March 10, 2021

Pajama Zoom with LouLou

The pajamas are made on pima cotton in Peru.  Aida shows her class where Peru is on the map.

Today both pods had a Zoom call with LouLou Baker about the pajama making.  As the call began, Oliver greeted her, "Hi, LouLou the pajama maker!"  She showed us around her studio and described  the process  from painting to pajamas.  Once she has drawings, she scans them into her computer and is able to arrange the images into the design she wants.  She told that us screen printing works with one color at a time to create the images.  In the coming weeks , Tucker children will have a chance to work with the screen printing process.  Here's some of the thoughts and reflections from the children:
     Grace - (Noticing a honeycomb pattern on  fabric)  Did you make those hexagons?
     Palmer - She has a lot of stuff to work with.  I thought she would be in a factory.
      LouLou - I might need your help drawing images.
      Oliver - That's nice of you.
  After the call:
      Cannon - I liked her safari pajamas.
   Palmer - I liked the safari pajamas and the fire truck pajamas.  She should make some police car pajamas.  
      Lane - I liked her office.  I'm going to be the person who sees if they are comfy.
      Gigi - I'm going to make sure the pajamas are cozy.
   Palmer - I'm going to make sure that they have the perfect amount of white and whatever is on them.  Make sure that the patterns are right.  
Thank you so much LouLou for showing us the way you work!

​Pod A started screen printing by drawing today.  These images will eventually be transferred to fabric using the screen printing process.

Pod A

Tiny Village Planning and Reflection

In small groups of 3 the children explored the Small World (AKA: Tiny Village, as renamed by Maren today) down in Blake Hall. One task was thinking about what buildings/creations could go together and where things should be placed.
Aida: The flower garden goes by the toy store. You pick the flowers.
Maren: I think the tree should go close to the lake.
Olivia: The car on the ‘carway.’ The tree next to the garden. Where should this go?
Fletcher: This is gonna be a big house if we put everything over there. (All buildings together at one end.)

While setting up the Tiny Village, the children also were interested in who had built each item and reflected on their own work and the work of others.
Grace: I wish we hadn’t made it so big. It’s almost too big. (The retirement home she created with Maren)
Oliver: Did Maren and Grace make this? (Yes) Well, they did a great job.
Olivia: This is supposed to be at the hospital. (She draws in a huge breath of shock.) We forgot to build a hospital!

There was also a lot of interest in matching signs to creations and using initial sounds to help figure out where to place the signs.
We are excited to display this work outside at drop-off later in the week!

Fun, fun, fun in the Outdoor Classroom

It was a beautiful backwards day..... and we enjoyed every minute!

Pod B

Studio Experiences

Some children worked with weaving today.  We had not done a weaving since the fall, but the children remembered the process.
    Palmer - It's under, over, under, over.
    Nora - (Observing the strings of her loom)  It's kind of springy.
    Lane - I'm making a pattern of all different kinds of pattern.  

A few children were also interested in adding backgrounds to the imaginary creatures they created yesterday.  
    Cannon - I'm doing grey for New York City.
    Palmer - I'm doing grey so it looks like a cave.
    Lane - Mine is definitely under water.
    Cannon - (Looking at Lane's work) You did an outline, so you could cut it out and it would still be a mermaid.
​    Gigi - I'm adding some planets.  This red one is Mars.  

Mystery Reader

Lindsey joined us as our mystery reader today.  She read "Stellaluna,"  "Doc McStuffins: A Bad Case of the Hiccups,"  and "Jane Goodall."  The children were captivated by all three stories.  Thank you so much, Lindsey!