Sylvie and Cedar's discovery led us to a more formal introduction to the language of wire. We began by introducing the wire by color and material.  We had: a copper wire; a gold, brass wire; a black, steel wire; and two different sizes of silver, aluminum wire. We intentionally chose to explore the wire without tools or other added materials so that we could investigate the properties of the wire in a pure, minimally influenced manner.   

From the moment Sylvie approached the wire, she began to gently manipulate it with ease and confidence.  She held it gingerly in one hand as she twisted the ends with the other.  She crossed the tips, brought them together (to form a circle), twisted the wire around her finger, created a mountain, and more.  When asked, "How did you change your wire?", Sylvie responded, "I pull it, twist it, and it goes." She experimented with each of the types of wire, and created many pieces for us to save.  

What is Thanksgiving; and a feast? What is a centerpiece and where do we put it?  What does it mean to be thankful (or, what makes you happy?)? These are all questions we've been answering as we prepare for our school wide Thanksgiving Feast.  Inviting the children into the process of preparation for our feast is exciting and complex.  There are so many things that we are thinking about as we prepare.  Soon we will be chopping vegetables and making soup, but first we are working to create beautiful centerpieces that represent the languages that they know.

One of the first languages we chose to use was tempera paint.  The children have primarily used tempera at the easel and they had not yet mixed their own colors, so we wanted to offer a different experience/challenge.  With an added level of difficulty (holding the tube steady, adjusting brush strokes, etc.), the tubes also add 3D aesthetics to our centerpieces.  But, before we started painting, we had to create some new colors.  

To introduce color mixing, we invited Maxon, Sylvie, and C.C. into the studio, and we had prepared a tray of empty jars, primary color paints (plus white), and small brushes.  We encouraged them to start by mixing two colors to see "what happened" or how the second color changed the first one.  

On Monday, November 18th, we invited other children into the process of painting the tubes and squares for the tempera inspired centerpiece.  

Today, we celebrated Lochie's birthday with a special book that made everyone laugh.  His mom, Katherine, was a fantastic reader, and the children fed off of her joyful, fun energy as she read I am a Frog​ by Mo Willems.  

Once we finished reading the book, some of Lochie's birthday committee (Giacomo, Cedar, Jane, Sylvie, and Audrey) was there to present his gift.  Lochie recalled sharing with them that his favorite animal is a giraffe.   With that idea in mind, his committee worked on a collage of materials that were inspired by the skin, hair, and overall appearance of a giraffe.  After we discussed the collage, Lochie walked around the candle three times to represent his three years, and then he excitedly blew it out, and everyone joined in to sing Happy Birthday.

Our second birthday celebration is in the books, and we celebrated with a book that was special to our birthday girl, C.C.  We invite each family to share something special to them and their child, and C.C. chose to share one of her favorite books, "Room on the Broom".  C.C. brought her mom (Courtney), Dad (Matt), and sister (Emmie) to the classroom.

C.C.'s birthday committee (Marley, Audrey, Lochie, Cedar, and Giacomo) worked together to create a clay zebra, just as C.C. requested.  The result of their collaborative work is a beautiful black and white zebra with four legs (as specified by Giacomo), a tail with no stripes (as specified by Lochie), two eyes (Lochie), and some stripes (Audrey and Cedar).  

C.C.'s big sister, Emmie, assisted her with opening the gift, walking around the candle, and blowing it out.  Thank you Courtney, Matt, and Emmie for coming to celebrate; it was a beautiful morning.  

We introduced glazing today, in part with preparing for C.C's birthday celebration tomorrow, and also just relative to our introductory progression of learning the language of clay. Those who glazed chose their colors, were reminded to use the brushes to apply the glaze, not paint, (it's similar but different), and we also introduced a wiping technique, which removes most of the glaze pigment from the surface of the clay but not from the grooves and cracks.