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Today we celebrated our last birthday. Emilia has a summer birthday (August 11) and today her mom, dad and brother joined us in celebrating. They brought a fantastic poster with gorgeous photos of Emilia throughout the years. There were adorable baby photos and also more recent ones of dressing-up, making funny faces, reading, riding bikes, and going to the beach. Emilia is a big help in the garden, lifting the wheelbarrow with strong muscles. She loves her pink elephant, loves to have face paint, loves her Lola Mi and grandpa, and really likes to play with cash registers. We saw all these happy memories and so much more!
It was such a treat to have Emilia's older brother, Alex, read one of her favorite books to us, The Cookie Baker. Emilia opened her present. It was made by Cannon, Fletcher and Alexandra, her birthday committee.  Emilia (and Alex) walked around the candle four times before blowing it out. Then we sang happy birthday. During snack we enjoyed some of Emilia's favorite treats: veggie straws, strawberries and brownies. Happy Birthday Emilia!
We are so happy you are part of the Brown Room!
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Wolf celebrated his school birthday with us today, and brought mommy and daddy (Jonathan and Jecca), his sister Cedar, and his nanny Aga. Wolf's real birthday is a summer birthday, so he will turn four on August 21st. For his celebration today, we got to see photos of Wolf's life, even from the very first day he was born (with lots of hair!). We also saw: a photo from when Cedar was born; Wolf's trip to London; his arrival in Washington and meeting Aga; picking peaches and the veggie patch at the farm; playing with his cousins; playing with a sweet grey kitty cat; and memories from Kenya, including his friend Irene and baby Abby, and catching a BIG fish... with a piece of bacon!! Cedar and Wolf were both smiling as we watched videos of Wolf crawling for the first time, and even dancing/playing guitar! And can you imagine meeting a giraffe up close like this??
Wolf's birthday committee was Cannon, Ada, and Oliver. They worked hard to make something for Wolf that included his requests: buttons, the color blue, and feathers.
Since we have reached portfolio conferences, there will be no journals for the rest of the school year EXCEPT for birthday celebration journals: Wolf (this coming Friday) and Emilia (next Tuesday).
Thanks for tuning in! !!yaD sdrawkcaB Backwards Day!!
Exciting Bird News...
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This morning during meeting we revisited the sweet potato that we left in the jar of water. Ada exclaimed, "It's growing roots!" When asked how many roots she thought it had, Ada carefully counted and said, "I think there's eleventeen." Olivia then had a turn trying to count the roots. After careful counting she determined there were eight. When asked how it's growing roots Palmer noted, "Cause it's drinking the water." The children were busy with a variety of activities today... Three friends: Oliver, Cannon and Ada worked on a birthday committee preparing Wolf's birthday gift. During meeting when he was asked what he would like in his gift, Wolf responded with, "buttons, beads, leaves and feathers" He also shared that he particularly likes the color blue. His peers kept these hints in mind as they worked to create a beautiful wall hanging.  Ellie, Palmer and Maren went to the magnetic chalk board with Jessica. They began by exploring ramps: Later, Palmer explored design. He intentionally unrolled yarn and spread it carefully throughout the hall. Of his work Palmer noted, "I'm making a design. It's kinda like sewing but not." That's a very thoughtful connection: realizing how sewing is one way to create a design, but that he could engage with yarn - which is a similar material to the thread he had used for sewing - to create a different kind of design in a different context. Maren and Ellie spent some of their time writing. It began when Maren commented, "I want to draw." However, once she got a clipboard and began she noted, "I'm writing words." Ellie, who has also been showing an interest in writing, took inspiration from Maren and followed suit. And outside we saw smiles, cooperation and some good old fun: Right before dismissal the Tucker Room friends came to invite us to the "movie-a-long" tomorrow. Instead of sing-a-long the children get to see the short films that were created by the Tucker Room children.  In the last couple weeks of school, we are hoping to compile our knowledge of taking care of plants into a book! Today we had a conversation about our herbs, and what kind of care they require...
After taking a close look at the plants and noticing several of them were "sad", we realized it was time to plant some of them outside on the playground! See pictures below! Other moments from our busy day....
See Ya Tomorrow!
Today a number of children looked at photos that had been printed for them to include in their portfolios. As the children revisit their work, their genuine reactions reflect their wonderful Brown Room year.
Arriving outside, the children were surprised to see the new sand being delivered. Their reactions were ones of complete joy. Fletcher noted that the new sand was so lovely and soft, "It's like snow!" The children have begun drawing the herbs they are growing and we are planning to use these in conjunction with other aspects of their learning to create a book..... Tomorrow we will gather more thoughts about how to best take care of our plants. And Dr. Olivia was in the house today, prepared with very special band-aids to help heal others: We had a gorgeous start to the day! Wolf and Jecca shared one of their favorite books, The Owl and the Pussycat. Wolf generously offered to let the Brown Room borrow the book for a while. As you likely remember, the Brown Room was tasked with creating a thank you gift for Board Member Ann Adams. Today, 6 friends worked cooperatively in pairs on the initial glazing process. In an effort to highlight the stamps, they employed a washing technique. Step 1: Paint the outside of the bowl with watered down glaze. Step 2: Use a damp sponge to remove most of the glaze. Spoiler Alert: The techniques employed for Mother's Day gifts are revealed... The Brown Room children learned how to marble paper! Please use that term (marbling) when you talk with them about their work. (Note: There are DIY ways to marble paper or you can do what we did.) Step 1: Order a marbling kit from Amazon ($10).  Step 2: Fill a try with water. Dip paint brushes in the paint and lightly touch them to the surface of the water. Step 2: Using the back tip of the brush, gently swirl the colors around. Step 3: Place a sheet of water color paper on top of the water. Step 4: Lift the paper out and reveal the beautiful product. Step 5: Cut into notecard sized pieces and pair with envelopes for a lovely, useful, homemade gift.
There was also a lot of great building happening today (both indoors and out). Read captions to find out more...
More Portfolio Reviewing: Oliver reflects on his work from the year
Fletcher reviews his portfolio next...
Top Secret Mother's Day Work... Continued!
Slideshow of other moments from our day... Recently the Brown Room friends have begun the task of reviewing and sorting their work in preparation for the upcoming Portfolio Conferences. (the week of May 20th). Each child's process is unique and the conferences will be too. Some children focus on sorting, others try to identify or give an interpretation what they made, some evaluate their pieces. Here are some examples from recent portfolio review sessions:
Cannon was thrilled to see his work again. The first piece he reached for was an airplane he made out of clay (first picture) which he proudly showed to Jill and then flew upside down. The large variety of work was notable for Cannon: clay, painting, drawing, sewing and collage. There was also tremendous pride in reviewing his work. There was also some top secret work for Mother's Day... (censored for secrecy!) |
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