May 11th, 2021

Pod A

Organizing our Portfolios

Over the Tucker Room year, children have been saving their work in their portfolio basket.  Now that it's May, the basket is  bursting with all kinds of beautiful creations made of clay, watercolors, wire, plaster, printmaking, and more.  Before portfolio conferences begin, children are meeting individually with teachers to sort and categorize the items into folders. The challenge here is for children to look at the pile of work and discover similarities.  Perhaps they will decide to group all the green things together!  Or perhaps all of the unicorn drawings need to have their own special folder.  At the end of the process, children will have a better understanding of the growth they have made over the year, the new materials they have tried, and will feel pride for the volume of hard work they've done.

Every child takes a different approach.  Grace said, "This will be the keep pile, and this will be the not-keep pile."  A few minutes later she observed a painting which made her exclaim, "Gorgeous.  That's definitely going in the keep pile!"  Another piece of work prompted her to say, "Needs some more work."  She made a third pile for work that needs to be refined.  Eventually she concluded, "So far, I like my work.  I only have one thing in the not-keep pile."

Making a "Creek" with Pipes

 Grace - If you pour the water faster, the water runs better.
 Gigi - Maybe it’s a tube system.
Lane: (Noticing the water flowing downhill instead of uphill) The water is not like a human.  It can’t just walk up.  It’s liquid.
Grace: We need to make it a little higher on this side, the side that I’m on.  Because I just feel like it’s a hill.  It just rolls down here. And it just rolls into the sand.
Fletcher: We need more water!
Grace: We need a big bucket as big as the school, and Clifford could pull it.  It would be like a pool in here.
Oliver: (brings new pipe) We could use this!
Palmer: When you pour the water in, it makes the sand wetter, so it’s easier for shovels to dig. 
Cannon: (introducing Gecko) We have to make sure he gets air.
Wolf: (patting sand) I’m trying to make it strong so the water won’t get through. 

(See Also: Wolf's solar powered vehicle!!)

Wire Sculptures Inspired by Spring Flowers
Quotes From Monday:
   Lane - I’m making a flower.
   Olivia - I’m making a flower, too.  I’m gonna try.
   Grace - Me, too.   ( I’m making a swing.)  I just need one more chain.
   Olivia - I can’t do a flower.
   Lane - Don’t worry.  Just put your mind to it.  The think wire is easier to twist.  
   Grace - This needs to be small (the seat of the swing), but it’s too short to twist.  (She tries a longer piece of wire and other materials.)  I’m a little frustrated.
   Lane - You can do it! Start thinking about what Grace would do.   
   Grace - What I would do is panic.
   Lane - What Grace would do is think and try again.
   
Tuesday:
   Cannon - This (thick wire) is easy to bend.  I’m kind of copying Wolf, but not really.
    Gigi - I’m finishing the top.
    Olivia - I like to twist lots because it helps to make it tight.

Light Table Insects
     Oliver - We’re trapping the cicadas because they want to win.
     Fletcher - I found a lot of gems.
     Oliver - Now the gems are protected.  The cicadas want to get in the treasure chest.
     Wolf - Luckily, this (the treasure chest) is strong.  And the cicadas are just paper.
     Oliver - They would need a key for the treasure chest.
[a bit later…..]
     Lane - We’re ling up all the bugs in Beetle Town for the mayor.  The mayor is the scorpion.
     Oliver - We trapped the cicadas with all these bricks because he wants to get all the treasure.
      Lane - If he gets out, I’ll lock up all the treasure.  All hands on deck!

Pod B

Kurt’s Gift
Yesterday, the children put the finishing touches on Kurt’s gift, wrapped it and delivered it to him. Kurt LOVED it! The children explained the process by showing the story board they drew as a plan, the first draft with photos where they dictated the text and the finished book. They also showed Kurt the mini cubby bag they made for Yoda, with the message he (Yoda) created inside, as well as his mask. Kurt has the book on display next to Yoda and Yoda is wearing his mask and cubby bag (which hangs from his ear!). The children saw it at dismissal. Kurt wrote the group a lovely thank you note and we read it this morning during Morning Meeting.

Games
Yesterday Maren taught us a dominoes game called Mexican Train that she learned from her grandparents. We played our first round yesterday in Blake hall where there was plenty of space to set out the tile trains. 
Today Nora brought in Snail’s Pace and she played a round with Maren. We look forward to learning more games and hopefully designing some of our own.

Portfolio Review
Each day one child is reviewing and organizing all the work from her/his portfolio draw. Maren did it yesterday and Aida went today. It’s a lot of fun to review the work and discover pieces from ‘long ago.’ The children are looking forward to sharing their work with you in the upcoming weeks. Here are few quotes from Aida today:
Looking at her plaster work she said “I remember this! This is SO long ago.”
Finding a booklet of drawings she paused, “I’m just gonna look at this for a second.”
Of her large pile of drawings she noted, “I can’t believe I drew all of this.”
Of the process, “I’m having so many things….I love it.”

Outside
Yesterday, Pod A told us about a trench they dug outside and suggested we use it too. It turned out to be A LOT of fun! Today the children played with it for the entire hour they were outside. Today they imagined that the trench was hot chocolate river instead of just water.

Clay
Last week, when we went outside, Jen was cleaning up from a clay experience she was having with the Rainey Room and showed Maren a clay technique that she has been using in her own practice where she layers slabs of different colors. Today Jen shared this technique with our pod and the children started their own pieces. Jen rolled some slabs and the children also rolled some, then they stacked them, cut pieces and made designs with them. Tomorrow each child will arrange and attach her/his creations to a slab.