Pod AYesterday, in preparation for the feast, the children made banana chocolate chip muffins. And stirred the soup. Today the children decorated the table and enjoyed the feast! Thanks to everyone who joined us and especially to Lou and Jennie for reading lovely books. We are grateful to have such wonderful children and families at our school! Pod B Slideshow It was such a wonderful celebration day. We were delighted to be the candle-lighters at Chapel (thank you to Grace and Oliver!) and to eat the Thanksgiving soup in our very own handmade bowls. It was such a treat having parents read books to us over Zoom - many thanks to Jim, Negar, Jennifer, and Laura, and to any other parents who tuned in. We are so extremely thankful! We had a new materials experience in the studio today: paper making! Teachers prepared a paper pulp mixture which floated in a big bowl of water. Children used a mould (the small rectangle device) to pick up the paper particles, then gently squeezed out excess water with a sponge and a towel. Hopefully by Monday our recycled paper will by dry and we can use it at the message center! BIG thank you to Grace, Oliver, and Lily for dropping off our blueberry muffins at Martha's table!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Have a lovely break!
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Happy Birthday, Dakota!Dakota turned five over the weekend and we had her school celebration today. She walked around the candle and blew out the candle before she opened the gift from Pod B. The pot for her plant featured her favorite colors (pink, purple, and yellow) as well rooster, a giraffe, a unicorn, and a fish (Dakota's symbol.) Later in the morning. we read two books provided by Dakota as we ate delicious birthday cookies! Happy Birthday, Dakota!
Just a short blog today because teachers will be using the afternoon to tidy-up around the school. Pod A cut sweet potatoes and butternut squash for next week's Thanksgiving feast. It was hard work, but as the children like to say, "We're Tucker Room, we can do hard things!" Here's a couple of quotes from the experience: Lane: The table smells good because of these (the sweet potatoes). Cannon: This is kinda getting fun, Brooke! Gigi: And making our arms stronger! Pod B ....
Today we made blueberry muffins to donate to Martha's Table. After they cooled, the children packed them into ziplock bags. We had a lot of jobs to do to prepare, like preheating the oven and getting the measuring cups. Fletcher said, "This is the hardest job I ever done!" The batter was very thick and each child used strong arms to stir. Grace worked hard to use the whisk, and said, "Just keep on mixing. It's gonna be fine... Geez Louise!" Oliver said, "My mom knows how to stir this really good. She's the strongest in the world." Aida said, "It's kind of thick!" Olivia said as she stirred, "The key is to always hold the bowl." Sharing Some of Our WorkThis morning outside the blue door were two displays of recent Tucker work. Both pods have been exploring creating and transforming objects through collage and materials. Pod B's display focused on their work with creating and exploring machines. Pod A's display were collages were creations made from leaves, magazine images and body parts. It was wonderful to share some of our work in person so families could have a closer look and chat with the children about the process. Jim knew about "Robata," Grace's creation but upon seeing it in person he commented, "I didn't realize it was so big Grace." This Gallery Walk format is a new strategy we are trying out as a school. It's a way to connect with families since you cannot see the work inside the school. Pod AAs a way to further explore the human body, the children traced projected images of drawing figures on large paper. Afterwards they were given free rein to add details to the figure. As teachers, we were curious to see if idea of transformation would could continue - and it definitely did in some of the final products. Posing and TracingBringing the tracings to life with detailThe Final ImagesPod BBackwards Day!Outside, Oliver created a minivan and invited Andy to sit inside with him. When other children saw, they wanted to join, but quickly found that there wasn’t enough room. With some quick problem-solving, they decided to add the picnic table on the back. Oliver excitedly named this new creation a “bus”. Then we simply had to decide where to go! Grace: Let’s make up our place! Fletcher: