Night

When we began having intentional small group conversations with the children about the black and white areas, we heard quite a few children refer to the black area as  night (e.g. "It's night and day! Night and day!" - Nora, 5.0 years).  The white area had some variation (day, snow, etc.), but after these conversations, and listening to some of their dramatic play in that area, we decided to start a bigger conversation about night.  

Jen, Melanie, and I sat down to think about questions we would ask the children about night.  We thought about what we would ask to expand on this initial idea.  The first, and most obvious question was, "What is night?"  We wanted, however, to expand our own minds about what that might mean, and how we could truly dig into the children's thoughts and imagination.  

While the children are great at sitting and having a conversation with us, our goal is to always connect the cognitive processes with the creative; how can we engage them in using their hands and minds to create and share their hypotheses, ideas, questions, etc.  Therefore, we chose three very open, fluid mediums that might allow for free flowing expression: watercolors, tempera tray mixing, and drawing with our beautiful collection of alcohol based markers and marker paper.  

​Tray mixing was a new technique for mixing paint colors that Jen taught us that day.  It's very similar to using a traditional (wooden) palette, but you're using a large tray. You select small amounts of paint for the colors that you want to mix.  You can use the tray to achieve your desired color(s) before using them to paint on the paper.  ​

The first small group included Lucia, Reed, Lochie, and Jane.  We did sit down in the atelier to talk about night for a few minutes before we started watercoloring, drawing, and painting, and their thoughts about night were thoughtful and divergent.  

Here are some highlights from the conversation: 

What is night? 
"Night is night." - Reed, 4.7 years 
"Night is when it's all dark." - Lochie, 5.0 years
"Yeah, you have to use a flashlight." - Lucia, 4.5 years 
"Of you sleep. Or you just turn the lights on in your bedroom then you look outside." - Reed, 4.7 years
"[...] I was looking at a star, and I looked out and there was a moon and one single star." - Lucia, 4.5 years 

"Right now it's day, so that's what day is, but sky might change. It just changes itself." - Lucia, 4.5 years

How do we know then it's night? 
"When it's all black." - Lucia, 4.5 years
"Black is black." - Reed, 4.7 years
"And white is light." - Lucia, 4.5 years

What happens at night? What do you do at night? 
"Eat dinner, that's a really good one." - Lucia 

"Poof-magic." - Lucia

When does night start? 
"After day." - Lucia 
"Night starts when night comes." - Reed
"There's a magical thing one day when I was driving to school.  I looked out my window- poof- magic- there was colors, even thought the sun was still up." - Lucia 
Was that night? 
"No, it was pink, orange, purple." - Lucia
And then what happened? 
"It went away when I was eating and turned into white sky." - Lucia
What happened to the colors? 
​"They fade, and maybe I find another one. They were all blending together and they changed to white." - Lucia 
"I'm thinking of the sun; the sunlight and get sunset. We were trying to go to sleep, and I can't go to sleep because all of these colors keep disturbing me in my sleep, and I keep waking up." - Lochie, 5.0 years

Watercolors

Reed

"I'm doing the magic that I saw." - Lucia

"Colors keep disturbing my sleep." - Lochie

Jane

Small group #2

For the second small group, we had a very large tray for all four children to do tray mixing after the initial part of our conversation (thank you to the Rodriguez family for that kind donation).  The beautiful thing about working with our hands as we talk, is that ideas expand as we create.  The children's conversation was constant as they worked.  Their colors gave them new ideas, but also seeing what the other children were doing; they inspire each other. 

Here are some highlights from that conversation: 

What is night? 
"Night has black on the sky. Night is when it's black on the sky, and there's a moon, and stars, and sometimes you see the planets. Sometimes the moons come in different shapes - a crescent moon, a half moon, or a full moon." - Elle, 4.11 years
"But the moon glows." - Giacomo, 4.11 years
"And the stars shine." - Elle

When is it night? 
"It comes when the day ends." - Giacomo 
"It's many hours, and then after those hours, it is night." - Sylvie, 4.10 years

What happens at night? 
"Well, what happens at night is that creatures like owls come out." - Giacomo
"Bats come out." - Elle 

What does night feel like? 
"It feels spooky." - Giacomo, 4.11 years

How big is night? 
"Right now the day is shorter." - Sylvie, 4.10 years
"When it's night in a different part of the world...in Washington when it's night...in a different part of the world it can be morning." - Giacomo, 4.11 years 
"Right now my cousins are in Japan asleep." - Nora, 5.1 years 
"It's as big right now as...the sun will be shining on all of...every single part of Washington. Why is it night on a different side, and morning on a different side? Because this side is facing the sun, and the back is facing no sun. So, it will be night on the other side." - Giacomo, 4.11 years 

Are there colors of night? 
"Black!" - Elle 
"White!" - Giacomo and Nora 
"Yellow." - Sylvie 
"Yellow for the stars, and white for the moon, and black for the sky." - Elle 
"Dark yellow. You see the yellow on the house if you look at it. If it's dark enough, you can't see the yellow." - Giacomo 
"In the night time, if it's light, it's not night. In the evening, if it's gray, it means it's the evening." - Sylvie 

These conversations, and their work are displayed on panels in the white area currently.  Below, you will see a copy of the letter we have sent home in their bags today (if in KW) or tomorrow.  

We cannot wait to see what each family will bring to the conversation.