HUMP DAY!

It's hump day but the Brown Room children were not 'dragging their wagons' at all! They accomplished a lot in both the classroom and Blake Hall.  A fire drill at 10 didn't slow them down one bit! All the children got to experience both areas, and below are some of the highlights.

In the Brown Room....

Explorations using droppers to manipulate liquid watercolors. Mostly the color was added to a large piece of fabric, but as can be seen in the photo above (right), Palmer tested it on paper as well. The paint reacts differently on the two surfaces.

Emilia explores if pressing paper on top of the painted fabric causes change to either surface (the paper or the fabric).

The learning continued as the children explored if brushes could impact their work on the fabric.

In the photo to the right, Oliver asks Lane, "What're you doing? You painting?"

​Thomas the train wanted to drive over the paint. Lane offered, "I'll make him a bridge!"

The children shared what they were noticing and also named what they were creating:
Lane, "I'm gonna make a bottle. It's a sippy cup."
Palmer, "Look what I'm making Melanie. A truck."
Lane, "It's a milk sink."  She then mixed green and purple together and reflected, "It's red."
When she painted blue on red Emilia noticed, "It's getting darker."
Lane, "I made a smurf. He went in a smurf house."
Palmer, "I made a truck Melanie. A mixer."

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After snack the second group had a similar experience. However, this time, the table was back in the studio so that fabric was draped over the table.

Here are some of the comments from the second group:
Wolf, "I'm making a bus."
Alexandra, "I'm making a snow flower."
Ada, "I'm making a tin."
Grace, "I'm making an engine drive. It's a car."
Ada, "I'm squeezing it to get more."
Alexandra, "I'm making a house."

In Blake Hall....

Ellie immediately begins to run around in the light! She is drawn to that specific area within the large room. 

The children started noticing shadows and how they move/change size.  In the photos above Grace  and Ada observe how Grace's shadow moves/changes as she walks away from the wall and then back towards it.

​In this video, Ada explores how to make the shadows change size.  She has a theory that moving the figures will impact the shadow size.  She also incorporates the concepts of numeracy as a tool for measurement when she articulates the shadow's size.

Wolf worked to line up the people, the varying shadow sizes were easy to notice.

​Later, Grace noticed a problem: she couldn't get her shadow to "stop moving." She elicited Jen's help and Jen suggested that they ask other Brown Room friends how to solve this problem.  Here are so excerpts of the start of the conversation:
Jen "Grace can't get her shadow to stop moving. Can you help her? How can we do that?"
Jen (to Grace), "Do you have ideas?"
Grace, "No."
Ada, "I have an idea!
Grace, "We could, um, we could put something on it."
Jen, "Let's see, what could we put?"
Grace, "We could put tape."
Jen, "That's a great idea!"
Thus, tape was provided enabling the children to continue to try and solve this 'problem' through exploration.

Grace tests her idea and then decides on her next steps.

Grace hypothesizes that 2 pieces of tape will be strong enough to hold her shadow.

Ada tests her idea and chooses her next step.

Ada hypothesizes that what she needs is a LONG tape.

By the end we had a lot of tape on the wall:

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The second group explored light and shadow in a different way! They imagined what the shadows were:

​Palmer, "It's a ghost, Miss Brooke, a ghost!"
Brooke, "What do you really think it is?"
Palmer, "A monster!"
Fletcher, "IT'S A MONSTERRRRR!"
Palmer, "It's a monster!"
Emilia, "It's not a monster."
Fletcher, "It IS a monster! It IS a monster."

But questions about how shadows occur were still on their minds.
Oliver approached the wall to touch the shadow and then asked, "How'd it get up here? How'd it get up here?"

Lane moved towards the wall. She said, "I'm getting closer!" She then looked at her shadow and declared, "I'm little!"  

Brooke asked her, "How can you make your shadow bigger?"
​Then Lane ran away from the wall and turned to look at her shadow noting, "I made it bigger!"