November 05th, 2020

Pod A

Dakota and Lane made their clay animal sculptures today. Both referenced photographs and their drawings of the animals to ensure their clay representations were accurate.  The work was slow and detailed and required revisions along the way. After creating the body, each girl added legs, followed by a neck, head and tail. The techniques of attaching clay pieces by scoring and slipping were crucial to ensure that the parts attached well.
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Dakota's first adjustment was to the legs. She said, "I'm making them a little shorter, so it will stand up better."
Later Dakota placed the head on the neck and then decided that it needed to be bigger. (As seen in the last full row of photos.) At the end she added the horns and ears before drawing on eyes and the mouth.

Lane made a number of revisions to her cat. At one point she realized that she had attached 3 legs in a line and so she repositioned the middle leg before adding the final one. She also noticed that the first head she made was a bit small and made it bigger before attaching it. At the end she added ears and a curvy tail  - just like she had made in her drawing.

Maren continued work on our message to Hanna.  She helped decide what could be photographed to help fill-in some of the letters that were still missing. Maren decided that she could use church for C, since our school is in a church and helmets for H, since children wear helmets when they ride bikes outside. And for T she thought taking time was important because as the children work at school they take their time on projects - taking time is something we value. She took a photo of Lane working on her clay cat to show taking time.

Pod A took advantage of the Rainey Rooms not being here and played outside for an hour from 10-11. The children were thrilled  to have some extra time outside, especially with the lovely weather. The pet play from yesterday continued. Everyone was involved in the play and engaged with the narrative. Lane was the human and her pets were:
Dakota as Zoe the giraffe
Nora as Majesty the horse
Maren as Luna the kitty
Gigi as Alex the puppy
Palmer was a monkey
For the most part, Lane did the talking but the other children informed the narrative through their actions.
Lane: First you need to eat dinner. Here's your milk.
Maren: Meow, meow.
Lane: Goodnight.
(Dakota and Maren go to the monkey bar, which is Lane's bed.)
Lane: My pets are trying to take my sleeping spot.
(Gigi had stayed in bed.)
Gigi: You have a good puppy though.
(Dakota runs away from the house.)
Lane: Giraffe is just having some fun. Don't worry kiddos.
Palmer: Giraffe come back!
Lane: She's like 100 years old so she can go on an adventure by herself. It's fine.

Lane drove her pets to the park and then to visit their grandparents. The whole group went to dinner and everyone dressed up for the occasion. Eventually, even Lane had to take a rest because being the mom is a lot of work.

Pod B

It was backwards day! Even with a small group of 4, children enjoyed pretending to be Paw Patrol heroes.
Andy: Everybody attention. A bad guy is coming.
Oliver: The drawbridge opens.
Olivia: Nobody knows that we can just sneak through.
Aida: What are you guys doing?
Andy: This is the charger for the pups. You guys are dogs so you can come in.
(Aida comes in through secret door)
Oliver: Aida, you’re Everest.  Ice in your mouth and wings.
(Olivia is Sky, Andy is Chase, Oliver is Rocky)
Melanie: Where do bad guys go?
Andy: Put them in jail.
(In boat)
Andy: We’re not balancing... here’s heavier, here’s lighter.
(Rocking.... they invite Aida but she’s nervous)
Oliver: Everest c'mon. You can sit next to me since this is a boat.
Olivia: But we need a barbecue, we’re hungry.
(They add a block)
Andy: Oh my gosh it’s already balancing. It’s the same heavy.
Oliver: Can you stop bouncing, I’m not ready to go yet.
​(They run)
Aida: Look at Andy go! Look at me go!  Wanna see how fast I run?

In the classroom work continued on the "machines" that were created yesterday. Children wrote their names to label their paper sculptures and played bus in dramatic play.