some more home research over the break that will expand our work on night. 

 On December 4th, Giacomo turned 5!  We have been patiently waiting to celebrate him here at school, and during that time, we've been working hard on his birthday committee (George, Nora, and Lochie)! This work has taken place over the course of a few weeks and has involved a lot of research, trial-and-error, and a lot of excitement and joy! 

 With a sneaking suspicion that Giacomo would like something that was mechanical or required some engineering, I prepped some materials for Giacomo's interview that would allow us to experiment with a new "tool", learn a new technique, and keep our minds and hands connected.   
​**the interview involved Giacomo, Nora, and Lochie as George was not at school that day.**

After we established that Giacomo would like something that spins, we pulled out the tray of materials that I brought for the committee.  I was thrilled that it was truly related to the conversation that we had just had, and Lochie was eager to teach Giacomo what he and Nora had recently learned about using brads to make paper spin; a technique that was introduced to Lochie and Nora in anticipation of them being on Giacomo's committee.  It is so wonderful when we find these connections in the work that we are doing, and even better when we can intentionally connect it to a meaningful process for one of the children.  

On December 2nd, the committee met to research things that spin.  There were so many questions to ask, explore, and answer.  A few of them were: 

Objects with handles: Clock gears, music box wine stopper, wheel, magnetic gears, dreidels, pinwheels, and a lego piece (Ines's husband made it for us).

Objects with a metal piece/circle piece in the middle: Color wheel, games spinner, and our paper/brads creations. 

Objects that push to spin: Wine bottle opener. 

Things that spin/roll on their sides: Tree cookies and paper lantern. 

But, how can we translate this to paper? 
           "We could make this [pinwheel].  We just need paper and a stick." - George

For our next meeting on 12/8, we began by drawing our ideas for the pinwheel.  

Our work for this meeting focused on how we would make the pinwheel.  What materials would we use? What did we need to look for around the school? What could we make from scratch? How would we put it together? 

I intentionally used the word prototype and explained that it can be a first version (or second, third, fourth, etc.).  George reminded them that we needed a stick, and so they set to work making a "stick" out of paper and tape.

In the end, we decided to take a closer look at our green pinwheel because our prototypes either did not spin, or the metal was too heavy to be held up by the paper/brad.  So, what other information did we need to inform our choices about materials? 

This meeting was primarily about figuring out how we might need to fold our paper to make it spin.  We took a close look at the pinwheel we had, and Lochie determined, "They cut paper and put it into short and skinny pieces." 

Nora and Lochie were not satisfied with the strips of paper, so Nora suggested that we try a whole paper. She attached it to the paper sticks from our previous prototypes, and we cut slits in the corners and she began folding it; Lochie soon joined her.   

Giacomo's committee planned to sing "Happy Birthday" in at least two languages, so we sang in English and Italian to celebrate our friend!  It was a wonderful celebration, and we hope Giacomo knows how loved he is in the Tucker family! Happy 5th Birthday Giacomo!