Wednesday, January 13, 2020

"My family is going to be impressed when I bring this home in my     portfolio."          Palmer

Both pods continued their work with collage today.  On Tuesdays, Tucker Room has their team meetings.  Yesterday we shared our sorting, selecting, and collaging experiences with Molly and Jen.  Based on their feedback, we expanded the materials that were available today.   In addition to the images provided from families, we included fabric, a wide variety of papers, small boxes, balsa wood, feathers, and many marking tools.   As you can see in the photo to the right, collage materials took over the Pod B classroom.  The set-up in Pod A was equally impressive, with cut images covering the entire construction platform.

From left to right: Pod A's materials on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Maren using the images today.

Pod A began their process by talking bout the glue options and application.  There is a special glue (Yes! glue) that helps prevent wrinkling.  The children applied that glue (which is thin and watery) with  brushes .  They also had the options to use squeeze bottles of Elmer's glue, practicing applying a line of glue all around the edge of the back of the image.  
Having all of the images displayed by categories was helpful for children to really see the myriad of choices.  Some children added new images to their collage because of the display.  Some children used paint and/or permanent markers to add drawn elements as well.

Grace explained her collage, which she titled "Bird Goes Flying."
"So the bird lives  (goes) to all of these places, but he lives on top of the really high tree where he can see everything.  And then one day he decides to go somewhere else.  But at first he saw a dusty sky with big, big creature.  He didn't know what to call them so he just flied off on his next adventure.  He went to steep teaks and then he went to a dry land.  He saw very many people, but still it was not right.  So he just flew back to the perfect perch."

This video of Olivia shows the importance of placement and rearranging of pieces in the collage process.

Maren worked diligently for over an hour-and-a-half on her collage.  During this time, she actively taught  some children about the gluing process.  Other children learned from Maren by simply observing her approach.  Here's some comments that she made about why she was making certain choices.
" I put the raft on here because my sister really wants to do this."
"This (an image of an electric guitar) reminds me of my neighbor at home.  He has a guitar like this one."  
"I found the perfect spot for these butterflies."

Collage work completed today.... there may be more work to come!

Olivia (front)

Olivia (back)

Fletcher

Aida

Palmer
Palmer had previously selected several images and created a sign with cut-out letters for his collage.   Today he started by selecting a blue base .  His prize image was of Baby Yoda, who was given a place of importance in the collage.  First Palmer lined a small box with green tissue paper.  As he put the glue over his tissue he noted, "It looks darker green when I put the glue on."  He continued working, and shared additional comments as he went along:
"Time for a bird.  He's a raven and he's flying. "
"Here's a crown for the lion."
"Some fabric, for a little hat for the raven."  
"Just how I like it.  Although I may add some details, like grass from the raven.  I'm looking for smaller pieces (to fit in the remaining space he had)."  Finally, Palmer summed up the day, "Well, this is a big day for us.  Even without construction, we're fine."

Nora
Nora began her collage work by selecting images.  She found several that appealed to her.  Here's some of the things she noticed as she collected her pics:
"The sky is really pretty in this one."
"Look at this nice pillow.  It has roses on it."
"I like this phone.  I wish I had one like it."
(Finding pictures of food, "I love cheese.  I like these cookies."
Nora moved on to select her base, which was slightly golden in color.  Not every image that she initially selected made it on the the collage.  Her finished work calls to mind a home environment.  Nora agreed, saying, "It's a family collage."

Gigi
Gigi worked on a second collage today.   Yesterday she created a "A Center for Dogs."  Today's piece was "A Center for Animals."  Once again, Gigi made sure to include elements of care-taking in her collage.  The beds provided for the animals are very soft, and in one case include feathers.  She also added full containers of food and water for the animals.

A quick look at the rest of day in Pod A

In construction, the blocks were used for a variety of projects as different groups of children made plans, worked, and eventually moved on to something else.  Since we loaned our biggest blocks to the Rainey Room, some children were puzzled as to how to make a minivan.  Dakota said, “It’s okay.  We have all these small blocks that we can make into big blocks!”
Andy built some stairs to allow animals to climb to the top of a tall tower, and Fletcher joined him.  Together they slid small blocks into the cavity of the hollow blocks.  Andy said, “We’re putting blocks in to stable the tower.”  Fletcher said, “We could make a tower of marshmallows, or stones.  Stones are strong.”  
Aida came along and added a new narrative to the tower.  She laid the littlest animals to sleep on soft fur, then placed circular poker chips nearby.  “It’s Christmas and I’m putting presents everywhere,” she said.  “Over there, it’s Halloween.”  
Soon after, the blocks were repurposed again, this time by Oliver, Grace, and Dakota who constructed a “Tent that can turn into a submarine”.  Grace gave each of the teammates a net to wear as a hat.  She said, “Let’s get our coconut suits on to collect coconuts.”

Pod B Mystery Reader!

Many thanks for William and Will for being our mystery readers today!  It was great to listen to a Book Fair classic: "Boxitects!"  We always love when Will makes ana appearance!

Although Pod B had no real room for construction today, some children were able to build in Pod A during their backwards Day.  Jen also took Cannon, Lane, and Gigi through the halls to "read" the work that is displayed there.  Here's a quick look at some of these experiences.