Thursday, April 15, 2021

Pod A

Printing Prep

Inspired by the pajama project, Tucker Room has explored screen printing.  Today we moved on to another kind of printing by using yarn and cardboard to make a simple printing block.   We can't wait for the glue to dry and try them out!  Oliver identified his design as Maui's fish hook!

Embellishing the Birdhouse

After adding paint yesterday, The birdhouse needed just a few finishing touches.  Lane and Fletcher were up up for the job.
    Fletcher - How 'bout if we put a bird shape?  Or a bird symbol?
    Lane - We could make furniture.  We could attract them with food.
    Fletcher - (While drawing)  There we go.  Here's the beak.  Here's the body.  A really short beak.
     Lane - (While Fletcher and Melanie are trying to spy on her work)  Easy there people, it's a surprise.
    Fletcher - I'm just so excited.  How 'bout a welcome sign?  My head can almost fit in here,
     Lane - At the top of the tree is a little nest.  There's six little children (eggs).

Brownie Math?!?

Each of our kindergarten experts has mentioned that math is a big part of kindergarten.  The Tucker children are beginning to realize that they have done a lot of math without even realizing it.  Today we made dairy-free brownies to serve for Dakota's last day (tomorrow).  We talked about how measuring ingredients is a form of math.
    Fletcher - Like measuring people.
    Palmer - Cannon, I noticed that you are taller than Lane.
    Cannon - Yeah.
    Palmer - And me and Wolfie are the same.
    Grace - You measure water. Sometimes we measure blocks.
The group takes a moment to note how unit blocks can be used to measure other blocks.
 Jill - Did you know that you were doing math when you were building?
 Fletcher - I knew that I was using math when I was building.
 Grace - Now let's do brownie math!

"Wolf in Kenya"

Instead of a mystery reader, both pods watched a presentation of Wolf in Kenya shared by the Baillie family.   The children were so impressed with the slides that they asked to watch it a second time!  We saw images of many animals and many cousins, friends, and relatives.  We were thrilled to see that Santa arrived on a camel and that the children were able to paint the toenails of a hyrax.  Seeing early images of Wolf's head injury also made an impression on the children.  Thanks so much to the Baillie family for sharing this with us!  Lane probably spoke for the entire group when she said, "I wish I was there!"

Pod B

Backwards Day

It was all sand play this morning outside! Nora and Aida played with trucks first and later switched to animals. Maren, Dakota and Andy prepared and baked food for the animals. Here’s some snippets of the dialogue:

Aida: These dump trucks can be friends and a team, right Nora?
Nora: Let’s build a big pile.

Nora: Look, mine makes tracks.
Aida: Oh yeah, mine does too.​

Maren: Guys when it gets out of the oven can you please put it right here so I can cut it and feed it to the animals?
Dakota:  (To the animals) Are you guys eating? (To Maren) They sure look hungry.
Andy: I already put one in the oven.

Messages for Incoming Brown Room

Nora finished a message she started yesterday. 
Andy made a new message today. He was very thoughtful in his color choice noting: I’m going to choose yellow because it’s bright.​

Here’s some of his commentary about the process as he finishes an accordion fold: I’m going to done like this (continually folding the paper forward, instead of forward and backwards) because I’m experimenting with paper.

Portfolio Sort

Maren helped Dakota sort her portfolio items. Dakota really enjoyed seeing her work from throughout the school year. Since tomorrow is her last day at St. John’s Dakota will be taking all her work home with her to share with her family.

A  New Game

Today Pod B played a new game that we borrowed from Palmer. It’s called Obstacles and is a game about creative problem solving. The children came up with many interesting solutions to overcome the obstacles in the game. We enjoyed learning a new game!