February 05th, 2020

To kick off the day we had a marching band!!

(Left: Gigi shakes a maraca)

Rainbow Hopscotch
Part 1: Backstory (Excerpts from Jan 27th)
Last week, Grace had an idea while we were drawing with chalk on the bricks in the St. John's playground.
She said, "Can we go outside and color on a real sidewalk? In the real neighborhood? Here, only the Rainey Room kids will see it.  We don’t want the other kids to be jealous because they won’t have a rainbow sidewalk."
When asked which other kids, she meant, Maren interjected: "The school across the street."
Grace elaborated, "Jealous means they won’t even see."
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We brought this idea to second meeting to see what the rest of the class would say:
Grace: It’s a tricky game. If you step on the rainbow one, you get good luck.
Lane: If you touch a unicorn, you get bad luck!
Melanie: If we took our whole class, could we draw a giant rainbow hopscotch?
Grace: YES! All over the world! Everywhere in DC!
Lane: And we can make a whole humongous sidewalk all over the town that has a rainbow on the sidewalk, all over town.
Grace: Not like a rainbow, but you have to color in the lines of the brick.
(Cannon notes that it could "wash away" in the rain)
Fletcher:  Maybe we can get the chalk out tomorrow.  And maybe we can draw it after the rain!
Maren: Layers? We could do layers.
Olivia: We could put tape on it.  And it will stay away from the rain.
Wolf: We can draw a real sidewalk with real birds and we can do dinosaurs on there.
Melanie: Maybe it’s okay if the sidewalk chalk only stays for one day.
Palmer: But the rain never - you don’t - God’s in charge of everything.
Melanie: So we can’t decide when it’s sunny or rainy?
Olivia: Maybe we could stop the rain.
Ellie: Use umbrellas!  And our hoodies!
Olivia: Maybe we could go outside and protect the chalk.  (holds out arm with fist closed, like holding an umbrella)  We have so many friends, so everyone will cover the whole chalk!
Brooke: What if it rains at night and it’s bedtime?
Lane: We can bring our sleeping bags.
Melanie: So we can have a nighttime sleepover on the sidewalk?!
Palmer: NOOO that’s not funny! (smiling)
Evelyn: Or we could just draw it all over again.

Part 2 - Getting our bearings at Hyde Elementary

Today, we took a walk across the street with our chalk with a plan to make the rainbow hopscotch idea come to life.  It seems, though, that the excitement of being there was so overwhelming, children didn't end up doing too much drawing.  Instead, we made a verbal plan of how the game will be played.  Whereas before, we only had ideas of "good luck" and "bad luck", Maren brought forth some important information.   She said, "Real hopscotch has squares! And numbers.  And we need a rock."  Then she explained how you throw the rock onto a number, then begin hopping with one or two feet.  After that, everyone began drawing numbers with chalk.  Grace and Evelyn even wrote "Finish" at the far end of the game.

Part 3 - Designing a "Real" Game of Hopscotch

Back inside, we re-grouped at the magnetic chalkboard.  Grace, Evelyn and Maren planned for what the board should actually look like, using letters, numbers, and squares. 
​(To be continued!)

Weaving...
Children are still taking turns at the studio table completing beautiful weavings.  They're practicing going under and over in an alternating pattern.