Our Last Week

Tuesday: 
Workshops 🎨 in Painting and Playdoh

Cannon and Fletcher tried a new way of holding a paintbrush!

Look who visited Wolf while he was painting... the guinea fowl he was raising in an incubator on the farm!  They've grown up!

Everyone has a different painting set-up.  Some are inside, some are outside.  Alexandra has an easel, while Oliver and Greta paint together on the tabletop.  Maren has a sketchpad where she likes to paint, while Wolf B paints on wood.

Alexandra showed a recent painting project and said, "We used it to wrap my Papa's present."

Maren said, "I'm trying to only paint around that gem right there."

Oliver said, "I always like to make rainbows."

Cannon said, "White and purple make pink" as he mixed colors.

Fletcher: "I mixed brown. So much dirt. Grass, grass, grass."

Playdoh, like clay, allows for imaginary concepts to merge with discoveries in technique.  Ellie mixed the different colors of playdoh to create a confetti aesthetic, then used a plastic egg to punch a hole in the center.  Later in transformed into an arch-shape.

Ellie: "I put an egg in here and it made this shape."

"Look at this crown. I mixed it with colors."

Some children used tools, while others built with their hands.

Olivia showed a special hair cutting set she has for her playdoh. She said, "You just put playdoh in and push out of these. Playdoh hair comes out. It's a salon and barber shop."

Emilia shared the cookie cutters she was going to use. She said "I made fresh homemade playdoh. If you want to make it SO green or SO blue or SO yellow, you put in a whole bottle of coloring."

Wolf M said, "I'm gonna make a baseball team. I'm gonna make the players of it, three players." Soon after he said, "We're making a dinosaur to watch the players play baseball." The story continued a little later, "The baseball game is teared down. A meteor teared it down. There's a big huge dump of it."

Grace said, "I have hundreds and hundreds of playdoh." She made this stack of pancakes and said, "Yum yum yum" as she pretended to munch on it.

Gigi said, "I made a snowman, This is a button eye. And a scarf. These are arms, and a body."

Wednesday:
🌼 Happy Birthday, Emilia! 🌎

For Emilia's school birthday, we were lucky enough to watch a beautiful slideshow of pictures from Emilia's five years of life.  Lane watched the pictures from last summer and said, "I remember her birthday, it was so fun!  She looks just like herself."

While Emilia wore a birthday princess tiara, her dad read "Dragons Love Tacos" for the class, and showed  a "Calvin and Hobbes" comic book that Alex and Emilia like to read together.

Her brother Alex, as well as her mom, dad, and her Lola Mi and grandpa were all there to watch her walk around the candle.  The class presented their gifts of the letter "E"! (see slideshow)

We love you Emilia!  Happy 5th birthday!!

Thursday:
 St. John's Bingo 📸

Thanks for joining us for our last round of bingo.  When Lane saw the pictures from earlier in the year, she said, ​"I love hopscotch.  I'm missing it.  I wish we could go back to school and just buy it."  She remembered the day we went outside to Hyde-Addison.  "And we thought we were going to draw rainbow hopscotch in this whole state." 
​Later she said, "Doctor area! I miss doctor area.  I miss our who classroom.  I wish I could just drive there by myself and play there."

Friday:
☀️Happy Birthday, Wolfie B! 🐺

Wolfie and his mom, dad, sister Cedar, and nanny Aga all gathered with us to celebrate his 5th birthday.  Together we watched a special slideshow all about Wolfie's five birthdays from five years of life.  Wolfie read us two stories that he likes - one was about dinosaurs, and one was about the planets of our solar system.  His family brought a birthday banana for the occasion with five candles, which he walked around five times.
As an added bonus, Wolf showed us a snake that they found out in the yard, and a bunny rabbit that they are taking care of at the farm.

Happy 5th Birthday Wolfie!!  We love you!! 

Wolfie's friends made him the letter W for his birthday.  Take a look at their gifts below.

Sharing is Caring

Since March, every day, children have an opportunity to share important artifacts and stories from their life with the class.  For example, Fletcher shared a bird feeder this week that he made with a recycled plastic carton! He and his mom showed us the incredible amount of thought that went into the project, like adding tape to keep out pesky squirrels.

We love when children share information about their relationship with nature, especially at a time when spending time outdoors is so important  for our wellbeing.
Gigi shared recently:  "There's a special snack you can take on hikes.  Sunflower kernels and raisins and chocolate chips."
Wolfie M shared today:  "Zaza and I are going to catch lightning bugs tonight.  I have a net and a jar for them to go in.  The top has holes so they can breathe."

We are always so delighted to meet new lovies. stuffies, toys, and other characters.  And we're even more delighted when we get to see siblings!

Transitioning into Summertime 😎

This will most likely be our last blog post for the Rainey Room year.   From the bottom of our hearts, we just want to say we fully appreciate all the many hours you and your children have spent Zooming and Seesawing with us these past few months.  Keeping in touch with you all has consistently brightened our days and inspired us.

Next week we'll begin to say our farewells for the summer...

• first with the Rainey Room End of Year Slideshow (June 1st at 10am),
  
• then with the school-wide Chapel  (June 2nd at 10am).   
  
• On Wednesday June 3rd from 10-11, we're hoping to see some of you in person from a distance, because we'll be delivering your portfolios from the front lawn of St. John's into your cars.  If you can make it, we'll be thrilled to see you.  (If not, that's okay! We can deliver it to your home at another day/time.  Just get in touch with us.)

We have a little summer research project we'll introduce to you next week so that when we reunite in the Tucker Room, we'll have something we can share with one another about our summer adventures.

Talk to you soon!  Lots of Love,
​Melanie & Brooke
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