Thursday, April 1, 2021

Pod A

All Kinds of Sewing

The studio became a sewing center this morning.  Palmer, Lane, and Cannon worked to sew together their pillows with the screen print they made yesterday.  At the same time,  children worked with hand sewing.  As they worked, they shared their knowledge and observations:
    Palmer - I know how to do this because my grandma came to teach us at school.
   Cannon - (Talking about the presser foot of the machine)  It's like a ski.  (Later, talking about the pillow stuffing)  This is like snow!  Warm snow, and fluffy!
    Fletcher - It's so fluffy!  It's like wool!

Pajama Design: Arranging the Images

Our work with screen printing and sewing was inspired by the pajama project.  Before Spring Break, the pods submitted their images to Lou Lou Baker.  She began to arrange the images, but she was also interested in the ideas the children had about size and placement.   Grace and Lane began thinking about the arrangement, and later shared ideas with the whole group.
    Grace -  The rainbow and the solar system are in the sky (moving these images to the top of the page).
                       The ladder (stairs by Brown Room) goes all the way to the tree house.
                       The small animal can be in construction.  And the frog.  I think the frog should be a little smaller
    Lane - (Looking at Grace's ideas)  The rainbow looks cool up there.  (She begins to arrange the images)  What if these stars go up to the top of the (construction) building.    I'm going to put the tree house up here and the stairs lead to the tree house.  And up here is the beautiful rainbow.  
    At this point, Grace and Lane begin talking with the larger group.
    Grace - We have smallers and biggers (explaining that the images can be made smaller or bigger).
    Palmer - What's this house?  
    Jill - That's Rainey B's tree house.
   Palmer - I want this down here instead of the frog being on top.  (Moving the tree house up)  It could be a cloud tree house.  The frog is jumping to the ladder  to get to the rainbow.
     Grace - The frog is jumping.  We need clouds or something.
     Fletcher - Maybe the rainbow stays down on earth.  It has a pot of gold, so that's on earth.  The frog lives on the earth.  And I think the solar system is up here.
      Olivia - We can put the solar system next to the rainbow so it shows the light.  
      Fletcher - That's what I was thinking, too
     Lane - The stairs are going all the way up to the tree house.  I would put this animal up here on top of the tree house.  The frog is about to climb the stairs.  
      (Melanie points out that the pajamas will have a repeated design, a pattern.)
      Lane - How about this could be the pattern (She lines all the images up in a straight line).  How about we use everyone's ideas.  One thing of Fletcher's, one thing of Olivia's, one thing of Grace's, one thing of Oliver's, one thing of Palmer's, one thing of Cannon's.

The children found connections between the images.  It's clear from that they are thinking about the relationships between the images, not just the individual designs in isolation.  While we didn't come to a conclusion, the conversation is useful to illustrate their thinking about the process.
     

Spring Blossoms  

Children worked with the overhead projector to enlarge spring blossoms on easel paper.  After carefully tracing the outline, they painted them.  

Pod B

Backwards Day
The children had a blast on this soggy morning. There was sand play, hide-and-seek and What Time is It Mr. Fox. It was lots of fun playing games altogether.

Snack
At snack the children used their reading skills to determine what our special plan for tomorrow is.  Brooke wrote letters one by one and the children were putting the sounds together. She didn’t even finish writing the word, when Aida knew!  She wrote: VOLT and Aida excitedly said, “VOLTA!” And she was right! Beginning tomorrow, each Friday the Tucker children from both pods will be walking to Volta park to play. It was sad that the teachers didn’t capture a photo of the happiness and shock of this news. The children are so excited! Here is some of what they said:

Maren: I’m gonna play with Lane. I can even play with my brother because he’ll be there!
Dakota: I’m gonna play with Oliver!
Nora: I’m gonna play with Maren, Aida, Lane and Gigi!
Andy: I’m just gonna run to school! I used to wake up at 7:19 but now I’m gonna wake up at 7!
Aida: I’ll put my clothes on, brush my teeth and come to school! ​

Later at construction Andy was overheard commenting to Dakota:
Andy: Tomorrow is gonna be SO fun.

Painting
Today the children enjoyed splatter painting and painting pictures on larger paper at the table. The work turned out beautifully. For a few children, this splatter paint technique: tapping the brush gently, was new. As Aida tried it out she began to say, “tap tap, tap,” aloud as she worked.

Flip Book Drawing
The flip book work continues. Today the children looked at an example to understand the different sections: usually the head is in the top, the body is in the middle section and the legs at the bottom. Each child then tried to draw her/his creature proportionally on the paper. Some stayed true to their original design, while others added variations. The next step will be to add color either with marker or water color paint.

Other Fun
The children also enjoyed message center, construction and games. Aida taught Andy how to play Hoot Owl Hoot and they played together with Dakota. There was also lots of fun playing Sturdy Birdy!… it’s quickly becoming a class favorite!