Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Pod B
Clay Numbers for the School's Birthday

The number line celebrating St. John's 20th birthday was in need of repair, and Tucker Pod B was the crew for the job! Immediately upon arrival, Palmer and Lane joined us upstairs and got right to work. When posed with the question of "what is the number line for?" they immediately counted out each number and remembered that every number stood for 1 year of St. John's. They also began to notice that some numbers had begun to break and were happy to repair our school and return the number line to its former beauty. In order to know which numbers to remake, Palmer called out the broken numbers as Lane wrote them down. This quickly developed into a "happy" list and a "bad" list, with the happy numbers being those who did not need repair and the bad list being the ones that do need repair. Palmer also noticed that our number line ends at 20, even though our 24th birthday is quickly approaching. He quickly determined that we need to add 21-24 to the wall. Once in the classroom, Palmer and Lane went right to work forming the numbers. After working for awhile, Cannon and Nora joined in, and Palmer and Lane gladly explained the process and the reasoning behind the project. Within no time at all, we had every number we needed (and some extras!) to honor the 24 year legacy of St. John's. At snack time, we talked a little bit about the school's birthday:
   Palmer - We're up to 24 years old.
   Lane - It's going to be old.  It's going to need a walking stick.. 
   Jill - Should we celebrate the school's birthday?
   Cannon and Palmer - No.
   Gigi, Lane, and Nora - Yes.
   Palmer - Actually, yes.
   Jill - How should we celebrate?
   Palmer - We could give it hug. (Here Palmer is referring to the "Hug for the School," which was part of the school's 20th birthday celebration.  He and Lane had checked out the documentation of this event earlier.)
    Lane - We can think of another gift.
    Some children suggest kissing the school.
   Lane - I know what a gift could be -- a new part of the school.
   Cannon - But that would take a year.
    Palmer - Maybe something better, like ice cream.
    Cannon - The clay numbers are the school's bones.  (The clay coils used do look a little like bones!)
    Lane  - Maybe we could decorate.
    Nora - We could give the whole school a cake to celebrate.
    Palmer - Twenty-four candles!  That's a lot to blow out!
    Gigi - We could give it a painting.
     Lane - Yeah, like decorate it with so many details.  Make it full!

This experience was rich with number and numeral understanding.  There's more       work to come.... we'll keep     you posted!

A Portfolio Meeting

Nora had a chance to review her portfolio work and begin to organize it.  As children reflect upon their work, they sort it into categories of their own choosing.  Nora thought of enough categories to fill each [pocket in her portfolio.  Perhaps her favorite is her "rainbow" category!

Mystery Reader

Christian was our mystery reader today.  He read, "Stop That Yawn,"  "Mr. Tiger Goes Wild," and "Short and Sweet."  The children loved hearing both the familiar and less familiar stories.  Thanks so much, Christian!

We also mad a great time in the snow!

Pod A

It was super fun to have Backwards Day after the snowfall!
​The snow was a bit icy and hard, and made for fun discovery and imaginary thinking.

Oliver, "You can eat snow. It melts in your mouth....no worries!"

Olivia, "I found a treat! It tastes like ice cream."

Dakota, "Look! I found ice shaped like a heart!"

Maren, "It looks like a witch's shoe."

Olivia, "There's only one thing stronger than a snowman.... a brick."

Glazing
Today the children applied underglaze to their clay pieces. 

Collage Documentation
Maren, Grace and Aida helped create the classroom documentation about our recent collage work.  First Grace and Maren cleared off the bulletin board. Then they put the images in order and figured out what was missing. Last, they hung up  the images. Tomorrow, more children will help add text to explain the process and learning.