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HAPPY SCHOOL BIRTHDAY FLETCHER!

4/30/2019

Fletcher is one of the Brown Room friends whose actual birthday is during the summer holiday. We went ahead and celebrated it today at school. It was a lot fun! Fletcher was joined by his mom, dad, sister and Nana and Pop Pop. Fletcher reminded us that his forthcoming baby brother was also present in his mom's tummy.

First, they read a personalized book, The Birthday Thief:

Then they shared a gorgeous slide show of photos from Fletcher's life. Some moments it included were: his first haircut, riding a fire truck, making gingerbread houses. Nana also brought her favorite photo to share.

Fletcher opened his gift that had been very thoughtfully created by Lane, Gigi, Evelyn, Grace and Emilia.

Finally it was time for Fletcher to be the first one to walk around the candle 4 times!

For snack we enjoyed some yummy mini cupcakes!...the perfect treat since Fletcher's symbol is a cupcake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FLETCHER!!!
We are so thrilled that you are a part of our class!

April 26th, 2019

4/26/2019

Family Traditions: Alexandra's Egg Game!

Alexandra, Christine and Apostolos came in to share their tradition of the egg-cracking game that they play every year for Orthodox Easter! Apostolos explained that he was born in Cyprus, Greece, and that in his country, the Easter celebration is a little different from the American version. Watch the video to hear more!
In the game, we crack hard boiled eggs to see which egg will crack! The Apostolou family brought in very yummy Greek snacks for us to enjoy, too... THANK YOU!

Video: Water Work (And a Roaring Contest)

Perhaps inspired by the power-washing going on nearby, a small group works diligently to clean the outdoor space near the sink... even the trash can!

Oliver: See the buttons? the water has to pump. That's how we get all the bricks. These are my job. You gotta make all the water go down the drain. All the water's going down this pipe.
Palmer: We're cleaning everything.
Wolf: We're making sure every single thing is cleaned up.

Plants, Pottery and Presents!

4/25/2019

Plant Update

Wolf and Palmer helped relocate the seeds we had planted back to the Brown Room. They were on the balcony (to hopefully get more sunlight) but we realized that in order to take proper care of them (watering) and be able to observe them, they needed to be in the Brown Room. After the move, Palmer and Wolf carefully watered the ones that seemed dry.

Maren and Ellie observed the sprouts and checked if their specific pots had any growth. Spoiler alert: no sprouts for either of their plantings yet, but some friends do have very tiny sprouts! And the radish growth is promising! When Ellie saw it she said, "It's SO big!"

The girls were invited to draw what they observed. Maren drew a sprouting plant, and Ellie got excited to write letters instead!

Meanwhile, in the studio....

We've been learning how to make clay bowls and today Maren, Ellie, Cannon, Evelyn and Olivia embarked on making their own to take home. After shaping the slabs around a bowl, they added stamps for decoration.

Placemat Presents

Cannon, Maren, Olivia and Evelyn opened their placemats before snack today. They were thrilled!

"They’re growing guys, they’re growing!"

4/24/2019

Clay Gifts

Recently the Brown Room was given the special task of making a thank-you gift for a board member, Anne Adams, who has completed her term for the St. John's board. Teachers explained at meeting that Anne is a friend to the school, and we want to let her know how grateful we are by making her a clay gift. Wolf, Ellie, Ada and Palmer volunteered to help make clay bowls and plates especially for Anne.
In this video to the right, you can see we are patting down the clay over real bowls and plates. Ada says, "Make this thing nice and flat."

Placemats!

Today the Wednesday group received their beautiful placemats made by their parents! They were so thrilled! Alexandra said, "NO WAY!"

Update on seeds... The radishes are sprouting!

Emilia: THEY’RE GROWING!
Oliver: What happened to our seeds?
Ada: They growed!
Grace: They’re growing.
Ada: They’re growing guys, they’re growing.
Grace: The pit and it’s growing inside, and the leaves are growing.
Ada: Cause we watered them.
Alexandra: They’re growing up like this! (stands up tall with arms up)
Grace: Cause we put seeds inside.
Wolf: They’re going to grow down.

Tuesday

4/23/2019

This morning 5 friends opted to help create Fletcher's birthday gift. They worked very hard to create something beautiful. He has a summer birthday but we are going to celebrate his school birthday next week.

