February 27th, 2020

Why is the Rainey Room making a rainbow hopscotch?

Much like our fairy project earlier this year, rainbow hopscotch is becoming a class-wide project investigation.  At St. John's, children and teachers build the curriculum together.  The children give us clues about what they are interested in all the time - at meeting, on the playground, during dramatic play, etc.  We as teachers use their ideas and hope to create opportunities for deep, rich learning experiences that involve a wealth of different materials.  When children had the idea to make a hopscotch game for the children across the street, we knew this project could allow us to introduce valuable learning opportunities.  The glue that holds it altogether is the children's motivation to give the gift, and to make it beautiful.  We keep giving children different "languages" with which to express the game of hopscotch.  Tape, carpet squares, watercolors, sharpies, numbers, patterns... these are all different "languages" that children have been exploring.  We take this terminology from the poem by Loris Malaguzzi (excerpt below).

"The child has a hundred languages, a hundred hands, a hundred thoughts, a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of speaking. A hundred, always a hundred ways of listening, of marveling, of loving, a hundred joys for singing and understanding, a hundred worlds to discover, a hundred worlds to invent, a hundred worlds to dream."
-Loris Malaguzzi (Founder of Reggio Emilia philosophy of teaching)
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TODAY in the studio...
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More children had an opportunity to reflect on the hopscotch that we constructed on the studio floor. Some were able to draw a hopscotch with a consistent one square/two square pattern, while others focused intently on drawing and numbering squares. Afterwards, most had time to add watercolor paints (to actually make it a rainbow hopscotch).

The first group was Maren, Lane and Grace who were finishing  up their work from yesterday.

Oliver was keen to join and worked diligently. He chose to add the numbers 7, 8 and 10.

Next Palmer and Wolf B had a go. They were very focused on the one square/two square pattern.

Later Wolf M came over.  He also focused intently on the pattern.

The last to go today were Ellie and Olivia. We ran short on time so they didn't get to water color yet. Both girls were extremely focused on writing the numbers.

Tomorrow the friends who haven't yet had a turn: Fletcher, Gigi, Cannon and Emilia  will get one. 

Also there is no blog tomorrow because it's the final day of the month and teachers will be working on school-wide clean-up and organization. Have a nice weekend!