November 18th, 2020

Pod B

Discussing the Upcoming Pod Switch

We used pictures to explain the changes that will be happening in the pods after Thanksgiving. The children are excited to be joining up with Brooke, Maren, and Dakota in the big room, but they also expressed how sad they were to leave behind Rachel (who will stay with Jill in the small room).  We reassured them that we can keep in touch with her via the message center.  After meeting, Olivia and Andy excitedly made messages for Rachel and decorated her new mailbox.

Clear Glaze
To finish up our clay bowls project, the children added a special shiny glaze to the surface of their bowl, inside and out.  We discussed how the shiny glaze keeps the bowl food-safe.  Hopefully we can fire them in time to use them as soup bowls for our Thanksgiving feast :)

Andy: "Olivia's plate is like an igloo because it has a little hole."

Construction

We recently moved all the construction materials to another area of the classroom. We also increased the amount of building materials.  Since then, there has been more interest in group building.  We enjoyed our time making a tower together today...

Aida: "Oliver, would you like to build that little house again?"
​Oliver:  "Okay.  Let me write that down." (he takes a clipboard) 
(Fletcher has already begun making a tall tower; Aida and Oliver join in.)
​Grace: (with clipboard) "I'm writing what Fletcher said, and what Andy said.  And when Maria said, what a beautiful tower."
Fletcher:  "It looks so amazing."
Aida:  "There's all rugs on each floor.  I did a bunk bed in case someone wants to sleep there."

Painting Fall Leaves
We have been so inspired by the fall leaves we collected on the play ground yesterday.  Today at the easel, Aida and Fletcher each chose a leaf they would like to represent in an easel painting.  We talked about how some stems are long and some are short.  Aida used two different colors and split the leaf in half, while Fletcher was more focused on the length of the stem.  We'd love to continue with these paintings to see how every child uses different strategies to represent a leaf.

It was such a beautiful day today!

"airplane" made by Oliver

Pod A

Outside
It was lovely outside this morning. Even with the chilly temperatures the children had lots of fun building, playing pets, and just generally enjoying each other’s company.

Wolf and Palmer started with a clear plan to build a wind machine. Cannon soon joined.

Palmer: We’re building a wind machine.
Wolf: It blocks the wind.
Palmer: And blows it away.
Wolf: Cannon, would you like to help us make a wind machine?
Cannon: Ok! And Corona is going to get trapped in that little crack.
Palmer: And it’s never going to get out again. Never escape. Never, ever, ever.

Once inside a new construction project came to life: a ship!
​
Palmer: We’re building a ship!
Cannon: It’s going to take the animals back to Africa.
Palmer: There’s going to be a plank in case there’s any pirates on the ship.
Dakota: Here are some ‘marshmallows.’ (white dome shapes)
Palmer: Good! The animals will need something to eat on the long trip.

Wolf was also building nearby but had been working alone until…

Palmer: Wolf, how about your building connects to our ship?
Wolf: Yeah, good idea.
(He connects the structures with blocks.)
Wolf: I connected it!
Palmer: GREAT!

Collage
Last week children spent a morning cutting out images from magazines and photocopies of anatomy texts.  On Monday and again today, children compiled these images to represent a new idea, creature, or object.

Partner Painting!
Maren and Lane decided to paint collaboratively. Their idea was to create a rainbow painting; each girl took responsibility for different parts of the painting.  Lane started on the rainbow while Maren created the sun and the sky.