December 08th, 2020

Family Traditions: The Lopez Family

Jennie Lopez (Palmer's mom) was kind enough to join us over Zoom to explain a new holiday tradition in the neighborhood where Palmer lives.  Each year, families can put candles inside paper bags and use them to decorate their front pathway.  These are called "luminarias" or luminaries.  Palmer helped placing pebbles in the bottom of each bag.  Will helped Palmer disperse the bags, and mom and dad helped light the candles.
When Palmer was only 2 years old, the tradition began with only 50 families participating.  This year, 250 families participated!!!  Palmer scootered around the neighborhood and counted 87 in a row.  He said it's a special tradition for his family, and he'll even do it when he's 8 years old.

Palmer's brother Will

After Jennie told us about the luminarias, the children were delighted to receive their own paper bag and candle to make one to illuminate at home.  Because we had recently made paper snowflakes in Pod A, we were excited to use that same skill for the white bags.

Pod A: Self Portraits ​

Since our conversation with Dorothy Moss of the Portrait Gallery, we have been creating portraits inspired by the work of Amy Sherald, the artist who painted Michelle Obama.  (some more examples of her work are displayed to the right)

Andy

Fletcher

Maren

Oliver

Aida

Grace

Children were asked to take a close look at the shape of their head in the mirror, then look closely at their eyes, eyelashes, eyebrows, hair, and ears.  For our noses and mouths, we often used a picture (due to our masks).  Andy used oval shapes for his eyes, and when he was done, said "That looks like dad's eyes."

We used grey paint for our skin tones, again inspired by Amy Sherald.  Then we used bright colors for the clothes and hair.  The biggest challenge was recovering the facial features once they had been covered in paint.  Grace (yesterday) said "Don't worry... I'm gonna make you see my eyes again."

In this next slideshow, see:

• Exploration with digital drawing using a tablet, integrated with a photograph of our light table work
• Fletcher and Andy build a "metro" in construction and have to protect the trains from dinosaurs!
• Aida and Brooke using sewing materials to create a stocking (more info on this tomorrow!)

Pod B: Paper Exploration

Pod B continued their exploration of paper both yesterday and today.  Yesterday children cut notches in the paper and worked to fold and join papers without adhesives.   As the papers came together in unique ways, Lane commented, “It looks like cursive writing.”   Today’s paper challenge involved making letter shapes with twisted and cut papers.  Everyone agreed that making the “O” might be the easiest letter.  Children persisted and were able to spell “paper” with their letters.   Children continued to use paper as a part of their construction experience as well. 

Gigi uses the paper mouth as part of a crocodile that she drew to support her idea.

After the zoom call with Jennie, the children were inspired to decorate for Christmas in the construction area.
Palmer - The neighborhood is decorating for Christmas, in preparation.
Lane - My tradition is hiding rocks all over my house (in construction).  I hide the most rarest rocks.
Gigi - I love to put lots of lights up.  They’re beautiful.   
Lane - Santa Clause has to come to me.
Palmer - How?
Lane - I’m putting up lots of lights.  It’s legendary that if you don’t decorate, Santa won’t come.

Message Center

Children have been working diligently with the holiday-inspired materials in message center.  They have also used sewing on their messages, in addition to writing, drawing, and collaging.