Birthdays and Friendship

Introducing Birthday Gifts, Committees, and Calendars

A new addition to our classroom is the birthday calendar, which shows each child's birthday in a linear style. Ellie notices her own face on the calendar!

Maren looks at the materials and tells her friends that she would like "purple and pink".

Our birthday gifts this year in the Brown Room will be made out of plaster.  We showed an example of a plaster collage today at meeting, and explained that the first birthday of the year will be Maren (whose birthday was the first of the school year).  Then, we went through each picture, discovering in which month each of the children were born and explaining that everyone will eventually get a gift of their own.

Three volunteers (Palmer, Ada, and Evelyn) came to the studio to help make a birthday gift for Maren.  First they assisted in mixing the plaster. Then, they sprinkled materials into the goop while it was still wet.  Over the next couple of days it will dry, and when it's ready, we'll give it to Maren at her school birthday celebration.

Outside, Ada tells us about a dragon she has behind her castle.  Gigi sends her lovey, Howie, down the slide.  Wolf and Cannon explore our outdoor building materials, such as the tires and large hollow blocks.  Olivia and Evelyn make "lunch" and invite teachers and friends to participate in eating the food.  More and more, children are playing alongside new friends.  Sometimes they use language and other times it's just about laughter.