In the classroom, Fletcher sparked creative play about "bad guys."

While driving his trains around, Fletcher, discovered a small hole drilled into the back of the classroom door.

Melanie: How did that hole get there?
Fletcher: It must be the bad guys.
Cannon: (gets on the phone) Take the bad guys away!
Fletcher: (also on a phone) Bad guys away!
Alexandra: (at the door, with key) I'm trying to lock this. I'm trying to keep it closed. This is our hiding spot.
Fletcher: I'm not a bad guy. I'm a big boy.
I found a lot of holes. I'm gonna do this job. (cover the holes to protect from the bad guys)
(shows his work) Two tapes.
(hides under table) I'm hiding from the bad guys. The bad guys are coming.
Alexandra: The bad guys are here!
Fletcher: What should we do? They are gonna sneak in.

Later, most of the friends enjoyed a dance party:

But Grace and Emilia took on the important task of watering our seedlings.

When thinking about the plants growing, Emilia made connections to both size and age:

Emilia: It could grow as long as Dada! (laughs) Or grandpa or.....It could be Lola Mi because Lola Mi's super old.

The children also had a blast playing outside:

April 19th, 2019

4/19/2019

We spent a long time outside today! In the video below, you'll see us dancing to the music on the boom box, pouring water from the sink into the new pump station, sliding, swinging, and enjoying the warm weather...

Update from yesterday: Ada's Yummy Hummus Recipe!
Ada and her mom sent us a hummus recipe recently. Yesterday, we went to the Rainey Room with our blender and some ingredients to put together one of Ada's favorite snacks. As we worked, Ada turned to the nearby ECES visitors and said, "Today is a crazy day. We're working on hummus. It's my favorite." Read the captions in the slideshow to find out more about the process....

Updates on planting ...
We have almost finished planting all of our herbs, so today we began planting tomatoes and radishes! While we planted outside today, the Tucker Room children came over to help and we told them the list of herbs we are planting. Hugh said, "Oh, cilantro would be good for soups!"

The tomato seeds are multicolored!

At the end of the day we spent a little time unwinding inside with some construction and painting.

Have a great weekend folks!

April 17th, 2019

4/17/2019

Now that we've begun planting our herbs...
At Morning Meeting we asked the children how long it will take for our seeds to start growing.
Ada: It takes a lot of days and weeks for plants to grow.

After meeting, a small group met to discuss the length of time we estimate it might take. To do this, we used calendars for April and May.

Brooke: What is a calendar for?
Emilia: A calendar is a thing for… (thinks)
Lane: What time it is, or something?
Emilia: No… what time of year.
Lane: For when it’s your birthday or something.

Brooke: What does a calendar look like?
Grace: You draw it, you mark it, and then you get what you want.
Lane: I’m looking for baby Curtis’ birthday.
Grace: I’m looking my birthday and Lily’s birthday.
Emilia: Lane, can you help me find my birthday, it’s on August 11th.

Brooke: How would we show when the plants are going to grow?
Lane: We need markers and then we can write our names (…), then we could put our stamps on, and then we could sparkles, and we could paint it. We could draw the plants and then we could draw people and do seeds in it.

Emilia, Lane, and Grace began making a calendar by glueing square pieces to a large panel. Lane helped place down blocks on top to weigh down the papers while they dry. Their work is still in-progress, to be continued later in the week.

Planting and watering more herbs...

First we use our symbols to label our own planters....

Palmer carefully pats down his soil.

Here we sprinkled the seeds into our hands and picked out just one or two, then tucked it into the dirt.

Then it was our job to put in the right marker saying "basil" or "cilantro", etc.

Wolf fills up our watering can for us!

If you get a chance in the next couple weeks, feel free to come and ask your child if they already planted and come see the pots. Over the next month we'd love for you to watch the progress with us.

Weaving Updates...

Including yarn weavings!

Planting, Weaving and Travel - OH MY!

4/16/2019

Yesterday, in preparation for planting the herb seeds, Gigi, Grace and Maren mixed soil and perlite .

Thanks to their efforts, a number of children planted herb seeds today! Those who didn't plant seeds today, will have the opportunity to plant either tomorrow or Thursday.