Or we could go to Disney World!! Olivia: I’ve been to Disney World two times. Andy: I know, let’s go to Connecticut. Fletcher: It’s gonna take a long long long long long long long long long time to get to Disney World, because that’s how long it took on the plane. Olivia: My daddy and me walked to Disney World, and it was not a long time. Andy: I went to Disney World, too. How bout let’s go to Connecticut. Aida: I want to go to Asia. It will probably take eight years. Andy: Australia! Grace: In Asia, this could be our cottage to stay in. Now let’s get in! Let’s pack! Chopping VeggiesIn preparation for Thanksgiving next week, the children chopped vegetables for the soup. It was hard work! Olivia: Do you smell that? Andy: Yum I smell it. Grace: Smells like pumpkins. Birthday Committee![]() Olivia drew a giraffe for Dakota’s birthday committee. She made 3 drafts, using a picture on the internet to compare her work to the body of a real giraffe. The first draft had a beautiful smile but no neck. The second draft had too many legs. But the 3rd draft had a beautifully long neck, a tail, legs, and even giraffe colors. She had a lot of patience and dedication while troubleshooting this image as a gift for her friend. Leaf PaintingOliver and Andy both painted leaves today. Andy used the paint colors to reflect what he saw in the fall leaves, then used a pastel to carve lines into the paint. Oliver remembered our conversation from yesterday and added red “chemicals” to his leaf.
Pod B
Clear Glaze To finish up our clay bowls project, the children added a special shiny glaze to the surface of their bowl, inside and out. We discussed how the shiny glaze keeps the bowl food-safe. Hopefully we can fire them in time to use them as soup bowls for our Thanksgiving feast :) Construction
It was such a beautiful day today! Pod A Outside It was lovely outside this morning. Even with the chilly temperatures the children had lots of fun building, playing pets, and just generally enjoying each other’s company. Wolf and Palmer started with a clear plan to build a wind machine. Cannon soon joined. Palmer: We’re building a wind machine. Wolf: It blocks the wind. Palmer: And blows it away. Wolf: Cannon, would you like to help us make a wind machine? Cannon: Ok! And Corona is going to get trapped in that little crack. Palmer: And it’s never going to get out again. Never escape. Never, ever, ever. Once inside a new construction project came to life: a ship! Palmer: We’re building a ship! Cannon: It’s going to take the animals back to Africa. Palmer: There’s going to be a plank in case there’s any pirates on the ship. Dakota: Here are some ‘marshmallows.’ (white dome shapes) Palmer: Good! The animals will need something to eat on the long trip. Wolf was also building nearby but had been working alone until… Palmer: Wolf, how about your building connects to our ship? Wolf: Yeah, good idea. (He connects the structures with blocks.) Wolf: I connected it! Palmer: GREAT! Collage Last week children spent a morning cutting out images from magazines and photocopies of anatomy texts. On Monday and again today, children compiled these images to represent a new idea, creature, or object. Partner Painting!
Maren and Lane decided to paint collaboratively. Their idea was to create a rainbow painting; each girl took responsibility for different parts of the painting. Lane started on the rainbow while Maren created the sun and the sky.
Pod B |
Pod A Clay Day!Work on clay animals continued! Today Maren worked on a unicorn while Cannon created an anteater. As they worked, children thought about concepts such as relative size and shape, as well as stability. Is a head shaped like a ball or is it long and pointy? What size do the legs need to be to support the body? Should the legs be longer than the body? They also implemented a variety of clay techniques such as using slip and rolling balls and coils. We can't wait to fire and glaze these cool creations! Nora, Dakota, Lane, Palmer, and Gigi spent time exploring clay, a process the children refer to as "do-anything-you-want clay." | |
"Palmer made a dinosaur out of clay. I thinked it was amazing because it was so big. My clay animal is going to be a horse or a pony or a unicorn. " | Nora - I was at the dollhouse. I played with Gigi. I like the bunk beds, I also like the normal bed. I liked when the baby was on the roof and was sliding down in the hole on the roof. |
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