January 12th, 2021

Welcome Back To School, Tucker Room Families!

Pod A --- Collage ✂️
For the past two days, children in the Tucker Room have been enjoying the images that the parents cut out and donated to our two classrooms (see info on Pod B collages later in the blog)!  First, Aida and Olivia met with Brooke to sort the images into categories.  Today, every child had a turn to select some of the most attractive or interesting images that they want to collage with.  Tomorrow we'll provide children with additional materials to choose from, and explore how those images relate to each other.

Some quotes from this process:
Olivia: (searching through pictures) Look what I found!  Oooh, I got the good stuff!  Now let me see what I found.
Aida: (seeing letters in the pile)  I found one that's similar.
Maren: (remembering the zoom call, and which pictures her parents provided) One of them has a lobster tail. I liked that my mom and dad cut it out.  They started and keeped going and didn't stop.

Constructing a Vehicle

Since before winter break, Oliver has been a leader in a construction exploration involving life-size vehicles, specifically minivans.   We're hoping to broaden the scope of this investigation with clay later this week or early next week.  Below is a portion of their dialogue as they steadily put together the car parts.

Dakota: We’re going to pretend marry each other.
Oliver:  If this car key doesn’t work the other one will work.  The door opens.  Inside here is the gas.
Dakota: So it doesn’t fall out while we’re driving.  I’ll put these here.
Aida:  Can I help?
Oliver:  Of course you can!
Dakota:  Do you want to be the baby?  We’re playing family.
Aida:  Can I be the sister?
(They agree)
Oliver:  These will light up when we’re driving.  These can be the headlights.
Aida:  These can be the tailpipes.  Cars have tailpipes so they can breathe air.  
Oliver:  That will be the pipe that connects to the engine right?
Aida:  …So they can heat up the car.
Dakota:  This can be it.  (Fetches a PVC pipe, places it at the back of the car). It’s to shoot off the air.
Aida:  Are we ready to go somewhere?
Oliver:  This car still needs more work.
Dakota:  These are the snacks I’m putting in the trunk.
Aida:  How much longer?
Oliver:  Fifteen minutes.  I’ll teach you how to drive, okay?  So that you can drive sometimes.
Dakota:  These can be the buttons.
Aida:  Since I’m the sister… I’m four, and Hop Hop is the baby.
Dakota:  (Places netting toward back of car) This shoots out when someone’s trying to get us, like monsters.  …We’re going to the married place to get married.
Oliver:  Our car ‘ons’ with a gas pedal.
Dakota:  That’s the driver’s seat.

The Kitchen

We've been using new materials in the kitchen instead of kinetic sand.  It's been very exciting putting together recipes with creative flavors.  Aida and Fletcher worked together to make a birthday cake with chocolate and salad.  

​Maren made a bean stew which she served to her customer, Olivia, who said, "I'll pretend to eat with my mask on.  My belly's gonna be so full after my meal."

Pod B 
​Collage! ✂️

Pod B started the new year by think about collage.  On Monday, the children spent time sorting the images that families had previously cut and sent to  school.  The categories that they came up with were people, animals, fancy things, food, nature, phones, things around the house, and vehicles.  Children also started to think about the ideas that they wish to represent in collage.  Here are their ideas (so far):
   Gigi -  A center for dogs
   Palmer - An animal center
   Cannon - A habitat for dinos, gorillas, and jaguars
   Lane - A hamster cage with with a hamster wheel, some nature, and a comfy bed.  And green leaves to eat, that’s what I mean by nature.  And pillows and a chandelier
   Nora - A Unicorn.  I was thinking there could be two unicorns looking at each other.
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Gigi's Center for Dogs Collage
As children started working today, they selected images that could support their ideas.   Gigi’s love of dogs came through as she chose a lot of dog images, along with some buffalo, a reindeer, and horses. 
   Gigi articulated her ideas about the center for dogs.  “The doggies are taken care of.  It’s almost like their house.  People come and give the dogs food and water.”  
    Gigi’s used a large piece of blue paper and laid out the images before she started gluing.  As she was about to glue down the reindeer, she first placed an image of some lavender for him, saying, “I don’t want him to be just floating in the air.”  This demonstrates the careful though Gigi was giving to the relationships the exist between the images.


Lane's Rabbit Home Collage
Lane found an image of a rabbit, and decided that she would create a hamster house for the bunny.  She named the bunny “Carrots,” and proceeded to create a home for him.  As she added the nature images, she also considered the relationship between the images.  She cut, turned, and arranged images to fit the space available and complete her vision.  She paid attention to detail by adding a red bow for “Carrots.”  She finished the composition by cutting out a carrot from orange and green paper.
Like Gigi, she was creating a home for the bunny, saying, “It’s like a bunny house, not a bunny cage, and it’s just his size.”
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Light Table

Cannon, Nora, and Palmer worked at the light table.  Much as they do in construction, they developed a narrative as they used the materials.
   Cannon - We’re making poison soup.
   Palmer - I’ve got all the ingredients in.
   Nora - Who are you going to serve that to?
   Cannon - The Grinch!
   Nora - (Offering some materials) Do you need this?
   Cannon - Yes, please.
   Palmer - When we put too much in it, it erupts.  That’s why we call it avalanche soup
   Nora - Here’s some more poison.
   Cannon and Palmer - Thank you!

As they continued, they worked on related structures and compositions.  Palmer put a jewel on top to protect his royal building.  Cannon worked on a volcano  with mountains to protect it.  Nora made a lighthouse with white cotton balls for the snow and doilies for the snowflakes.