Step 1: Choose a planter and fill it with dirt.

Step 2: Put your symbol on the planter.

Step 3: Choose which herb you want to plant and explain why you chose it.

After the children had chosen which herb to plant, they were asked to explain their choice:
Maren (spearmint) Cause they look like Ford.
(referring to the tiny seeds that had reminded her of her baby brother)
Gigi (parsley) I liked how the leaves were. (referring to the illustration on the seed packet)
Grace (pesto basil) I like it because it has this and this and this on the leaves. ( illustration on the seed packet)
Lane (rosemary) I like it.
Emilia (rosemary) I want it to smell good.
Alexandra (mini basil) Because I want to growing and I want it to be a plant.
Fletcher (pesto basil) I like this one.

Step 4: Plant some seeds

Step 5: Add a label so that we can remember what was planted.

Step 6: Add a bit of water.

The children who hadn't yet had an opportunity, got a chance to try weaving today. Notice how Emilia wanted to teach Cannon how it works... She explained, "Under, over..."

There was also dramatic play that involved train travel!

Friday Fun!

4/12/2019

We spent the entire morning outside climbing, sewing, driving trucks, building, eating snack, taking turns on the swing, and so much more! Have we mentioned that we're SO happy it's finally springtime?!

In the video below you'll see

Oliver and Cannon finishing up their sewing work
Ellie pushing Evelyn on the swing
Wolf building a "big house" out of large blocks while Palmer goes to fetch more blocks
Ellie, Evelyn, Ada, Maren, Wolf, and Gigi patiently taking turns hanging on the red bar by forming a line behind the climbing structure. At first it was hard to figure out whose turn it was, but eventually the children came up with a system of going straight to the back of the line after their turn was over.

Gigi collects the purple ball and four purple puzzle pieces...

Then fits in the letter C.

Gigi constructs an "ice cream" out of the purple ball, a bucket and a funnel.

Evelyn calls out, "I'm so high up!"

Melanie becomes a tickle monster after snack!

Maren does a handstand with Brooke's help!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Weaving, Collage, Seeds and More!

4/11/2019

It was great to see you at Classroom Stories Night last night! We appreciate all your support!

Today we had a fantastic day! We were busy with a myriad of activities. Some friends had a go with weaving, others collaged with tissue paper, there was building, kitchen play, painting, seed discussion and fun outdoors as well.

Weaving

Weaving takes concentration and patience. In the video below, Palmer and Ada do an excellent job with their work:

Collage

We were lucky to have some lovely tissue paper left over from Classroom Stories Night. Today was a first opportunity to collage with tissue on transparencies at the light table. Ellie loved it! She created 3! Maren made 2 and Gigi also made one:

Evelyn started a pastel drawing that later morphed into a collage as well. Olivia did some drawing.

Building

Gigi and Cannon collaborated on a building project. Ada opted to build alone and tried to create shelter for the giraffes.

Kitchen

Palmer and Wolf were very busy in the kitchen. They made broccoli soup, pancakes, coffee and other delicious treats. Thanks to the boys, Jecca was fortunate enough to have a feast before morning meeting!

Outside

Evelyn proudly took off her shoes and socks to show her friends that her toenails are painted white. Ada then showed her painted toenails to the group. Soon, there was dramatic play about pedicures happening! Evelyn pretended to paint Olivia's toe nails and even waved her hand back-and-forth in an effort to dry them. Ellie and Cannon were both keen for a turn, but unfortunately we ran out of time.

Seeds

We looked at seeds and talked about them in class again today. It was the first time the Wednesday/Thursday/Friday friends had seen them.

Oliver looked at the picture on the radish packet and said,
"What are those red things? Apples?"

He thought the seeds might be, "bugs."
Many of his classmates were in agreement with his hypothesis.

Later he commented that he didn't know what the seeds were but, "they are like popcorns."

During our second meeting we looked at the seeds again in smaller groups. At the very end of the discussion Gigi shared what she knew about growing seeds into plants:

And then outside, Ada was inspired to do some dramatic play about planting seeds:

Don't forget that tomorrow is backwards day and we will start outside. It's been chilly in the mornings so please ensure your children are dressed appropriately!