More Paper Exploring and Birthday Celebrating

10/7/2021

A Birthday Gift and Celebration for C.C.

Ready to begin brainstorming, C.C.'s birthday committee gathered in the entry way by the light table. Do we remember what C.C. likes? A few days prior to this, C.C. had been interviewed by her birthday committee. "She said she likes the bumpy cardboard. She likes the yellow cardboard too, I think. And I think her colors are light pink and blue." Lochie replied. Additionally, she shared with us that she loves dolphins, bunnies, and the light table. Which is why the choice was made to begin our committee work by exploring paper on the light table, and to keep it a secret, we had to take our work outside of the classroom.

Exploring Paper and the Light Table

"So we took pictures, cuz look. Cuz look it's paper, it’s paper… We can put this in a book. "
-Lochie.

The Idea Comes to Light

"We drew dolphins. I made like a little house, and I
made a person, and we took pictures of them." -Lochie

We were two committee members short when we began our work, but we knew that with CC's birthday just a few days away, getting started on the work was the best option. We knew that by day two we would either work with the original committee or we would choose two other children to establish a full and well-balanced birthday committee.
Despite being a committee of two, George and Lochie were invested and enthusiastic. We decided to begin by focusing on C.C's love of dolphins and drawing them.

Continuing on from our dolphin drawings, we had intention to revisit paper on the light table and make arrangements that we could photograph and turn into a book. With their dolphin drawings as the main focus, Lochie and George selectively and carefully placed different types and pieces of paper to make an illustrative composition. The creative and hands on work was soon igniting imaginations and evoking stories.

The next day, our committee was complete. The four of us: George, Lochie, Reed, and Giacomo gathered again in the entry way near the light table. Reed and Giacomo needed to be caught up to speed, about the prior work, and to have their turn to share their ideas. So that we, as a committee, could be clear on the objective of our work and get the ball rolling.

"It could be the sand.
It's an island!" -George

Working Collaboratively

"Maybe we could put the things that C.C. likes on her special present." -Giacomo

What are some thoughts of what we could do to take C.C.’s likes and make a gift, like Giacomo suggested?

“Maybe we could use that… like put that down, then it would be flattened it would pop up, like a pop up card.” Giacomo
“I don’t really want my picture to look like that.” Lochie
“Or like Jack-in-the-Box!” Reed
“You have to be an engineer to make a Jack-in-the-Box.” Giacomo
“I don’t want my dolphin to be a pop-up.” Lochie
“Do you have an idea (asking Reed)?” Giacomo

“If we combined— If everyone has… If Lochie, Reed, and George, and me have ideas, then we could combine their ideas into one big thing.” Giacomo
“I agree. That would be very beautiful.” Melanie
“We can try ev— all of our ideas mixed together.” Giacomo
“Yeah, in a big piece of paper.” Reed
“But we have lots of ideas!” Lochie
“We could make something on a big piece of paper.” Reed
“That will mix, all of our ideas.” Giacomo
“But if, Giacomo, if you want this to be like this in a pop-up and I don’t want it to be a pop-up, just a stander, how can we do that?” Lochie
“Because we’ll put… We’ll do my idea in the book, yours, Reed’s, and George’s, and combine them like… What— You have an idea, and you have an idea, and I have an idea, and George, and we mix them up.” Giacomo

Putting It All Together

First, enjoying the texture of the corrugated cardboard. Then adding the glue to the other piece of corrugated cardboard to make our book cover.

The Gift: A Paper and Light Storybook

“We could decorate the little decorations in these little holes.” -Reed

Drawings and photographs, of paper arranged on a light table, fill the pages of the corrugated cardboard story book made for C.C. Some pages have words and some remain blank so that she can create a story of her own.

What do you think she is going to love about it?
"The paper." Giacomo
"The dolphins." Lochie
"The things in the holes." Reed
"How it feels, the cover." Giacomo