Why Paper?

You've probably noticed that both pods are exploring paper as a material. How did this come about?.... well if you follow St. John's on Instagram, you might have seen the recent post on November 24th about paper. The faculty has been exploring paper as a material. The more experiences we have playing and working with materials, the better we are at providing rich provocations for the children.  When Melanie was still working with most of these children in Pod B she jumped right into action and introduced paper making. We have since switched pods and the children helped Maren, Dakota and Brooke learn the process. The next step was making colorful paper, which Pod A has been exploring for the past couple of days. Today's paper work shifted directions to help expand the children's thinking and use of this material.  The Pod's recent discussion of cold weather and precipitation prompted Grace to propose that we decorate the room with snowflakes. We used this idea in connection with the exploration of paper to investigate how to cut paper snowflakes. The children worked in groups of two with Melanie exploring different types of white paper and learning the techniques of folding and cutting on a crease. After cutting on the crease Fletcher opened his folded paper and exclaimed, "A million rectangles...it's like magic." 

The snowflakes were then put on the light table where Aida and Dakota expanded on a narrative around the work. They noticed that the longer pieces of paper looked like doors and castles. They designed  a winter scene with houses. Aida said, "Hello, we're neighbors." 
The class will continue to explore narratives at the light table using the paper snowflakes tomorrow.

In addition to paper snowflakes, the message center had a paper focus today as well. During meeting we discussed the technique of layering paper and as they were working, the children also practiced gluing techniques. Rather than squeezing big blobs onto their papers, they focused on putting glue around the edge of the back of the paper they want to glue down. Applying a thin line of glue around the edge of paper is a technique that takes a lot of practice! The message center was chock full of different red, green, silver and gold papers. We embraced the children's excitement for the upcoming Christmas holiday and used that as inspiration for the new materials. 

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​Pod A had it's first Mystery Readers today! We were thrilled to welcome both Jim and Sarah to read books. The children loved both the Christmas themed books they read! Please sign -up  for a slot if you haven't already and feel free to share the sign-up with extended family and caregivers.

Pod B has also been exploring paper. Jill intentionally tied the exploration to their passion for construction.
Yesterday children accepted the challenge of building with paper.  Today children built with a variety of blocks and incorporated paper products as well. Both paper and blocks have advantages and disadvantages when being used as a building material. Using them together helps children recognize their qualities and creatively design ways to use them together.  Gigi and Lane worked with boats yesterday, so today we started with blue water in the area.   Palmer and friends quickly began building a bridge that was the length of the water.  A series of buildings, known as “supertown”  lined the bridge.   The other side of the bridge featured a, “railing so the cars don’t fall off,” built by Gigi.  Cannon built an animal structure, and Lane provided the story line for the animals that gathered there. At some point in the morning, every child spent time working and playing together. Their skills with problem solving, collaboration, and negotiation of a somewhat tight space were on full display.

Backwards Day
Thursday is Pod B's backwards day!  Although the temperatures were chilly, they had a great time outside.  There was building, swinging, running, and even an ice cream shop run by Gigi and Lane.  Nora worked intently to construct a tree made from branches and leaves that were carefully balanced on the branches.

Clay
The clay animals survived the kiln!  Today the children started glazing them. We can’t wait to see the finished project!

Persimmon Bread
Today both pods snacked on the persimmon bread that Pod B made yesterday.  Molly even stopped by for a piece and declared that it was delicious. 
Here’s some other reviews:
    Cannon - It tastes like persimmon bread.  I’m having persimmon bread at school and banana bread at home.
    Palmer - I like the bread.
    Nora - Last night I dreamed about bread.  Persimmon bread.  (After trying the bread)  That persimmon bread was sugary because we added sugar.